Mississippi River Tours & Trip Packages

Mississippi River Tours & Trips

38 Mississippi River trips. Tours from 21 tour companies. 9 reviews.

38 Trips match your criteria (1 - 20 shown)

Mighty Waters and Quaint River Towns on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Small Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Wheelchair Accessible
Trip pace
Full schedule

Highlights

  • Learn about the early life of Mark Twain during a field trip to his childhood home in Hannibal, and enjoy a riverboat ride along the Mighty Mississippi
  • Sample wurst and wines in the Missouri Rhineland as you gain insight into the heritage of German immigrants who settled in Herman in the 19th century
  • Walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as you explore historic St
  • Charles, and take in a lecture on the social interchange between the river towns

Themes

50 plus, Education / Learning

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

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Signature City Memphis: Magic on the Mississippi
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Very Easy
Trip pace
Full schedule

Visits

Memphis

Highlights

  • Learn the story of Memphis blues and delve into the lives of legends from the “Father of the Blues” W
  • C
  • Handy to “The King” Elvis Presley
  • Study the mighty Mississippi River’s environmental influence
  • Visit the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel to trace events of the movement and Dr
Show more

Themes

50 plus, Education / Learning

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

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On the Road: The Best of the Upper Mississippi River
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Very Easy
Trip pace
Full schedule

Highlights

  • Exclusive river excursions transport you into special places where big boats cannot go
  • Visit charming little towns among the Upper Miss’ famous bluffs in four states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois
  • Spot bald eagles during a special backwaters excursion in the National Wildlife and Fish Refuge

Themes

50 plus, Education / Learning

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

Trip dates & details
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Celebrate Christmas in Historic Natchez on the Mississippi
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Small Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Wheelchair Accessible
Trip pace
Full schedule

Highlights

  • Revel in a Natchez Christmas evening filled with gorgeous music, decorations, food and fun
  • Enjoy field trips to lavishly bedecked 19th-century mansions
  • Attend “Chopin and Champagne,” a classical piano concert with complimentary champagne in the historic Joseph Stone House, and the uplifting annual Christmas concert in majestic St
  • Mary Basilica by the award-winning Alcorn State University Concert Choir

Themes

50 plus, Education / Learning

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

Trip dates & details
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Mighty Mississippi: Bridging America
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Small Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Wheelchair Accessible
Trip pace
Full schedule

Visits

St. Louis

Highlights

  • Explore Hannibal, Missouri, and learn how it inspired the work of its most famous son, Mark Twain
  • Learn about the impact that the steamboat had on the development of the United States from a historian
  • Set out into St
  • Paul to discover how the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers helped shape the city’s history

Themes

50 plus, Education / Learning

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

Trip dates & details
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Steamboat Adventure: Voyage the Length of the Mississippi
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4.4/5 Great
100+ reviews
Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Moderate
Trip pace
Balanced schedule

Visits

Chester, Madrid, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis

Highlights

  • Experience authentic America along the river, from jazz in New Orleans to the boyhood home of Mark Twain in Hannibal, Missouri
  • Learn from top instructors during Road Scholar exclusive lectures on topics including southern culture, the Civil War and steamboat history
  • Explore the site of St
  • Louis's original settlement, Leclede's Landing, with a local expert before visiting the Cathedral Basilica's world-class collection of mosaics

Themes

Education / Learning, High Adventure

What travelers are saying

"Because I have Stage 4 cancer, I chose to spend the extra money for trip insurance in case my cancer recurred. When a scan showed that it had, I cancelled my trip. I sent to them the medical documents from the Mayo Clinic confirming my new diagnosis. They sent me an email telling me my oncologist needed to fill in a form. I asked my oncologist to do that and I submitted it by fax on April 6th. When I didn’t hear anything, I sent them more medical documentation and asked them to please push forward my refund as I have travel expenses from a clinical trial coming up. Several days later I received an email that they needed further documentation from my doctor. How much more documentation do you need than the patient has stage 4 metastatic cancer and is starting a clinical trial??? This is heartless to me. Please don’t plan to travel through Road Scholar if you’re medically vulnerable!!"

Trip dates & details
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New Orleans & Mississippi River Country 2024
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4.2/5 Great
100+ reviews
Small Group Tour
Lodging level
Premium - 4 star
Physical level
Moderate

Highlights

  • You don't just hear music in New Orleans and Louisiana's 'Cajun country'… you feel it
  • indelibly woven into the fabric of life. The strains of every genre you can think of – smoky blues
  • pulsating Caribbean rhythms
  • acoustic
  • country
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Themes

Cultural

What travelers are saying

"Sad to see a once good tour company stumble and fall into mediocrity. That’s Tauck post-Covid. My May 2023 tour of Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley was done on the cheap by Tauck, yet cost me thousands of dollars extra as a solo traveler on a special small-group tour. 

5-star hotels switched to 3 and 4 (without any compensation or explanation)… many more meals “on your own”… lots of “self-guided” tours of museums and chateaux and castles we knew nothing about… airline quality “rubber chicken” dinners, not in hotel restaurants, but in sad and isolated business convention spaces… poorly-trained newer Tour Directors (like the one on this tour) with limited experience traveling outside her tiny Canadian village or dealing with people from diverse backgrounds. She even confessed that this was a second gig job that took her away from her own business back home! You get what Tauck pays for, but unfortunately, not what YOU pay for. 

Speaking to a “Guest Relations” agent was comically pointless. She tried to make everything my fault, which I now understand is par for the course with the “new” post-Covid Tauck. Please reconsider spending huge amounts of your hard-earned money on a tour company that has lost its way and no longer delivers."

