Budget Travel: French cruise line catering to Americans

Owned and carefully supervised by a French family, a large (50-ship) French river-cruise company called CroisiEurope is starting to make significant inroads into the U.S. market for European river cruises. With its unusually friendly English-language website (CroisiEuropeRiverCruises.com) and its unique, all-inclusive policies (shore excursions almost always are included in the price), CroisiEurope has decided to make its river cruises bilingual (all announcements are made in French and English), and is beginning to enjoy heavy business from Americans attracted by its low prices, which CroisiEurope claims are cheaper than anyone else’s.

As with all European river cruises, meals include free beverages (wine and beer, fruit juices, soft drinks), but unlike some others, there also is an open-bar policy throughout the day and evening — you can request a free drink at any time. Those liquids complement a standard of cuisine that is thoroughly French-quality; nearly all passengers have been ecstatic about the meals prepared by French chefs and geared toward a French clientele. Meals are three courses and copious.

I haven’t myself taken a CroisiEurope cruise. But I’ve been impressed by an outpouring of satisfied comments from those who have. To begin with, the CroisiEurope ships travel on every European river, and on rivers in Asia, too. Their ships are designed to be “long and low,” designed primarily with only two decks so that they can pass underneath the low bridges on some of Europe’s best-known rivers. Sailings are rarely canceled, even when heavy rains raise the river level to a height that cannot be navigated by some of the newer ships of other lines.

I also have been impressed by CroisiEurope’s obvious efforts to break into the U.S. market. Its crews are today almost always thoroughly bilingual in English and French, and their reservation facilities (reached via a toll-free 800 number) seem to be more-than-adequately staffed. You can make a booking as easily as any French passengers can.

To access the company’s English-language website and U.S. phone number, be sure to spell out the website’s entire name: CroisiEuropeRiverCruises.com. By limiting yourself to the shorter CroisiEurope.com, you’ll pull up the French-language site and a European phone number.

Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice.

— Arthur Frommer is the pioneering founder of the Frommer’s Travel Guide book series. He co-hosts the radio program, The Travel Show, with his travel correspondent daughter Pauline Frommer. Find more destinations online and read Arthur Frommer’s blog atfrommers.com.