Friends of Dave Tours
I am an adventurous and well travelled American who has lived in Germany for over 12 years. I started my career in travel working for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and then spent many years as a cruise agent and ultimately as a sales manager within the Carnival family of cruise lines. I met my partner in the Caribbean and moved to Germany shortly afterwards. Life has been a wild ride with so many fun twists and turns that sometimes I have to pinch myself to prove that it's real. We have 2 dwarf dachshunds named Clio and Chlóe that have us trained perfectly to their desires.Friends of Dave Tours
Now I run a tour company called Friends of Dave Tours for cruise ship passengers who want exciting, interesting day tours while visiting the port city of Warnemünde, Germany. My website FriendsofDaveTours.com is the place to see what I have to offer. I am the top rated tour guide for my area at TripAdvisor.com with 100% 5-star ratings!
I also sponsor 2 fantastic travel adventures per year where I organize everything from the itinerary, tours, and special extras that help create memories to last a life time. We don't do anything small at Friends of Dave Tours and my attention to detail and flair for entertaining make every trip a lifetime experience.
Coming Up: Danube Discovery Fall Foliage October 14, 2012
Southeast Asia Adventure February 19, 2013
Travel Blog Posts
Dave's Tips for Stockholm & Copenhagen
Published: April 19th 2012Europe » Germany » Mecklenburg-Vorpommern » Warnemunde
April 19th 2012
In 2009 we visited Stockholm and Copenhagen on our Baltic Cruise... I made a few notes that I have shared with others since then to help them start their planning for their own visit. I am reprinting it here, but advise you to simply use this a starting point for your own plans. Some things may have changed. Feel free to check out my Stockholm pictures at my Facebook page! REPRINTED FROM AN EMAIL TO MY TOUR FRIENDS: This “Cruise Tips” will be about 2 of your ports: Copenhagen and Stockholm; both are majorly impressive, both are easily navigable, and both have ties to your stop in Warnemünde which you will learn about during your tour with me. These tips are from our trip on the Constellation last year, so they are coming from that viewpoint ... read more
Ama's Day Tour Program - Something for Everyone!
Published: April 16th 2012Europe » Austria » Lower Austria » Durnstein
April 16th 2012
Something I really, really like about cruising with Ama Waterways is how they conduct their tours. Every stop along the way will have amazing things to see and Ama's tours are designed to offer differing types of guests, different ways to tour. Ama includes the majority of their tours in the price of your cruise, although they do have a few optional tours to choose from. A general sightseeing tour is provided in every city you stop in and Ama has developed 3 different programs (for most of their stops) which allow you to choose between the normal pace tours which show you everything, a faster option for those that want the highlights but would like more time to explore on their own, and the slower paced tours for those with mobility issues or who simply ... read more
Using Your ATM While in Europe / Baltic Edition
Published: April 16th 2012Europe » Germany » Mecklenburg-Vorpommern » Warnemunde
April 16th 2012
Hey there Cruise Friends! I have gotten some questions lately about using ATM & credit cards here in Europe so I thought I would send my advice to everyone. You may know this already, but for those that are wondering I hope this will be one less thing you have to worry about. One of my favorite things about living in the EU since the changeover to the Euro is that traveling has become increasingly easy when it comes to currency. Your Baltic trip however, will bring you to countries that use Danish Kroner, Swedish Kroner, Rubles (not needed) and the Euro; some may even need British pounds... so it begs the question, what do I do about cash? The days of using traveler's checks are long gone... I can't think of a single place in ... read more
Cruising With Friends.. What Could Be Better?
