The Danube River is one of Europe’s most popular waterways for riverboat cruises. Annually, around half a million passengers travel on the Danube River on multiple-day cruises. More than a hundred vacation cruise boats operate on, or at least visit, the Danube each year allowing for many cruises and different routings on the Danube and other rivers.
The Danube is a strong-flowing river. Although this does not greatly affect the length of up or down-stream cruises, up-stream cruises often have to sail more at night to cover the same distance.
- The Danube is Donau in German, Duna in Hungarian, and Dunare in Romanian.
The Classic Danube Cruise Route: Return Trips from Passau
Passau on the German-Austrian border is the most popular departure point for Danube River boat cruises. This is particularly true for boats aimed at the huge German market – in part because train journeys from any German city is easier bookable through standard procedures and rates if no border crossing is involved.
Return cruises on the Danube from Passau are mostly into Austria and Hungary rather than upstream deeper into Germany:
- Danube cruises from Passau to Vienna and back can be as short as three days but four or five days are more common.
- Return trips from Passau to Bratislava (Slovakia) or Budapest and Kalocsa in Hungary are usually a week.
- Passau to Belgrade and back is usually done in 10 days.
- Return trips from Passau to the Danube Delta range from a hasty 11 days to a more relaxed three weeks but two weeks on this route are more common.
Other Danube-Only Cruises
Although Passau is by far the most popular departure point, cruises also depart from many other Danube cities:
- A-Rosa has weeklong cruises from Vienna to Budapest and back through Vienna to Melk before returning to Vienna again.
- The very luxurious River Cloud frequently sails from Budapest on weeklong, one-way cruises to and from Vilshofen and Regensburg in Germany.
- Bulgarian value cruise line Rousse have four-day return cruises from Melk in Austria to Budapest and back.
Danube – Main – Rhine – Moselle River Cruise Combinations
The completion of the Main-Danube Canal during the 1980s made cruise itineraries combining the Danube and Rhine basins possible.
Many Rhine-Danube combination routings are possible:
- Düsseldorf or Cologne (Köln) to Passau (7 to 9 days)
- Nürnberg (Nuremberg) on the Main-Danube Canal is the departure point for many weeklong cruises – upstream to Amsterdam and Cologne (Köln) or Trier (on the Mosel) and downstream to Vienna or Budapest. Cruises to Bucharest are usually two weeks. (Popular pre- or post-cruise extensions from Nuremberg are by bus to Prague.)
- Regensburg on the Danube to Mainz at the confluence of the Main and Rhine rivers takes around 11 days.
- Amsterdam to Budapest or Vienna is around two weeks and three weeks to Bucharest while cruises all the way to the Danube Delta can be as long as four weeks.
- Trier on the Moselle is often combined with the Rhine and Danube. Popular destinations from Trier include Nuremberg, Passau, and Vienna (7 to 14 days). (Paris is a popular pre- or post-cruise destination from Trier on the German-Luxembourg border.
Combining these rivers allow for longer cruises, which are particularly popular with luxury cruises aimed at the international market. Boats aimed at the German market do these routes less frequently and cheaper but often only for repositioning of boats. Most Danube cruises depart from Passau, a lovely town at the confluence of the Danube, Inn, and Ilz Rivers, with the largest Baroque cathedral in Germany and the largest church organ in the world.
Henk Bekker - Henk Bekker is a freelance travel writer currently living on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
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