I have to agree with everyone. All differing opinions are correct because there is no right answer and here is my humble opinion as to why.

I am here living in Europe so I can "experience" Europe. I ACTUALLY live here. I also travel on weekends. I take land vacations. I cruise. Sometimes they are good. Sometimes they aren't.

Let me give you some examples.

You can't do Alsace-Lorraine by cruising or by train. You must have a car. I have tried to do this by train and only get frustrated. You must have a car. It is a wonderful and beautiful area that should never be missed and you need a car to find its nooks and crannies. (This is probably true for most areas of France).

You CAN do an OVERVIEW of lovely France cities by train ..Strasbourg, Nice, St. Remy, Aix, Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Arles, Dijon all within a week or two by Eurail at great hotels. You will get a flavor of french history, different food cuisines, charm, scenery and will have a wonderful vacation..but you will be in major cities and tourist centers. Not a drawback, but for the person who has a limited time to see a lot of one place. I highly recommend this. It is a classy way to travel and, while different from RSSC, just as enjoyable as an RSSC cruise. I will be glad to share wonderful hotels with anyone who wishes to know my finds..all 4 and 5 stars.

If you want to do Provence in depth including St. Tropez, you must do a combo of car and train (you can't find parking for a car in the beach and city areas).

If you want to get a feeling for Europe, Nice to Rome is a wonderful RSSC cruise with a pre an post cruise in both cities. RSSC Venice to Rome was also lovely as a cruise with pre and post land cruise. I believe Denise and Alan really had a great time experiencing Tuscany after Rome. We got a good flavor of Italy on that cruise. We do want to get back to see Tuscany.

I can't imagine doing Switzerland any other way other than by train or by foot or bike...forget a car. I only get frustrated in a car.

We will probably never have the time to spend in the Baltics on a land trip, so we decided to do a cruise. However, we have done a land trip to Stockholm and spent a full week there and then took a train to Oslo and then to Bergen. Bergen is a two day town at best..Norway is a town that it is best to cruise around. We tried to take a land trip there and found ourselves bored and constantly hoping on boats and moving on. I bet a cruise would be the better way to go?

We'll let you all know how our Athen's to Istanbul cruise works..where it's islands, I'm sure it'll just be great.

As Bonnie said..looking at Hotel per diem vs RSSC, dollar for dollar RSSC is a great deal and is very relaxing. Less depth, but it can fit the bill, if you beef it up with some pre and post cruise experiences.

I was asking one of my friends if she thought I should stay in Intercontinental or Ritz Carlton in Istanbul and she said she'd stay in neither. She only stays in very small, non-chain, deluxe hotels in an old part of the city and cost would never enter into her equation. To each his own.

Time, money, lifestyle...There is no one solution, only a myriad of options. That is why this board is so great. We can share the options with one another! (It's a rainy day in Basel today and I'm watching TV this afternoon!!)