I’m not a cruise person. I did a big boat cruise to Alaska to celebrate my high school graduation and swore to never do another. I’m not big on mingling. The rooms were loud and small. Our whole group didn’t love the activities. Overall, we had different travel priorities than those a cruise could support.

So last year, when I was given the opportunity to travel along the Rhine River from Basel to Amsterdam on the Viking River Cruise ship Einar, I was grateful for the opportunity to explore that part of the world but apprehensive to spend 8 days on another cruise.

I could never have guessed how much I would love this Viking cruise.

The Good

The Staff

The Viking staff have to be the first bullet point on the trip highlights. They were amazing.

• The servers in the restaurant took time to meet us and learn about us from day one. They remembered our names, room numbers, and orders. They were kind, friendly, and open. They told us about their lives, their families back home, and their experiences working on the ship. We felt such a loyalty to them that we made a point of buying them treats at every port stop. They truly made our trip. Most of them were many-year veterans of that particular route, so they had lots of excellent recommendations for must-see attractions at each stop.
• Our program director was Sam Corbin, and Sam had us wrapped around his finger. He offered kind guidance, expertise in local culture, norms, and expectations, and his funny, insightful nightly port talks were a highlight of our days. Sam also narrated our picturesque cruising day through the castles of the Middle Rhine (more on this later). I’ve never seen a group of 190 people rally more aggressively for one person in such a short amount of time. We love Sam.
• The Maitre d’ was the hardest working man I’ve ever encountered. That man was everywhere. It was like there were 10 of him. We would see him in the dining room, checking on everyone’s meals, and 5 minutes later, he would be outside the window in a jumpsuit, unloading garbage with the stewards. He was knowledgeable, attentive, and kind.

The Destinations

Viking has picked their destinations excellently. Each stop offered something new while blending history, nature, city, and small town excellently. I outline each stop with recommendations in the Itinerary section below.

The Ship

If you’re looking for a cruise ship, chalk full of activities and bonding opportunities, you may be disappointed. But if you’re like me and want a moving hotel with comfortable rooms, good food, and plenty of space to spend leisure time, you will love Viking. There are no “traditional cruise ship” facilities: no theater, no gym, no spa.

There is a restaurant on the 2nd deck, with floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, a bar/lounge on the 3rd deck, with those same tall windows on 2 sides, plus access to a terrace on the ship’s bow. The deck has several tables and chairs near the bow, lounge chairs with shade covers in the middle, and a small track, surrounding herb gardens, a shuffleboard court, and a small putt-putt green near the stern.

The Not So Good

We had such an excellent time on this cruise, so it was hard to find fault, but I wanted to highlight some issues that others had so you could safeguard against those possible hiccups.

Air Travel

Viking offers flights as part of their package. We chose to book our own flights. Based on others’ experiences, this is the right call. It can be enticing to take advantage of Viking’s limited “free flight” offers, but they book flights with long layovers, unnecessary stops, and all flights arrive within hours of the ship’s departure. On our ship, this meant that several guests missed the ship due to flight delays and had to be shuttled to our second port city in a bus.

Instead, I’d recommend doing what we did: plan to arrive a few days before the ship departs and explore the port city. This also gives you a chance to get acclimated to the time zone. We spend five days in Basel, and it was perfect. It gave us four days to explore the city and one day to go on an excursion to the Alps. By the time our cruise started, we were fully on European time and never felt rushed.

The Excursions

This one deserves a caveat. We loved most of our excursions and thought the guides did an excellent job. However, we had one guide who was not as strong. She had an extensive history background, which meant that she could elaborate in-depth on historical events and influence in the city. However, she assumed that we all had the same base expertise in local history, and we often felt lost in her narratives.

The majority of the guides were fantastic, but because the ship auto-sorts guests into pre-determined tour groups each day, guests have no individual control over who their guide is and what they choose to highlight. It’s not a true con. It’s a lack of autonomy that some people may find bothersome.

The Weather

We were incredibly fortunate with the weather. Though we did experience a few classically warm European Summer days, we had a gorgeously temperate day sailing through the Middle Rhine and had no flooding or low tide issues. However, many other tours were not as lucky. Ultimately, you’re at the mercy of unpredictable weather when booking your tour.

