Water watch
Water levels govern river-cruise itineraries — and a handful of reaches do most of the disrupting. These are the stretches to watch: where low or high water changes plans first, what each one means for a cruise, and its live status. Status and trend, honestly stated — never a forecast.
Live coarse water-level status for Upper Rhine: Iffezheim → Mannheim (Rhine), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
The Rhine's bellwether reach — when the gorge between Rüdesheim and Koblenz runs low, it's usually the first stretch on the whole river to change a cruise.
Live coarse water-level status for Cologne dock access (Rhine), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
Fully canalized from Frankfurt to the Danube — the Main almost never runs too low to sail, which makes it the reliable stand-in when the Rhine or Danube can't.
Canalized from Koblenz to Cochem and beyond — low water is a non-issue here; the one thing to watch is high water, and it can arrive from two different directions.
Live coarse water-level status for Regensburg → Passau (Upper Danube), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
Live coarse water-level status for Passau & the Inn confluence (Upper Danube), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
Live coarse water-level status for Wachau: Melk → Krems (Upper Danube), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
The short international hop between Vienna and Bratislava — one of the few Danube reaches watched at both ends of the water-level scale, low and high.
Budapest and the scenic bend upstream at Visegrád and Esztergom — bridges and docks set the high-water limit, and a string of natural fords sets the low-water one.
Live coarse water-level status for Iron Gates (Djerdap) (Lower Danube), derived from official gauge and fairway data.
Live coarse water-level status for The Bulgarian–Romanian bars (Lower Danube), derived from official gauge and fairway data.