City river cruises

Cruising the city rivers, city canals, and bays of Europe and Asia

City cruises in:
• Europe
• AsiaAlmost all of the world's great cities were built on the banks of a mighty river—rivers being the superhighways of commerce up until the 20th century started building superhighways of cement and asphalt.

Even though recent decades have seen most cities turn their backs to their rivers—fencing them in with high embankments to guard against flooding (and to give cars and trucks somewhere to zip through town at highway speeds)—there seems to now be a new urge to rediscover these ancient urban backbones.

Paris has turned its Seine embankments into a beach in the summer, ever more footpaths and parks are springing up along the Thames in London and others, and even Rome has realized the mighty Tiber can be more than just a sewer and has started running boat trips on it.

Besides, a float down a river, threading city canals, or a cruise around an urban bay does make for one of the most intriguingly different views of a city, whether it be:

A dinner cruise on the Seine in Paris, the Vltava in Prague, or the Bosphorus in Istanbul
A tour of the canals in Amsterdam, the khlong of Bangkok, or a gondola ride through Venice
A boat trip around Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, a cruise on the harbor of Oslo, or a junk boat cruise on Hanoi's Ha Long Bay
A longer journey down the Thames from London to Greenwich, down the Danube from Budapest, or down the Mekong from Ho Chi Minh City

Plus, it's a terribly relaxing way to sightsee.

You can easily find river cruises in major cities by asking at the local tourist office or your hotel's front desk. Or you can book one ahead of time via our partner, Viator.com. Here are some of their offerings in the major cities of Europe and Asia.