I asked the ship’s crew, and the consensus seemed to be that late Spring and early Summer tours risked flooding, while late Fall tours occasionally experienced low water levels, but this was less common. We set out in the first week of August and were repeatedly told how perfect our weather was, so for what it’s worth, early August worked for us.

The Itinerary

Viking offers routes up and down the Rhine. Our journey began in Basel and ended in Amsterdam, 8 days later. We greatly enjoyed the route and the duration in each city and felt Viking created an effective balance between ship and shore time.

On each stop, we participated in the optional free excursion, which I would wholeheartedly recommend. Because the

Basel

We elected to arrive early in Basel, which I highly recommend. If you’d like to read my entire Basel itinerary, also featuring a trip to the Swiss Alps, check it out here:

After a few fantastic days exploring Switzerland, it was time to embark. It was dumping rain as we made our way to the port, but despite the soggy conditions, we were immediately greeted by an extremely friendly, warm staff.

They invited us to drop our bags on the boat and then told us we would have a few hours before lunch if we wanted to explore Basel. For those who arrived hours before departure, I’m sure this was a welcome offering. Because we had already said a mental goodbye to Switzerland, we didn’t opt to return to the city center. Instead, we popped into a few souvenir shops. My partner and I have a tradition of buying a Christmas ornament from each country we visit, so this was a perfect opportunity to find a little fondue pot and Swiss cow.

Lunch on the boat was optional, but we intended to maximize our “all-inclusive” experience from the jump. The meal was delicious! It was our only buffet-style lunch, where the chefs prepared several dishes in the center of the dining room and allowed guests to mill around and partake in anything that caught their eye.

Fair warning for the entire cruise: all meals in the main dining area are at 6-10 top tables, so you will eat at shared tables with other guests. Some people feel extremely attached to the first table they chose. We opted to get new tables every meal, which we were told was a faux pas, but we love a little chaos.

Breisach

We sailed overnight out of Basel and arrived in Breisach the next morning. Overnight, we went through several locks. It’s absolutely worth heading to the upper deck to watch the captain traverse the first one. It tends to coincide with the end of sunset, so there are stunning views, and the Rhine’s elaborate lock system is an engineering marvel.

Briesach itself is not a massive or sight-heavy town (though it is home to a shocking amount of ice cream parlors), but it is the docking point for the excursions in The Black Forest.

Strasbourg

Our second stop was the historic town of Strasbourg on the French side of the Rhine. This was my second trip to Strasbourg, and I’d highly recommend making the most of your time there. It’s one of my favorite places in France.

On this day, you will have the option to stay in Strasbourg for just the morning, part of the afternoon, or the full afternoon. If you’re up for walking, I suggest one of the afternoon options. There are so many gorgeous sights to see and fantastic shops to enjoy.

Because it’s nearly impossible to resist French wine and cheese, we went to a wine shop and grabbed two bottles of the merchant’s local recommendations, stopped by a cheese shop nearby to pick up a cheese board, and hit up a boulangerie near the town center for a gorgeous baguette. Though the plan was to create a little appetizer cheese board, our wine, cheese, bread feast ended up being our dinner that night. We set up a little spread on the boat’s roof and enjoyed a feast as we departed France for another evening of sailing. This evening was one of our highlights. If you’re able to recreate a similar experience with your treats of choice, we highly recommend it!

Speyer and Rudesheim

The next stop was a double header. We woke up for an early morning walking tour of Speyer. The tour’s fixture is the Speyer Cathedral. It’s one of the oldest cathedrals you’ll encounter on the Rhine, and it’s remarkable for its size, condition, and techniques in Romanesque art and architecture. You’ll also hear a great deal about religion in the area, since the Protestant Reformation began in Speyer. This tour’s quality is largely dictated by your guide. Every group seemed to enjoy fantastic guides who injected personal interest points into a largely factual excursion. If you’re interested in a snack or a stop before heading out, you’re given about an hour to explore before heading to the buses.

