Watertravel and Waterside Destinations

Amba Vilas, Palace of Mysore, is trimmed with thousands of lightbulbs.

Migratory Anser albifrons geese
fly at dawn over windmill near Kekerdom, The Netherlands.

Incense burns in front of the Huating Temple, in the Western Hills near Kunming, China.

Young horses trot in the early
morning in Germany's Niederrhein
region near the Dutch border.

A pagoda sits atop a rock formation
with banana leaves in foreground, Guangxi Zhuang, China.

Central France

Watertravel and Waterside Destinations™ — a Web site for budget boat trips, beaches, ports, islands, wetlands, rivers and any place worth visiting by water.

Touring Central France’s Upper Loire Valley
The Loire — called “the last wild river in France” — wends its way among the last country estates of French kings. In every direction there are plentiful opportunities to cruise Central France’s canals and rivers.

Croatia's Dalmatian Coast and Islands
Once a colony of Italy and later incorporated into the former Yugoslavia, the Dalmatian coast of now-independent Croatia is a sunny mix intensely blue sky and water, ancient stone architecture and a delightfully laid-back atmosphere.

Germany’s North Sea Island of Heligoland
At various times in history, Heligoland was a possession of Britain and Denmark respectively. Today this unusual island is part of Germany. Not unlike the Baltic island of Ruegen, Heligoland has an especially sunny climate in comparison to the mainland.

Cruising Germany’s Middle Rhine Wine Country
Known for its steeply terraced vineyards and one castle after the other, the gorgeous Rhine Gorge offers many opportunities for low-cost river cruising, making it a perfect destination for people who love to travel by water but don't want to spend a fortune.

The Baltic Island of Ruegen
Boasting more days of sunshine than anywhere else in Germany — admittedly not the toughest competition — it also has historical, geological, architectural and other features which make it a popular destination for Germans and other Europeans.

Grand Marais & the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
Blessed with an excellent natural harbor and scenic location on the shore of Lake Superior, Grand Marais is a popular starting and outfitting point for canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

The Normandy Coast and D-Day Beaches Today
The Normandy Coast has long been a favorite travel destination of the British. We visit the famous D-Day beaches of World War II as they are today: splendid seaside towns and villages with a wide selection of seafront hotels amid ancient stone architecture.

By the Banks of the Lower Rhine
This is where Europe’s longest river fans out into a broad delta of sloughs and backwaters at or near sea level. Some cities, such as Xanten and Nijmegen, date back two millenia to the Roman colonial period. Others, such as Kleve and Kranenburg, are “only” in the 800-year-old range.

Kerala — India’s “Land of Green Magic”
In this section we travel by kettuvallam and motor launch, visit backwater villages, have a fish dinner cooked over an open fire, witness a village procession, take a look at coir and copra processing as well as traditional Chinese dipnet fishing, watch dance performances, visit a street market, take a look at Keralan society, stroll around Kochi (formerly known as Cochin), and see other sights of the fabled Malabar Coast. Finally, we relax at Kovalam Beach.

China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
For centuries the subject of many Chinese paintings, its steep karst mounds rise from the valley floor and the famous Li River. We visit the Yao and Zhuang minority nationalities to enjoy their lion dances on the terrace of a hillside home. We also travel on the Zuo River to Mount Huashan, near the border with Vietnam, where Zhuang rock paintings are found.

Langeoog in the East Friesland Islands
Along the coast of the North Sea, the German islands of East Friesland are separated from the mainland by an expanse of — depending on the tide — shallow sea or mudflats. Channels are dredged from the mainland and among the islands to allow the passage of ferries and other ships. We took one such ferry to the East Frisian island of Langeoog.