Thurgau Travel

Thurgau Travel AG is a Swiss tour operator specialising in river cruises. Hans Kaufmann founded the family business in Weinfelden in 2001. Its programme soon extended beyond Europe: in 2004, the company began operating cruises on the Lower Mekong. In Europe, the company history lists the Rhine, Danube, Douro, Elbe and Vltava as cruising areas. Over the years, Thurgau Travel has used its own ships, chartered vessels and ships developed in partnership. The company operates as a river cruise operator.

Tour operator and ships

The company history describes several different operating models. In 2009, the MS Sound of Music became the first ship to sail exclusively for Thurgau Travel on the Rhine and its tributaries. In 2010, the RV Thurgau Exotic 1 was built as part of a joint venture with a Burmese shipbuilder. The later RV Thurgau Exotic 2 began sailing on Burma’s Irrawaddy in 2016. The company also used chartered vessels: the MS Douro Spirit, chartered in 2015, operated on Portugal’s Douro. Brand, tour operator, owner and operatorrefer to different roles.

European rivers and new cruising areas

The expansion of its cruising areas took place gradually. In 2011, the company history records the first Western river cruise ship in Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg. The MS River Art joined the fleet that same year and was replaced in 2012 by the newly built MS Antonio Bellucci. Also in 2012, Thurgau Travel acquired what is now the MS Thurgau Florentina, which, according to the company history, sailed on the Vltava and Elbe in the Czech Republic. The MV Thurgau Dalmatia also began operating river and coastal cruises in Croatia in 2012; the MS Edelweiss joined the fleet in 2013. The overview of river cruise regions allows visitors to compare such itineraries.

In 2018, Daniel Pauli-Kaufmann took over as managing director from Hans Kaufmann; at the same time, the company moved to larger offices in Weinfelden. In 2018 and 2019, Thurgau Travel added the MS Thurgau Karelia, which at the time sailed between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, with an excursion to the White Sea. In 2021, the programme featured a circumnavigation of Iceland aboard the expedition ship MS Ocean Diamond. In 2022, the RV Thurgau Ganga Vilas entered service in India, and a branch office opened in Berlin. The company history highlights the Ganga Vilas’s shallow draught, which allows it to sail along the final stretch of the Ganges before Varanasi.

Family business in Weinfelden

The Kaufmann family remained the owner after the company was founded. The MS Thurgau Gold was completed in 2023; that same year, the RV Thurgau Ganga Vilas began a continuous river journey through Bangladesh and India. The company describes the 52-day voyage, covering more than 4,000 kilometres from Varanasi to Sibsagar in Assam. The newly built RV Mekong Discovery followed in 2024.