The Panorama Suite thing, explained properly

Most river ships put the bed against the window wall, sideways, so you look at the room. Avalon rotated it so the bed faces a wall of glass that opens up into what they call an open-air balcony.

It is not a balcony you walk out onto. The window slides down and the whole end of the room becomes open air, which on a river is better than a balcony because you get the full width rather than a metre of decking with a chair on it.

I was cynical about this until I woke up in one on the Danube. Then I understood. You do not get out of bed. You just lie there and Europe goes past. That is the entire product and it works.

Who Avalon suits

Families who want river cruising without the formality that sometimes comes with it. The atmosphere is relaxed, the dress code is nonexistent in practice, and nobody is going to look at your children sideways.

People who want choice on excursions. Avalon grades its included excursions by pace, so you can pick the gentle version, the standard version or the active one. With mixed ages in a group this is genuinely useful, because grandma and a thirteen year old want different mornings.

And people who like bikes. Avalon carries bicycles on board and the cycling excursions are real cycling rather than a token ride around a car park.

The ships and the cabins

Modern, clean, and comfortable without being showy. The public spaces are pleasant rather than spectacular, which suits the way most people actually use a river ship. You are off it most of the day.

Cabins are on the larger side for the category, and the Panorama Suites in particular are generously sized. Storage is adequate rather than abundant, which is standard for river ships.

Triple occupancy is limited, as it is everywhere on rivers. For a family of five you are looking at two cabins, and I would push you toward two Panorama Suites rather than one suite and one cheaper cabin, because the difference in experience is large and the difference in price often is not.

What is included

Most meals, wine and beer with lunch and dinner, one included excursion in most ports, wi-fi and onboard entertainment.

Gratuities are generally extra, as are drinks outside meal times and the premium excursions. This is the standard river model and Avalon does not deviate much from it.

On price they sit slightly below the premium end and above the value end, which is a sensible place to be and often makes them the right answer when somebody has been quoted an eye-watering number elsewhere.

Children on the rivers, generally

I should say this on every river page and I will say it here. River cruising is not built for children. There is no kids club, the other passengers are mostly retired, and a bored eight year old on a river ship is a genuinely difficult problem because there is nowhere for them to go.

What river cruising is superb at is children between roughly ten and seventeen who are interested in Europe. You wake up in a new town every day, you walk off the ship into the middle of it, and you are back for lunch. No airports, no transfers, no packing. For a family trying to see a lot of Europe without living in a car, nothing else comes close.

Avalon is one of the more relaxed lines about family bookings and does run some family-specific departures. Ask specifically, because they are not always prominent in the brochure.

What I would watch out for

Water levels. Every river line is exposed to high or low water, sailings get modified, and passengers get bussed between ships in bad years. This is not an Avalon problem, it is a river problem, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling.

Book the Panorama Suite. If you take one thing from this page, it is that the cheaper cabins on the lower deck have small fixed windows near the waterline and are a fundamentally different holiday. On this line in particular, the gap is wide.

And the ships are small, so the single sitting dining and the one lounge mean you see the same faces all week. Lovely if you like them.

Questions people actually ask