madame

We did the HOHO bus in Budapest...a good deal...a two day ticket which included a one-time HOHO boat ride which could be taken in the day or the evening. We chose not to do the HOHO in Prague because it is very expensive and the route is not convenient to the big tourist attractions. Besides, historic Prague is very walkable. All the small towns on the Danube are walkable from the river.

Since the river does not go through Vienna, we were docked outside of town and bussed to the center. The Viking boats were right next to us and did the same.

Nuremberg's dock is in an industrial area and again we were bussed to the old town.

The Viking walking tours appeared to be done the same as ours...small groups with a tour guide assigned to a particular colored sign...blue group, red group, etc. Not sure if they had the headphone sound system that we used.

We just returned from the AmaWaterways Blue Danube cruise. It was excellent! But there were situations beyond our control as to scheduling. First, we had to leave Budapest early because a lock was being closed down for repairs the next morning and we had to go through it before the shutdown. (The boats that didn't leave early were stuck several days in Budapest and became "floating hotels" for day trips by bus.). Then, we had to skip Melk Abbey to speed upriver to get under a low bridge (caused by high rising waters due to rain in Germany). We cleared the bridge by 5 centimeters!

That said, the walking tours were all great with some free time afterwards. We had not planned to do Salzburg, but it was several hours in a bus going and returning and, due to the race upriver, it was cancelled. My suggestion...do Salzburg on another trip. We saw it, included, last summer on a great Trafalgar bus tour of Austria and Switzerland. The Wachau Valley was beautiful.

Our favorite port was Durnstein...very photogenic.

Are you doing the AMA transfer to Prague? The lunch, free time stop in Karlovy Vary was spectacular!

We did Budapest and Prague on our own. The HOHO bus will take you all over Budapest and Prague can be walked.

I will be more than happy to answer any more of your questions.

We just returned from a Danube cruise. We did Budapest on our own for three days before the cruise. We stayed at the K&K Opera Hotel. We had stayed there 5 years ago and decided to use it again. The location is great for either the subway or the HOHO bus which we used. We bought a 48-hour ticket which included a HOHO boat tour as well. The hotel breakfast was fabulous and huge, with a great staff. Just around the corner, next to the Opera, is a wonderful restaurant named Callas. We ate there all three evenings.

I will be happy to answer any of your questions about the ports, but we did not cruise with Viking.

We just returned from the Budapest to Nuremberg cruise with AmaWaterways. We did a 3-day extension on each end, in Budapest and Prague, on our own. We stayed at the K&K Hotel in each city. They were quite reasonable and located in the center of the old town in each city. Fabulous breakfast included. They also arranged taxis for us to catch the boat and to go to the airport. We used Ama's transfer from Nuremberg to Prague...one of the highlights of the trip as it stopped at the beautiful spa town of Karlovy Vary for lunch and free time. Perhaps your bus will do the same.