On a Tui river cruise, your ship will visit one or even two ports each day so it’s important to understand how to make the most of every destination using Tui River Cruises shore excursions.
In this post, I explain how to check the shore excursions available for your cruise and how to book.
Tui River Cruises Excursions Voucher
Tui River Cruises gives every passenger £120 per seven-day cruise to spend on shore excursions. This voucher can be redeemed for shore excursions only and cannot be refunded if you don’t use it all.
Trips and excursions vary in price so it’s definitely worth looking at all of the options for your cruise to calculate how you want to spend the voucher.
If £120 does not cover everything you’d like to book for your Tui river cruise, you can pay extra.
You will receive a voucher code for your cruise via email. Please note, this is one voucher code that can be used by everyone in your booking.
Tui River Cruises is offering £120 excursion vouchers until autumn 2023. It is unclear if it will continue to be offered after that time.
Tui River Cruises Shore Excursions List
You can access the full list of shore excursions available for any Tui river cruise, which are organised by ship and the date of your river cruise.
You can access this even before your cruise is booked so you can get an idea of the types of excursions available. If the shore excursions aren’t available yet for the dates you plan to cruise, try finding the same itinerary by switching the dates.
There is usually at least one excursion available in every port of call.
The shore excursions are available to view and book approximately six months before your river cruise. Below are some examples of Tui River Cruises excursions. It’s important to note that these may not always be available on every cruise.
| River Cruise Destination | Examples of Excursions |
| Amsterdam | Canal cruise Cheese and windmills tour Amsterdam city tour |
| Arnhem | Arnhem walking tour Historic Arnhem tour |
| Aschaffenburg | Aschaffenburg city tour |
| Bamburg | Bamburg city tour Bamburg shuttle bus Franconian Switzerland tour |
| Basel | Basel city tour Lucerne city tour |
| Belgrade | Belgrade city tour Bohemian folklore show |
| Bernkastel-Kues | Bernkastel walking tour |
| Bonn | Bonn city tour with Beethoven house Drachenfels Mountain tram ride |
| Boppard | Boppard walking tour Marksburg Castle Winery visit with tasting Sightseeing and wine-tasting walking tour |
| Bratislava | Bratislava city train tour |
| Breisach | Breisach walking tour Breisach walking tour with wine tasting Colmar city tour |
| Budapest | Sightseeing and Hungarian dance show Budapest city tour Hungarian horse show |
| Cochem | Cochem walking tour Cochem city tour with Reichsburg Castle |
| Cologne | Cologne city tour Beer and sightseeing |
| Donji Milanovac | Lepenski Vir archeological site and Golbulac Fortress |
| Durnstein | Durnstein walking tour |
| Dusseldorf | Dusseldorf walking tour Dusseldorf city tour Beer and sightseeing |
| Esztergom | Esztergom city train and Basilica Budapest city tour |
| Forchheim | Forchheim city tour and beer tasting |
| Kalocsa | Pecs city tour Kalocsa suttle Kalocsa tour with paprika and organ concert |
| Kelheim | Weltenburg Abbey and boat cruise |
| Koblenz | Koblenz walking tour Hilltop fortress and cable car |
| Krems | Krems walking tour Monastery tour and wine tasting |
| Linz | Linz walking tour Salzburg city tour and Austrian Lakes Postlingburg tour |
| Mainz | Mainz walking tour and Gutenburg Museum |
| Mannheim | Mannheim city tour Heidelberg tour with castle |
| Melk | Melk Abbey |
| Mohacs | Mohacs walking tour |
| Novi Sad | Novi Sad and monastery tour Novi Sad walking tour Novi Sad fortress and wine tasting |
| Nuremburg | Nuremburg city tour Nuremburg rally grounds and museum Nuremburg city shuttle |
| Oberwesel | Oberwesel walking tour |
| Passau | Passau walking tour Beer tour Bavarian boat cruise, beer and town tour |
| Piesport | Wine and sightseeing of the Moselle Valley |
| Regensburg | Regensburg walking tour Walking around Walhalla |
| Rotterdam | Rotterdam walking tour Rotterdam city tour and harbour cruise Town tours of The Hague and Delft |
| Rudesheim | Wine tasting Winzerexpress and Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet Winzerexpress, cable car and old town |
| Speyer | Speyer walking tour German wine route |
| Strasbourg | Strasbourg city tour Black forest tour |
| Traben-Trarbach | Traben-Trarbach walking tour with underground cellars |
| Trier | Trier walking tour Luxembourg city tour |
| Vienna | Evening concert Schonbrunn Palace Vienna city tour Wine tour |
| Vukovar | Vukovar walking tour |
| Winzerexpress & Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet | Winzerexpress & Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet |
| Wurzburg | Wurzburg city tour Wurzburg city tour with Wurzburg residence |
Types of River Cruise Excursions
River cruise excursions vary depending on the destinations depending on the history, landmarks and culture.
