Planning on a Danube river cruise as a solo traveller in early summer or fall. Want to hit Budapest and Vienna and maybe spend extra time in Budapest. Suggestions ? Tips ? First time in these areas and on a river cruise.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA
1131 posts
I’m unsure if you have a cruise booked already or not, if not, I would seriously consider either Tauck or AMAwaterways. Both of them waive the single supplement on most of their sailings and both receive the highest marks consistently for quality in river cruising. Check out their Danube sailings.
ETA: Info about Tauck's lack of single supplement here: https://www.tauck.com/guest-travel/solo
And here's a good article about single supplements overall: https://www.rivercruiseadvisor.com/2019/05/single-supplements-for-solo-travelers-2019-update/
Posted by
11569 posts
We did this cruise with Viking and I would suggest booking with another company like AMAWaterways.
We flew to Prague before the cruise began in Nuremberg. We stayed several extra days at the cruise’s end in Budapest and then took a train back to Vienna for two more nights. The amount of time the cruise gives you in Vienna is not enough. We flew out of Vienna.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6455 posts
Suki, I'm interested in what you didn't like about Viking. We typically travel independently but have done a Rhine Cruise with Viking. I had been eying a Danube cruise sometime down the line, but they seemed to have dropped places in the Wachau.
Posted by
San Diego, CA, USA
472 posts
Look at Grand Circle Travel.
Posted by
Used to be Steilacoom, now it’s Las Vegas
2296 posts
We just booked our 3rd Viking cruise, so we’re O.K with what they have to offer. I am not a huge fan of river cruises, but that’s the way our friends like to travel. We did the Viking Grand European last summer and I would agree that the time spent in Vienna was a disappointment. It was too short and the ship does not dock close to town.
Posted by
NM, USA
911 posts
Sorry I'm a bit late on this. We returned a week ago from our 4th Tauck river cruise - Budapest to Amsterdam. I've known several people who have done cruises with Viking but will stick with Tauck. Viking is fine as long as everything goes well - not so much when problems. over and over again I read Viking
reviews complaining of customer service. Tauck not only has river cruises and a growing small ship cruise list, but about a hundred land tours around the world. They've been in the tour business over 90 years.
A case in point of the customer service was what happened on our recent cruise. Halfway through we got stuck in Kelheim Germany because a Viking ship has collided with and damaged a lock on the Main Danube canal. We had a couple of days waiting to hear if it would reopen or be down for weeks of repair. Turned out the later. The Tauck tour and cruise directors kept us informed, made sure we saw all our planned itinerary items and more, plus arranged unplanned sights on a morning we were all waiting to hear about the lock. We had a couple of longer than normal bus rides to sights and ultimately had to swap ships with the Tauck group making the tour in the opposite direction. The Tauck personnel and ships crew handled this fantastically. A ship docked next to us had the remainder of their tour canceled and based on reviews i read elsewhere Viking has been less than honest with their customers.
You can save some money with Viking but I'll stay a loyal Tauck cruiser.