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Duisburg Harbor Cruise with Weisse Flotte

Florian Buechting Other Transportation No Comments

Duisburg Weisse Flotte Harbor Cruise

19 EUR
Duisburg Weisse Flotte Harbor Cruise
3.9

Rating

 3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Nice tour of the harbor
  • Fair price for admission and drinks
  • Good overview of the area

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Commentary in German only
  • Rather long commute from city center to harbor area

If you think about famous German harbor cities, you might initially think of places like Hamburg or Kiel. However, Duisburg in the Ruhrgebiet region is even holding a superlative – its habor is the world largest inland harbor of the world. There are several touristic offers around that in the city. I took one of them in late summer 2022, a harbor cruise with the Weisse Flotte (“White Fleet”), likely the most well-known cruise operators in town.

 

Duisburg Weisse Flotte – Location & Admission

There are two spots to board the ships of Weisse Flotte. The key one is the Schwanentor, which I already took. It also holds the ticket office. You can either walk from main station or take a short hop with public transport, e.g. to the underground station Steirische Gasse. There are also some parking garages in the area, the A40 motorway is not too far away as well. The alternative is the Schifferbörse, which is in contrast to the main spot already inside the harbor area. You have to have an online ticket for that.

At the time of writing, the adult ticket for the two hour cruise is 19 Euro. I used my Ruhr.TopCard for the trip – but they don’t accept this option any more.Depending on the season, there are a few cruises per day, so it makes sense to check out their schedule before visiting.

 

Duisburg Weisse Flotte – The Fleet

Weisse Flotte operates two vessels. The Stadt Duisburg and the Gerhard Mercator don’t differ that much in capacity (even though the Mercator feels larger), they both can hold some 250 passengers. However, the Stadt Duisburg, which I rode on, is having an open upper deck, while its partner ship has two covered decks and an open upper deck.The ships were towed next to each other when we boarded the cruise. Overall, I absolutely loved the seating and the comfort of the Stadt Duisburg.

 

Duisburg Weisse Flotte – The Harbor Cruise

The total cruise time (from the city center start) takes two hours. Apart from very few exceptions, you more or less go forth and back on the same route. Unavoidably, that means that the second part of the trip is a bit more boring than the first one – but especially for this review it also means that the location of your seat is not too critical. The sights on your right on the outbound will be on the left on the inbound and vice versa.

First, the vessel is heading out to the River Rhine. There are already some harbor facilities on this part of the cruise, even though you haven’t reached the core part of it. To me, heading out on the River Rhine was a touching part, I just love to be on that one, which is also crossing my home town Cologne. There are some sights along this part of the trip. After some three kilometers, the vessel heads East into the key area of Duisburg Harbor.

It is interesting to see the different sections of the harbor (dealing with different goods). Even though there were quite some Dutch people on board as well, the commentary has been in German only. The live host did a nice job explaining and the different facilities and telling some of the stories of and about Duisburg Harbor. You also pass some of the iconic spots of the harbor like the Oscar Huber museum ship, which is driven by the Duisburg-based Museum of German Domestic Shipping (Museum der Deutschen Binnenschifffahrt). Returning back to the original departure pier takes some 35 minutes – I however enjoyed watching the scenes along the river and exploring the ship.

 

 

Duisburg Weisse Flotte – Service

The crew was friendly. The ship also offers toilets. There is a bar, but they also served you at the seat. There is a nice selection of drinks onboard and they also have basic snacks. Overall, I was happy about the comparably fair prices. Not too rarely, drinks and snacks on these kind of trips lean towards a rip-off.

 

Duisburg Weisse Flotte – My View

Weisse Flotte is doing a good job guiding you through the iconic harbor. The two hour trip is quite nice – however, due to the commuting from the city center to the in-fact main harbor area, you have some one hour there. The vessel was fit for purpose and the prices for tickets as well as for catering are fine. However, I wondered that they did not at least have commentary in English as well.

 

Ruhrgebiet Travel Postings

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