Viking Rhine Getaway suggested excursions

We did this cruise a few years ago. I think you have to figure out what your specific interests are, and your activity level. I didn't have energy for either biking tour, and not interested in dining with students, wine tasting or beer culture, or too many museums. One castle was enough for me. But that's me. Things I liked - Kinderdijk & the cheese making; medieval Colmar; the Open Air museum in the Black Forest. We just had a leisurely stroll around Cologne and a nice lunch, rather than an activity.

But realize that the four of you don't have to do the same things all the time.

Walk along the paths at Kinderdijk, no other ways to see them give as good a view as walking right up to them. You can go inside a few of the windmills too.

We did a Rhine cruise with Uniworld from Basel to Amsterdam. Our cruise was 8 days and ended in early November. Uniworld offered similar excursions to these ones. We enjoyed:

• Heidelberg (but didn't have to lunch with university students as we were there when the Christmas markets were on so we did castle plus markets and just a drive by for the university),
• Koblenz we skipped Marksburg Castle as we had already seen quite a few castles in Czech Republic before the cruise; we wanted to see the fortress but it was closed the day we were there,
• Colmar we did the medieval option,
• Cologne we had a great guide and did a walking tour of the city and cathedral. It's not a city where I would have enjoyed riding a bike as it was quite crowded, especially near the cathedral.
• Kinderdjik windmills weren't offered on our cruise but we saw them ourselves later when we stayed in Rotterdam. If the weather is not good this would be a miserable trip as it is exposed and windy.

Not on your list but we really enjoyed it was the air museum in Speyer.

For your Amsterdam pre trip time it depends on your interests. The Van Gogh museum and the nearby museum of contemporary art are very good, a canal cruise is a must, we liked the maritime museum, and we really enjoy the the Vondelpark. We have been to Amsterdam three times but have never been to the Anne Frank house (have no interest in going; it's not the real house and by the looks of the lines will be very crowded) or the Rijksmuseum (on all our trips Amsterdam has been close to the final stop and we feel like we have seen enough great art by this point).

On our last two trips to Amsterdam we have stayed in Haarlem and just come into Amsterdam for day trips. We prefer Haarlem to Amsterdam in the evenings as it doesn't have the coffee house culture so it doesn't reek of weed and it also doesn't seem to have been found by the boozing backpackers so is much more peaceful and feels safer to walk around at night.

Hi Nancy, we did this Viking river cruise a few years ago (Basel-Amsterdam). We enjoyed all the included and several optional excursions.

In Breisach, we did Colmar Pocket and the WWII museum, very interesting. In Strasbourg the excursions were a bit different but we did one similar to the Alsatian Wine Tasting. We visited the castles in Heidelberg and Marksburg, and Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. In Cologne we did the included walking tour and the optional Top of Cologne Cathedral at night. The Cathedral was amazing and we loved the private tour. The included excursion to the Kinderdijk Windmills was very good and we were able to walk among the windmills and go inside a few.

After the cruise we spent a few days in Amsterdam on our own. We visited the Anne Frank House, Riks and Van Gogh Museums. Check the websites and purchase tickets in advance (very important). We also did a canal cruise. Hope you enjoy your trip!

We went on this cruise in 2019, and had a great time. I think they have adjusted the stops slightly, but our trip matches up very closely.

We did the Kinderdijk windmills and Dutch cheese making and really enjoyed it.

We did the included tour of Cologne and wandered around the city on our own afterwards. We were lucky enough to stumble upon a wine festival and a separate beer festival! It’s a good town to explore.

I believe we did the medieval Marksburg castle and it was fine. We’ve been to the Rhine before and have seen other castles. At some point and novelty does wear off. I thought doing the included Koblenz walking tour wouldn’t be interesting enough after having seen the bigger Cologne the previous day.

My mother-in-law and her friend did the Dining in Rudesheim, and it seemed like a good time. How do I know? Because we wandered into the same restaurant that the Viking excursion was patronizing. We sat inside and had a nice meal, and the Viking group was in the outside patio/ beer garden area. The ship was docked in town so we were able to explore on our own and pick our restaurant. If you’re looking for a fun time this is probably a good excursion, but if you want to save a few bucks you can DIY it.

We did the included panoramic Heidelberg tour. It was pretty good and the town was solid. Keep in mind that Germany can get very hot. Our trip was around memorial day and the weather was in the 90s. We live in Las Vegas, so we don’t mind the heat; however, my wife and I didn’t bring enough lightweight clothing so we had to buy some things in Heidelberg.

We did the included tour of Strasbourg and had a very nice time. My wife and I are Francophiles and we hadn’t been to that town. If I recall, we were there on a Sunday and we couldn’t check out the main cathedral because it was closed to tourists. We’ll have to go back I guess.

We did an Alsatian wine tasting instead of Colmar because we have been there before. The wine tasting was fine, I think we would’ve enjoyed revisiting Colmar more though.

We did the black forest by E bike on our last full day. We’ve been on three Viking cruises, and it was hands-down the worst excursion we’ve ever done. The e bike tour was way too long and demanding given the fitness level of your average Viking passenger. As usual, we were some of the youngest people on the cruise and it was a very long taxing day even for us. The E bike tour started very close to the ship and we peddled our way through some forest near the river which was lovely. We stopped at a village and had black forest cake which was fun. We paddled through some farmland, including by asparagus fields which was very pungent. Unfortunately the excursion ended at a much higher elevation. Many members of our group could not handle the incline, even with the assistance of the E bike. Because of that, the whole group kept getting separated, but there were only two guides to wrangle everyone. We ended at a farm, had some schnapps and cake and were bussed back. We should’ve started at the higher elevation and ended closer to the ship. We were really concerned somebody was going to end up in the hospital. I think our group was too large, and it needed to be advertised as extremely demanding. If you’re not in good shape, it would be very hard. If you are in good shape then it will be quite frustrating as you wait for everyone else. Hopefully they’ve made improvements to the excursion, because it should be awesome.

I hope all that helps.

As far as Amsterdam goes, we did a lot of the main sites recommended by Rick. Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank house, red light District, CityWalk, resistance museum, etc. One of our favorite activities was a bike tour. I don’t recall the agency but there are many to choose from if you are interested. We covered a lot of ground and got to some out-of-the-way places. Our guide was great and gave us a lot of info about the city.

The Anne Frank house is very moving. As long as you are pre-booked the lines are not a problem.
We went to a fantastic Banksy exhibit when we were there last, MOCO still has some Banksy but not sure if it's to the extent of what we were able to see. But still something to consider.
Restaurant: De Kas

While we didn’t see them from a cruise, we enjoyed Kinderdijk and its windmills, wandering around Cologne, and visiting the Heidelberg castle. Will be visiting the Black Forest area, Strasbourg and Colmar soon, so could comment after we return.