european river cruises

We took a Viking cruise in April in the Netherlands. Overall the whole experience was excellent. The cabin was very nice, the food was excellent and the shore excursions were well organized the ship was spotless and the crew was very friendly. With only about 150 people on board things are pleasantly informal. The people we met on the ship were a really diverse group (school bus driver to professor emeritus from Stanford) who generally had two things in common; 1) they liked to travel, 2) they had no plans to go on another ocean cruise after being exposed to river cruising. The only caveat I have is about the air travel package. The air package has two advantages. The first is a very good price and the second is ground transportation from the airport to the ship. The only problem is that in our case to get from Detroit to Amstrdam we took a feeder flight to Dulles in DC and then a regular flight from DC to Amsterdam as opposed a non-stop out of Detroit. We were talking ablut this at dinner one night on the cruise and one of the ladies at the table said that for an extra $50 they will book the flights you specify which is money well spent. In summary, we ould not hestiate a heart beat to take another river cruise with Viking. Have a good trip.

We did the Rhone with Viking last Aug. and had a great time. The cabins were larger than anticipated, shore excursions were divided into groups of about 25 people with good audio devices, good staff to traveler ratios, delicious food and very friendly staff. The air fares they offer are reasonable, but the travel times seemed to be less than ideal and several people had multiple stops. We arranged our own and were glad we did.The towns where the ships depart are used to cruise passengers and, in our case at least, were knowledgeable about schedules and logistics. If/when we do another, we'll take all the extra shore excursions offered because they really do these well and they were a good value.

We did a Seine cruise with Viking in 2009 with two related couples - one in their 30s and one in their 60s. It was a perfect experience for this group. Be aware that river cruising is very different from ocean cruising. A group of passengers on our ship were pretty difficult for the staff because they didn't understand that a small boat can't offer all the choices of a large ocean liner. I missed eating in local restaurants and informal interactions with locals, but had really interesting interactions with some of the staff who were from other parts of Europe. I also missed wandering the streets in the evenings. I wouldn't travel exclusively by river cruise, but would definitely go again.