Today was the day excursions opened for our Viking Ocean Cruise this fall.
I was very nervous about getting the tours I wanted.
It’s important to only me and I wanted to report so that it seems real
I got almost every single thing I wanted. My first choices! There was one tour that I wished I had gotten but it’s ok, it wasn’t one of my top choices
Looks like the place is ready for fun! I suspect many will want to visit the lake house!
So glad to hear that. It’s the details like that that make a trip better!
I’m going on my first Viking River Cruise in October, would love to see a post
about your ocean cruise when you get back!
I’d love to hear about your river cruise when you get back!
I don’t think renewal requires a new interview. I think the trick for people who live far from an interview site is to fly through a city with an interview site and leave yourself a long layoff time.
It’s interesting to see how much August flights to Europe have come down since last year, even just a few weeks out: I just checked and was quoted $720 for SFO-LHR round trip in standard economy and only $520 in basic economy for the first two weeks of August. The combination of a declining dollar and lack of willingness of European travelers to come to the US must be really hurting the airlines.
We are up at our vacation home on a lake. We cycling every day (we missed one day because of rain) on a rail trail that runs alongside a river that has cafes every few miles. We work in the morning and then drive down to the rail trail and cycle for 1-2 hours. After the cycling, ShawWife goes for a swim in the lake and then we make dinner (mostly she makes dinner and I clean up).
We rented an e-bike for her (we were getting her bike repaired) and it is great for me because I normally have to stop and wait for her periodically, especially after uphills (I like climbing) and downhills. With the e-bike, she is faster than me and I get an unbelievable workout trying to keep up with her.
I had been against e-bikes because I thought I wouldn’t get exercise. But, we rented pedal assist e-bikes (they just give you a bit of extra power when you are pedaling but aren’t like a motorized bike) in Japan and you can really push yourself on them. No problem getting exercise. In the next couple of years, we will probably buy e-bikes as they allow us to climb hills that would have been daunting and to go farther knowing that we can get back.
We had to do it for our last trip a couple of months ago.
Where is this magical place you and your wife vacation? No need to be specific, but it sounds perfect!
@mompop, we are in the Laurentians, which is an area north/northwest of Montreal. The Laurentians are a low-mountain-y area with hundreds of lakes. People in Montreal of all classes used to have “cottages” on a lake here for winters and vacations. The cottages could run from a shack to a very fancy house. In the winter, one can ski in many areas, though the best known is Mont Tremblant, which has the biggest vertical drop in the Eastern US/Canada. Like all Eastern skiing, it is frequently icy or hardpack. The rail trail runs in the tracks of the train that used to run from Montreal to the various ski areas. It runs from St. Jerome past Mont Tremblant. Much of it runs next to the Riviere du Nord, so the views are lovely and the cycling is pretty flat because it was an old train track. Many of the old train stations have been converted into cafes and there are cafes and restaurants near a lot of the old stations. The restaurants in the Laurentians here were pretty bad 30 years ago (unlike Montreal, which has always had some very good restaurants), but partly due to increasing affluence and partly because of Covid enabling people to move out here full-time, the restaurants and food generally are much better. We are in a town between St. Jerome and Mt. Tremblant.
ShawWife and one of her siblings purchased the cottage that her family owned when she was growing up. It had suffered benign neglect because, for a generation, no one knew who was going to own it. So, we knocked down what had become a moldy, delapidated cottage and ShawWife and sister built a lovely house on a surprisingly low budget. I’m typing while looking out on the lake in two directions. When ShawWife grew up, they would drive a few minutes to the local ski area St. Sauveur-des-Monts every Friday night, Saturday and Sunday (and winters were longer then). They would swim and hike in the summer, hike in the fall, and snow-shoe, cross-country ski in the winter. (I think spring barely existed and was fairly mucky as all the snow melted.) Climate change has happened. Winter is shorter and we actually put in AC into this house (unthinkable when the prior house was built).
I would be cycling now, but it has been raining on and off all day.
Thanks for the great info! I read your description to my h and we are going to plan a trip next summer to Montreal and aim to find a rental in that area. I looked at images of the Laurentian Mountains and it is stunningly beautiful.
