River cruises are very popular and even though I was booking the trip in November to travel in July, almost everything was booked up. So I found an Avalon combination package, that included 2 days in a hotel in Vienna and Budapest, at either end of the cruise, plus three days on the river traveling from Vienna to Budapest, with stop in Melk and Durnstein, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia along the way. We added on two days at the beginning in Vienna, and I wish we had done the same in Budapest, so the trip was 9 days in total.

The included hotels were Intercontinental hotels in Vienna and Budapest. I was very happy with the hotels in both cities, and a really nice breakfast was included in each. The Intercontinental in Budapest was particularly well located, right at the foot of the Chain Bridge, with an outdoor eating/drinking area right along the Danube River. It was a wonderful place to be.

The stops along the way were beautiful, and the tours offered by Avalon were very good and innovative. We took a great tour of the Baden resort outside of Vienna before we boarded the ship, took in a great musical performance in Vienna, did a bike tour of the Wachau Valley in Durnstein and took the Jewish and Communist tours in Budapest. There were many different types of tours for different interests. Read more