River,Cruise,Vacations,The,Yea travel,insurance River Cruise Vacations: The Year's Must-Try Travel Experienc

Torres del Paine is among the biggest of Chile’s national parks, occupying almost 600,000 acres (242,000 ha) of land in the south on the border with Argentina. It is also among the most important, receiving a significant proportion of domes Like any American, traveling occasionally is just what I love doing and I bet you share the same stuff with me. But traveling does not mean that you would be safe. Escaping from our job and other stressful activities is just something that w

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}The past year has seen the unveiling of cruise shipsrecord-setting in size, ambition and extravagance, but one of the most populartrends in cruise vacations forgoes big ships, island-hopping and in some cases,even the ocean altogether. This new trend is of course, river- and small-ship cruising,where passengers travel between destinations on smaller vessels that offer amore intimate setting, and enjoy itineraries that navigate through the inlandwaterways of destinations such as Eastern Europe, Egypt and China. “Since 2004, international river cruise bookings have grownby more than 200 percent,” Patrick Clark, managing director of river- andsmall-ship cruise line Avalon Waterways, said in a recent press release. AvalonWaterways is the industry leader in this brand of vacation, having earnednumerous awards from industry authorities including Frommer's, Travel Weekly,Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler. Avalon Waterways ispart of the Globus Family of Brands. Cruise lines like Avalon Waterways have long-enjoyed successand popularity among a niche market of travelers. But like the occasionalforeign film that finds box-office success with mainstream audiences, in 2010the popularity of river cruising is on the rise, gaining the attention from anincreased number of travelers as a must-try travel experience. What's the reason for all this newfound attention towardsriver cruising? A lot of it seems to stem from the overall popularity of cruisevacations. More than 176 million North Americans have taken a cruise since1980, and 50 million plan on taking a cruise sometime within the next threeyears, according to statistics from Cruise Lines International Association,Inc. (CLIA).  The majority of these travelers took what is sometimesreferred to as a "deep water" cruise -- a big-ship cruise vacationthat sails on ocean waters and visits ports-of-call on Caribbean islands, theMexican Riviera and the Alaskan coastline, as well as Canada and New England.  At first glance, these two styles of cruises -- big ship andsmall ship -- seem like they would appeal to vastly different groups oftravelers. After all, a vacation that involves a week's worth of beaches,sunbathing, snorkeling and shopping for souvenirs on several Caribbean islandsseems a far cry from a week-long voyage through France along the Rhine River,departing from Paris with excursions to Claude Monet's gardens and the beachesat Normandy. But the increasing popularity of small ship and rivercruising seems to suggest a Venn Diagram -- big ship cruises on Side A, smallship cruises on Side B, and the intersection between growing larger as Side Aand Side B converge onto an overlapping area populated by cruisers looking to broadentheir travels by venturing to new countries, exploring new cultures and seekingnew experiences all while enjoying a style of vacation that they know and love. Though it might seem like comparing apples to oranges, it iseasy to see the appeal of both styles of cruises, and why they overlap. Bothoffer more convenience than over-land travel, and let you explore and samplemultiple destinations in a single trip while only having to unpack once. Cruiselines specializing in both have some of the highest customer feedback ratingsin recorded history. Both offer great food and great entertainment. Both offerthe chance to mix relaxation with insight into a destination's past (let's notforget that in addition to beaches, the Caribbean is rife with history andecological beauty).