As ever more river cruise ships pull into popular ports throughout Europe, there are growing opportunities for travel companies and advisers to step in and help clients personalize their pre-, post- and mid-river cruise experiences.
Of course, most river cruise lines have their own pre- and post-cruise programs that they are continually adding to and expanding in an effort to hang on to that business. The river cruise lines have also been working to offer more customizable options throughout the river cruise, such as concierge services to help passengers book private tours, dinner and entertainment in any given port.
With many river cruise lines being part of larger tour operator conglomerates (Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection is part of the Travel Corp., Avalon Waterways is part of the Globus family of brands and Tauck is both a tour and river cruise operator), they often have built-in resources on the ground to provide those additional options.
The first stop on a culinary tour of Vienna included a glass of Viennese white wine and local charcuterie. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
But that isn't stopping a growing number of independent tour operators, packagers and wholesalers from developing products intended to court river cruise passengers away from the masses with unique private tours, custom itineraries and a wider selection of river cruise extension options that they can add on before, during or after their river cruise.
Earlier this year, wholesaler Classic Vacations introduced pre- and post-cruise packages, starting with 45 cities throughout Europe. The packages include transfers, tours, excursions and accommodations that are intended to be tacked on before and/or after any type of cruise, but many of the cities in the program are popular river cruise ports, such as Amsterdam; Budapest; Vienna and Salzburg, Austria; and Lyon and Bordeaux, France.
The pre- and post-cruise packages can be customized or travel sellers can select one of Classic's ready-made packages. Pre-designed packages are divided into three budget levels (gold, silver and bronze) and they include accommodations pulled from Classic's luxury hotels partners as well as three-, four- and five-star hotels available through the Expedia Affiliate Network, as Expedia is Classic's parent company.
Avanti Destinations has also been beefing up its customizable FIT offerings for pre- and post-cruise stays, and the company encourages agents to tack these personalized options on to river cruises as a way of increasing earnings.
The writer stops at a popular sausage stand in Vienna during a culinary tour of the town. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
With this strategy, the wholesaler has seen tour and hotel bookings for popular river cruise destinations increase considerably, indicating that the demand for a wider range of pre- and post-river cruise product beyond just what the river cruise lines are offering is on the rise. In the past year, Avanti has seen bookings for Bordeaux and Lyon increase 85% and 100%, respectively; bookings for Budapest have grown 30%; and for Nuremberg, Germany, bookings have jumped 175%.
"We've had clients, for example, who start with a Danube cruise, add a few nights in Vienna, continue on to Salzburg and then head to Florence, the Tuscan countryside and Rome before returning home," said Harry Dalgaard, president and founder of Avanti.
A post-river cruise day in Vienna
On a recent summer day in the Austrian capital of Vienna, I decided to break away from the river cruise crowds and get a glimpse of the kinds of pre- and post-river cruise experiences a company like Avanti offers by sampling two very different, privately guided tours arranged by the company.
After pulling into Vienna the night before on the recently launched Scenic Jasper, I emailed my docking location to my contact at Pegasus, Avanti's ground partner in the city.
At midday, a private car service picked me up from the ship, and I headed to the Pegasus office in the center of town. There, I met up with the effortlessly charming Markus Zarl for a private, off-the-beaten-path tour of Vienna, an enlightening trek through the city's musical history, its old Jewish quarter and a subway ride to the Old Danube River area where the locals go for sun and recreation.
As we turned off the main streets of the bustling city center, Zarl guided me through the calm and quiet backstreets of Vienna, pointing out an apartment where Beethoven lived off and on between 1804 and 1815, and the place where Mozart performed his first concert at age 6.
The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial located in Vienna’s old Jewish quarter is dedicated to the 65,000 Austrian Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
When I inquired about how and whether Austria had reconciled with the tragedies of World War II, as if on cue, we wandered into the Jewish quarter, which houses a Jewish heritage museum and a Holocaust memorial. Plaques on the buildings indicate the names of Jewish citizens who once resided there.
