Cruises - Sea and River

RIVER

Wanderlust Magazine have a good article on 13 spectacular river journeys: Mekong, Nile, Rhône, Rhine, Elbe and Vltava (Czechia), Hooghly (India), Brahmaputra (India), Amazon, Magdalena (Columbia), and a few in Africa.

In Asia, Pandaw have river cruises in the Ganges, Mekong, Brahmaputra, and Red rivers, and in Halong Bay. 

AmaWaterways is considered one of the best river cruise providers. They have river cruises around the world:

• Europe:
• Danube
• Rhine
• Main & Moselle
• Seine
• Rhone
• Dordogne
• Douro
• Asia - Mekong
• Africa (Rail & Cruise)
• Botswana
• Namibia
• South Africa
• Zimbabwe
• Tanzania
• Egypt - Nile
• Columbia
• Specialty cruises (Europe):
• Wine
• Holidays
• Music
• Golf

Zambezi Queen

Nile River Cruise

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CAA provides services for Uniworld Boutique River Cruises. These are higher end cruises, costing from $10,000 and up.

Wheel & Anchor have a barge tour of Champagne.

Travel for Travellers by GLP Worldwide based in Markham have cruises around the world. I saw an ad for their Mekong River cruise seeing Vietnam and Cambodia which starts at $3,315.

American Cruise Lines has a large collection of river and coastal cruises throughout the United States. They also do long thematic tours (like the Civil War) that involve a possible combination of cruises, flights and land transportation. A particularly interesting river cruise is the extensive 12-day New Orleans to Memphis cruise.

OCEAN & SEA

Recent Google search found Seabourn that have cruises around the world and have many deals for solo travellers.

As seen on a the British TV series The World’s Most Expensive Cruise Ship (2019-23), the Seven Seas Splendor is the pinnacle of cruising with the highest level of accommodation, dining and entertainment. There is about a 1:1 ratio of passengers to crew. See also this list of the top ten cruise ships in the world.

Azamara has interesting small ship cruises to exotic ports: Antarctic, Cape Town to the Canaries, etc. Also see my Africa page section on Cruises.

Tour Companies

Tour companies to investigate:

Trafalgar Travel

G Adventures, some in conjunction with National Geographic.

Exoticaa - recommended by Norm & Tina

Wheel & Anchor - a Canadian company

Natural Adventure UK organizes hikes throughout Europe (recommended by Linda from the U.S. at Zagreb B&B).

Funky Tours specializing in the Balkan Region countries (recommended by Rick Steves)

GoAhead Tours, Toronto

TourHub has a huge variety of tours around the world, both region, country and multi-country tours. An interesting one is the Five "Stans", visiting Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. See my page on Adventure Travel. Not sure of their quality compared to those about - they seem to be a consolidator who contracts with local tour companies.

THE HORROR FILE

Don’t use Exoticca Tours according to Norm and Tina of This is Our Retirement.

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RICK STEVES 2025 SCANDINAVIAN TOUR

SWEDEN

Stockholm: Vasa Museum, walking tour.

DENMARK

Copenhagen. Walking tour.

Visit Ærøskóbing on Ærø Island.

NORWAY

Visit to Oslo. Walking tour.

Stay at Østerbø Fjellstove in Aurland.

Flåm to Gudvangen cruise which travelled the Aurlandsfjord and Nærøyfjord, two branches of the enormous Sognefjord.

Visit Bergen. Walking tour.

End of tour.

Inspiring Vacations

Inspiring Vacations looks interesting. Found them while searching Japan group travel sites, but they have tours all over the world. None of the packages include international flights; interconnecting flights in multi-country tours are included. Note that they tend to have large groups: 20-40 people, though some are 10-24.

They have Japan only tours from 7 day for $999 (solo $1,578), to 28 day for $8,199 (solo $12,474).

They have a 22-day Japan, South Korea & Taiwan tour. $8,025 (solo $11,235). Tours available June through November.

South Korea

• Seoul
• Mt Seoraksan
• Sokcho
• Andong
• Daegu
• Gyeongju

Japan

• Tokyo
• Mt Fuji
• Hamamatsu
• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Himeji
• Hiroshima

Taiwan

• Taipei
• Taroko
• Sun Moon Lake
• Tainan
• Kaohsiung
• Lukang

Travel Medical Insurance

Apart from CAA and Blue Cross, travel medical insurance is also available from SafetyWing (recommended by Gone with the Wynns) who specialize in insurance for nomads, i.e., perpetual travellers.

William Russel is a British company that specializes in expat medical insurance as well as life insurance. According to their website 95% of clients renew with them every year. Insurance coverage is by zones, meaning different geographical areas. From their website:

Does my policy give me full cover worldwide?
No. Where you have full cover depends on the coverage zone you select when you apply for your health insurance policy. There are six zones. Some give you full cover in more countries, others give you full cover in fewer countries. The wider your geographical cover, the more expensive your premium. Zones with limited geographical cover give you a greater saving on your premium.
Most zones have a list of countries where you have restricted cover. These are typically countries where private healthcare is expensive. Restricted cover might mean cover for accident and emergency treatment only, or cover for treatment you receive on short trips.

GoAheadTours.ca

Seen on Facebook, a Canadian travel company. Just looking into their tours and reviews to see if they are worth using.