Published: April 4th 2012Europe » Germany » Mecklenburg-Vorpommern » Warnemünde
April 4th 2012
In one of my last blog entries I referenced being in Bratislava and having "one of those magical days" that you long for when you travel. I had to stop writing and immediately look up the telephone number for my new friend Stephanie and call her. Ironically, she and her hubby has just been talking about us the day before and it got me to thinking: travel is so much more than the places we see, it is about the friendships that form while on the journey. Over the course of the past 13 years, travel has become not only my passion, but my life. Thanks to the internet and the magic of Facebook and blogs like this, I have been able to stay in touch with many of the friends I've made throughout the world ... read more
April 4th 2012
The areas of Hungary, Austria, Slovakia & Germany that we will be sailing through on October 17th, 2012 for the Friends of Dave Tours sponsored trip have amazingly rich and complex histories; I imagine that for many of you, getting to see human achievements of the last several centuries is the reason you travel in the first place. One of the great themes that still resonates in this part of Europe is the legacy of World War II and the tragedies that were visited upon many communities and groups of people. What is more amazing (to me at least), is the resiliency of the people to overcome war, and the nightmares of the mid 20th Century, to create an incredibly rich and multi faceted present day. I am excited to say that our Ama sailing has ... read more
The Amazing Stops Along the Way - Cruising the Danube Pt. 1 - Austria & Slovakia
Published: April 4th 2012Europe » Austria
March 22nd 2012
There are so many things one could say about a cruise along the Danube: the cities & towns along the way, the wilderness and beauty of the natural landscape, the wonder of the dozens of locks that connect the Danube to the Main and Rhine rivers, and the rich history that goes with it. Set it all to a good Straus Waltz and you get one of those life moments that seems surreal. On our Danube cruise in November, we were awed and amazed by all of it. Our first stop was the surprising and interesting Bratislava. I should start off by saying that one of the great things about an Ama Waterways cruise is that they provide all of the tours as part of the cruise price. They also have 40+ bikes on board should ... read more
November 24th 2011
As I've mentioned before, we are experienced sea cruisers, which is to say, while on a cruise we are used to food every 10 feet and a formal meal every 20 minutes (smile). OK, perhaps that's exagerating a bit, but with the 24 hour revolving door of food on sea liners, we have become accustomed to a certain culinary expectation when we take a cruise. To add to our list of skeptical themes before taking our Ama cruise, we were not expecting too much from the limited space that a river cruise ship would provide to their kitchen staff. We could not have been more wrong. While it is true, there is no room service or 24 hour kitchen staff on board Ama's ships, the availability and selection of food was impressive. Not only can you ... read more
The MS AmaLyra - Our Home for a Week on the Danube
Published: December 21st 2011Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest
November 20th 2011
We have one word to describe our first impressions of Ama Waterways staff and the ship: WOW! As some of you know, I have logged 75+ sea cruise journeys so far and this is my very first river cruise. If the way we were treated upon arrival at the Ama pre-cruise hotel Sofitel is any indication this is going to be an amazing trip. Here's the scoop: Three days before leaving for our trip we were contacted by a representative from Ama Waterways in California to advise us that our boarding procedures would be changed. The ship could not reach Budapest because of low water levels in the Danube. Not only did they write and call, they made sure that each contact contained the phrase "Please respond so we know you got this message". We were ... read more
Goodbye Budapest, Hello AmaLyra
Published: December 21st 2011Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest » Pest
November 20th 2011
Before we say goodbye to Budapest and board our home on the Danube, the MS AmaLyra, we had time to intensely explore the Castle District in Buda. After a city tour by bus, I can honestly say that I understand and appreciate the differences between Buda and Pest and what awaits on each bank of the Danube. It is completely possible to see a great deal of the city in 2 days, but as Budapest is a city of amazing museums, art galleries, spa baths, and public parks, our suggestion for anyone coming here is to spend a bit of time at the fabulous website run by Budapest's Tourist Office: budapestinfo.hu is one of those rare travel sites that is easy to use, has all the info you can possible need, and is well laid out. ... read more
Discovering Ama Waterways - Our Blue Danube Adventure
Published: December 19th 2011Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest » Buda
November 18th 2011
Today began our "discovery cruise" to prepare for our 2012 AmaWaterways Blue Danube Discovery Adventure which my partner Michael and I will be leading for our Friends of Dave Tours 2012 Fall cruise. Neither of us has ever been on a river cruise before so we are quite excited to see what's in store. This is also my very first visit to Hungary and Budapest so I'm quite eager to discover this great European capitol. Another first for us, we're leaving on a journey from our new home in Warnemünde for the very first time - so getting to where we want to go is a little bit more hectic than it used to be when we lived in the Frankfurt region. The taxi was ordered for 4am, then a 2.5 hour train ride to Berlin ... read more
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