Best Elbe Riverboat Cruise Routes
Top Cruise Vacations on the Elbe River in Germany and Czech Republic
Feb 26, 2008
The Elbe River is after the Rhine and Danube the most popular river in Germany for riverboat cruises. The main draw is the cultural sights along the river and nearby destinations – four Elbe sights are on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List and three more can be seen on popular Elbe riverboat cruise routes.
The Elbe River (Die Elbe in German, Labe in Czech) is around 1091 km (680 miles) long. Its source is in the Giant Mountains in the northern Czech Republic and its mouth in the North Sea at Cuxhaven near Hamburg, Germany.
Several routings are possible on the Elbe and its tributary rivers such as the Moldau (Vltava) and the Havel. The most popular cruise routes are the German Elbe from Hamburg to Dresden, and combinations of the German and Czech Elbe with side trips to Prague and Berlin.
Riverboat Cruises on the German Elbe – Hamburg to Dresden
Cruises on the German Elbe are generally around a week each way starting in Hamburg and ending in Dresden after making a U-turn at the Czech border. En route, many interesting sights can be seen.
Hamburg with 1.7 million inhabitants is the largest city on the Elbe. During the Second World War, Hamburg was extensively bombed and is therefore a mostly modern city but several historic brick-Gothic churches were restored. The city also have very interesting museums and with the Reperbahn one of the most famous red-light districts in the world. The Beatles shot to fame here.
Magdeburg has several Romanesque buildings and claims that its thirteenth-century cathedral was the first Gothic cathedral (as oppose to an ordinary church) built in Germany.
Dessau has two sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list:
- Bauhaus sights include the Walther Grophius-designed Bauhaus-Dessau, which housed the school, and Meisterhäuser (Masters’ Housing) where senior personnel lived and worked.
- The Gartenreich (Garden Kingdom) of Dessau-Wörlitz consists of a series of large eighteenth-century English landscape-style parks.
Lutherstadt-Wittenberg is inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list for several monuments and buildings associated with the church reformer Martin Luther.
Torgau is where the American and Russian armies met on April 25, 1945 – photos were taken only a day later.
Meißen is famous as the home of Meissen Porcelain, the impressive Albrechtsburg castle, and a lovely old town.
Dresden is another UNESCO World Heritage sight with numerous restored Baroque and Renaissance monumental buildings, excellent museums, and the Semperoper opera house.
Saxon Switzerland (Sächsische Schweiz) has the loveliest nature on the Elbe. Here the Elbe flows through an area with oddly shaped sandstone hills, pillars, and rocks. Popular sights include the Bastei viewing point and Festung Königstein, the largest hill fortress in Europe.
- Peter Deilmann’s luxury MS Dresden does the full German Elbe cruise route weekly from March to October.
Riverboat Cruises on the German and Czech Elbe
Combinations of the German and Czech Elbe, and tributaries in both countries, make for very popular riverboat cruise routings. The main additions are Prague and Berlin.
- Magdeburg to Melnik
Czech Melnik is at the confluence of the Elbe and its largest tributary, the Moldau (Vltava). Some cruise lines prefer to anchor at Melnik and transfer passengers by bus to Prague with its UNESCO World Cultural Heritage listed old town center.
- Viking River Cruises’ MS Schumann does the Magdeburg to Melnik cruise weekly from March to September. (Prague and Berlin by bus and with hotel stays are usually added to this cruise if booked in international markets.)
- Berlin / Potsdam to Prague
Berlin’s numerous attractions include the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage listed Museum Island, an intriguing history, culture, art, and famous nightlife. Several of the palaces and parks of the Prussian kings in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, are inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list too.
- Peter Deilmann’s luxury MS Katharina von Bora and MS Frederic Chopin cruise at least weekly from Potsdam to Prague or vice versa from March to September.
- Scylla Tours’ Swiss Coral has weeklong cruises from Berlin-Spandau to Prague or back.
- Phoenix Reisen’s MS Saxonia does Berlin-Prague-Berlin return cruises in twelve days as well as nine-day return trips from Berlin to Hamburg.
Peter Deilmann and Viking River Cruises are the major operators of Elbe River cruises. Both companies use English and German as onboard languages. The Rhine and Danube have more cruises and a wider variety of competing luxury riverboat cruise lines.
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