June 22, 2026
TUI River Cruises launches biggest winter season ever with capacity on the Rhine, Douro and solo cruiser sailings
TUI River Cruises
TUI River Cruises has launched its winter 2027 programme, featuring TUI Elara’s first winter season and bringing the total to three ships on the Rhine including new Belgian ports. TUI Luzia will offer Douro sailings, plus solo sailings on TUI Elara and TUI Aria on the Rhine marking the line’s biggest winter launch to date. The programme goes on sale from 2 July 2026, with 37 sailings with three, four, five and seven night sailings across the fleet from October 2027 to April 2028.
For TUI Elara the river cruise line’s most intimate ship will be sailing the Rhine offering customers a glimpse of different Belgian Christmas markets on the ‘An Enchanting Christmas Journey’ itinerary featuring new ports of Maastricht, Liege and Roermond, where the ship will dock on Christmas Day for winter 2027.
TUI Luzia, the first purpose-built ship for the river cruise line, will sail its first winter season on the river Douro with four Portuguese sailings of its ‘Douro Discovery’ itinerary. Sailing from Porto to Entre os Rios; Peso de Regua; Vega de Terron; Barca d’Alva; back to Peso de Regua and finishing in Porto from 5 November 2027. These sailings will be supported by third party airline routes from Stansted Airport to Porto and London Gatwick to Porto for winter 2027.
TUI Maya and TUI Isla will both be sailing on the Danube including New Year’s sailings including ‘New Year on the Eastern Danube’ on TUI Maya sailing on the 30 December 2027 with the ship docked in Budapest for New Year’s Eve.
The river cruise line is continuing to expand its regional flight programme with the addition of a third TUI Airways departure from Birmingham to Dusseldorf, joining existing flights from London Gatwick and Manchester for TUI Skyla, TUI Aria and TUI Elara. These flights will support itineraries such as Mistletoe & Rhine on TUI Aria and ’A Christmastime on the Rhine’ on TUI Skyla.
Finally, TUI River Cruises will have two solo sailings on the Rhine with TUI Elara sailing the south of the river for a seven night cruise ‘Rhine Chateaux & Gateaux’ visiting Basel, Mannheim and Koblenz from 31 October 2027 and TUI Aria sailing the north of the river sailing a four night cruise, ‘Northern Rhine Highlights’ visiting Amsterdam, Cologne and Mainz from 17 November 2027.
Katy Berzins, Head of River Cruises at TUI River Cruises said: “Winter 2027 marks an exciting step forward for TUI River Cruises as we expand both our fleet and our offering.
With the addition of TUI Elara for her first winter season, new Rhine itineraries, winter Douro itineraries and calls to new Belgian ports, we’re giving customers more choice and flexibility than ever before from festive Christmas market sailings to solo cruises and a wider range of regional flight options."
Prices start from £869 per person for the ‘A Taste of Christmastime on the Rhine’ winter 2027 itineraries which are available to book from 2 July 2026.
TUI River Cruises is a part of TUI Group. There are currently four adult only ships in the TUI River Cruises European fleet: TUI Isla, TUI Skyla, TUI Maya and TUI Aria and TUI River Cruises Egyptian fleet: TUI Al Horeya and TUI Bahareya. There will be one new ship to sail the European Waterways, TUI Elara, which will operate in March 2027. The first-new build ship, TUI Luzia will be sailing exclusively on the River Douro in Summer 2027. The river cruise line is expanding its fleet with the Next Generation of two new build river cruise ships to sail on the European Waterways in 2028.