Sail Into The Festive Season

Escorted tours specialist Titan Travel has an extensive programme of worldwide holidays, including cruises through the waterways of Europe, Alaska, Egypt, China and Scandinavia. In the weeks leading up to Christmas they offer a selection of festive European cruise itineraries to the famous Christmas markets along the Rhine and the Danube and still have space available for passengers to join Titan MD David Wild on an exclusive Rhine Cruise departing on December 14.

The no-fly five-day cruise conveniently departs from Dover and travels by luxury coach to Cologne where the group will board the well-appointed 4-star Regina Rheni II with its elegant and cosy cabins. Highlights of the cruise include a guided tour of Cologne with its majestic cathedral, a masterpiece of the High Gothic period, and a walking tour through the ancient cobbled streets of Koblenz, located on the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. Christmas is a magical time to explore both cities with their festively decorated traditional wooden Christmas market stalls selling handmade gifts and warming drinks.

The final part of the journey cruises a 40-mile section of the upper middle Rhine through some of its most beautiful scenery with numerous castles strung out along the river valley and the chance to see the famous Lorelei Rock, with a final stop at the pretty Rhine valley town of Rudesheim. The five-day cruise costs from £825 per person and includes four nights full board accommodation in a mid-range cabin, complimentary table wine, beer and soft drinks served with lunch and dinner, return coach travel from Dover to Cologne, Eurotunnel crossing, excursions with English-speaking guides and the VIP Home Departure Service.

For more info, visit www.titantravel.co.uk or, for more European river-cruises, see the specialist cruise agents of The Cruise Line Ltd.

Special offers for River Cruises

By guest blogger Steve Newman

Titan HiTours Elegant River Cruises has released a series of special offers across its award-winning river cruises for bookings made before January 31.

Examples include savings of up to £3,200 per couple on the 15-day ‘Imperial Capitals of Europe’ itinerary departing April 16, which now costs from £2,499 per person if booked by Jan 31.

Taking passengers on a European odyssey through seven countries from Istanbul to Vienna, the journey starts with three days in Istanbul before flying to Bucharest to join the River Princess at Giurgiu (Romania) for the beginning of its journey along the Danube. Highlights will include cruising through the Iron Gates, an 80-mile long stretch of scenic gorges, as well as city tours of Belgrade, Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna (above); wine tasting in the Villany Hills and a home-hosted lunch in the Croatian town of Osijek.

Savings of up to £2,000 per couple are also available on the 'Treasures of Prague - Rhine and Main' tour departing on April 17 and offers amazing value from £1,659 per person.

For further information, click on to Titan Hi Tours.

New 2011 Titan Brochure

By guest blogger Steve Newman

Titan HiTours has unveiled its brand new Cruise & Tour brochure for 2011. The programme encompasses an extensive selection of ocean cruises combined with imaginative, land-based touring packages that take in every possible point of the compass from Alaska to Antarctica. With highlights ranging from the splendour of a stylish cruise around the British Isles on the new Queen Elizabeth to a passage through the Panama Canal - as well as a wide choice of no-fly cruises with direct departures from UK seaports - the Cruise & Tour programme presents an unrivalled choice of exciting holidays afloat combined with the quality, high standards and value for money for which Titan HiTours is renowned.

The popular VIP Home Departure Service, which collects customers from - and returns them to - their own front door has now been extended to cover mainland Scotland, The Channel Islands and Northern Ireland and allows for every client to be picked up from their home address, transferred to their departure point and returned to their own front door at the end of their holiday at no extra cost. That means those in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands are entitled to a home pick-up and door-to-door transfer to their nearest regional airport, plus free domestic flights to the London airports to connect with any international departure (or free onward connections to the major seaports for clients taking an ex-UK cruise).

Another new addition with plenty of possible departure dates (11 in total) is the 8-day Dubrovnik & the Dalmatian Islands itinerary, which incorporates a brief stay in this fabled city (known romantically as the Pearl of the Adriatic) with a voyage along the stunningly beautiful Dalmatian coastline. The holiday costs from £995 per person, to include flights, transfers, half-board accommodation, sightseeing tours as detailed in the itinerary, port taxes and the VIP Home Departure Service.

Those looking to avoid the cost and hassle of jetting away might prefer the brochure's wide selection of no-fly cruises, which involve direct departures from the UK's major seaports. There are a total of five new no-fly cruise itineraries in the brochure, of which the closest to home is the 11-day Queen Elizabeth's maiden Around the British Isles cruise, which has to be booked by 30 November 2010 for a departure from Southampton on 2 September 2011.

For details or to book, visit the website http://www.titanhitours.co.uk/