Rhine River Cruises

The Rhine is one of Europe’s great rivers and its most classic cruise route — a 1,230-kilometre waterway flowing from the Swiss Alps through Germany, France and the Netherlands to the North Sea. Combining the UNESCO World Heritage Rhine Gorge — a dramatic 65-kilometre canyon of medieval castles, steep vineyard slopes and river legends — with the cosmopolitan cities of Amsterdam, Cologne, Strasbourg and Basel, the Rhine is a river cruise of extraordinary variety.

A Rhine river cruise is one of the classic European travel experiences — a journey through the heart of Western Europe that connects iconic cities, medieval villages, vineyard landscapes and some of the continent’s most dramatic river scenery. Most itineraries run between Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Basel in Switzerland, with the option to continue south into the Moselle or extend into the Danube via the Main-Danube Canal.

Amsterdam is an outstanding start or end point — a city of extraordinary beauty, world-class museums (the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House) and a canal network that makes the Rhine cruise feel like an extension of the city’s own waterways. Cologne, Germany’s fourth-largest city, is dominated by its soaring Gothic Cathedral — a UNESCO World Heritage site that survived 14 Allied bombing raids in World War II — and offers excellent museums, beer halls and the famous eau de Cologne shops of the old town.

The UNESCO Rhine Gorge between Koblenz and Rüdesheim is the river at its most dramatic: a narrow valley of volcanic rock with over 40 medieval castles and fortresses perched on the cliff tops, steep Riesling vineyards descending to the water’s edge and the legendary Loreley rock where a siren is said to have lured sailors to their doom. The small wine towns of Bacharach, Boppard and St Goar are charming stops along this celebrated stretch.

Strasbourg, straddling the French-German border, is a city of exceptional beauty — the Petite France quarter of half-timbered buildings and flower-filled canals, the magnificent cathedral and an outstanding Alsatian cuisine tradition. December Rhine cruises calling at Strasbourg, Cologne, Rüdesheim and Breisach offer some of Europe’s finest Christmas markets. Best sailed April to December.