Walking tours
In most ports a walking tour will be available. Transport is provided if the excursion visits a landmark or neighbouring town that’s not in walking distance.
Most excursions will be lead by a local tour guide who will have good knowledge of the local area and it’s history. You will need to use the Vox devices found in your cabin and headphones provided. At the start of the excursion, your tour guide will ask you to turn on the Vox device and ensure you are on the same channel as them. This allows you to hear the tour guide throughout the tour without needing to stay by their side.
Other types of excursions to expect on your river cruise:
- Walking tours
- City tours (coach and walking)
- Beer or wine tasting
- Local dancing/dinner show
- Visit to historical landmarks
- Local food tasting
- Shuttle to a town/city (free time to explore independently)
- Boat cruises
- Concerts
Step-by-step guide to booking your TUI River Cruises excursions
- Tui River Cruises will send you an email around six months before your river cruise departure date containing your shore excursion £120 voucher code
- Browse the shore excursions available for your river cruise and decide what you’d like to book by visiting the shore excursions page
- For each shore excursion you’d like to book, choose the number of tickets required and Add to Cart, the total price will appear
- If you’d like to book more than one experience per day, simply book and pay for your first one then log out and back into the system to select and book your second. This is if you are visiting two ports in one day
- Once you’re ready to pay, click the Shopping Cart in the top right of your screen, enter your personal details, shore excursions voucher code, your booking reference and payment method.
- You will receive a ticket for each shore excursion you book via email
- Print your excursion confirmation tickets and keep them safe
You can book your river cruise excursions by telephoning 0203 451 2688.
You can also book extra shore excursions when you’re on your river (if there is availability) through your Cruise Director.
Shore Excursions Cancellations
You are entitled to a full refund if you cancel a shore excursion up until two days before. If you cancel within two days of the shore excursion you may not be able to receive a refund.
Information about Excursions
You can find out important information about the river cruise excursions on the website and your excursion confirmation tickets. This includes:
- Date and departure time for the excursion
- Duration
- Meeting point
- What to expect
- What is included in the excursion e.g. lunch, entry to landmark
- Difficulty level and how much walking is involved
The Cruise Director and entertainment staff will also be able to help with any further queries you have when you get onboard.
Experience of Tui River Cruises Excursions
On our Tui river cruise we chose to take three shore excursions and explored independently in the other ports. The quality of our excursions were excellent but it can depend on your tour guides.
You can take a look at the excursions we did with Tui River Cruises on our Eastern Danube river cruise on Tui Skyla in the videos below.
In our ‘Cruising the Iron Gates’ video we took an excursion to the Lepenski Vir archeological site before visiting the Golubac Fortress where the river ship met us.
In the video below, we visit Vukovar, Croatia where we went on a walking tour of the town to learn about its history from a local tour guide.
Tui River Cruises Excursions Tips to Remember
- Book your excursions as far in advance as possible so that you don’t miss out on particular ones you really want to do
- If you have restricted mobility, read the difficulty rating and description carefully to decide if it’s suitable and you will enjoy it
- Use your £120 excursion voucher from Tui River Cruises and decide if you need to spend extra on additional excursions
- Take excursions that allow you to try local food, drink and learn about local culture
- Carry some cash for tipping tour guides and bus drivers
- Don’t be scared to ask your tour guides questions, they are usually local and love to tell you about their home town or city
- Pack comfortable shoes for walking. Cobbled streets and uneven surfaces make it important that you are comfortable and safe
- If you are in walking distance from your river ship, you may have the chance for free time after a walking tour but remember to be back onboard before sailaway. You will be left behind.
- Don’t feel obliged to take an excursion with Tui, if you prefer to do your own thing, you can
- Pack for the weather, this may be just an umbrella and lightweight coat or layers depending on the time of year you cruise – read what to wear for a river cruise in Europe
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