Booking excursions for Viking European Sojourn Bucharest - Amsterdam

[Greysandy]

The excursions finally opened up on the Viking site for booking for our June 2023 river cruise, and I am very excited, but I don't want to overbook and exhaust my husband. We are 53 years old and love to do bike tours while on vacation, although after nearly being hit by a car in New Orleans, I prefer to not do the busy city bike tours. We booked "swan view" room so that we can go on the 3 week cruise rather than the 2 week. I love to be active and busy on vacation while my husband likes to sit in a cafe and enjoy the surroundings so I'm striving for as much of a balance as possible on this river cruise. We are getting the Silver Spirits package because my husband likes cocktails and I like premium wines. We have spent 4 days in Budapest a few years ago but most other cities will be new to us.

 

We are planning on doing nearly all of the included excursions, unless they are replaced by an optional bike tour. I'd love to hear feedback on the tours we have booked, or are considering. These are the optional tours I have booked so far:

Belgrade Serbia Bike tour

Osijek Croatia home visit and bike tour

Budapest Thermal baths

Passau Germany Bavaria E-bike tour

Wertheim bike tour to meet the boat upstream

Kinderdijk Windmills by bike

 

I am considering doing the Spanish Riding school tour in Vienna, and leaving my husband at a coffee house, since is always happy when I don't force him to go on horse riding or themed excursions. We may do the wine tour in Vidin, Bulgaria since it is only $59, a bargain compared to most Viking excursions. We are also trying to decide between the two included excursions in Ruse Bulgaria - either an 8.5 hour bus tour to Veliko Tarnovo, or staying for a 3 hour Ruse architecture. The reason we are considering opting for the shorter tour, even though it won't be as grand, is that the first day of our cruise starts with a 7.5 hour tour in Bucharest and this would be the following day, which may be exhausting.

 

Some of the activities we intend to do on our own or with an independent tour company are:

Belgrade - drinks at Riddle Bar, dinner in Bohemian district

Budapest - Central market, possible wine tour to countryside

Vienna - music

Regensburg - beer and sausages at local place

Wurzburg - hike the Marienburg hills on our own rather than pay $89 for a guided tour with Viking

Cologne - Brauhaus tour (Kolsh beer) with small company

 

I'd also love any suggestions for charming local cafes, pubs and bars at any of the cities along this journey. 

 

Thanks, Sandy

[ljandgb]

We had friends that biked in Belgrade and said never again.  Rough streets, few bike lanes.  They did not like it.  Having been there, I can see how they felt that way, but maybe they just had a bad guide?  I biked in Budapest, FWIW, and had a wonderful ride with good streets and bike lanes and trails.

 

Vidin Bulgaria was kind of boring so wine is probably a good option.  If you have the chance to see Belogradchik in Bulgaria, do it.  It's beautiful.

 

Have you done a river cruise before?  It can be challenging to arrange DIY tours because the times and docking locations are somewhat fluid, no pun intended.

[Greysandy]

Thanks for the information on Belgrade! I will definitely look at changing that. We have biked in Budapest and loved it too. Yes, the ship's included tour goes to Belgradochik and we are excited to see that.

 

This will be our first river cruise, and I have definitely seen through various research how arranging private tours can go wrong, so was looking to do it only where it seems reasonable and there is a large cushion of time, or such a low cost that it wouldn't hurt to lose the money. We have taken lots of ocean cruises and done independent tours but even recently have scaled back on that due to port times being unpredictable. Water levels could definitely change everything if we need to move boats or it becomes more of a "bus tour" which I'm hoping doesn't happen.

 

Thanks!

[deec]

this is great information

we are going in September

greysandy with whom is your Cologne - Brauhaus tour (Kolsh beer) with small company?  My husband would enjoy this!

 

Please post after your cruise with any great information/suggestions from your June trip.

 

[sharkster77]

On 12/1/2022 at 10:56 AM, Greysandy said:

Thanks for the information on Belgrade! I will definitely look at changing that. We have biked in Budapest and loved it too. Yes, the ship's included tour goes to Belgradochik and we are excited to see that.

 

This will be our first river cruise, and I have definitely seen through various research how arranging private tours can go wrong, so was looking to do it only where it seems reasonable and there is a large cushion of time, or such a low cost that it wouldn't hurt to lose the money. We have taken lots of ocean cruises and done independent tours but even recently have scaled back on that due to port times being unpredictable. Water levels could definitely change everything if we need to move boats or it becomes more of a "bus tour" which I'm hoping doesn't happen.

 

Thanks!

You have an included tour in every port.  The optional excursions are worth the cost--the 2 that we took were excellent.  If you have never been on a river cruise, you need to avoid thinking like an ocean cruiser (booking independent excursions, for example)--river cruises are a completely different animal.

