RIVER CRUISING
A CAMBODIAN DELICACY BY JANE ARCHER Adam, our Cambodian guide, is munching his way through fried tarantula and KFC, aka Khmer fried cricket. So began my one-week cruise on the Mekong River with APT’s Travelmarvel brand. Well almost. It had really started with a dawn visit to Angkor Wat, the 11th-century Hindu shrine-turned-Buddhist Temple, before a fascinating coach ride from Siem Reap around the Tonle Sap Lake to join the 92-passenger La Marguerite. When we were not ashore, we relaxed on the boat and watched the scenery go by – floating villages, stilt houses, parched lands – as we cruised down the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. Once in Vietnam we took a rickshaw ride and visited the tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war with America. We saw skinned rat on sticks and rice wine flavoured with snake veenom. Strangely there were not too many takers.
to cope with demand. There are also new expedition- style seven-night cruises on the Brahamaputra in Assam, India, on the 46-passenger Mahabaahu, with visits to villages, monasteries and Kaziranga National Park, home to rhinos, elephants, tiger and bison, and river cruise safaris on the Zambezi river packaged with stays in Cape Town, Victoria Falls and Kruger National Park. One of the key attractions of these river cruises is that they are invariably packaged into longer holidays (it would be a shame, after all, to fl y to these countries and miss some key sights), which makes them as appealing to non-cruise customers wanting to visit more exotic destinations as past passengers looking to add somewhere new to their portfolio. Beijing and Shanghai are popular
to book-end the Yangtze, for instance, while Angkor Wat in Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City are always added to the start and end of cruises on the Mekong. Because Egypt is just fi ve hours fl ight from the UK, the Nile is often
a stand-alone one-week cruise, but specialists such as Discover Egypt can package the river with a few days in Luxor or Cairo, or a week on the Red Sea. Sanctuary Retreats Sales and
Marketing Director Katherine Gershon said: “Increasing numbers of guests want to see more than just the tick-box tourist sites in countries like China and Egypt. River cruising on a small luxury vessel remains by far the best way to see the real interior of a country, get up close and personal with its people and get away from the tourist crowds.”
What’s new Product: Uniworld River Cruises is going all-inclusive in 2014, with alcoholic and soft drinks and gratuities included in the price. Flights, transfers and shore excursions were already included (
titantravel.co.uk). Fred River Cruises, the new
tour operator brand of Fred.Olsen Travel, has launched a standalone brochure dedicated to the deluxe MS Mozart river cruise ship which
Clockwise from top left: AMA in St
Petersburg; Budapest with Amadeus; Aswan on the Nile, Egypt; enjoying a safari near the Zambezi
“Mekong voyages have broad appeal to first- time cruisers as they combine some of South- East Asia’s most exciting cities with the serenity of drifting along the vast
river.” NATALIE FORD, ACCOUNT MANAGER, AMAWATERWAYS
Luxury River Cruises Danube • Maine • Moselle • Rhine • Rhône • Seine • Yangtze • Mekong • Mississippi • Galapagos • Amazon
3 Included Private door-to-door home transfers† in an executive car to and from your chosen departure airport
3 Included Fully packaged holiday with scheduled flights, transfers and port charges
3 Included Full board award winning cuisine with free flowing choice of wines
Great value discounts are still available on a range of Avalon cruises for 2013. To find out more call
0800 668 1865 or contact
This service is available if you live within 75 miles of your chosen international airport. If you live further than 75 miles by road from the airport you can still take advantage of the service by paying for the excess mileage at £1.70 per car, per mile. *£600 per couple saving based on 2014 departures if booked by 30th June 2013. Offers correct at time of send (May 2013).
†
agencysales@avaloncruises.co.uk
We are protected by ABTA and our flight inclusive packages are protected by ATOL.
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Saveup to £600
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