Viking Paris, Burgundy and Provence

My husband and I will be sailing on the Viking Buri in October. We are doing a pre-extension in Paris and Dijon, then boarding the boat in Lyon and sailing for 8 days ending in Avignon. Although there is at least one shore excursion included at each port, it seems like there will be quite a bit of down time. Does anyone recommend other excursions to look into? Also- recommendations for both Paris and Dijon? Has anyone taken this cruise before? Is there a lot of down time? Are there things to do on your own or with an outside tour guide at each port? Any recommendations or ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

We have done this itinerary twice and it is our all time favorite! We cruised with AMA and Uniworld and there was very little down time. Great choices of included excursions (AMA excels in this regard) as well as a lot to see and do in the ports themselves. I don't know how Viking does things but we were never bored in our Rhone cruises, and I bore easily. On AMA, the entertainment they brought aboard was great as well.

We did a hike in the vineyards which was great!

Check out Pont du Gard and Carrieres de Lumieres: http://carrieres-lumieres.com/en

We set up a few private tastings as we very much enjoy wine.

Thanks for your feedback. It appears that Viking has one scheduled excursion per day, and it's about 4 hours each time. This makes me think that there will be plenty of afternoons free. The add on excursions either conflict with the free ones or don't seem appealing. Which of the ports did you do the hike on? And also the private wine tasting? How did you go about scheduling it on your own?

We did this itinerary with Viking in April. We found the pre-cruise time in Paris nice. Viking did provide a city tour, but we went out on our own as we had been to Paris before. The two days in Dijon were full of activities, including a city tour, visit to a Burgundy vineyard and wine tasting, a visit to Beaune and the old hospital. Along the highway we stopped in Bourg-en-Bresse and learned about the famous chickens, visited the local market and had a cheese tasting. Whew! On the way to Lyon to embark the ship we also stopped in the medieval city of Perouges. The only down time we had was lunch and dinner on our own. I hope you get Charles as your guide, he was wonderful.

Once on the ship, there is some down time, depending on which optional tours you are interested in. We did two optional tours.....the Chateauneuf-du-Pape tour and wine tasting that we really enjoyed, recommended if you like wine, and the Carrieres de Lumieres/Les Baux tour. Carrieres de Lumieres is an old limestone quarry where they project art on the quarry walls, accompanied by different kinds of music. I would highly recommend this, it was one of the highlights of our trip! Les Baux is a medieval town high in the hills. It was okay, but a little busy and touristy. We liked Perouges better.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much! I'm going to take your advice- we already booked the Chateauneuf-du-pape tour, as we enjoy wine also. I'm also going to book the Lumieres as well. The stop on the way to the boat is not mentioned, as there is nothing scheduled for that day. I'm hoping they also take us to Perouges. Any suggestions for lunch and/or dinner while on land? Do they offer suggestions as well?

Your tour guide should have suggestions for lunch and dinner, ours always was willing to provide advice. The hotel in Dijon was a little out of the town center with not much around. We went to the local grocery one evening and bought bread and cheese, had a picnic dinner in our room. The second night we ate at a neighboring bistro and had a surprisingly good pizza. Can't remember the name, but it was right next to the grocery store and across the street from the hotel on the same side of the street. Sorry I'm not more help. Enjoy your trip!