Take a casual family European river cruise on the Danube with Viking.

This river cruise encounters grand cities and quaint villages along the Danube River. You explore both sides of Hungary’s capital—traditional Buda and more cosmopolitan Pest and from Fishermen’s Bastion, watch the river divide this fascinating city.

Experience Vienna´s architecture and gracious culture, and tour riverside towns in Austria’s Wachau Valley.

In Germany, explore a baroque cathedral and stroll cobbled streets lined with half-timbered houses. Savor the tastes of authentic dishes, learn about local legends, and understand why Strauss immortalized the Blue Danube in his famous melody.

Day 1 Budapest
Arrive in Budapest, Hungary´s vibrant capital on the Danube River. Take a stroll beside the Danube or in the Vaci Utca, a pedestrian thoroughfare featuring shops and cafes.

Day 2 Budapest
You begin with a panoramic tour of the Pest side of the city. Journey along Andrassy Avenue and see the 19th and 20th century mansions, National Opera House, and Parliament Building.

Walk up the hill to Fishermen´s Bastion and Matthias Church; enjoy brilliant views. Return to your ship for lunch as we set sail through the scenic Danube Bend, past the castle of Visegrad and the basilica of Esztergom.

Day 3 Vienna
Arrive in Vienna just after breakfast for your half-day city tour. See some of Vienna’s architecture, then ride along the Ringstrasse with sights including the Opera House, Stadtpark and Hofburg Theater.

You then see St. Stephan´s Cathedral. Shop along the Kartnerstrasse or take an optional excursion to Schönbrunn Palace, home of Maria Theresa and summer residence of the Habsburgs. Dinner is served aboard and you may choose to complete your day in this City of Waltzes with an optional evening concert.

Day 4 Melk
After breakfast, sail through the Wachau Valley to the Benedictine abbey at Melk, and join a guided tour through this baroque architectural gem. See its elaborate frescoes and admire the library´s extensive collection of medieval manuscripts; enjoy the garden courtyard and the terrace’s Wachau Valley views.

Day 5 Passau
Enjoy midmorning in Passau, at the confluence of the Inn, Ilz and Danube Rivers. Your walk along the town´s narrow streets takes you through the Old Town and past traditional houses.

You see the Oberhaus Fortress and visit the St. Stephan´s Cathedral with its ornate interior. Inside, you are treated to a special concert played on the 17,000-pipe organ, considered Europe´s largest church organ.

Day 6 Regensburg
After breakfast, meet your guide dockside for a walking through the scenic town of Regensburg, one of Europe´s best-preserved medieval cities. See one of the largest of 13th and 14th century church spires, towers and patrician houses north of the Alps.

You also encounter the 12th century Old Stone Bridge, St. Peter´s Cathedral and a number of idyllic courtyards. Take time to stroll the streets, shop or visit Germany´s oldest restaurant, the Alte Wurstküche.

This afternoon, enjoy a casual scenic cruising along the Danube River or take an optional Danube Gorge excursion. Travel by road to Kelheim and board a ferryboat to the Danube Gorge´s dramatic scenery and spectacular 400 foot chalk cliffs.

Visit Weltenburg Abbey, renowned for the dark ale brewed here by monks since 1050, then rejoin your ship in Kelheim in time for dinner aboard.

Day 7 Main-Danube Canal & Nuremberg
This morning, you sail through a number of locks that comprise the Main-Danube Canal, an engineering marvel stretching 106 miles from Bamberg on the Main River to Kelheim on the Danube. Begun as Charlemagne´s dream in 793, it was completed in 1992 with 16 locks that raise the water level 1,332 feet.

Today it enables river travel from the North Sea to the Black Sea. Arrive during breakfast in Nuremberg, Bavaria´s second largest city.

Your tour features the former Nazi parade grounds and the Palace of Justice, historic home of the Nuremberg Trials. You have a brief stop at the Court House before returning to the Old Town area enclosed by ancient city walls.

