I'd been intrigued by Viking river cruises for years but thought they were a bit pricey. The deals this year have been amazing, though, so I booked two river cruises. The Rhine Getaway was nice, but it was too hot (late June) and that made it harder to enjoy the port cities/towns. The Danube Waltz in October was more fun for me. If you are cruising to see lots of castles from a distance or want to visit the Netherlands, choose the Rhine, but if you want to spend time in interesting places, I loved the Danube.

We had enough time in Passau to go to the castle on the hill and visit the main museum, but we would have liked a little more time for the side museums and had to skip the organ recital in town.

Linz has a touristy historic area, but there's also a very cute Grottenbahn up on the hill (take the tram from the tourist office). It's a fairy tale cave train and it is definitely intended for kids, but adults outnumbered them at the time we went and it is very well crafted and maintained. Read more