Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin AmaPrima AmaWaterways AmaWaterways is a family-owned luxury river cruise line boasting 29 modern, elegant ships sailing across the rivers of Europe , Asia , and Africa , from the Rhine to the Mekong, famed for its well-appointed ships boasting whirlpools, swim-up bars, indulgent spas, and 360-degree panoramic sundecks, as well as its gourmet fine dining as the first river cruise line inducted into La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs , the oldest culinary society in the world. I sat down with its co-founder and president, Rudi Schreiner , to look back at his early life, how he came to co-found AmaWaterways , and his thoughts on the future of river cruising. Rudi Schreiner AmaWaterways Having grown up in Vienna at the heart of the Danube , the homeland of river cruising, I wonder if that inspired him to work in the travel industry? “It wasn’t so much living in Vienna ; it was my first major trip driving all the way from Vienna to Spain and Portugal when both countries were still under dictatorship,” Rudi says.
In 1973, Rudi and his friends set off on an ‘ Austrian seeking Nepal expedition’ and received a scholarship from Austria’s Ministry of Education to research with the Limbus in Eastern Nepal . MORE FOR YOU Russian Troops Captured One Of Ukraine’s Dutch Armored Vehicles, Rode It Back Into Battle—And Promptly Got Killed Wear Solar Eclipse Glasses To Look At Aurora-Causing Sunspots This Weekend, Experts Say: Here’s What To Know Apple iPhone 16 Release Date: New Report Hones In On Precise Date They traveled through Lebanon down into Syria , into Jordan , across to Iraq , Iran , and Afghanistan –all the way up to the big Buddhas and spent four months with the Limbus in the highlands of Nepal in front of the Kanchenjunga , the third highest mountain in the world. Sunrise at Mount Kanchenjugha.
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render(randId); }); })(); “I have to say, still today, that was one of my most fascinating experiences,” Rudi says, gleaming. When they returned to Vienna , Rudi and his friends sent around 100 letters to newspapers across Austria . They got a contract with the largest Austrian newspaper, the Kronen Zeitung , for 20 weeks, every Sunday, to write two pages about the expedition.
“It was a huge story, and one week, the cover of the Kronen Zeitung was actually the three of us sitting on top of our Volkswagen van in the Himalayas ,” Rudi adds, with a proud twinkle in his eyes. The Himalayas. getty After the success of the story, the trio plotted their next adventure.
They embarked on a road trip along the Pan-American Highway from Canada to Tierra del Fuego . However, plans drastically adapted, and the story investigated the Peruvian Amazon instead. With a car brought from Belgium to New York , they spent fourteen months visiting every country in Central America , driving from New York to Vancouver and south down to Lima –spending seven months in Peru .
Machu Picchu in Peru. getty “In every country in Central America , we sent out a little article to somebody we had stationed in Austria to send it forward to the newspapers. At that time, there was not much telephone or anything.
Our mail always came to some American Express office somewhere along the road”, Rudi chuckles. Next, Rudi spent six weeks building a raft to float along the Upper Amazon , close to the Ecuadorian border, before spending four months traveling from settlement to settlement, collecting pottery, canoes, and drums, and selling them to Vienna museums. Drone Footage getty Rudi later studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna while also registering for anthropology–researching the Amazon primitive architecture and how societal changes affect the structure of settlements.
He spent 13 years in college, concluding with an MBA in New Orleans before returning to Amazon to buy artifacts and sell them to museums. “That was really the end of this adventure–because it was no longer an adventure, it had become business trips,” says Rudi . Pubs and bars with neon lights in the French Quarter, New Orleans USA getty In the summers, Rudi would work as a tour guide for American college students, with trips as long as eight weeks through Europe, before co-founding his own tour company, Student Travel International .
“My partners and I each had one-third of the company, but sometimes it meant they made decisions that I didn’t like that much, so I decided to go my own way,” says Rudi. This resulted in the formation of Amadeus International Tours , offering student tours to Europe , but when the Gulf War came, parents were too scared to send their kids to Europe . Aerial view of Berlin skyline.
getty Later, in 1992, fate brought a career-changing moment for Rudi when the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal opened up for the first time, allowing river cruise ships to visit 15 countries from Amsterdam to Ukraine . So Rudi trialed operating river cruises while running expedition cruises on Russian icebreakers sailing to the North Pole . He then joined Uniworld as Vice President of Product Development before being headhunted by Viking in 2000, where he met his future AmaWaterways co-founder and wife, Kristin Karst .
Together, Rudi , Kristin , and Jimmy Murphy founded AmaWaterways. AmaViola AmaWaterways After building their first ship in 2006, AmaDagio , AmaWaterways has grown to a fleet of 29 ships across Europe , Asia , and Africa , with plans for further ships on the Douro , the Mekong , and two new ships in Columbia sailing along the Magdalena River in 2025. Today, Rudi spends most of his time in the United States , living on an island surrounded by an artificial lake and soaring birds.
He travels for around four months each year across 20 different countries. “ Kristin and I eat, sleep, and breathe river cruises–and we’re always looking at what can be improved, such as Kristin’s idea to have fitness trainers on every ship. So every single ship now in Europe has a fitness trainer onboard with daily schedules–while AmaMagna , our largest ship, has a full-size pickleball court,” says Rudi .
AmaWaterways co-founder Kristin Karst playing pickleball on AmaMagna. AmaWaterways As Rudi looks ahead, he predicts larger staterooms for AmaWaterways , with its Owner’s Suite onboard AmaMagna stretching across 710 square feet at a price tag of $28,000 per week–as well as more luxury travel companies beyond Ritz-Carlton , Four Seasons and Virgin entering the cruise sector. “Our focus is being the best at what we do, from our state-of-the-art ships to our gourmet cuisine and fine wines–looking at the needs of the individual traveler, not a bus tour of 50,” Rudi says with a cheeky grin.
AmaMagna AmaWaterways “River cruising has become very active. On a regular week, our cruises have three to four guided bicycle tours. When I started in river cruising, most passengers were aged 70 plus.
But today, we’re seeing more younger active families onboard, so we’ve adapted to this, such as partnering with Adventures by Disney ,” adds Rudi . “The beauty of river cruising as a traveler is that it gives you double the leisure time of traveling by motor coach, train, or car–and you never have to worry about rush hour traffic. You sip a beautiful glass of wine in the bar, cruise into Amsterdam , stroll off the ship right into the city center, and hop back onboard to sleep–no queues and no daily unpacking,” concludes Rudi .
For more information, visit amawaterways.com ..
