River cruise vacations
The Ganges, Nile, Gambia, Amazon – certain rivers have reached mythic proportions in our imaginations. After all, these rivers and their deltas and tributaries are the circulatory system of their country – or countries. They keep the region revived, keep it moving. People live, work and are laid to rest on these rivers. They’re trading routes, spiritual waterways and a lifeblood. They inform how whole nations have developed, from the pyramid and papyrus-loving Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt to the boat makers of Kerala.
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.![]()
– The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes
A river cruise takes you along these culturally important waterways. You might learn about the myths of the Nile, where crocodiles were once honoured as a reincarnation of the god Sobek. Or meander through the tributaries of the Gambia, to pelican-packed national parks like Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve. You could meet riverside silversmiths that make more than tourist trinkets in Cambodia and understand how dams and flood controls have changed the Yangtze for both better and worse.
The best small ship river cruises are unobtrusive and immersive, using local crew and boat makers. And they’re an easy way to steer well clear of the rumbling coach tours and packed backpacker circuits. To make sure that all those boxes are ticked – local guides, efficient fuel, responsible ethics – you need to travel with a specialist tour operator.
Our Small ship cruising vacation Vacations
China vacation and Yangtze river cruise
A comprehensive China itinerary covering its length and breadth
From
US $3749 to US $4199
19 days
ex flights
Senegal and Gambia river cruise vacation
Discover west Africa's wildlife & Senegal's colonial heritage
From
US $2160
13 days
ex flights
Nile cruise vacation in Egypt
Discover ancient temples & tombs & travel by Nile cruise boat
From
US $1549 to US $2099
9 days
ex flights
Mekong River cruise to Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Cruise the Mekhong river to the spectacular ruins of Angkor
From
£455
3 days
ex flights
Irrawaddy river cruise, Burma
Sail the mighty Ayarwaddy in a unique experience of Myanmar!
From
£2999 to £5999
11 days
ex flights
Tailor made houseboat cruise in Kerala, India
Cruise along the backwaters of Kerala
From
£960
8 days
ex flights
Wheelchair accessible Nile cruise, Egypt
Egypt wheelchair accessible Nile Cruise
From
£1169 to £2311
8 days
ex flights
Camp Leakey and Tanjung Puting NP tour, 4 days
Sail downriver to the Orangutan Sanctuary at Camp Leakey
From
£650
4 days
ex flights
Nile felucca cruise in Egypt
Privatized traditional felucca cruise among people and stars
From
€400 to €450
4 days
ex flights
Nile cruise in Egypt for families
Enjoy a fabulous and relaxing felucca cruise .
From
€300 to €360
4 days
ex flights
Lower Ganges river cruise in India
Cruise the lower Ganges through west Bengal - India slowly
From
£2585
8 days
ex flights
Guilin & Yangtze river cruise vacation, China
Get close to the nature in Guilin and Yangtze river.
From
US $1073 to US $1439
7 days
ex flights
Nile traditional cruise of Egypt
Join our 9-day, slow-paced Nile cultural voyage of discovery
From
£2575 to £3715
9 days
ex flights
Brahmaputra cruise in India
Wildlife, especially rhinos, villages and culture of India
From
£1975 to £2585
8 days
ex flights
Luxury China tour with Yangtze river cruise
China in style with luxury Yangtze Cruise
From
US $8565
12 days
ex flights
Orangutan expedition in Central Borneo
Orangutan and Dayak culture adventure in Central Borneo
From
AU $2590
8 days
ex flights
Amazon river cruise, small group
Explore an ecosystem teaming with wildlife
From
US $3179
7 days
ex flights
What are river cruise vacations like?
Organised river cruises come in two sizes: small group and tailor made. Small group trips fit up to 16 people. Or even less – say, eight or four. It all depends on the size of the boat. They might book your group onto a bigger ship, like an ex-steamship. Or you might get a vessel just for your crew. You’ll travel on a set itinerary, with accommodation, transport and most meals included.
