18 July 2024 – TUI River Cruises debuts new sailings down the river Danube for winter 2025 and new four-night shorter sailings. From November 2025, guests can sail down the Danube on TUI Maya with four and five-night itineraries available over the Christmas and New Year. Four-night sailings will also be available on TUI Isla and TUI Skyla on the Rhine so customers can experience the festive Christmas markets across a range of European cities. The winter itineraries will go on sale from 18th July 2024, offering 15 sailings across the entire fleet.
The TUI Maya winter sailings will include festive itineraries such as the ‘Yuletide Delights’, a five-night sailing visiting Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava; a ‘Festive Danube Delights’ five-night sailing in Austria and Slovakia and a ‘Austrian Christmas Flavours’ four-night sailing in Vienna, Dürnstein, Melk and Linz, to get customers into the Christmas spirit.
Seven-night sailings will also be available over the festive period, so customers can celebrate Christmas Day onboard TUI Maya’s, ‘Danube Christmas Treasures’ itinerary, stopping in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia; and welcome in the New Year on its ‘A Danube New Year’ sailing in European cities Vienna, Budapest, Esztergom in Hungary, Bratislava and Dürnstein in Austria.
The new shorter four-night sailing will also be available on TUI Isla where customers can feel the festive cheer onboard the ‘Christmas Carols & Castles’ itinerary, stopping in festive German cities: Düsseldorf, Cologne, Rüdesheim and Koblenz. TUI Skyla will also offer festive sailings with a new four-night stay on its ‘Glühwein on the Rhine’ itinerary sailing in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Koblenz.
In addition, there will be two seven-night festive sailings on the Rhine onboard TUI Isla with ‘North Rhine Noël’ itinerary visiting festive European market cities across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Plus, TUI Skyla’s ‘Festive Fairy Tale’ sailing in picturesque German market cities: Cologne, Rüdesheim, Speyer, Kehl (for Strasbourg), Mainz and Koblenz.
Customers can enter 2026 admiring the fireworks over the Rhine in Koblenz in Germany onboard TUI Isla ‘A New Year Sail Away’ itinerary, sailing through Germany and the Netherlands. As well as TUI Skyla’s ‘A New Year on the Rhine’ itinerary starting the New Year in Cologne, sailing through known cultural favourites in the Netherlands and Germany.
The newest ship in the fleet, TUI Al Horeya, will return for winter 2025 sailings available from November 2025 with exclusive flights from London Gatwick and Manchester Airport to Luxor. Customers seeking the sun can sail the famous river Nile with its ‘Legends of the Nile’ seven-night sailings. The sailings will begin and end in Luxor and will visit Egyptian hotspots of Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan.
Katy Berzins, Head of River Cruises, TUI River Cruises, says: “We’re excited to be launching new winter sailings down the Danube for our winer 2025 programme. We’re giving customers the chance to explore even more cities during the festive period for the very first time. By introducing the new four-night sailings down the Danube and Rhine, it will offer a chance for new to cruise customers to experience our fleet for the first time for a shorter duration.”
