Cruise Routes with Shorter Distances Between Port and Town/Destination

[LucilleMS]

We are looking at several Viking Ocean Cruise options around Europe.  Our preference is to avoid long bus rides between port and the destination; I've read some itineraries have a 90 bus ride at each stop.  Would love to hear if you enjoyed a cruise where several town stops were in walking distance of the ship, or at least a bus ride of 60 minutes or less.

[SantaFe1]

25 minutes ago, LucilleMS said:

We are looking at several Viking Ocean Cruise options around Europe.  Our preference is to avoid long bus rides between port and the destination; I've read some itineraries have a 90 bus ride at each stop.  Would love to hear if you enjoyed a cruise where several town stops were in walking distance of the ship, or at least a bus ride of 60 minutes or less.

We are looking at the same thing.  On our British Isles Explorer cruise we had many, many excursions where the bus ride was 90 minutes each way and only 75-90 minutes at our destination, whether you booked with Viking or on your own.  Our next cruise is a Viking River cruise, which we hope will give us destinations with less time on the bus.  I also wish Viking would post the bus times in the description of the excursion.  They certainly know them, since the bus time is always given in the port talks, and Viking runs these excursions several times a week.

[LucilleMS]

@SantaFe1 We took the Viking Rhine River Cruise (Basel to Amsterdam) and found most ports were within walking distance of town.  We did skip the Breisach excursions (bus) and just wandered the town. Strasbourg involved a 45min (ish) bus trip. But Cologne, Speyer, and Rudsheim were all easily accessible from port.  At times, we even returned to the boat for lunch, then headed back into town. I did call and ask an agent to go through the itinerary with me, including bus travel time, and she did.  Based on this, we skipped the excursion in Breisach.

[OneSixtyToOne]

Have you considered a Viking River cruise? The Grand European cruise offers exactly what you are looking for. 
 

That being said, Empires of the Mediterranean does offer you a cruise that can eliminates long bus rides.

Any itinerary involving Rome or Florence will necessitate a very long bus trip unless you opt for a closer excursion.

 

Edited May 30 by OneSixtyToOne

[LucilleMS]

@OneSixtyToOne - we have taken a Viking River Cruise (Rhine). I will look at Empires of the Mediterranean. Thank you!

[WanderingBrit]

We've booked Empires of The Mediterranean for 2025 in part because so many of the ports are "right in town"