We talked openly and frankly about the rise and fall of anti-Semitism in Austria, and it was refreshing to get a local's candid view on a difficult historical topic to broach.
"What next?" asked Zarl. Although my next private tour was an indulgent foodie tour of Vienna, I told him I could use a bite to eat — something local, of course. I had a hankering for a Viennese sausage.
He had just the place: another not-too-touristy locale, Oberlaa, where we would be able to sit peacefully among regulars and have our sausage. Afterward, he was in the mood for the famous Sachertorte, and the cafe sported one of his favorite versions of the dense chocolate cake. I was wooed by the in-season peach dumplings.
We checked the time and talked about what we could reasonably see in the next couple of hours. I told him to surprise me, and surprise me he did. We hopped on to the subway, which is always a great way to see a real slice of local life, and headed out to the Alte Donau or Old Danube River branch, an area no longer used for navigation.
Up until that point, I had basically associated Vienna with a bygone era of uppity royals and eccentric composers. It wasn't a negative image of the city, but that sort of frozen-in-time view you often get of a city when you only stick to its blockbuster historical sights.
River cruise ships can’t get to the Old Danube River, which is reserved for recreation. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
But when we emerged from the subway in the Old Danube district, an entirely other side of the city sprawled out before me, one with a much cooler and more relaxed vibe. This was clearly the place to come for those who wanted a break from the tourist-driven hustle and bustle of the city center. It would be a great place to spend a leisurely afternoon, bring a picnic or have drinks and snacks in one of the waterfront restaurants and rent a paddleboat for tooling around on the very placid river.
After a brief stroll around, it was time to get back to the downtown area and meet my next tour guide, the delightful and bubbly Daniela Anhell, for an eating and drinking tour of the town, a unique concept she and her business partner developed a few years ago and now offer either through their own company, Ganseblumchen, or through partners such as Pegasus and Avanti. The tour began with sparkling wine in Pegasus' penthouse office, which has an elegant view overlooking central Vienna.
From there, I got to experience both the expected, such as wiener schnitzel and more Viennese sausage, as well as some surprise elements of Viennese cuisine, including crisp white wine paired with local charcuterie (Anhell asked that the names of the establishments we visited not be shared as they are meant to be a surprise for future clients).
The foodie tour was an incredibly satisfying mix of chic eateries and street-style food stops. At each of the four venues we visited, a suggested specialty dish was paired with either wine or beer. Anhell handled all the logistics and made the journey appear smooth and seamless as we sauntered from one destination to the next. We even hopped on a classic Viennese trolley car for a short ride between food stops.
The writer with Daniela Anhell of culinary tour company Ganseblumchen on a foodie tour of Vienna. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
While I guiltily ate the grand finale, a lemon tart at a classic Viennese cafe as a pianist played classical music, Anhell generously ran back to the Pegasus office to fetch my suitcase and called me a car so that I could head straight to the airport. As I bid her thank you and farewell and hopped into the car, I couldn't help but reflect on what a welcome change the two private tours had been from traditional larger group sightseeing tours.
Not only had I been able to see a side of Vienna completely unknown to me, I got to experience it through the lens of two thoroughly engaging, funny and considerate guides in an intimate, one-on-one setting.
The advantage to engaging in this kind of experience is the ability to curate it to the traveler's personal interests, whether they be food, music, architecture or art history.
By the end of the day, it became overwhelmingly clear that the already oh-so-popular river cruising can be enhanced even more through this kind of personalization. A river cruise can be everything from the straight-off-the-rack cruise offered by the river cruise line or just the starting point for charting a much more complex and in-depth vacation experience.
Avanti's three-hour private culinary walking tour of Vienna's Ringstrasse area is $435 per person, based on two people; the private music walking tour starts at $159 per person. A full-day private tour of the city with driver and guide is available for $745 per person.
Visit www.avantidestinations.com.