Ocean Cruisers First Time on the River

Author: vaskin6
Date of Trip: August 2010

Recently took our first river cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t say yet if we are completely converted to river cruising over sea cruising, but certainly the high level of personanlised service that you get on small river cruises is something that would be difficult to do on the larger ocean liners.

We took the Volga Dream cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg, which is a 7 day cruise on a small but spacious ship with only about 100 passengers. The cruise company helped us book accommodation in both the major cities before and after the cruise so that we could see a bit more of life in Russia on dry land and also helped us organise tour guides there too — particularly recommend the bunker tour in Moscow if you are into cold war history.

Food onboard was fresh and imaginative and there were some great activities provided for us onboard such as classical concerts cooking lessons. The ports along the way are very varied but are all very historical and generally small remote places that you wouldn’t reach on a regular tour.