The Selenga was the most authentic-looking Siberian river I'd encountered so far.
Icing on the cake The Natchez, which is said to be "The last authentic steamboat on the river," sails from the quay (23) every evening at 7pm on a Jazz Cruise ($41/£26) down Old Man River.
The last one to travel the rivers in authentic pattern was the Golden Rod in 1943; its glory days are recalled by the Majestic, which today performs in Cincinnati during the summer.
On the one hand, its grounding in the realities of amateur football, where the teams change into their kit in an old LNER railway carriage and the reek of embrocation steals along the touchline like river fog, is horribly authentic.
It is made of steel, and its engines are diesel, not coal-fired, so there's no black cloud when it's on the river, but in most other respects it is authentic.
You pile into a car - a Citroen CV if you want to be really authentic - and drive through small towns built next to rivers, with quaint streets lined with patisseries and sidewalk cafes.
Having grown up helping his parents package "the authentic Australian experience" for Japanese tourists on their farm (putting frozen crabs into a river to be "caught"), Mr. Christiansen is adept at creating stage sets and finding shortcuts that read as authentic.
But all of them reach roots into authentic cultural soil, and as New Orleans itself is raised a precarious few inches above the river's wet suck, so the city's hectic gaiety seems raised above the reaching arms of death.
As you explore the the pseudo-natural landscape, sounds of running rivers and crumpled leaves infiltrate the environment, further breaking down the boundaries between authentic nature and VR's natural world.
Down by the river Dee, Hickory's, one of three sites in a growing regional chain, claims to be an authentic US barbecue restaurant.
