jh6000

Hi, all,

It looks like a group of us will be doing the Viking Grand European Tour next summer. Several of us are trying to figure out what we might budget for any optional excursions on that trip. Using google just does not seem to turn up any recent info. For those of you who might have done this cruise in the last several years, could you ballpark prices in general or, better yet, provide rough costs for some specific optional tours you took.

Also, if you chose to use a local operator in any of the ports, I would love a recommendation for that (and rough cost info, if you have it) as well.

Thanks in advance.

John H.

thursdaysd

You might try asking over at cruisecritic.com, although they don't seem to give much space to river cruising..

HappyTrvlr

I didn’t realize they had started charging for “excursions.” Look at the port towns as those are where spent our time, sometimes on an included walking tour but mostly on our own. The river towns were mostly charming and interesting.

thursdaysd

Normally, for mass market and mid-range companies, some excursions are included (one per port for this company, I think), and some are not. If you join your cruise's roll call at CruiseCritic you will find other people who may want to take independent excursions.

However, the only company currently operating a cruise in Europe, MSC (with Europeans only), is requiring passengers to only take the company's excursions, which will also require passengers to stay together with the guide. Some people have already been kicked off for not conforming. Of course, the situation next summer may be different, who knows.

Macross

https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiset...ries.cfm?cl=59 I read a few and was surprised that many times they bus you into the city as the docking area is not close to anything. I know I have seen where they dock though in some places. Speyer and Cochem for example. That was easy for people to just tour on their own. If they are taking you into the city then research and find what you would like to see. Entry fees for museums, dining out. I know at my port you can take the bus tours but there are always taxis waiting to take you into town. Hoping some others chime in.

Scootoir

Viking will include a tour at each stop and it should be described on the Viking website as well as provide information on optional tours. I have taken a couple of cruises on the Rhine and in some ports the ship docked in walking distance of the center of town and in others a bus was required. Strasbourg and Heidelberg required bus trips and included a walking tour as well as free time. There was no additional charge for this as each stop included one set excursion. In Strasbourg the dock was much closer than in Heidelberg and both Viking and AmaWaterways offered shuttles throughout the afternoon between the town center and the ship. We took one optional excursion with Viking and that was a WW2 tour on the Colmar pocket battle(s). It was well worth it but meant we would miss visiting the town of Colmar and its Christmas market so a trade off. It was a few years ago and I think it might have cost around $90 per person. My husband and I thought it was well worth it. We also skipped some included tours and walked through some ports such as Koblenz and Rudesheim on our own. It was easy to reach the town center in Basel and Amsterdam on both cruises but I imagine if it's crowded with ships some will have to dock further away. In Amsterdam we booked tickets to the Van Gogh museum and used a taxi to save time which was limited. We are booked with Viking for a Danube Christmas Market cruise in 2021. I hope that helps and I'm happy to try and answer any questions.

Scootoir

Here is a link to my trip report on the Rhine with Viking if you are interested: Viking Switzerland to the North Sea

fmpden

We did that tour three years ago going from Amsterdam to Prague in late September. At every stop we had a half day generally walking tour each morning. All excellent tours in small groups. In the afternoon there were options tours. We took a couple because of where they were going to areas that we were interested in seeing. Seems to be the price was around $100/person but the optional tours are well described on the Viking web site. The included tours generally ended at or near the town center so we tended to stay in the city for the afternoon and explore on our own. All the guides were excellent with good English. All used head sets that made understanding the guide very easy. We research each stop so always had some ideas of what we want to see in addition. We would grab a little lunch in a bar or sidewalk cafe. Later in the afternoon we would go back to the boat or catch a cab if too far. A few times were docked some distance from the town center so Viking always had buses circulating between ship and the downtown pick up point every 30 mins or so. Convenient service.

We enjoyed Viking the food and service was excellent and the staff was very cooperative if you need anything. This was our second Viking cruise and will look forward to another if the bans are ever lifted.

As for as budgeting that is a hard one. We probably spent another 50 euro/day/person. The optional tours were pre-paid prior to boarding. I generally tipped the guide 10 euro or more if very good and many were. The rest was nickle dime stuff.

HappyTrvlr

In cities, we used public transportation. It was a short walk to the subway in Vienna, for example.