Why River Cruising is Safe Travel?
The number one question clients currently ask as we slowly exit a two-year pandemic, “is river cruising a safe travel experience?.”
Safety has been and continues to be the most important factor in planning travel, especially since COVID has become a reality. While the CDC extended its Conditional Order for Cruising into 2022 with a high risk, level 3 health code. Lumping river cruising with ocean cruising gives the river industry an undeserved bad rap. Comparing a ship that will spend days at sea with hundreds, maybe thousands of passengers to a floating hotel that stops sometimes multiple times a day, accommodating only a maximum of 250 guests at a time is like comparing apples to oranges.
Travel safely and intimately on a limited passenger river ship
River cruising is a relaxed environment that glides passengers through countries along historical waterways but without the need to continuously stamp passports or wait aboard as ship crew submits passenger lists upon arrival. There are no tenders, long lines for dinner, and the experience will be more inclusive as you are living in your own little bubble for the period of time you are traveling abroad.
A river experience can be compared to a land tour, although you will unpack only once into your boutique luxury stateroom as you wake up in a new city each day. With immersive itineraries, you arrive into the cities, towns, and villages that you will be visiting with the option to embark on ship-provided excursions or on your own itineraries for the day. River cruises travel anywhere from 30 to a maximum of 100 miles per day. This offers you the opportunity to depart from one port in the morning and arrange a private tour to explore on your own escorting you back to the ship at a different port just in time for dinner. Many itineraries even port overnight or depart from the port late allowing guests the opportunity to go into the town for dinner and experience the local nightlife.
The small environment on river cruises provides an intimate, social experience easily connecting passengers with others on board during dinners and in the lounge areas. It is not uncommon for many passengers to become lifelong friends or future travel buddies.
Riverboats don’t travel as far as ocean liners do. However, some journeys do travel through multiple countries taking you anywhere from four to seven countries with unlimited opportunities to visit the regions. Another perk with river cruising is if an emergency comes up, the ship staff are able to designate a plan B to get you to where you’re expected to go or provide something better if you can’t get there.
In a nutshell, yes, river cruising is a safe travel experience and as a river expert, it is the safest opportunity to experience Europe with the least amount of contacts during travel.
BucketList Travel Advisors is a certified river specialist. Download our guide to the European rivers and further your knowledge of a river experience.