Your tour ends with a walk from the imperial castle grounds past the Albrecht Dürer House on your way to the Main Market Square with its elaborate Gothic fountain. Lunch is served aboard, but you have the rest of the day to explore—or, join an optional World War II history tour visiting the Documentation Center Museum.

Day 8 Nuremberg
After breakfast, your family will disembark to the airport for your return flight. Or, extend your family journey in another country with 3 nights in Prague. You will stay close to Prague´s Old Town and get a tour of the Prague Castle.

Shop online with Viking River Cruises

Wanting to see one of the world’s most beautiful and exotic of natural wonders?

Amazon River cruise

Now you can with this fantastic and exclusive cruise of the Amazon River on the Boat Amazon Clipper! Your vessel to explore the Amazon is fully equipped with the same amenities, including air conditioning that you would expect from a larger ship!

It is even equipped with canoes for the moments we need to explore more closely smaller tributaries and intriguing native fauna and flora that need to be seen up close! Don’t miss out on this trip of a lifetime!

Here is a sample itinerary:

Day 1
Depart the United States for Brazil!

Day 2
Arrive in Manaus where you will greeted and transferred to your hotel for rest and relaxation! In the afternoon, you can take an optional tour of Manaus City!

During the tour, you will visit the Opera House (Teatro Amazonas), opened in 1896, which is without a doubt one of the main tourist attractions of Manaus.

The Opera House is a symbol of the rubber boom which brought great wealth in those times. Next, after a brief stop in front of Palácio Rio Negro, the old official seat of the State Government and a beautiful example of architecture in the golden rubber period, we will observe the popular houses (palafitas) in the adjacent creeks.

Continuing on, we will next visit the local Indian Museum which is important in understanding the traditions, customs and habits of the indigenous populations of the Amazon and Negro Rivers. Rest of the afternoon free to rest or explore more of this tropical City! Overnight In Manaus!

Day 3
After a delicious breakfast, enjoy some more free time before transferring to the Port area to meet your boat the Amazon Cllipper! At 1430, your adventure begins into the heart of the Amazon!

You will first enjoy a detailed brief of our cruise as we navigate along the Pagodao (a tributary of the Negro River). Shortly before sunset, you will take a thrilling canoe ride and have the chance to see all the nocturnal animals coming out.

Supper will be onboard and is always delicious. Overnight on board your cruise boat.

Day 4
Good morning! We next navigate through the beautiful Anavilhas where we will stop and visit a local Cabloco Village where you will enjoy learning how the Ribeirinho people live and of their traditions and customs.

The Anavilhanas area is wildly fascintaing as it’s the worlds largest fresh water archipelgo and is located more than a 1,000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean! Lunch and good times on board… Overnight and supper on board your cruise boat.

Day 5
After a delicious onboard breakfast, we will leave the boat to visit the village of Novo Airao to enjoy exploring the local markets, the handcrafted boats, and the other exciting activities!

In the afternoon however, the real fun begins as you have the chance to catch real Amazonian Piranha fish, the Amazon region’s most aggressive, and possibly most famous fish! You will even have the chance to swim along with them (they don’t really bite as much as they scare you!).

The day will be capped by a canoe visit of the Lake Acajituba where we will enjoy the local flora which includes rubber trees, Brazil nuts, and several different types of palm trees.

At night, we will observe the Amazon caimans as they come out for their nightly hunt… Overnight on board your cruise boat.

Day 6
Early Morning Wake up Call at 05:30 to admire a huge concert of birds that leave their nightly resting places and face the first rays of dawn with vigor and much noise!

After your last exotic on-board breakfast, we navigate back to Manaus, but only after navigating the mighty Meeting of the Waters! Arrival previews for 1130 a.m. at the Tropical Docks.

From here you will be transferred to the Manaus Airport to meet your flight home.

