Loved Lisbon! On Viking River Cruise in Portugal

Sometimes the land part of a river cruise can be a major highlight and big pleasant surprise as Lisbon was for us last September on our Viking trip to Portugal. We also did the preextension in Lisbon as well.

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Great photos! Thanks!

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Wow! Amazing photos. We're heading to Lisbon in July.

Did you happen to write a review?

Great pictures. What did you think of Sintra? Was there much to do in the small town below the palaces?

Great pictures. What did you think of Sintra? Was there much to do in the small town below the palaces?

We stayed over for a couple of days in Lisbon after the trip. We hired a car and a driver for less than $300 and he took us where we wanted including Sintra

Wow! Amazing photos. We're heading to Lisbon in July.

Did you happen to write a review?

I always write reviews. Here are all 6:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/user/?userid=1142190

I tried to book a Lisbon cruise for this year back in December. Booked solid every cruise line.

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I tried to book a Lisbon cruise for this year back in December. Booked solid every cruise line.

 

 

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Viking River Cruise, the cruise line we used, has LOTS of available dates this year.

We stayed over for a couple of days in Lisbon after the trip. We hired a car and a driver for less than $300 and he took us where we wanted including Sintra

Was there a particular company you used? If not how did you make arrangements for the driver?

Was there a particular company you used? If not how did you make arrangements for the driver?

Asked hotel conscierge. He gave a range of options with different car types and times.

We chose a sedan for 8 hours for 275 euros. We told driver we wanted to go to Pina Palace but asked him to suggest other places for afterwards. We rode in a new Mercedes.

At the palace he parked right by the door and waited for us as long as we wanted. 3 hours later after touring and lunch we came back. If we had rented a car we could never have parked anywhere nearly as closely as he did since he knew people.

It was a great day out. Here are a few pictures from it.

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I see they have painted the outside of the Pena Palace since we were last there. I remember our tour guide on our first trip there apologizing because the paint was weathered and it didn't look like the photos online. I told her "No need to apologize. People in the US pay thousands of dollars to get the paint on their houses to look like that!" At any rate, the Pena Palace is beautiful freshly painted or weathered! It really doesn't matter, it's just a magical place!

I read your review. Sounds like your only down side (maybe) was the ship. We will be on the Hemming, so our experience will be different. Counting down until Nov!

Question about Porto. We are taking our Viking cruise in October and I am just starting to do some planning for what we want to do in Porto and Lisbon on our own. I would like to know approximately where the Viking Ship docks in Porto. Is it within easy walking distance to cafes and things to do? We were not planning on any extra excursions while in Porto and thought we would just look around and experience the afternoons on our own. Thanks in advance

Question about Porto. We are taking our Viking cruise in October and I am just starting to do some planning for what we want to do in Porto and Lisbon on our own. I would like to know approximately where the Viking Ship docks in Porto. Is it within easy walking distance to cafes and things to do? We were not planning on any extra excursions while in Porto and thought we would just look around and experience the afternoons on our own. Thanks in advance

We took the Durou cruise a few years ago and loved Porto ... we were docked on the opposite side of the river from them main part of town. It was a bit of a hike but it not unreasonable.

Question about Porto. We are taking our Viking cruise in October and I am just starting to do some planning for what we want to do in Porto and Lisbon on our own. I would like to know approximately where the Viking Ship docks in Porto. Is it within easy walking distance to cafes and things to do? We were not planning on any extra excursions while in Porto and thought we would just look around and experience the afternoons on our own. Thanks in advance

We took the HoHo bus and saw a lot. We took the whole loop to see what was there and then took it again, jumping on and off to see the different sites.

I read your review. Sounds like your only down side (maybe) was the ship. We will be on the Hemming, so our experience will be different. Counting down until Nov!

My reviews are never the everything was wonderful types. My favorite trips ever had many things that could have been better in my opinion.

The best food we ever got on Viking was last year (2016) in Russia. They announced our chef would be working on a Viking ship in Portugal this year (2017). You may get lucky.

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steverhodes - we really loved the Viking Douro cruise also, a few years ago. I enjoyed reading your review of your trip. Also read your other reviews and liked them as well. I appreciate hearing the good and not so good rather than a rave review.

It's nice that you've had great fellow travelers on your river cruises and that's been a high point for you guys. I'm of the more introverted variety that likes the 2-top tables when available (as they were on the Douro) but it's true that being "forced" to be social at bigger tables has led us to make friends on river cruises vs. just doing our own thing and never really connecting with our shipmates.

Totally agree that Lisbon is an awesome city and spending extra time there should be seriously considered by any doing a Douro cruise. Porto was great also but Lisbon was extra special.

Did Viking do any pre-cruise tour of Lisbon? If so do you know what sites they included in the tour?

They had a great 3 hour walking tour of Lisbon on the pre-extension. We liked the combo bus and brief walking tour on the regular part of the cruise but the pure walking tour on the pre-extension was by far our favorite.

Here are some of the pictures I took on the walking tour in on the pre-extension.

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RDC1 -- if you mean did they do a tour in Lisbon if you weren't on the extension, yes they did. It was probably a few hours in the morning and then we had the afternoon free. They took us in a bus to the Belem Tower, Monument to the Discoveries - stopped to walk closer (and take pictures of course) then the tour went inside the Monastery of Jeronimos and in our free time there we went to a nearby bakery, Pasteis de Belem, to try the declicous pastries that Lisbon (or Portugal?) is known for. They're delish. The bus took us to the Alfama neighborhood for a short guided walk. I'm sad to say I don't remember more since it was only 2 years ago but those are at least some of the things we did on the Viking tour of Lisbon (not part of the pre-extension).

Thank you. We are arriving a few days early and trying to avoid duplicate visits.