Trip dates & details
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Life on the Mississippi - Southbound 2024
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4.2/5 Great
100+ reviews
Operator does not provide
Lodging level
Premium - 4 star

Highlights

  • Channel your inner Huckleberry Finn as you cruise down the Mississippi River aboard a modern-day paddle wheeler that caters to your comfort with some of the largest accommodations on the river. Visit places immortalized in American history and song from the Blue City of Memphis to the Big Easy in New Orleans as you explore the sights with local experts and savor multi-cultural culinary traditions along the way. Cast off for a storied adventure as iconic as America itself as you explore daily life along the great Mississippi River! This 11-day adventure includes 7 nights aboardAmerican Duchess; overnight stays at premier hotels in Memphis and New Orleans bookend a 7-night river cruise aboard the boutique-styled paddle wheelerAmerican Duchess
  • evoking the graceful traditions of the era of steamboat travel with a modern-day flair.Discover the inspiration behind the Blues in Memphis
  • the Delta blues in Helena
  • Civil War struggles at Vicksburg National Battlefield and history in Natchez. Immerse in the multi-layered cultural traditions of the Louisiana bayou
  • the politics of Huey Long in Baton Rouge
Show more

What travelers are saying

"Sad to see a once good tour company stumble and fall into mediocrity. That’s Tauck post-Covid. My May 2023 tour of Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley was done on the cheap by Tauck, yet cost me thousands of dollars extra as a solo traveler on a special small-group tour. 

5-star hotels switched to 3 and 4 (without any compensation or explanation)… many more meals “on your own”… lots of “self-guided” tours of museums and chateaux and castles we knew nothing about… airline quality “rubber chicken” dinners, not in hotel restaurants, but in sad and isolated business convention spaces… poorly-trained newer Tour Directors (like the one on this tour) with limited experience traveling outside her tiny Canadian village or dealing with people from diverse backgrounds. She even confessed that this was a second gig job that took her away from her own business back home! You get what Tauck pays for, but unfortunately, not what YOU pay for. 

Speaking to a “Guest Relations” agent was comically pointless. She tried to make everything my fault, which I now understand is par for the course with the “new” post-Covid Tauck. Please reconsider spending huge amounts of your hard-earned money on a tour company that has lost its way and no longer delivers."

Trip dates & details
Save this trip to your favorites or other list
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Mississippi River Reviews

V

Vic

May 2023

Verified Authentic
This review is by a verified traveler who went on a trip with this operator and wrote the review on Travelstride

Everything was 5 star!

Our room rivaled those my wife and I have enjoyed in many an upscale hotel. The food and table settings were both five-star. The lengthy list of available activit...

M

Marvelous Mississippi

Nov 2022

Written on

This was a 7 day round trip from New Orleans and back.

This was a fabulous trip. The American Symphony is a new ship, beautiful. The sta...

A

American Cruiseline Splendor

Jul 2022

Written on

Had the best time on the MIssissippi River Cruise on American Cruiseline Splendor

We just got off the ship American Cruiseline's Spendor. Waiting at the airport now and cannot wait to write a review. We had so much fun. First of all the crew, d...

L

LCCR

Jun 2022

Written on

Thanksgiving Travel

We wanted a nice relaxing cruise for the holiday, someplace where the temps were moderate for that time of year and somewhere in the US. We chose the American Crui...

T

Traveling the Mississippi

May 2022

Written on

Great trip from Memphis to New Orleans

In March 2022 My husband and I took a wonderful Cruise on American CruiseLine. The trip was on the American Heritage, and we traveled down the Mississippi River from...

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Mississippi River Tour Selection Trips

  • Most small ship cruises sail either the lower Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans, or the upper Mississippi from St. Louis to the Minneapolis area.
  • Some cruises offer shorter alternate routes, such as from Memphis to St. Louis.
  • A cruise aboard an old-fashioned style paddle wheeler – even if it was built just a few years ago – adds an authentic feel to your voyage.
  • Cruise ships that sail the Mississippi range from luxury to budget rates.
  • If choosing a luxury cruise, expect fine food and service and alcohol and shore excursions included in the price.
  • If you’re particularly interested in music, Civil War history, or antebellum architecture, choose a cruise that plies the lower Mississippi.

Additional details

River cruises along the Mississippi are usually history focused. The river held tremendous importance to the formation of the United States, from several different cultural and economical factors.

Mississippi River cruises last anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks. In some cases your Mississippi River cruise will be a portion of a larger trip, rather than the main theme or mode of transport.

What to wear on a Mississippi River cruise

Most Mississippi River Cruises have a down home feel, without sacrificing a few luxury amenities, food and drink quality, or customer service. These kinds of river cruises are not the “dress for dinner” kind of experience, but note that the primary age group will be older, and they may take this approach.

The Weather Along the Mississippi River

The Mississippi River covers a lot of ground, from the hot and humid southern United States to the dryer northern midwest.

Light drizzles are common - but are rarely cold. In fact they will be a welcome respite from the heat! It can get windy along the Mississippi, so if you get cold easily be sure to bring layers.

You may also experience a thunderstorm or two when traveling on a Mississippi River Cruise. These can be spectacular displays, but often happen without a lot of warning.

Other Ways to See the Mississippi

Note that not all Mississippi River tours will be an extended cruise along the river itself. Your tour may include a crossing of the river before continuing on to explore more of the Southern and Eastern United States.

There are also some Mississippi River cruise itineraries that included other rivers. These include the Ohio River - a great choice if you’re looking to experience the vibrant town of Louisville, Kentucky - and the Cumberland River.

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