Viking free excursions or private tours ?

[gagator2001]

How large are the free Viking Ocean excursions ? Is it better to book private or small group tours ?

[geffric]

Depends... are you ocean or river? What itinary? 

On ocean,  we found some  included tours were panorama tours or bus drive by tours.

In this case we have opted for small private tour usually these are 6 to 12 people tours.

 

On river, most are wonderful walking tours and have been fantastic. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by geffric

[AuntieWerewolf10]

Read the description of the tours carefully. Panoramic is generally a bus tour with a couple of stops.

Depending on location, even the walking tours can start with a bus ride to exit the port authority area. 

Group size is 25-30? Viking offers multiple times for the included tours, but you must sign up and have a ticket. 

We tend to do a mixture of included, paid and private. Arranged private tours using the roll call for our sailings. I have found the cost of a private tour is less than what Viking offers. 

[CCWineLover]

On 1/10/2020 at 8:11 AM, AuntieWerewolf10 said:

Read the description of the tours carefully. Panoramic is generally a bus tour with a couple of stops.

Depending on location, even the walking tours can start with a bus ride to exit the port authority area. 

Group size is 25-30? Viking offers multiple times for the included tours, but you must sign up and have a ticket. 

We tend to do a mixture of included, paid and private. Arranged private tours using the roll call for our sailings. I have found the cost of a private tour is less than what Viking offers. 

 

We've had good and bad included tours.  We enjoy walking and are reasonably fit so the good ones (in our opinions) generally were described as moderate or demanding and involved nearly all walking.  Yes, you may have a short bus ride to get off the pier past local security but then you all set out walking for several miles.  We love these ones!

The ones that described "panoramic" bus tour - were the not so good ones, just bus tours that had some photo and bathroom stops and not much more.  You have to read between the lines.

Our good included tours were in Copenhagen (all walking), St. Petersburg, Gdansk, Tallin, Malaga (Spain), Amsterdam (a wonderful canal boat cruise), San Juan Puerto Rico (all walking).  

Hopefully more to follow on future cruises!

Edited January 13, 2020 by CCWineLover

[lackcreativity]

11 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

 

We've had good and bad included tours.  We enjoy walking and are reasonably fit so the good ones (in our opinions) generally were described as moderate or demanding and involved nearly all walking.  Yes, you may have a short bus ride to get off the pier past local security but then you all set out walking for several miles.  We love these ones!

The ones that described "panoramic" bus tour - were the not so good ones, just bus tours that had some photo and bathroom stops and not much more.  You have to read between the lines.

Our good included tours were in Copenhagen (all walking), St. Petersburg, Gdansk, Tallin, Malaga (Spain), Amsterdam (a wonderful canal boat cruise), San Juan Puerto Rico (all walking).  

Hopefully more to follow on future cruises!

I agree with everything you  said. (Well, except the part where you said you have to "read between the lines".) I think Viking's full descriptions of their excursions are quite accurate, and very useful in deciding what to do. We also especially liked the included tours of Tallinn, and Malaga, and would definitely add Dubrovnik and Santorini to your list of excellent included tours. Many other included tours were quite satisfactory. Only once were we  disappointed by a guide we found unsatisfactory to the point we left the tour and set out on our own. At another port, Zeebrugge, the included excursion does not even go to Bruges, so we made sure to book one of the optional excursions there.

 

We frequently have remained  after a tour to explore on our own, and then return to the ship by the free shuttle offered by Viking in many ports. 

[Clay Clayton]

Having done only the included tours in both Europe (ocean and River) and in Asia, the Europe tours are much better.  Many of our tours in Asia were disappointing. 

 

As extra tall and wide guests, we are pleased to report the Viking has never filled the bus so the two of us are able to have two seats each.  This allows my legs to fit!