Vivienne boat/barge tour reviews — 61 to 64 of 64

The biking was certainly the highlight. Loved it. The boat was great, rooms good sized ,staff lovely. Food was not great but ok for price. The vegan in our party was not planned for but chief did his best. Overall certainly recommend.

This bucket list trip does not disappoint. One week of magic. Unpack once and you are good for the week which was a huge part of the magic. Every day was different. Cycling through villages and towns, or wineries and vineyards, or just along the river. The two 'rest days' were filled with walking around Vienna and Budapest and seeing all the sites we could. Food on board was exceptional and the service of the staff exemplary. We also liked that there was time in towns/cities to also eat local food during the day and a few days the boat was docked at dinner as well so although food was prepaid for all meals - we liked that we could also experience local cuisine. It was a mostly German speaking boat or week but we did have about 30 English speakers and the staff all spoke English so that was helpful to us. The routes were good (but we did have to crowd source a bit to not get lost). There is not really anything to do on the boat per se - but the scenery was continuously striking and you go through a variety of locks which is also interesting. We were on the Vivienne which is a newly remodeled boat (a few years back) so the rooms and common areas were decorated nicely. Overall - great trip for active people seeking ease and flow on a vacation where you could see 4 countries and not be stressed.

We were very fortunate that we had beautiful weather the entire trip, except for a brief hail storm as we returned to the barge in Bratislava. The alternate days of biking and city touring was excellent in that it allowed time to recover from saddle sores, and the e-bikes were very comfortable for the long distances we biked. The crew was fabulous and accommodating to every need, and the Cruise Director (Leslie) made sure we were prepared and had everything we needed to make our biking a pleasure and free of stress.

This was a fantastic trip! The boat was great and the crew was the best. Meal were great and nicely served - significantly past my expectation for a trip focused on biking. If you are doing this trip, here are some things I wish I had known....

- You will spend more time on the boat than you might think - pack clothes for that and excursion days as well as what you were for biking

- Speaking of clothes, it is hard to get things to dry if you wash them out by hand - there is a clothesline in the shower but bring your own clips

- You won't have much shore time on biking days or excursion days, so don't bother looking up 100 things to do in a city. Think in terms of a few hours not a whole day

- That being said, I would suggest setting something up on your own in Vienna in the evening - especially if you are into Classical Music - that is, after all, the town for it. We went to the ballet and it was wonderful. Our friends went to the Opera - you might want to take nicer clothes for either of those - they still dress up for concerts..

- Don't bother getting Florints (money) in Hungary - everyone we talked to took Euros, but do get train tickets from your tour guide if they are offered - they are hard to find and the machines are not in English and VERY hard to figure out (we finally found some young people who graciously helped us out)

- Don't count on Wifi. Period. We never managed to pull in any

- The app they use sounds really good but we found it completely useless - even our cruise director said not to use it. It doesn't help, and most of the time when we had a question on the route I couldn't pull in cell service

- Speaking of cell service....play around with what service your phone pulls up. Sometimes if I changed carriers I got a much better signal

- Try to find a group to ride with - it really helps with directions and is much more fun

- The Ebikes are VERY heavy - someone said 65lbs - I don't know if that is true, but they are very heavy and hard to manage. They might help when you are riding, but they are hard to handle - not for anyone who isn't pretty strong especially stop and go in small towns - it is a challenge.

- Every day you have to catch the boat before it leaves port. You don't have to be a professional biker, but you do have to ride along at a pretty good clip. That took us by surprise...it was no jaunt through the countryside - but I am older (60) so maybe that is a matter of perspective

- They set out salad stuff for you to take with a sandwich for lunches - I would suggest taking a small tupperware if you think you want salad on the road, but I would also suggest taking baggies just in case you don't want their prepared sandwiches (which were OK, but not real exciting). They put out cold cuts and breads/rolls and several days we made our own (helpful hint - don't put mayo on in the morning - take the packets and put them on when you eat - just to be sure it is fresh). I also made up some trail mix and took rolls (with Nutella packets) for snacks so the baggies were really helpful.  SHOW MORE