<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Over the past couple years I’ve had the opportunity to take a few river cruises&nbsp;and I admit, on my first cruise I had no clue if I was going to like it or not. Turns out it was a grand slam and I have another river cruise&nbsp;on the books&nbsp;</span><font color="#333333">for this fall. I’m slowly learning about the unique itineraries they offer to, like sailing up the Mekong River in Southeast Asia or sailing the&nbsp;</font><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.volgadream.com/" href="http://www.volgadream.com/" style="color: rgb(34, 85, 170); text-decoration: none;">rivers of Russia</a><font color="#333333">.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>Here are five reasons to&nbsp;river cruise:</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>1. Relaxing</strong>. It has been said that an ocean cruise is a drinking man’s cruise and a&nbsp;river cruise&nbsp;is a thinking man’s cruise. I couldn’t agree more. Sailing down the river and passing castles, locks and small quaint villages is something that an ocean cruise couldn’t give you.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">It was peace and serenity while sailing in&nbsp;Northern Europe, the Mississippi River and Alaska. Words can’t describe the feeling when it’s just you and nature.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>2.&nbsp;Intimate setting</strong>. One thing that I instantly fell in love with on my&nbsp;river cruise&nbsp;was the setting and the people that I met. A&nbsp;river cruise&nbsp;is a social cruise because you have set dining times, excursion times and activity times – so it’s possible by the end of the cruise you’ll know your fellow cruisers.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">On my Mississippi&nbsp;River cruise&nbsp;I met a retired executive from NBC, a retired federal prosecutor and a school principal. It was so intriguing hearing the stories of my fellow cruise passengers. We literally talked for hours.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>3. Personalized service</strong>.&nbsp;River cruises&nbsp;have a concierge desk that I would put against any landside resort. If you want to dine at finest restaurant in Amsterdam or get a workout in a buff gym in France, all you have to do is ask.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">I had trouble finding my hotel on disembarkation day and the concierge desk used their personal cell phone to find the exact location and how to get there.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>4. Unique Excursions</strong>. Besides docking right in the middle of town, you are offered some of the most unique shore excursions on a&nbsp;river cruise. Enrichment, adventure, culinary with local guides allows you to make the most of your shore side experience.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">One fond memory that sticks out in Europe was docking right in the middle of Amsterdam where we did a local guided walking tour of the Red Light District, the Anne Frank house and took an inland tour of the canals that ran through the city.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><strong>5. Bucket list check</strong>. &nbsp;We all have destinations we want to check off our bucket list. Maybe you want to do a cruise from&nbsp;<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.volgadream.com/cruises/" href="http://www.volgadream.com/cruises/" style="color: rgb(34, 85, 170); text-decoration: none;">Moscow to St. Petersburg</a>&nbsp;or just ply the waters of Southeast Alaska on a 68-guest riverboat – the opportunities are endless.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">Are&nbsp;river cruises&nbsp;for everyone? I wouldn’t say that, but if you want to experience the world and parts of countries like never before – go for it! Before I took my first&nbsp;river cruise, I had dozens of ocean going cruises under my belt and was hesitant to do a&nbsp;river cruise&nbsp;because I heard it was full of “old”&nbsp;people. That wasn’t the case at all. There were people younger than me on all three of my&nbsp;river cruises.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">Life is short, enjoy and take in the experiences.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><br></p>