Enjoy the World From the Water

on Jan 17, 2026

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By Victor Block

Every member of the Beatty family was enjoying their multigenerational vacation trip. Tom and Martha were playing pickleball, son Roger and his wife, Betty, were shrieking with delight as they drove electric cars along a winding two-level track, and grandchildren Paul and Phyllis were getting wet and wild at a water park.

It might surprise you to learn that this diverse choice of activities was available to passengers aboard an oceangoing cruise ship. The amenities and activities on giant vessels today include some you might expect to find only on land. Along with those mentioned above, they include bicycle tracks, miniature golf courses, volleyball, basketball and much more.

Other cruise passengers prefer a very different setting and selection of things to do and see. They opt for the leisurely pace of life aboard much smaller boats that traverse lakes, rivers and canals. Along the way, people can go ashore to explore cities and towns, historic sites and other landlocked attractions.

Among domestic journeys offered by American Cruise Lines, which I have found to live up to their promise and more, is retracing part of the route followed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Their trip was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to check out the newly acquired territory.

My itinerary included the Columbia and Snake rivers as they flow through Washington state and Oregon. Among intriguing stops was a replica of Fort Clatsop at the National Lewis and Clark Historic Park in Astoria, Oregon, where the explorers spent the winter of 1805-06.

Another American Cruise vessel took me along the Intracoastal Waterway from Amelia Island, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina. Stops included a 19th-century rice plantation in Georgia, graceful antebellum homes in South Carolina and Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

The scene was very different during a Grand Circle Cruise Line trip along the Danube River as it runs through several European countries. Centuries-old churches, castles and villages caught my eye and activated my camera. Cities there double as architectural showcases that span centuries. The towns serve as outdoor art galleries displaying museum-quality sculptures, frescoes and other manmade creations.

Architecture also rewards those aboard boats sailing along the Nile River in Egypt. The Overseas Adventure Travel craft in which I rode visited the world-famous Sphinx, offered views of some of the more than 100 pyramids and other archaeological gems scattered around the country, and provided glimpses of everyday life.

I spotted women grinding seeds into flour between stones, much as their ancestors did. I watched farmers toiling in their fields using tools that probably were passed down for generations. I exchanged hand waves and smiles with fishermen in tiny rowboats and helmsmen steering feluccas -- traditional wooden sailboats used to carry both people and goods.

"Bonjour" (good day) was the word with which I greeted people I met during a trip along canals that run through the Loire region of France. It's one of numerous such waterways that have crisscrossed that country since King Henry IV ordered constructions of the first one in the 17th century.

The barge on which I traveled was built in the 1930s to serve as a working boat and later was upgraded for French Country Waterways to offer luxurious accommodations and amenities that would be at home in a five-star hotel. We stopped each day to visit medieval villages, historic sites and -- this being France -- inviting vineyards.

The scenery was very different during my exploration of a section of Amazonia, the massive rainforest that extends into nine countries in South America. I was sailing with Latin American Escapes along the Rio Negro, a tributary of the 4,000-mile-long Amazon. Along the way I was intrigued by sightings of some of the 1,800 kinds of birds and estimated 15,000 species of other wildlife that make the region their home.

Equally fascinating was a different kind of life, encountered during visits to isolated villages that line the riverbanks. People reside in tiny wood huts, tend miniscule gardens, gather edible plants from the surrounding forest and fish in canoes made from tree trunks.

From roughly constructed cabins to lavish historic mansions, from priceless artistic treasures to captivating chapters of history, a diversity of discoveries awaits those plying rivers that flow through the United States and elsewhere. Cruises introduce passengers to the tales of those tributaries and the lore of the land through which they are passing.

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WHEN YOU GO

americancruiselines.com

gct.com

oattravel.com

fcwl.com

latinamericanescapes.com

Victor Block is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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