Viking river cruise

First off, I thought that Viking included one excursions at each stop. For us they were excellent, We tended to take the morning tour, stay in town for lunch, and in the afternoon we were on our own. We research the location and if there was something else important that we want to see we would hit the local TI and arrange for an afternoon tour. Viator is NOT a tour company. They are a consolidator. They are a third party seller of tours. They general are OK but you are dealing with re-seller. I would not use them.

One thing to consider is that if you arrange a tour with an outside company, you have to plan around the ship's departure/arrival times. I'm going on a Viking cruise next month from Budapest and I had a Viking rep send me the daily sailing schedule so I could plan my own excursions at our stops. One day the ship departs mid-afternoon and another day the ship arrives mid-afternoon. Planning outside excursions ahead of time could be problematic if there's a change in schedule.

Your best bet would be, as the other response suggests, to find the tourist information center when you arrive somewhere and see if there are any tours you can join on the spot.

ditto what Frank says. Always book direct with a tour company.

We take a river cruise every year and Viking is our least fav as they nickel and dime you so much. They advertise like crazy, so everyone thinks they're the best. We've taken a few cruises with them and they are not as good as they were PreCovid. We don't plan to use them again.

Other cruise lines include ALL excursions - you may pay more up front, but it's worth it in the long run. Better food and service too.

Our order of favorite river cruise lines is -
Tauck (totally all inclusive)
Scenic (totally all inclusive)
Uniworld (mostly all inclusive)
Avalon = AMA (not all inclusive, but better choices and food than Viking)
Viking
Gate 1

Viking will give you a small walking orientation tour, but it's nothing like you get on the other lines.

You're still in Europe and will have a marvelous time, but know, for next time, there are better options.

You really can't go wrong just walking and exploring the towns. When you take another line - your excursions will be better and lots more free options.

mschuch797, I can find as many good reviews on Viking as negative comments. They would be so large or have so many repeat customers if they werent good. Dont sweat it.

You posted this in Hungary so I will adress Budapest, your only stop in Hungary.

First, if you are starting or ending here, I hope you have planned for a couple of extra nights here. Budapest takes four full days for most people to begin to see it and understand it. Facinating place (I am biased). And stay in Pest, not in Buda.

I cant comment on the Viking tours of the city as I have never been on one. Dont know the prices so cant comment on that either. But Viator is certainly a good option. Yes, its a consolidator but thats how the litttle guys get business and stay in business. Often you can track down the actual provider's website by Googling key words out of the Viator advertisment and if I can do that I am happier cause I know the little guy will make more money. But if not, still a good service and a great list of the possibilities.

For going to the Tourist Information Center, you will waste a bunch of time and I would be very surprised if you found a tour you could just walk into. But if you want to try here is how to get from the most common Viking Ship dock to the Information Center https://maps.app.goo.gl/frmcVhSaybqQrQ836

Or get your sailing sechedule and dates and hotel you are staying at and come back here and lets figure it out.

Enjoy the tirp.

One thing to note. On our Rhine cruise, the Viking boat sometimes docked at industrial / warehouse areas, that were far from the town center areas of interest. There was a lot of river traffic, and at one point there were three other Viking boats docked at the same place (one was Chinese only). So if on an independent tour, you have to make sure you know where to return to and how long it will take to get there. And yes they will leave you behind if you're not back in time.

*I'm mostly interested in the Amsterdam to Budapest river cruise in the month of October i would be open to any additional recommendations or comments comparing Viking to the luxury river cruise options

We loved this Viking cruise…maybe 10 yrs ago. We enjoyed our village and city stops and only did the complimentary shore excursions. We would not go through Viator as mentioned. Our trip did not stack up ships often as mentioned….possibly once? Maybe this has all changed in 10 years? We did 2 more Viking cruises following and had positive experiences. We have not used any other river cruise company. October was a great month also!

We did the tour you indicated in the reverse direction in 2018. One thing to be aware of is that much of the tour sails in the afternoon or evening. You just need to know your sailing times. You are overnight in Amsterdam, Vienna and Budapest. Vienna was not close to town, but you could walk to public transportation. Budapest was very convenient, and if you have traveled before, I think it would be pretty easy to visit the Doheny Street Synagogue, the Grand Market and one of the thermal baths on your own. There is great public transportation and the ships were close to stops. We just signed up for the English language tour at the synagogue when we bought our tickets.

Our ship docked relatively close to the main part of town in Cologne and we walked back and forth during our stop. The boats lined up along the river, so it depends on which dock your ship gets as to distance. It’s a flat walk. Koblenz was near a park and we ended up watching a soccer game with the rest of the town on giant screens. Miltenberg wasn’t a stop on our tour. In Nuremberg a bus took us in to town twice. You could stay in town ( they always get you back to the boat for meals) if you wanted. In Regensburg, the ship dropped us and returned in the afternoon. Passau was close to the center as was Melk.

It was our second Viking cruise, so we decided to try several of the optional excursions. I couldn’t see prices, but I felt like the ones on our 2023 cruise were pretty steep. We did do the Hungarian Horseman tour in Budapest and it was OK. We arrived several days before the tour so we did everything else on our own. We did take the tour to Rothenburg on der Tauber out of Wurzburg and felt it was worth it. The Franconia Countryside was OK as was the Bavarian Cruise & Baroque Town, but I wouldn’t have wanted to spend a ton of money on them. People that took the optional tour to Salzburg were pretty vocal with their disappointment on bus time. We were really disappointed with the optional tour for the Lipizzaners, but friends who took the one last year had a different experience and really enjoyed it. People that went to Schonbraun Palace really enjoyed that.

We did have a good time and being on the ship for that length of time gave us a chance to get to know other people. People did make an effort to be social. We’ve never had a complaint with the food,the rooms or the staff. We prefer the French balcony rooms over the regular balcony rooms.