Relax on a River Cruise

'Cruising is not for us': that's what we thought before we boarded our river cruise in Amsterdam. One week later and we were converted by the spacious cabins, amazing food, well organised excursions, attentive staff and the chance to visit 6 lovely places on route. Most of all though, we loved the relaxation of sitting out on the sun deck with a glass of wine taking in the castles and scenery of the Rhine and watching on while the captain manoeuvred us through the locks.

With only 130-160 passengers on board a river cruise, there's a friendly, informal feel and with 'smart casual' being the dress code throughout, I could leave my cocktail dresses at home - in contrast to ocean cruises, there is no 'formal' evening.

The range of excursions included in the trip meant that you could be as active and involved as you wanted to be. Some days we joined the guided tour and on other days, we did our own thing; just choose from the options the night before and let your Tour Manager know.

We visited some lovely and interesting places on our trip taking in the beautiful streets of Cologne, enjoyed a tour and dinner at the castle of Princess Heide von Hohenzollern, we then diverted off down the Moselle to visit Cochem which is known as one of prettiest towns in the Moselle Valley, took a cable car to the Niederwald Monument overlooking the town of Rudesheim, toured Heidlberg, one of Germany's oldest university towns and finally visited the French medieval city of Colmar, situated on the Alsatian Wine Route before arriving in Basel to disembark.

The cabins, set over 3 decks ranged from picture window cabins, balcony cabins and royal suites - all of which were spacious and well equipped. You could eat all day on board starting with an early breakfast, late breakfast for late risers, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and finally a late night snack. Dinner was served at 1 sitting, usually 7pm, we also ate at the Chefs Table restaurant one evening where we enjoyed the panoramic views from the back of the boat whilst enjoying the 6 course taster menu - all included in the cost of the trip.

Evening entertainment was varied and included a quiz night, Abba tribute band and singing from the on board entertainment duo.

The biggest myth for me was the age group that river cruising attracts, the average age used to be 62 but this has recently come down by 10 years to 52 with the growth in river cruising and certainly on our cruise the age range varied greatly.

I can't recommend river cruising enough for a relaxed holiday with plenty of options to get off the boat and see the sights.