Cruise passengers in parts of Europe have seen their vacations upended by record-low water levels on some of the continent’s busiest river routes, stranding ships and forcing sudden changes to planned itineraries.
According to the European Drought Observatory, Europe experienced above-average temperatures and an extended, intense heatwave during the first half of July, with drought conditions still persisting. The organization’s latest mapping shows drought stretching across much of Central and Western Europe, with the most severe alert-level conditions concentrated in parts of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania and the Balkans.
Two of Europe’s major river routes, the Danube and the Rhine, have been particularly affected. Hungary’s Paks Nuclear Power Plant reported on July 27 that the Danube’s water level at Paks had dropped to minus 42 inches, breaking all previous records at that location. Meanwhile, images from the Rhine show exposed sandbars and dried riverbanks as ships navigate an increasingly shrunken waterway.
Several river cruise operators, including Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways, have warned that low water levels along stretches of both rivers may require itinerary adjustments.
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The Danube, Europe’s second-longest river, flows from Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea, passing through or bordering ten countries, including Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Rhine, meanwhile, originates in the Swiss Alps and empties into the North Sea, running through or along the borders of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Both rivers are popular cruise corridors, meaning the drought has directly disrupted travel plans for passengers, with some tourists bussed to alternate ships farther along the route.
One traveler, writing on social media, expressed concern for older family members embarking on a river tour from Budapest to Amsterdam, worrying about the physical toll of being bussed multiple times given the current water levels and forecasted continued heat, and questioning whether repeated packing and unpacking without assistance would be manageable for them.
Another cruiser described returning home disappointed after low water levels on the Rhine made it impossible to reach the portion of the river known for its castle views, the very reason they’d booked the trip, despite praising their cruise line’s efforts to work around conditions outside their control.
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A separate passenger recounted being bussed roughly five hours to reach a different ship after parts of the Rhine became impassable, a transfer that caused them to miss prepaid excursions along the way. Despite the disruption, they said they understood the water levels were beyond anyone’s control and still enjoyed the trip overall, even as switching ships meant repacking and reorganizing everything from scratch once aboard the new vessel.
