End of River Cruise Stayover

I would focus on Luzern and spend as much time there as possible. I found it far more interesting than Zurich.

Yes, you have lots of options in Luzern. Mountain top excursions (Pilatus, Rigi, Stanserhorn), boat excursions on the lake, day trip to the high Alps in Engelberg. Plus Luzern itself (Chapel Bridge, Lion Monument, Transport Museum).

You can skip Zurich and just stay in Luzern. Much more interesting, and you can take a train directly to the Zurich airport from Luzern in 1.25 hours.

In Luzern, you have a choice of mountains to visit. The weather will help decide when and which one. Go as soon as there's a good weather report on top - your hotel can help you with that info. A lunch cruise on the lake is also a good excursion, or take a ferry ride around the lake and visit the towns long it.

We did the same cruise with extra days on our own in Luzern. It was much less expensive than the Viking excursion. On the ship, the staff asked people to tell them if they needed ongoing transport, and they arranged taxis to meet people (by name) on the dock. We took taxi to SBB train station and then bought tickets to Luzern. I would book hotel as soon as you have your dates firm. No need to book rail in advance.

I agree with previous comments. Absolutely Luzern/Lucerne! We did the boat ride on the lake and the cog wheel train up to Mount Rigi. Stunning! We did the walking tour from the RS guidebook of the city. Unless you have an early morning flight, just take a train from Luzern the day of your travel.

I hope you have time to see a bit of Basel before your cruise. Its a beautiful city. Also, if you have time before the cruise you could do a day trip to Bern which is an interesting and lovely city, as well. After, the cruise, I would prioritize Luzern and spend all your time there.

Sleep in Basel and take day trips to Luzern, Colmar and Strasbourg by direct train: https://www.sbb.ch/en.

If you want to visit Luzern, then stay in Luzern, its gorgeous in the evening and peaceful in the morning. SInce you fly out of Zurich, it doesn't make much sense to stay in Basel at trip end. You only have three days (it is days, yes, not nights?) stay in Luzern. There is plenty to do.

The cruise likely goes to Strasbourg, and possibly there is an excursion into Colmar.

Jules

Thank you for your responses. There are actually three optional tours to Colmar; 1) Medieval Village of Colmar @ $199 Per Person, 2) The **Colmar Pocket in World War II: Museum & Memorial** @ $179 Per Person, and 3) Small Group Experience: Medieval Village of Colmar @ $239 Per Person. Since there are two of us, double the prices. All three are in the morning, while the included excursion, a drive through The Black Forest, is in the afternoon. All are listed as four hours, although according to Google Maps, Colmar appears to be about an hour one-way drive by bus from Breisach. That would turn a four-hour excursion into only two hours in Colmar. These are not, as you suggested, from Strasbourg, but from the cruise stop at Breisach, Germany on the last day before arriving at Basel. Do you think Colmar is worth the expense? Thank you.

Jim

The Colmar Pocket Museum is mildly interesting, but certainly not $179 pp. It is in Turckheim, not far from Colmar. BTW, since the Colmar Pocket battle happened simultaneously as the Battle of the Bulge, so Americans don't know too much about it, but Audie Murphy got his Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in that battle.

I spent five nights in Colmar in May. I enjoyed it, but I think the prices you have quoted and the time involved are too much. Enjoy your afternoon tour.

We have taken 2 Viking River cruises (different itineraries) that each had a stop in Breisach. We took the Colmar Pocket in World War II: Museum & Memorial tour which was excellent if you are into war history. We also on the other tour just wandered around Breisach. The boat gave us a map with a walking tour on it which was very interesting. The other thing you could do is take the train from Breisach to Freiburg (25 minutes) away which is a nice German town that is in RS Germany guide book. That was the included tour with Viking on our 2nd stop in Breisach (Main & Rhine Explorer).

We went on the same Viking river cruise in recent years. Being seasoned independent travelers we participated only in the included excursions. The extra-cost excursions were at once quite costly and in some cases (Colmar being one) involved more time on the bus than at the destination. After the cruise ended we took the train from Basel to Lucerne and stayed there several days. We found it delightful, but as both of us remained ill and weakened from some nasty virus that struck about 95% of the passengers during our cruise, we could not venture far from our hotel. One relatively-nearby offshoot we had originally planned to visit by train/funnicular is Piz Gloria, the mountaintop restaurant which was used as Blofeld's lair in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I am getting some very useful info from this thread, not the least of which is getting some insight into the price of Viking's optional excursions. We are doing that same cruise in reverse next spring, and excursions aren't posted for it yet. It's our first Viking cruise (we've done 2 with Tauck, all excursions included), so I didn't have any idea what the costs might be. So thanks for mentioning that!

Before the cruise we're doing the RS Best of Switzerland tour, so we'll have seen plenty of Switzerland. Schlepping around for 12 days, followed by a solid week without having to repack and haul our stuff!

We took that Viking cruise in April 2024. We decided to do the included walking tour of Colmar (free) in the morning and the bus tour to the Black Forest in the afternoon and enjoyed both. Fortunately we had gorgeous weather and both activities were worthwhile.