Paris to Switzerland

Whichever line you take (I would prefer the TGV on Ama), make sure you spend extra time in Paris and in the Alps.

My husband and I are also going on this cruise on July 29th. This will be our 4th Viking River cruise. I have been looking around to see reviews of the extension to Zermatt and Geneva, and was pleasantly surprised to see your post. Hope to see you on board.

You asked about Zermatt and Geneva extension. I am sorry that I have nothing to add about that extension.

We are staying over for 3 more weeks after our cruises ends in Zurich. We will be using a Eurail pass and visiting Lucerne, Lugano, Chur (overnight only), Zermatt, Brienz, Interlaken, Montreux and Berne. After that we head to Paris where are booked on the Viking Rinda for the August 30 Paris and the Heart of Normandy Cruise.

That's great. We are Steve and Sally Rhodes.

 

Photography is my passion. You can see pictures of our previous trips here:

 

www.RhodesVacations.com

 

Here is our picture in Lisbon from our trip last year to Portugal on Viking. Looking forward to meeting you two!

 

 

 

 

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We are Lou and Sue Grenier from Maine. We are traveling with our niece and nephew (same age as us) which is a first for us. I saw in another post that you are also taking the Paris and the Heart of Normandy cruise. Lou and I took it in 2013, it was a very memorable experience, especially the Normandy Beaches.

We will be looking forward to meeting you, perhaps in Paris if we are in the same hotel.

We are Lou and Sue Grenier from Maine. We are traveling with our niece and nephew (same age as us) which is a first for us. I saw in another post that you are also taking the Paris and the Heart of Normandy cruise. Lou and I took it in 2013, it was a very memorable experience, especially the Normandy Beaches.

We will be looking forward to meeting you, perhaps in Paris if we are in the same hotel.

We are from Texas. We have had great luck in previous trips meeting really friendly folks from the NE, albeit none from Maine. My mother's favorite aunt was slightly younger than she was, so I know that can happen.

Usually all guests are at the same hotel. We are at the Pullman Paris, which has a great location near the Eiffel Tower. We are not on the pre-extension but we are coming in two nights early since we using miles to get there and going earlier worked better.

Usually all guests are at the same hotel. We are at the Pullman Paris, which has a great location near the Eiffel Tower.

We stayed at Pullman Parison on the post-extension of our Viking Avignon to Lyon cruise.

Standing on the bridge a half block from the hotel, I was able to get these pictures in October of 2015.

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We are from Texas. We have had great luck in previous trips meeting really friendly folks from the NE, albeit none from Maine. My mother's favorite aunt was slightly younger than she was, so I know that can happen.

 

Usually all guests are at the same hotel. We are at the Pullman Paris, which has a great location near the Eiffel Tower. We are not on the pre-extension but we are coming in two nights early since we using miles to get there and going earlier worked better.

I am really hoping that we are at the Pullman as well. We have gotten notifications from Viking on all our other hotels, but not the Paris one. I have booked a night tour of the Eiffel Tower and was hoping to be able to walk back to the hotel after. Safe travels, see you in Paris!

I am really hoping that we are at the Pullman as well. We have gotten notifications from Viking on all our other hotels, but not the Paris one. I have booked a night tour of the Eiffel Tower and was hoping to be able to walk back to the hotel after. Safe travels, see you in Paris!

Have you checked your Viking invoice? It's says "Paris Pullman Tour Eiffel" hotel on ours.

I am really hoping that we are at the Pullman as well. We have gotten notifications from Viking on all our other hotels, but not the Paris one. I have booked a night tour of the Eiffel Tower and was hoping to be able to walk back to the hotel after. Safe travels, see you in Paris!

Have you checked your cruise documents? We got our package a couple of weeks ago. Here is what ours says:

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We have not received our travel documents yet. I guess I should contact our travel agent. Thanks for the heads up.

Sue

Have you checked your cruise documents? We got our package a couple of weeks ago. Here is what ours says:

 

 

 

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Got our documents on Wednesday last week and we will see you at the Pullman in Paris on the 29th!

Sue

We stayed at Pullman Parison on the post-extension of our Viking Avignon to Lyon cruise.

 

Standing on the bridge a half block from the hotel, I was able to get these pictures in October of 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

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Beautiful Pictures! Looking forward to being there!!!

Sorry, it's Paris to the Swiss Alps on Viking. I don't have date yet since it's a long ways off. Please see the link I've included.