That’s true of tailor made river cruises, too – but they work to an itinerary designed for you. You get to say if you fancy spending an extra couple of days in Cairo, or if you’d rather see Angkor Wat on the edge of the emptier rainy season. And you can choose not to share the deck. Instead, book a Keralan houseboat all to yourself.
That’s true of tailor made river cruises, too – but they work to an itinerary designed for you. You get to say if you fancy spending an extra couple of days in Cairo, or if you’d rather see Angkor Wat on the edge of the emptier rainy season. And you can choose not to share the deck. Instead, book a Keralan houseboat all to yourself.
The cruise might be a short sailing that’s part of a longer exploration of a country (say, a two-day cruise during a three-week tour of China). Or the river cruise might be the vacation; that’s the case with most Nile sailings and Kerala houseboat vacations.
You might not be sailing on a choppy sea, but weather and water conditions still hold sway over every step of a river cruise itinerary. So be flexible. Water levels, tides, flood warnings and traffic will all affect a river cruise. Expert tour operators navigate these with ease and rework the days into something just as exciting. Just go with the river flow.
While still disappointingly far and few between, there are some accessible river cruises out there. And the ones that do exist are done well. Nile cruises for wheelchair users, for instance, include transfers in private accessible vehicles, a personal guide and thoughtfully chosen hotels. They’re also tailor made to your individual requirements. If you’re unsure about whether a river cruise matches your abilities, just ask.
Top five river cruises
Nile, Egypt
Too obvious? Nah. There’s a reason why Nile cruises have gone down in legend – they explore one of the most important rivers on the planet. A great tour operator will make sure you don’t jump on the metaphorical floating bandwagon, but do it the right way – in an Egyptian felucca sailing boat, for instance, or a wheelchair accessible vessel, or a five-star boat with a sundeck readied for the watercolour sunsets.Most river cruises dawdle their way from Luxor to Aswan, where man-sized papyrus sway and temples dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god, recline on the riverbanks. You’ll use your shore leave for guided tours of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Valley of the Kings.
Yangtze River, China
Yangtze River cruises float downstream on one of the world’s greatest rivers. You’ll get an unparalleled perspective of limestone rock formations around Yangshuo and ride right through the Three Gorges (water levels permitting). The towns and villages along the way live off the Yangtze; you’ll get the chance to stop off and wander among the people who depend on this great artery. It’s a powerful river, so expect a bigger boat complete with twin berth cabins and – if you’re lucky – en suite bathrooms.Gambia River, Senegal & the Gambia
A cruise of the Gambia River usually winds up being a series of cruises that explores different strips of this 1,120km West African waterway. These shores have been inhabited for roughly 4,000 years, so it’s a tour through history that touches on everything from mysterious standing stones and roundhouse villages to the dark slave trade history of French colonialism and the living oyster shell islands of the Saloum Delta.
The best tour operators match you up with a characterful boat like a converted groundnut vessel, where you’ll sleep communally on the upper deck, under a wide sky pricked with stars. As you move through Senegal and the Gambia, you’ll smooth past bamboo groves, tropical forests and mangrove swamps. This is hippo, croc and monkey country, so keep your eyes peeled and your ears perked. Tributaries like the Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve chatter with over 250 bird species, too.
Kerala backwaters, India
The myriad backwaters of Kerala are the stomping ground of the kettuvallam houseboats. The best cruises ease you away from the charmless tourist routes and explore the lesser-visited waterways. The smaller the boat, the better your chance of ducking into the narrow canals and beneath low, old bridges. For that, you’ll need to travel with a tour operator that has access to a converted one-bed rice barge. It’ll be just you and the expert Keralan crew. If you can, grab the chance to anchor overnight at villages and bookend your Kerala cruise with a homestay.Mekong River, Cambodia
Everyone visiting Cambodia wants to go from Phnom Penh to Angkor Wat – but hardly anyone decides to ditch the carbon-heavy internal flights and take that voyage by boat. That’s terrible news for the environment and people, but pretty good news if you want a peaceful alternative to one of the most well-stomped tourist trails on the planet.
