Cruise Port Guide · 4 cruises visit Dubuque →
The bucket-list things to do — and the private, expert-led way to do each.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, and the private, small-group, or expert-led way to make it yours — your own pace, real access, none of the crowd.
Step inside a Smithsonian-affiliated museum where the mighty Mississippi comes alive through world-class exhibits, living aquariums, and historic steam-powered vessels. A bucket-list encounter with America's greatest river, told from its banks.
Ride the world's steepest and shortest funicular railway — a Dubuque icon operating since 1882 — for a breathtaking 189-foot ascent to panoramic views of three states and the Mississippi River valley below.
Board a classic American riverboat for a leisurely, narrated Mississippi River cruise through Lock & Dam No. 11, winding past untouched bluffs, backwater wildlife refuges, and charming river towns. The gold standard of Mississippi sightseeing.
Descend into a cathedral of ancient limestone formations, underground lakes, and rare cave coral discovered by miners in 1868. Iowa's only show cave and one of the Midwest's most spectacular geological experiences.
Explore the very ground where Iowa's first European settler, Spanish land-grant holder Julien Dubuque, mined lead alongside the Meskwaki people in the 1780s. A stunning bluff-top monument and pristine Mississippi woodland await.
Perched 200 feet above the Mississippi on Dubuque's northern bluff, Eagle Point Park is a New Deal-era masterpiece of stone pavilions, sculpted gardens, and jaw-dropping river views across three states. One of the most beautiful municipal parks in America.
⚓ Your bucket-list concierge
Tell us your sailing and we'll send the bucket list for every port — the most extraordinary thing to do at each, and the private, expert-led way to make it yours.
No spam. The honest plan, even when it says skip the ship’s tour.