Beginning Tuesday, we’re going to take you on a walk through winter wonderland on two river cruises along the Rhine River.

There’s no guarantee that snow will blanket the ground as we cruise between December 3 and December 17 (fingers are crossed), but the Christmas Markets will be in full swing. 

What are Christmas Markets? Check out our Christmas Markets River Cruise primer on River Cruise Advisor.

The first of the two Christmas Markets river cruises is on all-inclusive A-ROSA. The company is a relative newcomer to the North American market, offering all-inclusive cruises that we came to appreciate on a voyage along the Rhone and Saône rivers this past summer. See our story Assessing A-ROSA Stella: 9 Differentiating Factors That Would Make Me Cruise Again.

My cruise on A-ROSA Silva begins Tuesday. I’ll be posting full coverage on our new site, Live Voyage Reports, but if you’re itching to book your own river cruise after reading, be sure to come back to do so at Cruise Specialists.

On December 10, Aaron Saunders boards Viking Baldur, and he’ll also be filing a blow-by-blow account of his journey on Live Voyage Reports. Check out his itinerary here.

All combined, Aaron and I have cruised Viking River Cruises perhaps as many as half a dozen times, and we’re big fans of the product.

The combination of two Christmas Markets cruises should help to put you in the holiday spirit, even if there is no snow. Where I’m sure to see snow — and ice — however, is on my trip to Antarctica on Silver Explorer beginning December 12. That’s right. I step off A-ROSA Silva on December 10, then board a Lufthansa jet in Frankfurt to travel overnight to Buenos Aires, where I’ll overnight before flying to Ushuaia for a 10-day journey to the White Continent. I can’t wait.