Many Itineraries Include:

• 1 night’s accommodation at the Hotel Tropical in Manuas.
• 4 days/3 nights River Cruise on the Amazon Clipper
• Meals as per Itinerary.
• Sightseeing Tours as per itinerary.
• Transfers to and from airport, from hotel to Port, Hotel Taxes, and Entrance Fees.
• Services of English Speaking Local Guide.
• Port Fees

There are special Refund fees concerning the cruise. To confirm everything, full payment is needed at least 40 days before the cruise. 50% can be refunded up to 17 days before Cruise date. After this date, no cancellations allowed.

This is just one of the Amazon river cruise tour packages. Contact one of our river cruise specialist and find the right Brazil’s Amazon river cruise package for you.

This is just one of the Amazon river cruise tour packages.
Join our Cruise and Vacation Travel Club to stay up to date with the latest tour packages and contact a travel agent to customize and book your next river cruise.

SAVE up to $2,000 per couple on or before
September 30, 2008

• Boutique hotel-style cruise ships with lavishly appointed riverview staterooms
  
• All meals with complimentary fine wine during dinner onboard
• Captivating shore excursions fully hosted by English-speaking guides
• Exciting onboard entertainment
• Captains Welcome & Farewell Dinners
• Complimentary bicycles on select ships
• Complimentary specialty coffees & teas, bottled water in staterooms and more
• All transfers on arrival & departure days

SAVE up to $2,000 per couple on select 2009 all-inclusive river cruises PAY-IN-FULL at time of booking on or before September 30, 2008 to SAVE 2,000 per couple ($1,000 per person) off selected 2009 cruise itineraries in category 2 and above. SAVE $1,200 per couple ($600 per person) off selected 2009 cruise itineraries for all other categories.

This offer is available on the following itineraries:

• Eastern Europe Explorer (2009)
• Grand European Serenade (2009)
• Paris & Grand European Waterways (2009)

SAVE up to $2,000 per couple on select 2009 all-inclusive river cruisesPAY-IN-FULL at time of booking on or before September 30, 2008 to SAVE 2,000 per couple ($1,000 per person) off selected 2009 cruise itineraries in category 2 and above. SAVE $1,000 per couple ($500 per person) off selected 2009 cruise itineraries for all other categories.This offer is available on the following itineraries:

• Legendary Rhine & Moselle (2009)
• European Serenade (2009)
• Eastern Europe Explorer (2009)
• European Jewels (2009)
• Grand European Discovery (2009)
• Grand France (2009)
• Grand Christmas and New Years Cruise (2009)

SAVE $600 per couple on select 2009 all-inclusive river cruises
PAY-IN-FULL on or before September 30, 2008 to SAVE $600 per couple ($300 per person) on select 2009 river cruise itineraries.

This offer is available on the following itineraries:

• Burgundy & Provence (2009)T
• Tulips & Windmills (2009)
• Castles Along The Rhine (2009)
• Enchanting Danube (2009)
• Danube Discovery (2009)
• Rhine Discovery (2009)
• Paris and Normandy (2009)
• Douro River Valley (2009)
• Rhine Holiday Markets (2009)
• Danube Holiday Markets (2009)
• Rhine & Main Holiday Markets (2009)
• European Holiday Markets (2009)
• Parisian Winter Holiday (2009)
• Paris & European River Romance (2009)

Prices are based on availability and can change without notice. Contact one of our European river cruise experts and find the right European River Cruise package for you.

Few places arouse more fascination and curiosity than Egypt, one of the world´s oldest civilizations, with a recorded history of more than 5,000 years.

Flowing through the country´s desert, the great Nile River has supported large populations along its lush, fertile banks since the beginning of time.

Greek historian Herodotus wrote nearly 2,500 years ago that Egypt is the gift of the Nile, its existence depending solely upon the mighty waters. Despite its distinction as the kingdom of the Pharaohs, Egypt also conceals a remarkable Christian heritage; discover it firsthand when you visit St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert.

