Just came back from a brilliant river cruise on the APT AmaVerde. We were on the ship from 19 July 2014 for 13 days sailing from Amsterdam to Budapest. One of the locks broke down on the way to Budapest so sadly missed out on sailing into Budapest and had to get there by bus. Apart from that, this was one of best holidays we had ever had. We paid a bit more to get a twin balcony suite which was a bonus especially when trying to get our washing dry. It was also great to have for the few days we were cruising on the Main River as, due to the low bridges, most of the top sundeck was closed.
We would like to thank Vlad, Marion and all the wonderful crew who did everything within their power to make this holiday the best it could be. The local guides who we met up with in each town were just fantastic. They were passionate about their jobs, spoke excellent English and were more than willing to answer whatever questions we had.
We were surprised at how much free time we usually had after the guided walking tours which usually lasted about an hour. APT gave us maps and info sheets on every town we stopped at but we had a GPS which made our lives a lot easier. We were probably walking up to 8 kms a day depending on how much time we had at each stop. At times, lunch was scheduled on-shore in local restaurants but generally it was local cuisine. So we went off on our own and generally found pizza or pork schnitzel for lunch - normally at very reasonable prices and we were served a lot quicker than if we ate with the rest of the passengers. We also got to eat outside where we could watch the world go by, instead of being stuck indoors in restaurants which, in Europe, don't seem to have air conditioning, and it was very hot when we were over there. In Amsterdam, it reached 35C on the first day we were there.
Our cabin was large, comfortable and immaculately clean thanks to Alina.