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/paris-swiss-alps/2017-paris-zurich/index.html#noscroll

I took this and loved it. I had done the Rhine previously with Viking (and Danube) and this repeated my favorite section of the Rhine but with different stops except Strasbourg which was my favorite anyway so I was happy to see it again. The trip from Paris to the Moselle isn't that bad, there is a bathroom/snack stop and some time in Luxembourg to break it up. I wouldn't hesitate to try it. The reason there is not much on CC is that it is a new itinerary for Viking. We went in April 2017 and it was one of the first.

We are looking at our first Viking Cruise (have done many Ocean cruises) in 2019. My husband's bucket list includes seeing the Swiss Alps. We are thinking of doing the reverse itinerary, Zurich to Paris, with the Switzerland add-on. Our travel agent said we would spend 2 nights in Geneva, 2 nights in Zermatt and 2 nights Zurich before moving to Basil to board the ship. Has anyone done this itinerary? If so we would appreciate your feedback. Does this direction give us any nights in Paris included, or would we have to do add-on? Also I have read many negative hotel reviews on the Paris Pullman and Zurich hotel. Again, as a total Viking newbie, would so appreciate your thoughts.

We are looking at our first Viking Cruise (have done many Ocean cruises) in 2019. My husband's bucket list includes seeing the Swiss Alps. We are thinking of doing the reverse itinerary, Zurich to Paris, with the Switzerland add-on. Our travel agent said we would spend 2 nights in Geneva, 2 nights in Zermatt and 2 nights Zurich before moving to Basil to board the ship. Has anyone done this itinerary? If so we would appreciate your feedback. Does this direction give us any nights in Paris included, or would we have to do add-on? Also I have read many negative hotel reviews on the Paris Pullman and Zurich hotel. Again, as a total Viking newbie, would so appreciate your thoughts.

You can see pictures of this cruise here:

http://www.RhodesVacations.com

We are looking at our first Viking Cruise (have done many Ocean cruises) in 2019. My husband's bucket list includes seeing the Swiss Alps. We are thinking of doing the reverse itinerary, Zurich to Paris, with the Switzerland add-on. Our travel agent said we would spend 2 nights in Geneva, 2 nights in Zermatt and 2 nights Zurich before moving to Basil to board the ship. Has anyone done this itinerary? If so we would appreciate your feedback. Does this direction give us any nights in Paris included, or would we have to do add-on? Also I have read many negative hotel reviews on the Paris Pullman and Zurich hotel. Again, as a total Viking newbie, would so appreciate your thoughts.

The hotel in Zurich is fine BUT you have to take a tram about 15 minutes to get to the central part of town.

For Paris Pullman, it has a great location but standard rooms are basic. We arranged directly with hotel to upgrade our room for about 80 Euros more so we could get a view. I took this picture from our balcony.

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We are looking at our first Viking Cruise (have done many Ocean cruises) in 2019. My husband's bucket list includes seeing the Swiss Alps. We are thinking of doing the reverse itinerary, Zurich to Paris, with the Switzerland add-on. Our travel agent said we would spend 2 nights in Geneva, 2 nights in Zermatt and 2 nights Zurich before moving to Basil to board the ship. Has anyone done this itinerary? If so we would appreciate your feedback. Does this direction give us any nights in Paris included, or would we have to do add-on? Also I have read many negative hotel reviews on the Paris Pullman and Zurich hotel. Again, as a total Viking newbie, would so appreciate your thoughts.

FYI - I think you’ll have a great time. We have taken 8 viking river trips and have 3 more booked.

Here is Zurich:

Here is sunrise on the Matterhorn in Zermatt:

Here is one of many castles you’ll see cruising up the Rhine:

Among the many oys of the cruise are the long leisurely meals with fantastic views through the big picture windows:

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Thank you so much for your beautiful photos, the Matterhorn is breathtaking!

Excellent tip on upgrading hotel room - I would have never thought of that!

We go in April Zurich -Paris..when do we receive travel docs? I can't seem to look up our SwissAir reservation LAX-ZUR on the airline's site.

Also...as far as bringing money...should I just put funds in a new debit acct & put our trip (play) money in it? Instead of bringing credit cards, in case they get stolen? Opinions on this?

We go in April Zurich -Paris..when do we receive travel docs? I can't seem to look up our SwissAir reservation LAX-ZUR on the airline's site.

Also...as far as bringing money...should I just put funds in a new debit acct & put our trip (play) money in it? Instead of bringing credit cards, in case they get stolen? Opinions on this?

