Rhine Getaway 2024 Itinerary Amsterdam to Basel Viking®
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Today’s shore excursion takes us to Kinderdijk which is a UNESCO World Heritage site with 19 enormous windmills. It is such a spectacular sight to behold and straight out of a fairytale. Our local guide took us into a working windmill where families still live today. This is common on river cruises no matter which company you choose but it’s definitely something I want you to know before you go.
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When we had our fill of Cologne, we enjoyed strolling across the Love Locks Bridge to get back to the ship. The afternoon was spent on board taking in the scenery as we cruised along the Rhine. After breakfast, we only had to take a short walk to our destination (led by our guide of course). Some updates are major while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.SponsorshipWe thank Viking River Cruises for hosting us on the Rhineland Discovery cruise to facilitate this article. For us, it was the picnic-style lunch at Oenosphère where we sampled excellent local wines from nearby vineyards along with an assortment of amazing French cheeses and charcuterie.
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At this point in the cruise, the Rhine starts to become much more scenic. Beautiful villages and vineyards can be seen in all directions. Rüdesheim is a touristy town known for its wineries and historic center, called the Drosselgasse. Viking doesn’t offer an included tour here, so I explored on my own. However, since we docked in the late afternoon, time felt even more limited here than in Speyer.
REVIEW: Viking Cruises,Treasures of the Rhine - Scottish Field
REVIEW: Viking Cruises,Treasures of the Rhine.
Posted: Mon, 04 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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The only problem was, not many restaurants were open so we spent our time wandering around this charming little town of vine covered, story book buildings. It’s all about the food and the breakfasts on the ship were fabulous! Breakfasts were casual buffets while lunches and dinners were more formal sit down meals. I loved the casual dress code because after a long day of exploring, it was nice not to have to worry about getting all dolled up for meals. We love pizza, coffee, fine dining, wine, street food and cocktails.
Best Viking River Cruises on the Rhine
Our family group enjoyed game nights and musical performances, but you could also attend things like a glassblowing demonstration or a Q&A session with the captains of the ship. Viking offered a short included tour, then we had about an hour or so to explore on our own. There are some other interesting churches a little further inland, or you could check out the many side alleys that branch off of the Maximilianstraße. After two long years of pandemic restrictions, Europe is fully open again!
Rhine Getaway
Viking Longships have prime mooring spots in the center of town providing the option for easy independent exploration in between guided included and optional shore excursions. For something very different, Viking has a unique 15-day itinerary combining a Rhine River cruise with a Scandinavian sailing into the Norwegian fjords on one of its stylish ocean ships. More days means more to discover, with extension packages you can add before or after your Viking cruise or cruisetour.
Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website. Since launching the site in 2012, they’ve traveled to over 40 countries in their quest to bring readers a unique taste of the world. As full-time travelers and influencers, we usually travel slowly with a week or even a month in each location. Though it was great to hit five countries in twelve days, it wasn’t so great to have to leave each one so quickly. We were pleased to get our first taste of Strasbourg during this full-day excursion which served as an introduction for our future stay in the fairytale Alsatian city in France.
We were so inspired by the fabulous views and tasty beers that we plan to return and spend one week in the Rhine Valley so that we can explore the area more fully. As an extra bonus, we loved unpacking our bags and feeling ‘at home’ during the length of the Viking Rhine River cruise. Since we use packing cubes when we travel, it only took us a few minutes to settle into the room and start enjoying the cruise. As part of Viking’s generous offer, we were able to select a European riverboat cruise that appealed to us. After pouring over the many options for cruises in Europe outlined on the Viking website and studying the photos and videos, we ended up selecting the Rhineland Discovery cruise. Longtime readers of my blog will know that I don’t shy away from giving my honest opinion when it comes to travel.
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From here your epic Viking river cruise continues along the Main before joining the Danube and ending in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. We dock this morning in Kehl and disembark for a guided tour of Strasbourg. See the European Parliament and tour the interior of the city’s famed cathedral. Dine aboard and enjoy free time this evening in the amiable little city of Kehl.
I’m spilling all the details, including what they don’t tell you in the brochure, so you can make an informed decision. I’ll take you from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland along the Rhine River with lots of stops at charming old towns and villages in between. This Viking River cruise Rhine review is chock full of information that is helpful in planning your own Rhine getaway cruise. We toasted and drank hearty, dark Kostrizer beers as we sailed along the Middle Rhine River streaming by the famous Lorelei rock and oh-so-many castles.
Coffee flows all day long on a Viking river cruise ship, and the crew’s main mission is to make everybody happy. Viking offers both pre and post extensions, which are a fun way to see more of Europe and combine the best of both worlds (guided group tours with individual trips). The number one reason why I like river cruises so much is because you get to see many small towns and sights in a leisurely fashion. Viking introduces the definitive way to explore the world in comfort. We call them Ocean & River Voyages, an innovative marriage of our award-winning river and ocean cruises.
We even learned how to toast like a local during this fun pub crawl. As we learned over dinner at a brauhaus that dates back to 1858, Cologne locals never eat while drinking. The range of breakfast foods ran the gamut from healthy fruit and yogurt to more decadent options. Passing on the menu items, we stuck to the breakfast buffet where we enjoyed cheeses, meats and other regional delicacies. We consider ourselves to be low maintenance travelers who don’t need a lot of assistance, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate excellent service. And that’s exactly what we got from the international crew while cruising the Rhine with Viking.
Quieter and narrower than the Rhine, the tributary winds through wine-growing regions that were first cultivated in Roman times. You will stop at Cochem, the prettiest town on the Moselle, where the old town is filled with half-timbered houses. Perched on a 300-foot promontory is Cochem Castle, the highest fortress on the Moselle which dates back more than 1,000 years. To see Cochem from another perspective you can take a guided bike tour along the riverbank or join an evening excursion celebrating the wine, music and legends of the Moselle. You will sail along the Rhine to Marksburg, where the remarkable 13th century castle is the only one on the river never to have been damaged or destroyed.
Visiting the fortress was interesting, but there didn’t seem to be much signage in English, so I don’t feel like I learned a lot about its history while I was there. Neuf-Brisach is a sleepy little French town that is surrounded on all sides by a visually stunning series of fortified walls. These walls were designed by French architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban to help protect border outposts from invasion. You can’t make out the geometry of the walled city from the ground level, but you can explore the city streets and get some sense of their architecture.
We walked through here on our guided tour, and I came back afterwards to enjoy the views for a bit longer. All the local guides were quite knowledgeable and Viking provides headsets so you can clearly hear. There’s even a designated group for those who wish to tour at a slower pace.
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