Then looking deeper into antiquity at Jordan´s Petra, the rose-red rock city that lay hidden from the world for more than 1,000 years.

Your journey concludes with a relaxing stay along the scenic shores of the Dead Sea, which includes a visit to ancient Jerash, a remarkably preserved city often labeled the Pompeii of the East. Explore it all Egypt and Jordan, by private chartered plane!

Your itinerary will include:

• All flights within Egypt and to Jordan by private chartered plane
• Deluxe accommodations at the Mena House Oberoi Hotel (3 Nights); Grand Hyatt Hotel (2 Nights); Petra Movenpick Hotel (2 Nights); and Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa (2 Nights)
• Four nights aboard the River Deluxe-Plus Oberoi Philae in outside staterooms with lower beds, individual temperature controls, private bath facilities, and balconies
• All sightseeing and shore excursions
• 12 breakfasts, 9 lunches, and 8 dinners, including all meals during the cruise and these special events: Cairo welcome reception and dinner, Egyptian dinner and costumed galabia party on board ship, and farewell dinner at the Dead Sea
• Egyptologist and other experts throughout Egypt and Jordan, enhancing your enjoyment of the areas visited
• Professional travel director
• Exclusive concierge service and hospitality desks
• All overseas airport/hotel/ship transfers for air passengers traveling on scheduled dates of departure and return, including tips to hotel/ship porters for luggage handling
• Full pretrip information and assistance

Daily activities
Day 1 Depart U.S.A.

Day 2 Cairo/Giza, Egypt
Evening brings you to Cairo, located at the mouth of the Nile River delta. Upon arrival, transfer to Giza and the Mena House Oberoi Hotel, where you´ll have dramatic views of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Day 3 Cairo/Giza
The last remaining of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Giza Pyramids are the only vestiges from that time to survive in their original form. Also view the Sun Boat, the well preserved, wooden funeral boat that carried Cheops body from Memphis to Giza.

If you choose, even ride a camel during the tour. Tonight, gather for a welcome reception, dinner, and folkloric show at Rubayyat Restaurant.

Day 4 Cairo/Giza
Journey to Egypt´s ancient capital of Memphis” site of the enormous, limestone colossus of a young Pharaoh Ramses II and the alabaster sphinx. Continue to Sakkara to see the Step Pyramid Complex of King Zoser.

After a barbecue lunch and relaxing afternoon, join us under the star-filled Egyptian sky for a sound and laser light show at the Pyramids.

Day 5 Abu Simbel/Aswan (Embark)
Our chartered private plane takes you to the magnificent Temple of Abu Simbel, carved from the side of a sandstone cliff more than 3,000 years ago in honor of Ramses II.

Also visit the site’s smaller temple, dedicated to Nefertari, Ramses II´s favorite wife. Next, continue by private plane to Aswan gateway to the Nubian Desert and the Sudan, and also site of the great High Dam constructed to harness the power of the Nile.

Upon arrival, transfer to the River Deluxe-Plus Oberoi Philae for your four-night cruise. Late this afternoon, enjoy a short jaunt aboard an Egyptian felucca.

Day 6 Aswan/Cruising the Nile/Kom Ombo
This morning, see the High Dam and visit the Temple of Isis at Philae. At the nearby granite quarry, where the Pyramids´ building blocks were excavated, also view the 1,320- ton, 137-foot-high unfinished obelisk.

Return to the Oberoi Philae and begin your cruise to Kom Ombo the strategic point on the ancient desert route to Nubia and Ethiopia.

Though much of the town´s Greco-Roman temple has fallen, its aesthetic proportions are still quite evident today.

Enjoy an Egyptian dinner and costumed galabia (a long, loose Egyptian garment) party this evening.

Day 7 Edfu/Cruising the Nile/Luxor
The ancient Greeks called the site of Edfu Apollonopolis,  after Apollo (or Horus, the Egyptian god of light).

