We were on a Viking cruise from Budapest to Buchrest this past May. The overall cruise was nice. The food, service and accomadations were fine although the boat - the Primadonna- was in its last year of service for Viking. Budapest was beautiful and a great experience. The rest of the trip was so so. As noted, war and Communist rule have left ugly scars and architecture. That is not to say that it was all bad. There were some interesting things. But overall, I would go elsewhere - like ending a Danube cruise in Budapest. We went with some people (who selected the trip) who had been everywhere else.

I like Vienna to Budapestthe most. Its most smooth and relaxed.

We are set to do Nuremburg to Budapest Danube River cruise in May with a 3 day pre-cruise visit to Prague. Stops include Regensburg, Passau, Melk and Vienna. I agree that this is probably the prettiest part of the river.

I did the Riverboat cruise on Uniworld from Bucharest to Vienna and found it to be very nice.

When else would you get a chance to see Romania , Bulgaria, Croatia , Hungary, Slovakia,Austria...we then took the train from Vienna to Prague.

Uniworld was terrific, the tours were great, the boat was very nice, the food was great...but most of all the weather was terrific.

I was lucky because for our 2 week cruise the weather was always over 84 F, in Belgrade it was 100 F!

I came a few days earlier to Bucharest, hired a private tourguide for one full day of touring Bucharest.

The next day I took the Castle Loop drive to see all the quaint town in Trannslyvania, including Dracula's Castle.

The other day I toured Bucharest on my own.

The tour in Bulgaria from the Danube to Varna ( which is right on the Black Sea) was a nice full day tour.

I also enjoyed Rousse, Vidin and Belogradchik tour..these are all included with your cruise.

It was nice having a relaxing day going through the Iron Gates ( this is like a day at sea).

Belgrade was a lovely time ,we were there for 2 days.

You get entertainment on the Riverboat in the evening.
When in Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia we had the local song and dance group come on board to entertain us.

In Belgrade a Professor came on baord and gave us a 1 hour lecture about Marshal Tito and about the Serbian / Croatian War...... very interesting to say the least.

I noiw appreciate everything I ever saw on TV about the war.

In Croatia.....yes we saw some war torn places , but I knew this from the research I had done and I was eager to see them.

It was in Vukovar Croatian ( right along the Danube) is where we saw war damaged homes and buildings... but it was interesting to see.

Then we went to Osijek Croatian about a half hour drive away.
This was a lovely town with a equally lovely Town Square.

It was here that we had lunch at a Croatian family home...absolutely delightful!!

On to Bucharest.........what can I say , a gorgeous place.

Bratislava Slovakia...very nice and clean city with the usual ornate European buildings.

Vienna..... I am sure you have read and heard enough about Vienna!!

Prague.... I could spent the whole evening telling you about Prague.

You want to see something a little different from the usual Amsterdam to Vienna....then do Bucharest to Vienna.

I totally agree with Reme. Sail the other way.