You don't say who you're cruising with, and that makes a difference. You should probably call your cruise provider and ask them to go ahead and purchase your tickets (most will put it off even if you've already paid in full). Once the tickets have been issued, you should be able to access the reservation on line and change seats, etc.

Documents typically become available 3-4 weeks before you travel, but this may vary with cruise provider.

If you search the forum, you'll find lots of discussions about debit cards that don't charge for foreign withdrawals.

I hope to do the Viking River Cruise from Paris to Zurich next summer. Your posts are interesting. I would like to have some extra days in Switzerland too. My husband and I are not fond of the big cruise ships (we have only done two) but I think we will enjoy the river cruise in that there are not mobs of people. What about the stops though? Will there be crowds of people? Are the areas tourist traps or are they really authentic. I just remember the taxi driver telling us that all the shops in Alaska were owned by the cruise lines. I hated hearing that.

joybob12,

I would say - not having been on an ocean cruise - that none of the places you will see are tourist traps. Even the excursions I have come across on the river cruising board so far all sound "authentic" in that, yes, they are touristy and mostly live from money spent by tourists there, but are also visited by local tourists, I mean day trippers. The Black Forest excursion is probably the closest to being designed for tourists but even there not really for herds of river cruising tourists. They arrived much later in the area than land trip tourists. Rüdesheim on the Rhine is probably the most touristy one, but even there you can walk past the locals' living room windows if you wish to do so. It is an original wine village that is just very popular with people from all over the world. So, "authentic" I would call them. Crowds you will definitely experience. In some places there will be more than in others. Rüdesheim Drosselgasse street is very busy, but, again, it attracts also local tourists and while it is the sort of place I avoid, the other parts of the town have some interesting history and some nice aspects to them. While you will be recommended the same place to see by the cruise director of your ship that cruise directors of the other ships will recommend to their passengers I cannot imagine that you will be surrounded by vendors trying to sell you this, that and the other and try to get you to have your photo taken or things that others have mentioned as being annoying with ocean cruising. No river cruise company really owns anything that I can think of along the rivers apart from their landing stage...

notamermaid

We did the Paris to Swiss Alps in April 2017. It was my 3rd, and we have since done a 4th with Viking (Lyon to Avignon and loved it!) This is a great cruise... has a little more sailing time than some other itineraries (like the one we just did) and the scenery is beautiful. If you want to see Switzerland, you will want to add some more days on the end there. We took the train from Zurich, right after the boat cruise of lake Zurich to Lucerne. We also did the boat tour there and it was wonderful, the lake is unbelieveably clear and we could see the snow capped Alps surrounding the lake. There are other tours you will want to take to get into the Alps... we were a little short on time and weather is more questionable in April so we passed but vowed to return to Switzerland.

You will love the trip.

The hotel in Zurich is fine BUT you have to take a tram about 15 minutes to get to the central part of town.

 

For Paris Pullman, it has a great location but standard rooms are basic. We arranged directly with hotel to upgrade our room for about 80 Euros more so we could get a view. I took this picture from our balcony.

 

 

 

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Hi Steve, my husband & I will be taking this same tour to Zurich in September. It looks great but wondering about the trip to Luxembourg. Does Viking have a bus that goes directly from Paris to Trier? If one of us is not feeling well then that person could go directly to the ship. The main reason we have stopped bus tours in Europe was because of this issue. A river cruise gives that bit of reassurance that one can stay on board & rest. Thank you for any information. .

I hope to do the Viking River Cruise from Paris to Zurich next summer. Your posts are interesting. I would like to have some extra days in Switzerland too. My husband and I are not fond of the big cruise ships (we have only done two) but I think we will enjoy the river cruise in that there are not mobs of people. What about the stops though? Will there be crowds of people? Are the areas tourist traps or are they really authentic. I just remember the taxi driver telling us that all the shops in Alaska were owned by the cruise lines. I hated hearing that.

We just returned from our Paris to the Swiss Alps trip and had a marvelous time. We did it in reverse. I highly recommend the Switzerland extension offered by Viking. Zermatt is not to be missed. Viewing the Matterhorn and riding the Glacier Express across to country was an experience of a lifetime.

River cruising is not like ocean cruising. The excursions are broken down into small groups and typically you'll have time to explore your destinations on your own. Also, I highly recommend the optional trip to Heidelberg.

Lake Geneva

Zermatt

Cochem Castle

Paris