Our Santana River Cruise of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers was the first cycling cruise we have experienced. The first few days were somewhat of a learning curve on the route mapping and the pace of life onboard the boat. Some of us were first timers but many of the other guests have taken dozens of Santana cruises. In fact we met a few couples who were taking three cruises in a row (due to COVID cancellations). We consider ourselves to be pretty well traveled but among this group we are slackers.
Just to give you an example of cruise life… each morning at breakfast we would have a route talk from Bill (Santana’s owner) explaining the destination of each route, the distance and the difficulty. Most days there were at least two options, sometimes three and always the option to take the tour bus or stay onboard.
This was no lounge about cruise, we were at breakfast by 7:00 and on the ride by 8:30. We might ride a loop and end up back at the boat before it moved to the next docking location or we might ride from town to town while the boat sailed on down the river. The staff provided us with maps on our Garmins and we were able to download the maps on Ride with GPS. This was new to us too so we spent the first couple of days unsure if we knew where we were going but soon we were heading out like seasoned explorers. Bill also provided a hand drawn map and I’m not to proud to say that it was the map we sometimes used.
The route mapping was important because there was no guide or ride leader, everyone took off on their own and were expected to make it back to the boat before the “All Aboard” time. Bill warned us the first day that being late and not contacting the staff to let them know what was going on would result in being left to find your own way to the next docking point. This sounds severe but keep in mind that this area is not remote, there are towns and villages all along the way and the schedule was very rigid to get through the many locks (on the Rhine River locks are used to raise or lower the boats as they navigate up and down the river) and maintain the docking schedule.
The bikes were kept on the top deck of the boat and there were a lot of bikes! It was a combination of single and tandem bicycles. Santana is a tandem bike manufacturer and their river cruise tours started out for tandem riders only. Getting the bikes on and off the boat was a challenge. At some docking sites we boarded on the lobby level and had to maneuver two sets of stairs with the bikes. Sometimes the shore was at the second level of the boat with only one set of stairs to climb and one glorious day we just strolled off from the top deck.
All we had to do on this cruise was ride… we showed up in the dining room and they fed us, we didn’t worry about a messy cabin because staff came twice a day to keep us tidy, if the bikes needed tuning up the cruise mechanic was there, and staff worked late into the night to get the routes fine tuned for the next day’s rides.
Travel the World Backpacking 
Hi Tina & Mike – Off on another adventure! Have fun – Nancy
All I can say is Wow! When you said you were doing the river cruise I didn’t realize it involved biking every day . You two are something!