The buses return you to the boats. You’ll enjoy lunch aboard as you cruise down the river to the quaint town of Rudesheim. Our program director described Rudesheim as “straight out of a Disney movie” and he was correct. The town itself is quite small, so when you encounter the couple blocks of half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets, you’ve discovered the heart of the attraction. Their most famous street is called Drosselgasse. As with many members of the boat – and one of the paid excursions – we opted to eat dinner in town that evening. We ended up at the same restaurant as the paid excursion – Weinhaus Drosselhof. It was good fun, with live music and traditional German cuisine.

The Middle Rhine and Koblenz

For many, the Middle Rhine day is the trip’s highlight. It’s truly spectacular. Around 9am, the ship will begin its passage through this castle-covered stretch of river. Our Program Director, Sam, narrated the route, mentioning anecdotes and historical significance for each castle we saw. Some are still magnificent; others have fallen into disrepair. It’s a spectacle of history and beauty. I recommend grabbing a seat on the lower deck if you’re able to nab one. You’ll have a good wind break, in case it’s breezy like it was on our passage and will have an incredible vantage point to take in the river’s sights.

Koblenz is another town filled with history. This area and Cologne, in particular, felt like parts of Germany where you could still feel remnants of the effects of World War 2. Our guide walked us through the picturesque banks of the Rhine and into the old Jewish quarter in the town’s center, where she shared stories of perseverance and human connection.

After the tour was over, we opted to take a cable car over the river to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, which hosts a small museum. The museum is a bit confusing and ultimately skippable, but the views from the hilltop are stunning.

Cologne

Cologne was our final stop in Germany and a perfect way to cap off this portion of the trip. Our guide showed us best local brauhauses and then left us to explore the magnificent Cologne Cathedral. Cologne is also known for its invention of… cologne. And you can buy the original scent at many stores in the town center.

Despite our trip coinciding with the hottest day of the year, we greatly enjoyed our time walking around the city. We stopped at a backerei and grabbed a pretzel and a baguette (to finish off the Strasbourg cheese). We also stopped in at a few brauhauses and enjoyed the Cologne tradition of small glasses and ice cold beers before heading out for the Netherlands.

Kinderdijk

Our final full day of sailing took us from hilly Germany to the flat Netherlands. We sailed through the morning. I’d highly recommend grabbing a spot by the window with a book, a cup of coffee, or a snack and watching the scenery pass you by. If you look closely on the river banks, you’ll spot wild horses bathing in the Rhine. If you’re extra observant, you might even spot a few camels!

Kinderdijk is a section of quintessential Dutch windmills, many of which are still operational today. The included excursion takes you from the boat to the windmill field. You’ll be able to see the windmill’s internal mechanisms, which have controlled flooding in the area for centuries. You’ll also be able to enter an historically preserved windmill to see how large families lived in the confined space.

Amsterdam

A final evening of sailing brings you to Amsterdam. You dock at the Amsterdam Cruise Port, on the north east side of the city. The staff is fantastic in facilitating your departure. They offer to book you cars, assist in transfers to your hotel, and help with any other final recommendations. We had opted to stay a few days in Amsterdam, but our hotel’s check-in wasn’t until 3pm. The staff let us stay on board as long as we liked in the morning and stored our bags while we went out to explore. We headed back to the ship around 2:30, where they had a car waiting for us, bags loaded. The service every step of the way was truly top notch.

Final Takeaways

We became Viking fans for life after this cruise. The attention to detail, customer care, and balanced itinerary made our experience truly exceptional.

I’m normally the trip planner in our family. It’s fun, but it can feel exhausting – like a vacation isn’t really a vacation. Viking took away all of my prep work. I was able to shut my brain off, go where they told me, and enjoy the best of The Rhine.

On another note, real talk: the stereotypical demographic for these types of trips is married couples in their seventies. My 30 year-old partner and I were easily the youngest people on board, and my 60 year-old mother was still on the youthful end. But if you’re not looking for a lively, rowdy, wild trip, I’d recommend that you consider a river cruise. It’s beautiful, mellow, and relaxing. I firmly believe young people will enjoy their experience as much as we did. We found that our older boat mates were often welcoming and friendly, and we bonded extensively with the young crew.

If you’re on the fence, do this cruise. Plan your departure dates around the weather events I mentioned and book your own air travel. I can’t wait to embark on our next Viking excursion. It was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.