Afloat

I don't know if you are interested in a private tour.

It was 6 years ago but we used:

Sunset in Oranjestad, Aruba

Vivoli near Sante Croce was wonderful.

Hi-

We cruised from Nuremberg to Budapest with pre-cruise extension in Prague and post-cruise extension in Budapest. Our ship's captain told us that it is preferable to sail in this direction as the ship sails downstream on the Danube. Faster speeds allow for slightly longer times in ports. Our extra time in Prague and Budapest were very worthwhile. Enjoyed the restaurants, concerts, food tours, and sightseeing tours by locals.

I know it is not a Marriott property but our experience may apply. We stayed at the Budapest Castle Hill Hilton as a post cruise extension of our Viking Danube cruise. I am a long time Hilton Honors member but was told that the points and benefits did not apply as the lodging was arranged through Viking.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

Our captain on our recent Danube River Cruise said that German and Russian are the official languages used on that river to communicate with the locks.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

We are looking forward to our Danube River cruise. We will start with a pre cruise extension in Prague and then visit Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Krems, Vienna, and Budapest. I have read that many of the towns and cities have cobblestone streets and we expect to do a lot of walking. Would we better off wearing hiking shoes or are sneakers sufficient? We would like to pack as lightly as possible.

Thanks.

I would second AP Tours. They were excellent and we would gladly use them again. Sarah promptly answered our emails and made sure that we put together the exact tour that we wanted. We had a wonderful tour of Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. It was our anniversary and our guide, Roberto, arranged an excellent lunch at a restaurant in Ravello with incredible views.  We made several additional photo stops including overlooking Naples, Mount Vesuvius, and Sorrento. Roberto was very friendly and an excellent driver. We were never rushed. He returned us to port in Salerno with adequate time. Enjoy your trip!

Hi-

My wife and I will be spending several days in Prague pre Viking Romantic Danube Cruise and several days in Budapest post cruise. We have never been to either city and we always enjoy taking a small group guided tour.

Viking offers included shore excursions of each city. I have also researched city tours which I can purchase. The purchased tour in Prague includes lunch and a cruise on the river. The Budapest tour also includes lunch. 

Doing both the included and self-purchased tours seem somewhat redundant. Are the included tours sufficient or are they too cursory and largely traveling on a bus? Should we do the included tours and then explore on our own? Would we better off taking the purchased tours and forgoing the included tours allowing us more free time or should we still do both?

Once again thank you everyone for your input. It is much appreciated

What hotel did you stay in?

I am doing air through Viking. Their own two day extension is sold out. If I do an extension on my own there inna $100 per person air deviation fee and we loose our transfers.

Has anyone stayed at the Hilton by the castle or the Marriott?

Thanks so much for everybody's input.

My wife and I will are excited about a Viking Danube River Cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest in May that we have booked. We have never taken a river cruise before or visited Central Europe. We intend to do a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague. Should we also do a two day post cruise extension in Budapest? The cruise will spend one day in Budapest. The current cost for the post cruise extension is $399 pp.

Thank you.

We were very pleased with Liset Kotor Private Tours.

We had limited time in port but saw Budva, Sveti Stefan, and Kotor. Our guide Daniel was informative and engaging. He had some excellent recommendations for lunch and shopping.

By the way, both sail in and departure offer many scenic photo opportunities and should not be missed. There are great views of the fjord, Perast, Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George Island.

Enjoy your trip and enjoy Montenegro!

We stayed at the Alda Hotel. We were placed there by the tour service, Nordic Visitor, that we worked with for our land tour of Iceland. We actually stayed there twice, both at the beginning and end of our tour.

The hotel is modern and clean with comfortable beds. It is conveniently located on the main shopping street, Laugavegur, about a twenty minute walk from the Harpa and fifteen minutes from the Hallgrimskirkja. Several excellent restaurants were nearby.

The staff was very friendly and accommodating. They helped us with a problem that we had with Icelandair reservations. The hotel provides you with a cell phone during your stay.

There is a nice breakfast buffet which was included.

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We took the tour and were very pleased. I put a review on TA under kbarrelle.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

My wife and I took the Lucky Catch trip several years ago. It was very enjoyable. We learned about lobstering, hauled traps, and banded lobsters. It was a nice trip into Casco Bay with good views of the Bug Light and Portland Head Light from the water.

Do you mean Maho Beach on St. Maarten?

We had delicious Mofongo at Vaca Brava on a recent food tour of Old San Juan.

Enjoy!

I just looked it up on Google maps. It is an 11 minute walk from the cruise ship pier.

We had dinner at Princesa Gastrobar. It was excellent. They feature seafood and recipes from the 1850s. Relaxing atmosphere with nice live music.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

We stayed at the El Convento and were very pleased. Conveniently located right in the heart of Old San Juan. Easy walking distance to the forts and many restaurants. Very comfortable, historic hotel. It was a 20 minute ride to the PanAm pier. I am not sure what the current prices are.

We stayed at the El Convento Hotel which is right in the heart of Old San Juan. It was a 30 minute cab ride to the pier (traffic). It is a beautifully appointed historic hotel.

We had a great breakfast at Casa Cortes Chocobar (delicious chocolate grilled cheese) and enjoyed a Flavors of San Juan Food Tour.

Dinner at Princesa Gastrobar was excellent.

Enjoy your cruise!

We had been to Auba before. On our last trip we tried something very different which was a lot of fun.

We took a glass workshop at Terrafuse. Marian's studio is in Noord, about a 20 minute cab ride from Oranjestad. After a tour of her and her husband, Ciro's, studio we had a three hour session. We worked with Murano glass rods and a propane torch and made glass beads. At the conclusion we strung them to make a bracelet or keychain. Marian offered ice water and cookies.

Marian is a great teacher and very pleasant company.

We were only there for the day off a cruise but would have definitely returned for more instruction if time permitted.