Several here have mentioned Viking River Cruises. I returned last night from sailing the Danube Waltz and overall it was a delightful experience. Food and service were wonderful and I especially loved Budapest and Vienna. I would highly recommend Budapest TukTuk and we took a private tour at the Belvedere Palace with an art historian from Viator that was especially good. In the interest of honesty though, I would caution those with bad knees or some other impairment (I have a knee that desperately wants replacing and I had a minimally invasive back surgery last December) that there are challenges. Viking booked me to connect through Frankfurt and that part of the trip was disappointing. I had to de-plane from 747 to terminal and then back out of terminal to connecting flight to Budapest using steps and carrying my carry-on and personal item. I don’t need a wheelchair, but it was a struggle to use steps with hands full and no offer of assistance from airline personnel. It was also a struggle to get off & on boat when we were docked next to another ship from a different brand as we had to climb steps to sundeck to cross over and then climb back down. If you or a traveling companion have some limitations, be prepared to settle for an experience that may involve staying on the boat at times. My Danube Waltz itinerary was best (Budapest to Passau) as compared to boarding in Passau and disembarkation at Budapest, IMO. In this direction, you still have enthusiasm and energy early for the big city highlights of Budapest and Vienna. So nice to have checked this off my bucket list!
Congratulations on what sounds like a great trip.
The last time I flew, I was offered a wheelchair, and after hesitating for a moment, the attendant said, “It’s a long walk to the other end of the airport [San Juan].” And I took it. I strongly advise solo travelers of a certain age who are traveling alone with “stuff” to just say yes.
Oh that is fantastic! I’m getting super excited for my GE tour in October and have been walking and stair climbing to hopefully strengthen my legs/knees. I do have a TukTuk tour booked in Budapest and we are doing the Mozart & Strauss Concert in Vienna. We do have the Belvedere Upper Museum on our schedule as well (looking for the Kiss!) Hoping the weather is cool, I am so terribly tired of the heat already.
Naples, Italy
We are stopping here in November on our cruise.
I’d like to see Pompeii and Herculaneum.
I’m signed up for a half day tour to Pompeii through the cruise line. There is no excursion to see both.
I can always sign up for a tour outside of the cruise line
I’m positive there are those here who’ve been to both.
Your opinion if this is a good idea, should I book an outside tour? The thing I’m worried about is booking it and they don’t have enough people for the tour and cancel. It’s November after all.
I keep hearing that booking excursions with the cruise is more expensive than booking yourself but the prices don’t seem to be saying that.
I am looking at viator or cruise excursions websites. If you have a lead on a good guide, that would be great!
For people who have done Viking Cruise - what would you say the average age of people on the cruise is?
Also, what level of fitness would you say the excursions are generally designed for?
It seems like people who go on them love Viking cruises. I’m just worried we are still a little too active to enjoy them as much as some people do (But I may be wrong).
I know they do have more active excursions for those who like the biking and hiking - i can bike regular, not so much hike (although I do like it, just not in shape to possibly hold up others). I have a list of excursions that I can choose from and most of the active ones you will have to pay an extra fee for (they are not inexpensive). We bought excursions in many of the stops but they are the “moderate” ones as my husband has heel issues and I just get worn out if it’s too many hours of walking without a sit down break.
Has anybody taken advantage of Hilton Silver level perk of 5th night free? https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/terms/#hilton-honors-membership-tiers
We are Hilton Silver members, and we do get our free 2 bottles of water (per stay, not per night we learned). But I was ot aware of the 5th night deal. We recently stayed 4 nights at a nice Homewood Suite near family, and we could have done 5 nights if we had opted to do a late night drive from prior location instead of a very early morning drive. Doing a 5 night experiment on the Hilton app, I don’t see evidence of the perk.
Ooh ooh ooh, I know this one! We looked into it when we earned enough points to book a fourth night in Sydney next year (we had already booked three nights). So we thought, let’s ask for the fifth night even though we’re leaving so we can check out whenever we want.
As it turns out, you need to have enough points for five nights and book five nights. Then you get refunded the points from the fifth night. But you can’t just book four nights and ask for the fifth.