a danube river cruise.
To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary Mark and I decided to treat ourselves to an extra special holiday - a river cruise down the Danube. We decided to book a Tui cruise and chose the ‘Danube Treasures’ route through Hungary, Slovakia and Austria for 7 nights on their Tui Skyla boat.
Mark and I usually like to book city breaks for our holidays as we prefer them over beach holidays, and normally book one in late Spring and one in the early Autumn. But on this occasion a river cruise appealed to us as it allowed us to visit multiple cities in one trip without losing much time to travel - as the boat moves between locations whilst you sleep. It also allowed us to visit some smaller villages that we might otherwise miss, and we booked early summer to really benefit from the beautiful weather.
We set off from London Heathrow and flew to Budapest where the cruise boat was docked. Since our cabin wasn’t quite ready when we arrived, we headed straight out and spent the first afternoon taking in as much of the city as possible, as we were due to set sail to the next location that evening. We first walked to the Parliament building and then across the bridge and up the hill to the Hungarian National Gallery and treated ourselves to an ice cream before heading inside to look around the gallery’s permanent collection.
After a very long walk back in the boat in the sweltering heat we settled in to our cabin and had a look around. One of the things that appealed about a river cruise over a sea cruise was the size of the boat. The river cruise boat has a maximum capacity of just 150 people and feels very initimate in size. You really get to know the other passengers and the staff throughout the week. The boat had two restaurants, a bar, and a small wellness area with a sauna and hot tub (which we didnt get a chance to try). We were very impressed with the facilities available, and we loved the 24 hour tea & coffee station which was always well stocked with biscuits. The staff were so friendly and welcoming and couldn’t do enough for the passengers.
We set sail that evening around 9pm and enjoyed the views of the city lights as we cruised down the river. What really surprised me about the cruise was how smooth it was. I honestly couldn’t tell most of the time whether we were moving or not, no need to worry about motion sickness at all!
On our first full day we woke up and opened our cabin’s french balancy doors to find that we were still cruising down the river on our way to Bratislava in Slovakia. It was incredibly relaxing and the views were beautiful. On one side of the river was Hungary, and Slovakia was on the other.
Bratislava was our first proper stop of the cruise and we signed up for a walking and train tour around the city. The ‘train’ was actually one of those trolley trains that drive down the road and it took us up a big hill to see the castle on top. The panoramic views of the city from the top were exceptionally beautiful. After the castle the tour guide took us back on to the trolley train, and back down the hill where we continued on foot around the city. Bratislava was beautiful and it was a shame we only had half a day in port as I would have loved to have spent more time exploring. But that evening we set sail for Austria, a section of the trip that I was really looking forward to.
The itinerary for our second full day was a morning in the small Austrian village of Dürnstein, and an afternoon in the town of Melk. The views along the river to Dürnstein and Melk were so beautiful, surrounded by the Austrian hills and tiny quaint villages nestled in the valleys. So many beautiful houses, vineyards and churches along the way.
The village of Dürnstein absolutely stole my heart and was my favourite stop of the whole cruise. It is a tiny village with only 90 residents and they are well known for their apricots, wine, and the blue and white church tower that watches over the village and river. Every house, shop, pub and cobbled street was picture perfect. Again we signed up for a walking tour and our guide took us around the little streets and in to the church and up the tower. The weather was beautiful and the views of the river and hills were breathtaking.
Our next stop in Austria was Melk, known for its large yellow abbey that overlooks the town. We didn’t book a tour for this one, but decided to wander freely on our own instead. We walked to the top of the hill and admired the abbey from the outside but instead of going inside we decided to walk around the abbey’s gardens instead, which were very beautiful with their tree lined paths, scultptures and gazebos.
That evening we departed Melk, and Mark and I enjoyed some beautiful sunset views on the top deck.
The next day we had a full day in port in Linz, Austria. In the morning we took another walking tour where our tour guide walked us around the city of Linz. We walked through the busy market square, along the small cobbled streets and our final stop was the grand Cathedral. Mark and I then took a walk to the top of a hill to appreciate the views of the city. By the afternoon we were pretty tired so we decided to take it easy and relax on the top deck of the boat. During our trip we set ourselves a challenge of doing a watercolour painting for each stop of our cruise so we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in the sun painting whilst taking in the sights of the city from the boat.
