Your Next Fine-Dining Evening Awaits on the Riverbank

What if your next fine-dining experience took place not in a restaurant, but aboard a floating Swiss grand hotel, somewhere between the Rhine and the Danube, between Lyon and Budapest? What if your sommelier had still been wandering the vineyards of the Wachau that very morning, before pouring you the perfect Grüner Veltliner that evening?

That’s exactly what happens on board the Excellence fleet. Ten ships. Over 150 routes across Europe. And a concept that feels as though someone combined the finest pages of a boutique hotel with an indulgent journey through Europe’s culinary landscape.

River cruising today means rediscovering Europe. We show you how modern, stylish and surprisingly exciting it can be with Excellence Cruises.

CULINARY

When the Head Chef Sets the Route

The Excellence Gourmet Festival ’26

On board Excellence, nobody cooks for 2,000 guests. They cook for connoisseurs. And you can tell.

Every autumn, Excellence becomes a stage for the great names of haute cuisine. Swiss top chefs such as Peter Knogl and international stars such as Tim Raue cook on board, turning the journey into a culinary experience with a very special setting.

Accompanied by hosts and sommeliers, these evenings go far beyond a classic dinner. Guests get close to the chefs, learn more about their philosophy, and enjoy the perfect wine pairing with every course.

Beyond the menu, too, the atmosphere stays stylish and lively. In the Sky Lounge, good music sets the tone for the evening’s close, before things move on to the bar or the dancefloor.

Robert Speth accompanies a spring cruise on the Rhine and Main, Christian Kuchler and Stefan Heilemann host an exclusive four-hands dinner with caviar and champagne in April, and in May, Alsace becomes the stage for a journey built entirely around wine and dine.

What makes it special: you don’t simply eat well. You eat where the ingredients come from. A morning market visit in Lyon, an evening menu that tells exactly that story. That’s what makes a meal unforgettable.

2-Day Fine-Dining Trips Aboard the

Excellence Luxury Liners from CHF 375

Discover the Gourmet Festival

For gourmets

An Alsace Trip for the Discerning Palate.

Eight luxurious courses featuring Balik salmon and Prunier caviar, paired with exquisite champagnes and fine wines. Christian Kuchler and Stefan Heilemann turn it into a modern, creative haute cuisine that delights with first-class ingredients and great finesse.

Join us for 2 days on board

WINE

Moselle Loop, Wachau, Beaujolais: Europe’s Wine Regions Drift Past

There’s hardly a more stylish way to experience Europe’s wine landscapes than from the river. The Moselle winds through steep slate terraces, the Rhône carries you straight into Burgundy and Provence, and on the Danube, the Wachau lies open like a wine village, sun-warmed, steeped in history, and brimming with pleasure.

Original photo © NineteenGolf.Guide

In May 2026, Anna-Barbara von der Crone and Paolo Visini are on board, along with Martin Donatsch and the Domaine Rouvinez. Tastings, workshops and dinners make this journey a thoroughly enjoyable approach to what good wine can really tell you.

In August, the route heads to the Moselle, accompanied by Geny Hess, president of the GaultMillau wine jury. The whole thing feels less like a specialist seminar than a long, relaxed evening with people who just happen to know an enormous amount about wine. Perfect for anyone who wants not just to drink wine, but to understand and experience it too.

Discover more about kitchen & cellar

ART & CULTURE & MUSIC

Mozart in the Lock. Tosca in the Quarry. Literature in the Coffee House.

Watch the video on YouTube

In 2026, Excellence celebrates its 20th anniversary with a cultural programme that reads more like a festival line-up than a river-cruise timetable. Burkhard von Puttkamer stages “The Marriage of Figaro” across three Danube locks. Puccini’s “Tosca” is performed under the open sky at the St. Margarethen quarry. Add to that Rolando Villazón in Vienna and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Baden-Baden.

Yet it’s the quieter moments in between that are almost more beautiful still. A walk through Vienna’s coffee houses in the footsteps of Kafka, Schnitzler and Zweig. The Ervin Szabó Library in Budapest. And Petra Hartlieb, who reads on board and later leads guests through literary corners of Vienna, all the way to her own bookshop in the 18th district.

Europe’s cultural landscape, experienced not as a tourist, but as a guest.

Discover the lock concerts