CASTLES and forests, oxen and canoes, limestone cliffs and quaint villages; the landscape visible from your cabin or state room window changes constantly as you sail along. And when the ship drops anchor, it is often only a short walk into a city centre or up to a temple or native settlement.

River cruising may lack the glamour of ocean voyages - few vessels resemble floating resorts - but it is designed to show you many fascinating and contrasting sights in a short time, occasionally three in a single day.

Tell friends you are going on a river cruise and they are likely to ask if you will be sailing down the Rhine, the Danube or the Nile. But the choice is much greater than that and extends to the Yangtze in the east and the Amazon in the west.

The Nile is the river cruised most frequently by the British, with dozens of tour operators offering flight-inclusive packages aboard ships ranging in size from 30 cabins to 300. Like all river cruises, they offer great variety: from the temples of Luxor and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings to the colonial hotels, botanical gardens and bustling markets of Aswan.

On the river and its banks between the two cities, something is always happening: oxen ploughing, feluccas ferrying goods from one village to another and the temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo to visit.

Cruising through Europe is gaining in popularity, with an ever-increasing fleet of vessels setting out from Amsterdam in the spring and ending up in Istanbul in the autumn. For splendid scenery, dotted with castles and medieval towns and cities, the Rhine is the top choice.

For Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, fascinating cities oozing history, the Danube is the favourite. But do not ignore the lesser-known rivers. Sail down the Main in Germany, past sloping hills covered in vineyards, to Würzburg, hub of the wine trade. Or head up the Guadalquivir in Andalusia to visit the incomparable Alcázar in Seville and Grand Mosque in Cordoba.

From Kiev, a cruise takes you down the Dnieper past rolling hills and forest groves to the historic Black Sea ports of Odessa and Yalta.

Whichever you choose, the experience of docking in a city while having breakfast and then taking a leisurely stroll to see the sights is a delight. No airport delays and early morning flights to remove the gloss.

The season in Europe used to be limited to March until October, with Linz in Austria becoming the winter parking place for dozens of vessels. But the lure of Christmas markets and festivities is changing all that. VFB Holidays offers four-day cruises on the Rhine in November and December, with visits to the markets in Boppard, Koblenz and Cologne in between sailing through dramatic gorges and past fairytale castles.

Celebrating Christmas Day in Vienna and New Year’s Eve in Würzburg - or New Year in Vienna followed by two days in Budapest - are among the options with Amadeus Waterways.

The executives of five-star ocean cruise lines sneer at the river vessels, with their buffet meals and limited facilities, as “sophisticated, floating motor coaches”. But this is an unfair generalisation, especially if you board Peter Deilmann’s 396ft-long MV Mozart, with its polished rosewood interior, large state rooms, spa, indoor pool and endless meals.

Most ships sailing on far-flung rivers are also impressive, but the excursions they offer will make you want to leap ashore at every opportunity. Take a 17-day trip in China with Viking River Cruises and, after visiting Beijing and the terracotta warriors at Xian, you will sail down the Yangtze from Chongqing to Nanjing.

Among the sights you will see are Shibaozhai temple, the 12-storey red pavilion built during the Qing Dynasty, the remote Buddhist complex on Mount Jiu Hua, the limestone cliffs of the Three Gorges, the hanging coffins of the Ba people in the Lesser Gorges and Yue Yang Tower and its pavilions as you cross Dongting Lake, China’s second largest freshwater lake.

On the other side of the world, you can sail up the Amazon on a choice of cruises. The most exploratory are aboard expedition vessels on round trips from Iquitos, Peru, to Manaus, Brazil (or vice versa) and offer the opportunity to paddle up tributaries in canoes or inflatables, visit native villages and spot exotic wildlife.

Luxury liners cruise the Amazon as part of longer Caribbean and South American itineraries and typically begin or end in Manaus. They are likely to visit Santarem to view the “wedding of the waters”, where the Tapajos and Amazon rivers meet, but do not mix for miles. Typical shore excursions include visits to Boca da Valeria, where you can observe Amazon Indians living as they did hundreds of years ago, or to Parintins, a small village on Tupinambarana Island known for the Boi-Bumba festival, a ritual that has been held for more than 80 years.

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