 

You could book an independent tour and find out that the ship will not be there when you return.  Or you  may arrive in port after the indendent tour has left due to getting slowed down in a lock.

 

It's been said on these boards that the only similarity between river and oceans cruises is that the ships float on water!

[Greysandy]

23 hours ago, deec said:

greysandy with whom is your Cologne - Brauhaus tour (Kolsh beer) with small company?  My husband would enjoy this!

 

https://koelschcrew.com/

 

This company has a tour that is only 19 Euros, so even if we pay for it and don't get to go (due to ship timing or water levels), it isn't going to upset us too much. I found them on TripAdvisor with lots of positive reviews. You do have to pay for the beer on top of that price which is fine. I had just read so many reviews saying that the excursion done by Viking was a waste of money and could easily be done on your own. 

 

We booked all of our bike tours through Viking and are excited for them.

 

I will report back once we return.

[dd57]

We did the Vienna riding school tour - and discovered after we got there that they were not practicing that week.  The tour showed us the tack rooms and talked a lot about training, etc, and we saw the horses being exercised walking around in a ring, but I was bummed that we didn't get to see them in action.  You evidently can research on their website to learn whether - and what time of day - they are practicing to decide whether or not the excursion is worth it to you.  We were there in June.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, dd57 said:

We did the Vienna riding school tour - and discovered after we got there that they were not practicing that week.  The tour showed us the tack rooms and talked a lot about training, etc, and we saw the horses being exercised walking around in a ring, but I was bummed that we didn't get to see them in action.  You evidently can research on their website to learn whether - and what time of day - they are practicing to decide whether or not the excursion is worth it to you.  We were there in June.

That's why it's safer to do this in one of the other locations with Lipizzaner horses.  Since they aren't practice facilities for the Vienna show, they offer shows for tourists every day.  We saw this in Costa Rica [yes!], and the Lipica Stud Farm near Koper, Slovenia is a popular shore excursion.  [And when you run out of rivers, I highly recommend a coasting cruise in Slovenia-Croatia.]

[LibertyBella]

Well, we leave for our Viking Danube Waltz river cruise in less than two weeks, and my husband, who is an excellent bicycle rider (yes, he has his own road bike, as well as a mountain bike), refuses to do any of the bike tours as he thinks e-bikes are not for true bicycle riders! Also, he is a pretty fast rider and does not like when the bike tours go too slowly, which in his opinion, are most of them. (We are older than you, but very active and in great shape.)

 

We are taking most of the included excursions, but did book some optional ones (Cesky Krumlov from Linz), and then plan on doing independent touring afterwards for the rest of the day.  I did not book the horses tour in Vienna, as you are just looking at them (definitely NO horseback riding and we like that, also). We will visit Schonbrunn palace, a must-see for me, and perhaps go to the the evening music performance, although it has mixed reviews.

 

We decided to pass on the thermal baths in Budapest because some reviews I have seen say that you do not necessarily go to Szechenyi, although that is what Viking shows in the photos, and we just went to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland a few months ago, so we would prefer to walk all over Budapest and explore independently instead. I am hoping we can take afternoon tea at the New York Cafe in Budapest.

 

Our cruise is only a week, and we plan to be as non-stop as possible, but if we were on a three week cruise I could see that breaks would definitely be needed from all the daily port calls. No matter what you do, I am sure your trip will be memorable and wonderful.  Enjoy and bon voyage!

[dd57]

When we went on the Budapest thermal bath excursion, it was not to Szechenyi, like you say.  

[deec]

14 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

That's why it's safer to do this in one of the other locations with Lipizzaner horses.  Since they aren't practice facilities for the Vienna show, they offer shows for tourists every day.  We saw this in Costa Rica [yes!], and the Lipica Stud Farm near Koper, Slovenia is a popular shore excursion.  [And when you run out of rivers, I highly recommend a coasting cruise in Slovenia-Croatia.]

thinking about Slovenia-Croatia cruise...what cruise line did you use?

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, deec said:

thinking about Slovenia-Croatia cruise...what cruise line did you use?

Azamara.  They offer sailings along the Adriatic coast every year, with many slight variations.

 

Another one to look at is Noble Caledonia.  They charter several really small ships (~50 passengers, compared to their usual 100!) and have a wide range of itineraries from those that cover the entire coast to some that 'yacht' around a few islands for a week.

https://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/general_search.php?search_term=slovenia

 

[dd57]

If you go to the Spanish Riding School website, they have a schedule of events held in Vienna all year round including in the summer.  The Viking excursion was the Behind the Scenes Guided Tour.  But if you get tickets for the Training sessions, you get to see the horses in action.  The sessions are not every day.  You can buy tickets on their website.

