First time on Viking/Rhine

[Rocket1954]

Doing a Viking Rhine River cruise from Basel to Switzerland. Our first river cruise. Looking for suggestions/tips of any kind. Favorite excursions. Thanks

[CDNPolar]

What is the name of your cruise?  What dates?

 

Are you doing Basel to Amsterdam?  (Basel is in Switzerland) Must have done a typo...

 

There are other Rhine cruises, so it will be important for us to know which one, and when.

 

 

 

 

[Rocket1954]

Rhine Getaway, Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam, 8 days, Sail date April 27, 2025

[JordanF]

I have done this route (the other way) on Avalon.  For us a highlight was the day we sailed by all the castles.  Some passengers viewed this from their rooms, but that only lets you see one side of the river, so I recommend viewing from someplace where you can all around (we viewed from up top).  

 

This is a great route--have an awesome trip!

 

FWIW, here is a link to our review:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=536856

 

[WanderingBrit]

We've just booked Amsterdam to Basel for March 29th 2026, taking advantage of $50 deposit and double past guest discounts makes it pretty attractive. This will be our first river cruise too, unless we add something else in the intervening 2 years 😃

[jzsackst]

Any shore excursion recommendations?

[CDNPolar]

Asking what cruise because I just returned from Treasures of the Rhine which is Amsterdam to Basel, but this has different ports than Rhine Getaway.

[trivia addict]

We did this cruise  from Basel to Amsterdam last summer.

As mentioned the highlight of the cruise was the day that we cruised by the castles on the Rhine. Deck chairs are set up on the outside top deck so that both banks of the river can be seen. Waiters will come around with drinks and appetizers and a commentary of what you are seeing will be broadcast as you travel up the river. It is a full day experience.

 

Most of the included excursions were rather tame for us since we have been to Europe several times. City tours were rather repetitive.
I would suggest you look into the purchased excursions, they are probably better. 

 

On the last day, we took the excursion of the dairy farm and then we proceeded to the  Windmill tour  which is a world heritage site. It was fantastic. Highly recommend this tour.