Viking - Windmill and Tulip Tour

I'm looking to go on a river cruise in 2016. My first pick is the Viking Windmill and Tulip cruise. Has anybody done this - I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

What time of year is the best time to see maximum tulips?

I can only reply re the tulips. Best time in general is last week of April/ 1st week of May. But much depends on the temperatures in spring, March and April.

Sometimes tulips bloomed 2 weeks later or even 2 weeks earlier then that. However in Keukenhof you will always find tulips, often also in greenhouses.

We did this cruise with Viking this year (2014) and really liked it. It doesn't feature the spectacular scenery that you have in the Moselle valley or the Rhine gorge, but the towns you visit are very nice (Hoorn, Antwerp, Bruges, etc.

As Ine said, timing is critical. The Keukenhof visit was really spectacular. It'll be on the last day of your cruise. Viking gives you the opportunity to return to Amsterdam for lunch and a free afternoon in the city or to stay at Keukenhof until around 3:00-3:30 p.m.

The one thing that surprised us was the fact that Viking didn't offer a trip to the Open Air Museum in Arnhem. If you do this cruise, I'd suggest that you skip the optional afternoon tour in Arnhem and take a bus to this museum. The concierge can give you the bus information you need, and it's a great attraction.

FuelScience

Viking's Tulips & Windmills cruise was our first river cruise, and we loved it. Although we had unseasonably cold weather, we enjoyed the ability to walk off the ships and into town, back to the ship for lunch, then back to town for further exploration. We took one optional excursion to Delft; such a picture-perfect town. We enjoyed all the towns and villages, and especially enjoyed the windmills at Kinderdjik. The tulips at Keukenhof were spectacular and a fitting finale to our lovely cruise.

Becki

We went on the Mar 24, 2014 sailing of the Delling. The whole trip was great. It was an early spring there and the flowers in Keukenhof were in full bloom for us. They told us the previous year, it was very cold and snow/hail at the same time. So alot depends on the weather, which you can't predict. We were quite worried booking that early, but got lucky. At one port, Viking took us in small groups to visit a local person's home for coffee and cake. That was a wonderful cultural experience for us to get to know the locals personally and for them to get to know us. I would book this trip again without hesitation.

Uniworld also,does a good tulips and windmills tour..we did it in 2009.

I don't have personal experience with Tauck (except the universally good reviews I read here), but their Belgium & Holland in Spring itinerary is more appealing to me than most. Instead of roundtrip Amsterdam, Tauck does a one-way from Amsterdam to Brussels (or vice versa) which covers a lot more territory.

We enjoyed this Viking cruise immensely, especially the port of Hoorn.

We also spent an extra day in Amsterdam at a hotel near the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. It was an interesting neighbourhood of schools, offices etc. where we could observe everyday life. This allows you to experience a district different than the area in proximity to where the boat docks.

If you wish to visit the Ann Frank Museum, prior purchase of tickets is highly recommended. We were also very impressed with the Resistance Museum.

Ine has provided excellent advice re: timing for Keukenhof.

Have a great time. We certainly did.

Hello,

I agree with you Hostjazzbeau about the Tauck itinerary, very nice. They go to the Airborne Museum in Arnhem (very moving, I assume), Bruges (fantastic old town) and finish in Brussels (just great for architecture and modern Europe history connections). What a great combination! From Brussels I would not fly home straight away, but take the Eurostar to London and fly from there.

Having said that, I think the Arosa round-trip from Cologne, which includes the Ijsselmeer is also interesting. 7 night to and from Cologne may mean you get a mixed crowd on some sailing dates, i.e. the same itinerary is offered to the European and US-American market on specific dates. You can look it up online.

A note on Viking: they also offer an excursion to the Airborne museum for 2015, save on Mondays, when the museum is closed.

Keukenhof is spectacular, although I would shy away from it these days. Half of Western Europe seems to gather there in the Spring. Only slightly exaggerating here. You can get many, many coach trips there for the day from Germany! The British also like Keukenhof, many coach trips available from the island as well.

notamermaid

Splendid sunshine in the valley today, and cold!

I don't have personal experience with Tauck (except the universally good reviews I read here), but their Belgium & Holland in Spring itinerary is more appealing to me than most. Instead of roundtrip Amsterdam, Tauck does a one-way from Amsterdam to Brussels (or vice versa) which covers a lot more territory.

Grand Circle has a similar one-way, Antwerp to Amsterdam (or reverse), itinerary that includes Ghent and Rotterdam.

Grand Circle has a similar one-way, Antwerp to Amsterdam (or reverse), itinerary that includes Ghent and Rotterdam.[/QU

 

We did this trip with Vantage and the open air museum was included. we went round trip from Amsterdam with a pre trip to Brussels. Went in late April and tulips were in full bloom. There were a couple of cold nights and the Zeider Zee was quite cold, but Keukenhof was fabulous, the optional tour to Aalsmeer was worth every penny and we could see the tulip fields from the plane as we took off for home.