The rhythm of the Mekong River is so meditative that you’ll almost forget you have a destination in mind: the matchless Angkor Wat.![]()
Most Cambodia river cruises take three days to sail down the mighty Mekong, where lakeside villages meld copper ornaments to designs unchanged by the tourist trade, and Buddhist pagodas like Kampong Tralach rest by the water. Your trusty steed will probably be a 20-passenger riverboat topped with a wooden sundeck and widescreen views.
Our top Small ship cruising vacation Vacation
China vacation and Yangtze river cruise
A comprehensive China itinerary covering its length and breadth
From
US $3749 to US $4199
19 days
ex flights
Small group travel:
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2021: 19 Mar, 26 Mar, 2 Apr, 6 Apr, 16 Apr, 23 Apr, 30 Apr, 7 May, 18 May, 21 May, 4 Jun, 9 Jul, 23 Jul, 6 Aug, 13 Aug, 17 Aug, 20 Aug, 24 Aug, 27 Aug, 31 Aug, 3 Sep, 7 Sep, 10 Sep, 14 Sep, 17 Sep, 8 Oct, 12 Oct, 15 Oct, 19 Oct, 22 Oct, 26 Oct, 29 Oct
2020: 3 Apr, 7 Apr, 17 Apr, 19 May, 22 May, 10 Jul, 24 Jul, 7 Aug, 18 Aug, 21 Aug, 28 Aug, 1 Sep, 4 Sep, 11 Sep, 18 Sep, 22 Sep, 9 Oct, 16 Oct, 20 Oct, 23 Oct, 27 Oct
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Travel Team
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Responsible river cruises
More about Small ship cruising vacation
They take you to another world. To little bits of littoral loveliness you hardly knew existed. Places with names like the Mergui Archipelago, the Kyles of Bute, Wrangel Island or an island called Wolf. They take you on vessels that are the beloved babies of craftsmen and women. They take you to see whales and turtles and sea lions. They combine life on land and on sea.
Small ship cruising vacations do come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, although never enter that super size, floating hotel territory, thankfully.
When working out not only where to go but also when to go to your chosen cruise destinations, it can be tricky.
What is a small ship, anyway? It might be a family-sized yacht, a white-sailed schooner designed to tuck into orca-frequented fjords, or a 200-passenger icebreaker that delves into the frozen Arctic.
From weather, time at sea and your wildlife wish list, to low carbon credentials and accessibility – there are a boatload of considerations when choosing a small ship vacation.
There are so many small cruise destinations, especially given the fact that they are small boats and so they can navigate waterways that those infamous big bruisers can’t access.
These small ship cruise activities are far from the world of quoits and bad lounge singers.
Some of the most mysterious and characterful creatures on the planet can only be reached on a small ship wildlife cruise.
You don’t have to be a Jack Aubrey (or Sparrow, depending on your yen) to go on a small ship sailing cruise.
Go to southern Spain and you can see 700 years of Moorish influence, go to Morocco and see millennia of it.
Who says cruises aren’t for kids? Some of the smallest Caribbean-bound yachts can be fitted with toddler-proof safety nets, while Antarctic icebreakers come with quad rooms.
The specialist tour operators we work with know that solo travel is rapidly gaining traction.
Giant cruise ships have come in for a lot of bad press, and at Responsible Travel we believe that they really are cruising for a bruising.
Find all our small ship cruising guides in one place from Alaska and the Maldives to Scotland, Arctic cruising and many more.
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Photo credits: [Page banner: Clarence] [Top box (Yangtze river): ANDES - TRIBU TRES GARGANTAS/CHINA ]
[What are they like? (Kerala): Thursday Next]
[Gambia river: Peter van der Sluijs]
[Mekong river: Julia Maudlin]
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