Excursions - Recife, Rio and Buenos Aires

[friendlyfifer]

We will be on the Southern Atlantic Crossing in November and want to make the best use of our time in the above ports. If you have been to the cities before I would welcome your comments on the included Viking excursions. Should we arrange our own tours, simply walk off the ship and around the cities ourselves or take either an included or payable excursion with Viking? We are taking the post-cruise extension in Buenos Aires.

[susiebobtail]

Hi, we did this cruise last month and took the included Viking Tours in all 3 places. I’d say that the only worthwhile one was Buenos Aires which covered  most of the main highlights. Rio was a waste of time as we were bussed to a square and walked around whilst there were lots of vagrants and homeless people sleeping on benches. Recife is walkable from the ship and will only take a maximum of an hour to do yourself. Most of the time was spent in a shopping mall for crafts. Word of warning if you are in Buenos Aires on Saturday or Sunday all shops are closed. And I mean all. 

[friendlyfifer]

Many thanks for your prompt response. Your comments are most helpful. We are fit and able so will walk around Recife on our own and carefully consider, which tour, if any, we should take in the other two cities.

[susiebobtail]

You will have the best time on the cruise. It was wonderful. 

[Kentishincanada]

We took this cruise in 2019.  The included tour of Recife was a total waste of time  It was a walk around the old town and the craft centre and was a searingly hot day with no shade or anywhere for refreshment.  
We took a day tour of Rio through Viking.  It was excellent and very good value as it included all the rail/cable trips up to the statue, Copacobana beach and a wonderful lunch.

The included tour in BA was also very good and took us the the main sights.

As we didn’t fly out of BA until the evening, Viking took us on a very good day tour on a boat up a river and then took us to the airport.

You will really enjoy the cruise.  The jacaranda trees are spectacular in Montevideo and BA.

.

 

 

[LinnieRed]

5 hours ago, susiebobtail said:

Hi, we did this cruise last month and took the included Viking Tours in all 3 places. I’d say that the only worthwhile one was Buenos Aires which covered  most of the main highlights. Rio was a waste of time as we were bussed to a square and walked around whilst there were lots of vagrants and homeless people sleeping on benches. Recife is walkable from the ship and will only take a maximum of an hour to do yourself. Most of the time was spent in a shopping mall for crafts. Word of warning if you are in Buenos Aires on Saturday or Sunday all shops are closed. And I mean all. 

We are also on the upcoming November cruise. I think that your cruise also went to Cape Verde instead of Dakar? The Viking site still shows Dakar as the port so they don’t have any excursions listed. What did they arrange for you in Cape Verde, if you remember? Thanks.

[friendlyfifer]

6 hours ago, Kentishincanada said:

We took this cruise in 2019.  The included tour of Recife was a total waste of time  It was a walk around the old town and the craft centre and was a searingly hot day with no shade or anywhere for refreshment.  
We took a day tour of Rio through Viking.  It was excellent and very good value as it included all the rail/cable trips up to the statue, Copacobana beach and a wonderful lunch.

The included tour in BA was also very good and took us the the main sights.

As we didn’t fly out of BA until the evening, Viking took us on a very good day tour on a boat up a river and then took us to the airport.

You will really enjoy the cruise.  The jacaranda trees are spectacular in Montevideo and BA.

.

 

 

Thanks for the advice. Recife will be self-guided and we will book excursions in the other two cities.

It is strange you should mention jacaranda trees. We have a house in Spain and we love being there when the jacaranda are at their best. 

[ARDXXX]

We did this Cruise about a month ago as well, Recife is a bit of a dump but the last time we were there we went to Olinda which is quite interesting.

We had been to BA previously so we did the Gauchos and Pampas trip which  was very good indeed, an excellent show, great food and drink, well worth it.

We had also been to Rio previously so just did the included trip which was ok but nothing special.

In Cape Verde we did the included trip which was basicly a bit of an island tour and journey up to the top of a smallish mountain, I would not hurry back, we did not go to Dakar as we were informed there was a lot of civil unrest and it might not be safe.

 Weather and seas were good throughout the Cruise and we really enjoyed it.

[gma1]

Did this cruise year before Covid & loved it sooo much!! You do have to like sea days...which we do.

Our weather was awesome & I think only 1 sort of bouncy waves on 1 day.