The nearly intact Temple of Horus is one of Egypt’s finest examples of Ptolemaic art. Next, cruise a bit farther downstream to Luxor, on the Nile’s East bank at the site of ancient Thebes, where the ship will dock for the night.

Day 8 Luxor
A morning West Bank tour takes you across the Nile to the remote Valley of the Kings, site of the Tomb of King Tutankhamen. Sixty-four of Egypt’s rulers were buried here in ornate subterranean

chambers. Also visit the Valley of the Nobles. And, finally, marvel at the Colossi of Memnon two giant statues that once stood watch over the funerary temple of Amenophis III. This afternoon, explore the massive temples of Karnak and Luxor, surprisingly well-preserved. Enter the Hypostle Hall, reputedly the largest hall of any temple in the world, before reaching nearby Luxor Temple.

Day 9 Luxor (Disembark)/St. Catherine’s Monastery/ Cairo

Disembark the Oberoi Philae for your flight by chartered private plane to the heart of the Sinai Desert and St. Catherine’s Monastery.

According to religious tradition, it was here that Moses saw the Burning Bush and received the Ten Commandments.

Examine the collection of priceless icons and hanging lamps in the Chapel of the Burning Bush. Reboard the private plane and return to Cairo, where you´ll enjoy a Nile-view room at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, located nearby the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.

Day 10 Cairo
Discover Old Cairo during a tour that includes the Muhammad Ali Mosque, which commands a complete view of Cairo, the Nile and, in the far distance, the Giza Pyramids. Continue to colorful Khan el-Khalili Bazaar and delight in a lunch of local specialties at Naguib Mahfouz Restaurant.

Later, visit the renowned Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Included as part of your guided tour are the treasures from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen and entrance into the Royal Mummies Room.

Day 11 Petra, Jordan
Fly by chartered private plane to Al Aqabah, Jordan, and drive to Petra the fabled city that lay hidden to the world until its 1812 discovery. Stay at the Petra Movenpick Hotel.

Day 12 Petra
Time appears frozen in Petra, the abandoned capital of the Nabataeans ´” Arabs who dominated this area in the pre-Roman era.

Follow the Siq, a narrow gorge winding through the regionPetras rock, on a walking tour that includes the impressive Treasury, royal tombs, colonnaded street, and amphitheater.

Monumental in both size and scope, PetraPetras architecture is astonishing, yet her colors deep rust, banded with grays, yellows, and every hue in between are sure to captivate as well.

Day 13 Dead Sea, Jordan
Drive through rolling countryside along the Desert Highway to Madaba, where you´ll marvel at the town’s Byzantine mosaics, including a sixth-century map of the Christian holy lands made from 2 million pieces.

Continue to the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa, located directly on the Dead Sea’s eastern shore. You´ll have the afternoon and evening to relax and, perhaps, take a swim or enjoy the resort’s extensive spa services.

Day 14 Dead Sea (for Jerash, Jordan)
Today, tour ancient Jerash, a vast Greco-Roman city that flourished in the time around the Christian era. See its well-preserved walls, colonnaded streets, temples, public baths, plazas, and theaters decorated with ornate sculptures and fountains.

Enjoy the rest of the afternoon at your Dead Sea resort. This evening, join us for a festive farewell dinner.

Day 15 Return to U.S.A.
Hyatt Regency Dubai • 3 Hotel Nights
Enhance your travels with a fascinating journey of discovery that focuses on the lifestyles, traditions, and culture of Dubai, the second largest member-state of the United Arab Emirates. Although thoroughly modern, cosmopolitan Dubai is one of the world’s fastest growing tourist destinations and still exudes old-Arabian mystique in its tiny souks and splendid mosques.

This package is by International Expeditions and prices are based on availability and can change without notice. Contact one of our specialist and find the right Mediterranean Egypt package for you.