River cruise ships in Bratislava (source: Sme)
“Sailing on the Danube is an extraordinary experience,” said writer Michal Hvorecký, who served as a guide to American tourists on luxurious cruise ships on the Danube for two seasons in the past and wrote a fiction book based on his experiences. “During the cruise, you can experience four amazing capitals – Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade and 10 noteworthy countries. This is exceptional.”
Bratislava is usually a pleasant surprise for tourists on the cruses, tour operators say, but cruises do not usually stop at its port for more than half a day.
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“The programme of the cruises is drafted two years in advance and it is always difficult to persuade the partner to change their well-proven ports for smaller towns or stay in a port longer than half a day,” said Andrea Kráľovičová of a travel agency specialising in organising tours of Bratislava and other programme for river cruise ship passengers.
Large river cruise ships arrived on the Danube after 1992 when the Main–Danube canal connected Rhine, Moselle and Dutch routes with the Danube. From then on, the river cruise business on the Danube thrived until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
