Tourists planning a winter getaway on a romantic cruise along Europe’s rivers are facing stranded ships and long coach journeys after the dry summer left water levels at record lows.

Holidaymakers expecting to travel between Budapest and Vienna on the serene waters of the Danube have been told they will be bussed between the cities instead because the water is too low for the cruise ships to navigate.

Instead of settling into a cabin for a week they will be forced to move between stranded cruise ships that have been turned into floating hotels as cruise companies frantically try to rescue as much of their itineraries as possible.

But it has left many customers angry and frustrated. “We are starting to wonder how many bus trips we are going to have as we booked a seven-day river cruise on a boat not a bus trip. We have absolutely no interest in bussing around Europe or any other country let alone at Christmas time,” one Australian traveller wrote on an internet message board.

There have already been months of chaos on Europe’s waterways after the summer drought brought river levels so low the German authorities had to warn people to beware of unexploded Second World War munitions being exposed by the retreating waters.