[lynncarol]

On 3/16/2023 at 11:26 AM, dd57 said:

If you go to the Spanish Riding School website, they have a schedule of events held in Vienna all year round including in the summer.  The Viking excursion was the Behind the Scenes Guided Tour.  But if you get tickets for the Training sessions, you get to see the horses in action.  The sessions are not every day.  You can buy tickets on their website.

My husband and I have traveled on our own to Vienna twice (6 days in total) and visited the Spanish Riding School when they were having a practice session.  I am assuming folks know that this is dressage riding the horses are doing. The arena is lovely, complete with chandeliers. But as a former rider myself with a grandaughter who has taken lessons for years, I still have to admit that dressage is boring to watch.  I know dressage takes a lot of practice and control, but after half an hour watching these very slow precise movements of horses and riders, while trying to peer over the crowds of visitors, we were ready to leave.  Just saying...you of course may have a different opinion.

[Canal archive]

YouTube has some excellent pieces of The Spanish Riding School especially showing their specialtie - airs above the ground - so much more than dressage as you might have seen in the Olympics. Absolutely beautiful horses.

[Greysandy]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:44 AM, lynncarol said:

My husband and I have traveled on our own to Vienna twice (6 days in total) and visited the Spanish Riding School when they were having a practice session.  I am assuming folks know that this is dressage riding the horses are doing. The arena is lovely, complete with chandeliers. But as a former rider myself with a grandaughter who has taken lessons for years, I still have to admit that dressage is boring to watch.  I know dressage takes a lot of practice and control, but after half an hour watching these very slow precise movements of horses and riders, while trying to peer over the crowds of visitors, we were ready to leave.  Just saying...you of course may have a different opinion.

Thanks for the reminder of how bored I can get watching dressage😆. I grew up herding cattle and jumping. Now I just trail ride for fun on my sister's horses. If I'm going to watch horseback riding as a sport, I love watching Team Penning or Grand Prix jumping.

[lynncarol]

27 minutes ago, Greysandy said:

Thanks for the reminder of how bored I can get watching dressage😆. I grew up herding cattle and jumping. Now I just trail ride for fun on my sister's horses. If I'm going to watch horseback riding as a sport, I love watching Team Penning or Grand Prix jumping.

Thanks for the affirmation.  I feared I would get a lot of push-back from dressage riders for my post, but felt I needed to give a j'heads up" to others who may feel as I do.

[ljandgb]

As a complete aside, if you'd like to liven up the dressage coverage, find some videos of Snoop Dogg commentating during the Olympics.  I'll admit, as a Texan used to rodeos, it is also a bit underwhelming to me, but that commentary was hilarious without being snarky.

[Canal archive]

I’ve only ever been to one rodeo it was in San Antonio absolutely fantastic although I don’t know what was better watching the arena or the Texans both great fun but the best was Alan Jackson. Before I was not a great lover of C&W although DH always has been still now years later I still am. The horses were quite good as well.

[deec]

We saw an amazing horse show in Lima and had a wonderful experience at an estancia outside  Buenos Aires.  But back to the Danube any other suggestions?  We will have a day in Bucharest between the Pre- Extension in Transylvania and the beginning of the cruise which will have a lengthy included tour.  Should we plan an excursion through Viking or on our own OR just wander a bit?  Sharkset was 2 optional tours did you take that you enjoyed?

[Greysandy]

3 hours ago, ljandgb said:

As a complete aside, if you'd like to liven up the dressage coverage, find some videos of Snoop Dogg commentating during the Olympics.  I'll admit, as a Texan used to rodeos, it is also a bit underwhelming to me, but that commentary was hilarious without being snarky.

That was truly one of the most hysterical things I have ever seen!! 🤣

[ljandgb]

I saw Alan Jackson at the Houston Rodeo way back in the day.  He does give a good show!  Rodeos are a lot of fun.  I'm not a cowgirl, per se, but definitely appreciate that aspect of Texas life.  I live in a very rural area and know several real life cowboys who work for ranches around the state.  

 

As for Bucharest, we did a tour to the former home of Nicolae Ceaușescu (had to cut and paste that to spell it right!). It was really interesting, maybe more so because the museum guides were over booked so we had our local guide do the tour.  He was up front with the level of corruption and scheming that made him Romania's leader.  The house is not that grand by today's millionaire standards, but it had fountains, tiled mosaics in every room, an indoor pool and garden, and a health suite with sauna, hair salon, etc, all at a time when the population had limited electricity or food.  

 

His wife had an elementary school education, but gave herself a doctorate and her name is to this day still being removed from scholarly publications.

 

It was a fascinating tour.

 

You'll love Transylvania.  It was one of our favorite places on our Prague to Romania trip.

Edited March 24, 2023 by ljandgb