Biking on Viking

[sandm]

I read that viking ships have bicycles for use on board. My family is interested in a river cruise but some of us are pretty serious about biking. Is there opportunity to go on long rides using the bikes?

I have looked into European bike tours that offer long rides but I would love to be able to combine 2 of my favorites...cruising and biking.

I have also looked into barging and biking but I fear it is a bit too rustic for us.

Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks

[sk8teacher]

Sorry but Viking does not yet offer bikes. There is another line that does but I do not know which one.

 

Cheers,

[2onboardagain]

On our Viking cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, our cruise director arranged for a bike trip between Melk to Durnstein that gave us the choice of either sailing between those two stops or doing that portion of the trip on bikes. Those that took advantage of that bike trip said it was just wonderful. I imagine that if you mentioned to your cruise director that you wanted to do some biking that something could be arranged for you as the cruise directors are extremely resourceful and willing to please their passengers.

[sandm]

Thank you for your replies. I will continue to investigate.

[suspaul]

We did a river cruise with Uniworld where they had several bikes available for passengers to use in port. I don't think they had many and not sure how long they could be "checked out" for. We did use them during our stop in Speyer and enjoyed riding thru town and along the river.

[sandm]

Thank you for your answers. I ended up calling Viking and Yes, they allow passengers to bring bicycles. We would need to store them in our state rooms but they are allowed.

[yvr49]

I think you would find it very crowded if you had bikes in your stateroom!! We have done 3 river cruises, 2 with AMA and one with Avalon. AMA has bikes on board for passengers to use and we really enjoyed cycling along the banks of the Rhine, and also in Holland. Avalon did not have bikes - I asked the cruise director why and he said they preferred not to have them available as they found that some passengers who shouldn't be riding bikes, did so and ended up with injuries. That may have been just an excuse on his part, I don't know, but we did miss having the option of a bike ride on the Avalon cruise. Other than that I believe Avalon and Ama were pretty comparable in terms of quality.

[tassietravellers]

I think you would find it very crowded if you had bikes in your stateroom!! We have done 3 river cruises, 2 with AMA and one with Avalon. AMA has bikes on board for passengers to use and we really enjoyed cycling along the banks of the Rhine, and also in Holland. Avalon did not have bikes - I asked the cruise director why and he said they preferred not to have them available as they found that some passengers who shouldn't be riding bikes, did so and ended up with injuries. That may have been just an excuse on his part, I don't know, but we did miss having the option of a bike ride on the Avalon cruise. Other than that I believe Avalon and Ama were pretty comparable in terms of quality.

 

I think Avalon have the option on bike ridung on some or all of next years cruises. I believe Scenic have bikes.

[4774Papa]

I read that viking ships have bicycles for use on board. My family is interested in a river cruise but some of us are pretty serious about biking. Is there opportunity to go on long rides using the bikes?

I have looked into European bike tours that offer long rides but I would love to be able to combine 2 of my favorites...cruising and biking.

I have also looked into barging and biking but I fear it is a bit too rustic for us.

Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks

sandm, DW and are avid cyclist and bike over 100 miles a week. Those barge and cycling tours are very, very expensive. We did an AMA cruise in Burgundy and Provence and the boat had about a dozen bikes for first come first serve use. You could not really do much long distance biking, 8-10 miles would be long in that scenario. We were so busy with our excursions, we had little time to bike.

[at_nyc]

We did an AMA cruise in Burgundy and Provence and the boat had about a dozen bikes for first come first serve use. You could not really do much long distance biking, 8-10 miles would be long in that scenario. We were so busy with our excursions, we had little time to bike.

I would think a few 8-10 mile ride would be lovely. There're often some free time when the ship is docked.

 

If you really want to do some real riding, better do it before or after the cruise, not during. Though that would entail either bringing your own bike or renting locally (not from the cruise company).

 

As far as storage, you can slide them under the bed. We put our suitcases underneath and still had plenty of empty space. Could have easily accommodated a bike or two.