This was one of my favorite travel adventures (of course, almost all of them are my favs). I particularly enjoyed the format – three days in Prague, eight day river cruise, three days in Budapest. It allowed us a deep dive into two cities, an overview of several counties, and a boat ride.

Below are some of the things I took away from this adventure:

Prague: I loved this city and thoroughly understood why my friend chose to live there. The architecture was spectacular and I was always finding small details that surprised and delighted me.

History: History was everywhere on our trip. All our guides spoke of the unique history of the specific place we were visiting. The impact of the Nazis and Communists are still felt in the region.

Cleanliness: I was also impressed with how clean and neat the cities and countryside were. Citizens seemed to take pride in their cities and historic places.

The river cruise: I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed the river cruise on Amawaterways’ Ama Sonata. I feared that the boat experience would be too regimented for me, but discovered that you can pick and choose what you want to do and sometimes just looking out over the river can be exactly what you want to do. Also, the ability to unpack once and then travel to so many places was an upside to a river cruise. Another was the ability to just walk off the boat and into a city.

The food was excellent and we did the chef’s dinner one night. Although the boat didn’t offer broadway shows, we didn’t suffer from no entertainment. We had an Octoberfest with lots of beer and music, musicians, and dancing.

One of the highlights for me was going through a lock.

This trip was a good overview of a region I’ve never visited and I would love to go back and delve deeper into what the region has to offer.

Next trip….. Montreal and Quebec City.