Look it’s the dress I made! See my other blog post here on my experience of learning to sew a dress.
That evening the boat set sail again, this time heading to Vienna for two whole days!
I have been to Vienna once before, years ago, for my History of Art & Architecture degree at University and I absolutely adored it. I have wanted to take Mark there ever since. It did mean I was already fairly familiar with the sights and knew exactly where we wanted to go. We jumped on the metro to the Upper Belvedere Palace to look around the garden and art gallery. Unfortunately some of my favourite paintings from last time were no longer on display, but we still saw some extraordinary works of art and loved seeing the collection of Klimts. For lunch we got some käsekrainer street food in Stephenplatz, a type of cheese filled sausage - which was delicious! In the afternoon we went to see the Hundertwasser Haus, a residential apartment building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser which I absolutely love! More buildings should look like this!
In the evening some of the passengers went to see a concert at the Opera House, and for those of us that didn’t attend the staff set up a cinema night (originally planned to be on the top deck, but the weather was looking a little iffy so they set it up in the bar instead) and we watched Baz Lurhman’s Elvis.
For our second day in Vienna we headed to one of my favourite art galleries - the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, and again appreciated all of the beautiful artwork. The building itself is also incredibly intricate and beautiful, and I was particularly enamoured with the Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities. After the museum we went for lunch, and as we enjoyed our sausage street food so much the day before, we decided to get it again, so headed back to Stephenplatz and took a look at the Cathedral whilst we were there.
For our second to last evening the cruise staff put on a gala dinner for all of the passengers. Everyone got dressed up, had pre-drinks in the bar and then moved to the restaurant for a delicious six course dinner. The food throughout the whole week really was exceptional both in taste and presentation.
For the final stop of our river cruise the boat returned to Budapest. We had already seen so much of Budapest on our first afternoon so we decided to just take a wander and see where we ended up. We started by looking around the Central Market Hall, where we picked up a small Christmas tree ornament to remember our trip, and we ended up on the top of the biggest hill in Budapest, and I am not kidding when I say it was a freaking big hill! Unfortunately the large sculpture on top of the hill was blocked off for construction but we were rewarded with some beautiful views across the city instead. We were even able to take a playground slide down part of the hill on the way back down again.
We had an early afternoon flight home on our last day so unfortunately we didn’t have any more time for sightseeing. We had our final breakfast, finished packing and moved to the top deck whilst we waited for the coach to take us to the airport.
So after all of that, would I recommend a Tui River Cruise? The answer is a definite yes if you love taking city breaks around Europe filled with beautfiful architecture, stunning river views and lots of food! I should mention that Mark and I were the youngest on the boat by far, something we did half expect when we booked it. River cruises have a reputation of being a holiday for people of a certain age, and it does seem to be the case. Their cruises are adult only, so obviously they aren’t aimed at young families. The other passengers seemed quite fascinated that we were onboard at our age, at times we felt a bit like celebrities as everyone seemed to know who we were, we were quite a novelty to them. But they were all lovely and very welcoming to us, and it didn’t faze us at all. Mark and I are mature souls when it comes to our taste in holidays and hobbies so we actually fit in quite well with the group and we made some lovely friends - I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations about art, architecture, travel and gardening!
The boat itself was lovely and clean with great facilities and the staff were incredibly friendly. The organisation was excellent and the excursions were fun and informative, although I should mention that they cost extra. All food was included (3 meals a day in the choice of two restaurants, with lunch and dinner both being al la carte with a starter, main and dessert), there was unlimited tea and coffee, and alcoholic drinks were included with meals with the option to upgrade to all inclusive.
I would definitely consider a river cruise again, although maybe not for a few years as they are quite expensive. For us they will likely be booked for special occasions only. It would be interesting to try a different cruise company to compare, and fun to explore the sights of another river!