3 Things You Should Know Before Booking a Viking River Cruise

I’m so excited to share more details of the Viking River Cruise that my mom and I went on in the Provence region of France! My perspective may be slightly unique as I’m not the target demographic for these types of cruises (I was the youngest guest on the ship by about 30 years!), but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would definitely go on another one. Our cruise was 8 days long and it felt like the perfect amount of time to spend on the ship, especially as first-time river cruisers and not knowing what to expect! We started our cruise in Avignon and visited some adorable little towns along the Rhone river like Arles, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Viviers, and Vienne before we ended in Lyon. In this post I want to share the 3 main takeaways I had from our trip, including things I loved and things I would do differently next time. If you’re considering a river cruise or if Provence is on your travel bucket list, I hope these tips help you with your planning!

Take advantage of the extensions & excursions

When you book a cruise through Viking be prepared for “extravagance” as my mom and aunt would say. It truly is incredible and every detail has been meticulously curated with the guest experience in mind. You can customize your trip as much as you want and Viking offers select pre and post cruise extensions that you can opt in to. My mom and I chose to add 3 days in Nice on the front end of our trip and I’m so happy we did! We had never been to Nice before and were completely in awe of the city’s beauty (the 4 photos shown above were taken in Nice). We booked our airfare and hotel through Viking which meant that we were greeted at the airport by a Viking representative and chauffeured to our hotel in our own private car. It was so nice to feel taken care of after traveling for 20 hours and feeling incredibly jet lagged. We spent the next 2 full days in Nice and went on a driving/walking tour of the city which was included in our trip package. There were a couple other excursions we could have purchased for $175-$225 per person (one of which was a trip to the famous Monte-Carlo casino in Monaco), and in hindsight I wish I had known about them before we arrived otherwise I would have done one! I felt a bit blindsided by the cost in the moment but looking back it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I wish I had said “yes” to. One of the other perks of booking this pre-cruise extension in Nice was that we were able to acclimate to the 9-hour time change before we boarded the ship. If we didn’t have those 3 extra days to adjust I think the first several days of our cruise would have been pretty rough and we would have potentially missed out on some of our tours.

We did several excursions during the rest of our cruise and I’m so glad we tried to maximize those experiences as much as possible. We were in a new city just about every day, so in the mornings there was usually a walking tour of the city that you could opt in to and there was no additional cost for those. It’s a great way to stretch your legs off the ship and learn about the history of the town you’re visiting that day. Viking also offers other excursions and tours for an additional cost, typically because they are more niche or you’re getting on a bus to drive to a different part of the town. You can book these on Viking’s website ahead of your cruise, and I recommend doing that because there are usually limited spots available and they can book up quickly. Sometimes the additional cost tours coincide with the free walking tours, so you’ll need to decide which one you want to prioritize. One of our favorite additional cost tours that we did was a trip to a family-owned olive oil mill that’s run by 2 sisters and has been in their family for 6 generations! It was such a cool experience to see the olive trees on their farm (bottom 2 photos above were taken there), learn about how olive oil is made, and taste the oil they produce. My other favorite was towards the end of our trip when we got on a bus and drove outside of Lyon to a historic Medieval town called Pérouges (top 2 photos in the grid above). I felt like I had been transported into my favorite Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast! 🥀 There were roses everywhere and the buildings were so charming - it was idyllic in the most perfect way.

With all the various excursions that Viking offers each day of your cruise, you can start to feel very busy very quickly, which leads me to my next tip.

Take A Rest Day If You Need It

This is supposed to be a vacation, right?! I quickly learned that the schedule and order of operations of the cruise is very regimented, which means if you say yes to everything you might feel like you don’t have any down time. Every night you receive a printed schedule of the following day’s activities which goes something like this: breakfast is from 7am-9am, walking tours can start between 8am-9am and last about 2-3 hours which means you’re getting back right around lunchtime, after lunch there’s usually another excursion 3-4 hour excursion, then dinner is from 7pm-9pm and you do it all over again the next day! As an introvert and someone who gets burnt out easily, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with that rigorous schedule 😂 My mom and I chose not to go on some of the walking tours just to allow for a more leisurely morning on the ship to read our books or to explore the town at our own pace. I’m honestly really glad we did that because after a couple days of experiencing the packed schedule we were so tired! After all, I thought the point of a vacation is to relax lol. I can understand why Viking sets it up that way - most of the guests were retirees who don’t work full-time anymore, so they might enjoy the hustle and bustle.

All of this to say, if you wake up feeling really exhausted and in need of a break, don’t feel guilty about opting out of a tour! You might feel some FOMO initially, but there’s plenty to enjoy on the ship like grabbing a cup of coffee and sitting in the library nook or taking in the view on the upper sun deck. On the couple of mornings that my mom and I hung back we read our books and got to chat with the Captain to learn more about the ship which was really fun!

Indulge in the exceptional food & wine

I can truthfully say I didn’t have a bad meal on the cruise - everything was delicious! Breakfast consisted of a buffet complete with an omelet station where you could customize your fillings, and there was also a menu with specific dishes to choose from. For lunch they had 2 menu offerings: one side of the menu had the same classic items every day (Caesar salad, a hamburger, a hot dog, chocolate mousse, etc.) while the other side changed each day to offer you some speciality items. The best part was you could mix and match from each side of the menu to create a custom meal! Similarly with dinner, the chef prepared a special tasting menu each night based on a theme or perhaps the region you’re in. Many of our dinners revolved around classic French cuisine, and one of my favorite meals was the Coq au Vin, tender chicken thighs braised in an incredible red wine sauce. There was also no shortage of delicious pasta and fish, so I ate as much of that as I could throughout the week! I’m not a big wine drinker but my mom really enjoyed their house white and red selections which you could get at lunch or dinner.

I also loved that you could enjoy lunch and dinner in either the indoor dining room or the outdoor terrace. The terrace was a bit smaller and had limited seating, so if you didn’t run to snag a table then you were out of luck. Thankfully we got to enjoy a couple of lunches outside on the terrace when the sun was shining and the weather was absolutely perfect!

All in all this trip was truly exceptional and I’m so grateful I was able to spend time making new memories with my mom 💜 We had the best time and are already thinking about booking another one! If you have any specific questions or are curious about something I maybe didn’t mention here in this post, please leave a comment below! I’m more than happy to answer and provide as much detail as I can. So Viking…want to make me the 30-something ambassador for your river cruises?! 😉 Call me!