A Viking Rhine River Cruise Review: Basel To Amsterdam
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If you are not doing a pre or post cruise it depends on whether you want to see Basel or Amsterdam. Most international flights fly overnight getting you into your destination early. By the time we got to the ship and dropped luggage it was probably 9AM. That gave us pretty much the entire day to explore Amsterdam.
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Outside Zurich, the Rhine Falls is a worthwhile excursion. Easy of transfer to Airport at end of Cruise as we were not doing any post cruise touring. On the various cruise line websites I only see day itineraries.
Speyer
Some people actually left as early as about 4AM or 5AM. The only thing we saw of Basel was from the window of the bus on the way to the airport which at most was 30 minutes. I had read that if you have bad weather, you will be going opposite the weather, so you may only have 1 day of bad weather.
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They are clustered in an outlying district of the city. Apart from the church, Breisach feels pretty touristy. If you have extra time and want to walk around the town, feel free to. But if you don’t have time or want to rest on the ship instead, you probably won’t miss out on too much.
What We Loved About Our Viking Rhine River Cruise
We share our thoughts in the following Viking River Cruise review. My wife and I will be doing this itinerary on the AmaCerto this coming September. After deciding on the Rhine and AMA, we decided to travel Basel-to-Amsterdam.
All in all, a short visit to Kinderdijk was a great way to wrap up our final full day on the Viking Hermod. In all honesty, the Rhine (which turns into the Waal) is less scenic in the Netherlands than it is in Germany. You’re no longer surrounded by hills, vineyards, and castles. Sometimes, when traveling in Europe, we just like to slow down, plant ourselves at an outdoor cafe and soak in the atmosphere.
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While we loved the Basel CMS, once on the River, I felt the markets got better as we went north - Cologne (Koln) was just fabulous! I think it would have been a let-down if we had been there first. From Speyer to Cologne (Day 4 to Day 6), the Rhine River is incredibly scenic.
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Seriously, the castles just kept coming as we lounged on the wide-open sundeck of our longship. We even learned how to toast like a local during this fun pub crawl. We consider ourselves to be low maintenance travelers who don’t need a lot of assistance, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate excellent service. And that’s exactly what we got from the international crew while cruising the Rhine with Viking. True confession – we didn’t use the balcony much once we discovered that the best view in our room was from the bed. It turns out that there’s not much better in life than lying in bed and watching the Rhine current stream gently next to the trees and hills of Western Europe.
Pre: Swiss Alps & Scenic Train
If you are going AtoB, you could have bad weather for several days. We had 1 1/2 days to explore Zurich before boarding the ship. The last day of the cruise is actually spent in AMS so we had an entire day of touring / exploring.
We did that once or twice, but the food on the ship was so delicious that I rarely wanted to pass it up. The meals on our Viking Cruise were consistently amazing! I really looked forward to coming back on board after each excursion or tour to enjoy whatever was being served that day. Now that you’ve seen the itinerary for the Rhine Getaway, the second half of this post will include some information about the actual cruising experience on Viking.
Viking did a great job of scheduling so that passengers could enjoy the view from the boat during the day on this portion of the trip. The vineyards, villages, and castles of the Middle Rhine are undoubtedly the river’s most unique offerings. The Hermod pulled into its first port of call very early in the morning, which meant we had a full day to explore Breisach, a small village in Germany.
The views from the top were fine but not as stunning as some of the other panoramic views I saw on this cruise (e.g. in Breisach or Strasbourg). More importantly, the climb is essentially one long spiral staircase – with visitors going both directions on it! Frankly, being on a spiral staircase for that long with only the occasional narrow gothic window was disorienting and dizzying. If you want to climb a church tower, I suggest going up to the top of the Notre-Dame in Strasbourg instead.
Koblenz is a tourist hub that’s noticeably bigger than Speyer and Rüdesheim. I walked all over the Altstadt (Old Town), which is right next to the Viking River Cruises Dock. As you leave Rüdesheim, the Rhine River goes from picturesque to spectacular.
They are very informative at the train station - look for information office, right next to the Burger King. And of course my beloved chocolate heaven - Laderach stores. Did you do any of the optional or extra cost excursions? We're still waiting or our passport renewals so we haven't been able to complete our registration and see what's available. Caviargal & Coolerchick -- thanks for you comments and tips. This will be our first river cruise and we're really looking forward to it, but its a long eight months to wait.....
The other area I really liked in Strasbourg was Petite-France. This tiny neighborhood is split up by canals that are lined with gorgeous half-timbered homes (the iconic style of German architecture with wood beams on the exterior). We walked through here on our guided tour, and I came back afterwards to enjoy the views for a bit longer. Get our free guide to eating like a local when you travel.
Going BtoA - you have a full day in Rudesheim, going AtoB, you only have 1/2 day. As others have mentioned, look at port times in each city for each direction. At this point in the cruise, the Rhine starts to become much more scenic. Beautiful villages and vineyards can be seen in all directions. Rüdesheim is a touristy town known for its wineries and historic center, called the Drosselgasse.
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