Colombia has a new drawcard: the AmaMagdalena, the country's first dedicated luxury river ship, sailing the Magdalena River with AmaWaterways. Australian luxury travel advisors Robyn and Murray Sinfield recently sailed it as guests of Virtuoso, and their impressions point to one of the more unusual river cruises on the market right now.

The ship is deliberately intimate: just 30 cabins carrying a maximum of 60 guests, looked after by 28 crew — all of them Colombian, part of more than 250 local jobs the project has created along the river basin, home to roughly 80 per cent of Colombia's population. The advisors stayed in the 48-square-metre grand suite, complete with living room, coffee machine and a second toilet, but note even lead cabins are a generous 22 square metres with twin balconies. A river-level cabin means you hear the water as you drift along — plus some rope and winch noise, though they didn't find it a problem.

Dining leans local. Breakfast is a buffet served indoors or on the al fresco barbecue deck, dinner rotates through regional Colombian dishes, and the ship's Chef's Table-style restaurant, Boliviar, pops up on the open deck on select nights. Much of the produce is sourced within 20 kilometres of the route. Evenings fill the lounge, with a "sip and sail" happy hour ahead of the 7.15pm dinner sitting, and a bar on the Luna deck for daytime river-watching. There's a sun-deck pool, fitness room and massage room — but no lift between decks one and three, worth knowing if stairs are an issue.

The real selling point, according to the pair, is that this is as much a soft expedition as a river cruise. Excursions run in eight-seat coaches, small river boats and tuk-tuks: the freed-slave community of San Basilio de Palenque, the floating stilt village of Nueva Venecia, daily birdwatching in a country with more than 2,000 species, a rickshaw ride through Calamar, walking the UNESCO-listed colonial streets of Santa Cruz de Mompox, and exclusive access to Barranquilla's Carnival, the biggest outside Rio.

Practical pointers from people who've done it: it's equatorial heat, so pack breathable clothing, solid walking shoes and a hands-free fan. Locals quoting "50" or "70" mean 50,000 or 70,000 pesos — carry cash and change money before you arrive. If you're extending the trip, tag it onto Galapagos, Peru or Medellin packages; American Airlines flies into Cartagena or Barranquilla from Miami in about three hours. And choose Cartagena over Barranquilla for a pre- or post-cruise stay — the walled city, all murals and cumbia soundtracks, is a highlight in its own right.

The verdict from two seasoned agents? Authentic, culturally rich and a reminder that genuinely fresh experiences still exist in travel. For river cruise fans who've done the Danube and the Douro to death, the Magdalena offers something genuinely different.

First-hand review by luxury advisors Robyn and Murray Sinfield, published on Karryon.