The Changing Map

Kaub, Germany. Photographer: Katja Ano | Unsplash.

Europe’s changing rivers

By Geoffrey Williams and Josh Chandler

Briefly …

Low water levels on parts of the Rhine and Danube have disrupted European river travel this year. For solo travellers planning journeys along Europe’s great rivers, the conditions of 2026 show what can happen when those journeys can no longer follow the rivers entirely.

For a few weeks in August, one of Europe’s great transport arteries was running out of room. Water levels on the Rhine fell to record lows at several measuring stations in Germany. At Kaub, one of the river’s critical navigation points, the navigable water gauge dropped below 10 centimetres – lower than the previous record of 25 centimetres in 2018.

Then it rained, and by the end of August the gauge at Kaub had risen to around 72 centimetres. That relatively rapid change is worth remembering; rivers rise and fall with rainfall, snowmelt, season and geography, sometimes changing significantly within days. For river cruising, that variability has always been part of the journey. “The reality is that rivers are natural waterways, and water levels can change – up and down,” Angela Smith, Head of Marketing Australia and New Zealand for AmaWaterways, tells The Solo Traveller. “That’s always been part of river cruising.”

The conditions experienced in 2026 are nevertheless difficult to dismiss as another routine summer.

A familiar problem returns

Low water has repeatedly affected navigation on the Rhine, with significant periods recorded in 2015, 2018 and 2022. At Kaub, low-water conditions persisted for 107 days in 2018 and 41 days in 2022, compared with none in 2024. That variability complicates the picture, but a 2026 WDR analysis of daily measurements supplied by Germany’s Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration found a marked shift in the recent record. Between the 1980s and the middle of the 2010s, the Rhine averaged a little more than 20 low-water days each year. From 2016 to 2025, the average was almost twice as high. Even this finding requires historical perspective. WDR found similarly high numbers of low-water days during the 1960s. The Rhine is not behaving in a way without precedent, nor does a decade of more frequent low water establish what will happen during the next one.

The recent record remains notable: six of the ten most extreme low-water years across Germany’s major rivers have occurred since 2015. Conditions vary considerably between waterways, with the Rhine partly buffered by water flowing from the Alps, but the past decade has again brought low water prominently into the operation of one of Europe’s busiest waterways.

“Six of the ten most extreme low-water years across Germany’s major rivers have occurred since 2015.”

The disruption in 2026 has not stopped at the Rhine, with low water on the Danube also affecting commercial and passenger traffic. During the European summer, river cruise operators altered embarkation points, changed ports and substituted road transfers where sections of the river became difficult or impossible for particular vessels to navigate.

As September began, A-ROSA was advising that some Danube itineraries could operate from Passau only as far as Vienna, with transfers being provided for Bratislava and Budapest. Other operators have used ship swaps, altered sailing schedules and different embarkation arrangements to keep itineraries operating.

Keeping the journey moving

Low water does not necessarily mean the end of a river cruise. Contingency arrangements allow operators to keep passengers moving and preserve much of an itinerary even when a particular stretch of river becomes difficult to navigate. Ships can sail at different times, ports can be visited in another order, and embarkation points can change. Large fleets provide another option; passengers can transfer between vessels positioned on opposite sides of an unnavigable stretch.

Angela says AmaWaterways has not cancelled a European cruise because of low water this season despite what she describes as challenging conditions. “There might be times when we need to adjust a sailing time, swap the order of a couple of ports or make another change behind the scenes to keep the journey moving,” she says. “Our teams know these rivers, they’re constantly monitoring conditions and they’re very good at adapting when they need to.”

That ability to adapt is significant. Those measures can keep a holiday operating around the conditions encountered along the river. But preserving an itinerary is not necessarily the same thing as preserving the journey: the landscape unfolding from the ship, the hours spent moving along the water and arrival into towns and cities from the river are fundamental characteristics of this particular form of travel.

“But preserving an itinerary is not necessarily the same thing as preserving the journey …”

A relatively minor timetable change may make little difference. A ship swap can allow passengers to continue travelling by river after a short transfer around an unnavigable section. But where longer stretches are replaced by coaches, land-based transfers or hotel stays, the destinations may remain while the way travellers move between them changes substantially.

The Danube River on 24 August 2026, Novi Sad, the second-largest city in Serbia Photograph

The Danube River on 24 August 2026 at Novi Sad, the second-largest city in Serbia. Photographer: Jana Milin | iStock.

The same places, a different journey

That distinction was particularly visible on the Danube this year. If a vessel could travel only as far as Vienna but passengers could still reach Bratislava and Budapest by road, those cities did not disappear from the itinerary. What did disappear, for that section of the trip, was the river journey between them.

For travellers, the response from their operator is important. “What guests should expect is good communication, sensible solutions and an experienced team doing everything they can to protect their holiday,” Angela says. River cruise companies cannot control rainfall or water depth. They can monitor conditions, design ships and itineraries around known navigational constraints and provide alternatives when the river intervenes. While workarounds used across Europe this summer show how capable the industry has become at doing exactly that, they also reveal the limits of adaptation.

The experience of 2026 does not tell us what the Rhine or Danube will look like next summer, let alone decades from now. But the recent record on the Rhine deserves attention: low-water days have become markedly more frequent over the past decade, again testing an industry built around waterways whose conditions it cannot control.

“… low-water days have become markedly more frequent over the past decade …”

Operators can reposition ships, substitute transport, change embarkation points and preserve destinations. What they cannot always preserve is the river journey itself.

Sources

Reuters. (31 August 2026). Rhine water rises after rain, shipping problems not yet over.

WDR. (19 August 2026). Diese Zahlen zeigen, wie der Rhein langsam Wasser verliert (These figures show how the Rhine is slowly losing water).

Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine. (2025). Annual Report 2025 – Inland Navigation in Europe Market Observation.

A-ROSA. (1 September 2026). Current travel information.