Anyone have personal experience with good local guides we can hire during our river cruise on the Rhine? Zurich, Basel, Strasbourg, Alsace, Speyer, Mainz, Koblenz, Moselle Valley, Bernkastel-Kues, Trier, Paris.
I know it's included in our trip on Viking, but we have had great luck hiring a local when we went to Cartagena; and just want to see what others have experienced, doing it this way.
A guide not affliated to certain stores, restaurants, tourist traps - first timers on a river cruise & to these areas of Europe. TIA
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
4842 posts
I'm not sure why you would need to hire a private guide for these places, instead of doing your own research and using local transportation. But if this is really what you want to do, I'd suggest asking your questions on Cruise Critic . com. There is a River cruising forum there that will be very informative. There is also a Ports of Call forum for information about your individual day stops.
Posted by
3244 posts
Having observed the Viking River Cruise excursion groups, I can understand why you would want to book your own guides.
We were very happy with Ophorus when we were in Strasbourg in 2015.
http://www.ophorus.com/en/wine-tours/strasbourg-alsace-wine-tours
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
For Basel, there is lots of information about tours on the official city tourist site: https://www.basel.com/en/Guided-Tours
As a resident, I have never been on one. There are also tours on foot you can do yourself without a guide.
I would not recommend the hop-on, hop-off bus because the best parts of the city are in the centre, which is only accessible on foot or by tram. The bus goes round the city centre.
For example, Münsterplatz: https://v8a-moving-pictures.com/basel_tourismus/index.html?nav_id=3311-30721
Posted by
OP
9 posts
trayla...is there anything else you've done in Alsace, other than wine tours? We live in the heart of wine country. lol TIA
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Cjean...tks for reply...I'm also on cruise critic...so much research to do!! We also like the more active excursions...(zip-lining & cave tubing, diving & sailing in the Caribbean)...not just walking in a group & going to museums :)
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Thanks, ChrisF! I literally hit the ground running, when I want to check out a new place. Will research your link :)
Posted by
3244 posts
Ophorus offers a "Pearls of Alsace" tour from Strasbourg which covers Colmar, Riquewihr, the castle at Koenigsburg (sp?) and a few other places. It had one brief wine tasting.