AmaWaterways has earned one of the most devoted followings in river cruising — and if you spend time with their guests, it’s easy to understand why. This is a family-owned cruise line that has made genuinely distinctive choices about what a river cruise should be, and the results speak for themselves.

The signature move is the bike and hike program. On most AmaWaterways European itineraries, guests have the option to cycle alongside the ship between ports on dedicated riverside paths — covering the same ground as the ship but at a pace that lets you feel the landscape rather than just observe it. For active travelers who want more than a bus tour of every destination, this single feature changes the entire character of the journey. And because the ships are small, the path between “adventure option” and “relaxed afternoon on the sun deck” is genuinely short.