Danube River Tour & Trip Reviews

We paid for a 3 week luxury river cruise but received a large group bus trip across Europe with many days of packing and unpacking. I called our Viking representative when we received an email message just 2 days prior to departure that mentioned a possibility of problems with low river levels. I was assured that everything was "normal" In reality, as we learned later from ship personnel, nothing has been normal for at least 3 months. About 2 weeks prior to departure, we received by mail, lovely personalized booklets describing all the details of our voyage on the Viking Lif, which we were to board in Russe, Romania. Instead, we boarded the Viking Aegir but not at Russe, because the Danube was too low. Instead we rode buses upstream to a port on the Romanian side directly opposite our first scheduled stop at Nikopol, Bulgaria. We had a beautiful cruise through the Iron gate gorge, but after three more scheduled stops in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia, our voyage was terminated in Mohacs, Hungary, an unscheduled place two days short of reaching Budapest. So we were herded into buses for a 1.8 hour ride each way to our scheduled stop at Kalocsa. The next day we retraced the journey to Kalocsa and continued an extra 1.5 hours to reach Budapest. We lost the entire morning in Budapest and spent the night at the Marriott hotel. The next day we lost the entire afternoon in that city because we had to take a 4 hour bus ride to Vienna. Where we were put aboard the Viking Embla. Our voyage on that ship ended two steps later at Passau Germany. After a day in Passau we went upriver for a short distance and it seemed that we had entered the canal to take us to the Main river. But much to our surprise, it was a dead end channel for an industrial port. We spent two days there with our balcony room moored tightly against another Viking ship so there was nothing to look at but the scenery at that site was even worse than looking at someone else's window and the balcony was unusable anyway due to the unpleasant odors at that site. The pattern continued with a long round trip bus ride the next day to our scheduled stop at Regensburg and a 3 plus hour trip the following day to Nuremberg where we finally boarded the Viking Lif. A crew member told us that the Lif had not traveled east of Nuremberg for 3 months. We sailed from Nuremberg to scheduled stops in Bamberg, Wurzburg, and Werthiem and then our voyage terminated for good at an unscheduled port in Mainz. Once again we endured a long round trip journey to our next scheduled stop at Koblenz, followed by a 10 plus hour bus trip (with lunch and a walking tour in Cologne) to Amsterdam and a night in a hotel. Despite a promise that our bags would be in our rooms (they did take great care to provide us with tags so they could easily keep our bags organized) all the baggage was dumped in the hotel garage and it took a good 15 minutes of searching to find it and then take it to our rooms ourselves. There is much more, but it would only be more descriptive of the misery of this trip. We know Viking didn't cause the low river levels, but they did not need to lie to us and make us suffer because of it.

I booked a 981euro holiday with Intrepid in July 2017. They emailed me a few days after booking to tell me that trip was cancelled and that I was entitled to a refund. Fair enough. I emailed back that day to say I would accept the refund. No response or returned money ensued so I contacted them about this again a few days later. A lady told me via email that my refund had now been requested and was on the way. A little peeved that I had to remind them of money they owed, esp as they had cancelled.
Almost a week later and my bank account still empty. I contacted again and they told me they would authorise my refund. I was getting really worried at this stage. They seemed so indifferent. Meanwhile I didn't have the money in my account to book another holiday during my annual leave. I continued to call and email. Finally after numerous unanswered phonecalls and 15 emails (all unanswered bar 2), I finally got my money back almost two weeks after they cancelled. It was hard work and stressful trying to get it back. I am distrustful of intrepid and will steer clear of them.
Be warned - once you have paid they don't care. Customer service atrocious - over a dozen unanswered calls and emails. I will never have dealings with them again.

I just came back from a bike tour to Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Everything was very well organized and planned. Nothing is perfect but this active/adventure vacation was very close to it, at least in my opinion and expectations! I will do it again.

Small groups are ideal! Like that the tour leader is local to the region. Itinerary is generally very good.

I really enjoyed the small group size of the trip and the options were excellent both in terms of scenery and learning about the history of the places visited from an excellent trip leader. in particular some of the highlights for me were the Vukovar memorial hospital, the tour in Sarajevo with Muhumed and Bojana tour in Belgrade. i felt well informed through out the trip and the balance between planned activities ands free time was well planned. The stay at the rafting camp had some amazing scenery, however it was disappointing that white water rafting was listed as an optional activity but is no longer recommended by intrepid.

The whole trip was very interesting. Glad gave a fantastic perspective on all the history background and showed us loads of great areas

The trip was well organised and run. It gave me the opportunity to see things and meet people that I probably couldn't have done on my own.

The trip was a match for the best of those I have been on with other companies.

Trip went past our expectations. Saw and learnt so much from genuine guides and well chosen destinations.

Having a great set of destinations plus the balance between days included in tour vs free days was a great selling point. Also Vlad was extremelu aproachable and knowledgbale

Everything was planned well. Eliza did everything to make the trip informative and smooth. The itinerary was well thought out.

Interesting cities/cultures, seamless travel across countries/borders, excellent guide, great transport vehicle.

This trips ranks amongst the top that I've been on - a perfect blend of activities versus free time. Very educational, great food and sights, and an excellent group of travelling companions!

A very informative experience loved most of it.

Size of group balance between structured approach and freedom to do your own thing use of multiple transport options and places to stay a little outside of the square