Cruises in Spain and Portugal

We don't even have our 2015 trip under our belt but are already thinking of 2016. My traveling companion mentioned that she'd like to see Spain and Portugal. What is available? Our preferred line is Viking but will jump ship so to speak. Any little tidbit of information will be 100% more than I know now.

Thank you.

Maliboo, we are doing a Grand Circle small ship cruise that starts in Lisbon (hotel), goes to Cascais & Sintra, then sails to Porto, Portugal.... Vigo, Spain.....La Coruna, Spain and then up thru France and ends in England.

There are several cruises that start the trip with a land tour in Lisbon and then you are bussed to Porto. That is where the river cruise starts. The trip is from Porto to Porto, round trip because the river is so small that one has to do a round trip.

Most river cruises in this area are on the Douro River in Portugal, and most are round-trips from Porto (with maybe an extension to Lisbon). There is another itinerary that goes one-way from Madrid to Lisbon [i only know of this on AMA, but others may offer it too]. CroisiEurope offers cruises on the Guadalquivir in Southern Spain, but they are not very well known in the US yet. The boats on the Douro are smaller than in the rest of Europe [and almost all are owned by a Portuguese company and leased to the cruise lines], government restrictions prevent night-time sailing, and almost all shore excursions require busing -- so these cruises have a somewhat different feel. If you accept the differences, there are lots of good reviews. I've got one pencilled in [the AMA Madrid-Lisbon mentioned above] for 2017.

I've got one pencilled in [the AMA Madrid-Lisbon mentioned above] for 2017.

How to you get from Madrid to Lisbon since there is no river connecting the two cities? By bus?

How to you get from Madrid to Lisbon since there is no river connecting the two cities? By bus?

Yes. One day guided tour in Madrid, one day tour to Toledo (hotel in Madrid), bus from Madrid to Salamanca (guided tour and free time) then on to Vega Terron to board ship. Seven nights on board ship (last two nights in Porto). Then bus to Fatima and Lisbon, one day guided tour in Lisbon, one day tour to Sintra (guided tour and free time; hotel in Lisbon). "Fifteen" days total, counting travel days from/to US.

I see, a combined land and river cruise trip.

I see, a combined land and river cruise trip.

Even more so since we'll rent a car and drive counterclockwise around the coast to Granada and then back to MAD for the flight home. That will complete our tour of Iberia. :)

Hi Maliboo - we're doing a Viking cruise in Portugal this summer: "Portugal's River of Gold." We'll start with a few days in Lisbon then we're bussed to Porto where we board the ship for 7 nights on the Douro (round-trip up river and back to Porto). At the end we're doing the 3-day extension to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

I'll post a little review on this forum when we get back.

That would be very helpful since I have seen very few reviews of this particular Viking trip and none of the extension. I hope you have a wonderful time. I really look forward to your report. Thank you.

CroisiEurope offers cruises on the Guadalquivir in Southern Spain, but they are not very well known in the US yet.

I'm kind of interested in the Guadalquivir because one of the stops is near the Alhambra, which I'm dying to see. Has anyone actually done this trip with Croisi?......if so, I'd love to hear from you. Chydro564@yahoo.com

Hi,

I sailed on the AmaVida last August from Porto to the Spain border and took the post land package for Madrid.

Last week, I was in Seville and saw the Croisi Europe boat on the Guadalquivir. It did not look as nice as the AmaVida, not even close.

And then I visited its website and found that the boat would not sail to Granada, but passengers would be taken there by bus.

Sky shield

Hi,

 

I sailed on the AmaVida last August from Porto to the Spain border and took the post land package for Madrid.

 

Last week, I was in Seville and saw the Croisi Europe boat on the Guadalquivir. It did not look as nice as the AmaVida, not even close.

 

And then I visited its website and found that the boat would not sail to Granada, but passengers would be taken there by bus.

 

Sky shield

Thanks for the heads up....I'll continue with Celebrity for this one.

We are doing Spain and Portugal in Sept of this year aboard Uniworld. The Uniworld portion of the trip starts in Madrid, with a trip to Toledo. We are going in a week early and doing Granada, Seville, and Cordoba. Check out the Uniworld website and it will give you all the details on what we believe will be a wonderful trip. Bus from Madrid to Salamanca then to boat.

Pinotlover - we are seriously considering this Uniworld trip in 2016. Have you cruised with them before?

This would be our second river cruise, although the first one isn't until December of this year on Oceania Regatta through the Amazon.

Dinah

Pinotlover - we are seriously considering this Uniworld trip in 2016. Have you cruised with them before?

 

This would be our second river cruise, although the first one isn't until December of this year on Oceania Regatta through the Amazon.

 

Dinah

Your trip on the Regatta on the Amazon is not considered a "river cruise" of the type discussed on this board. Oceania's Regatta is an ocean-going cruise ship, not a river boat, that happens to make a couple of cruises on the widest part of the Amazon. It will be a vastly different experience than the river cruises that are the subject of this board.

Maiboo -- this is very after-the-fact at this point but if you happen to see this we did the Viking Douro cruise in Portugal this summer and LOVED it. I just (finally) wrote a review. Wish I'd followed through with that in July when it was fresh in my mind.

But we loved everything about it - no complaints at all with any aspect. When I got home I saw Go2see was writing live from her cruise on the same itinerary. She was very thorough and I didn't feel the need to basically write about the same exact things so I didn't but unfortunately she must've run out of steam and didn't finish it.

So if you have any questions if you're still considering the Douro I'll check back and try to answer them. As I said in my review if the world wasn't such a big place with so many places to see I'd definitely love to take the Viking Douro cruise again someday!

Even more so since we'll rent a car and drive counterclockwise around the coast to Granada and then back to MAD for the flight home. That will complete our tour of Iberia. :)

Renting a car in one European country and dropping it off in another will incur a significant cost.

Car rental does provide flexibility in travel. You can stop in Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba and then Granada.

It seems that you may miss Segovia, NW of Madrid, which is one of my favorite small cities in Spain.

It is a lot of driving, and lots to see. I imagine that you might spend a month in Iberia.

Thank you for thinking of me. We are getting ready for our Danube trip so our heads are filled with that. I don't think I can keep two thoughts in my head at the same time anymore. I look forward to reading your review which I'll do tonight with a glass of wine. As I said before, the Douro trip really intrigues me. Again, thank you.

You're welcome Maliboo! Enjoy your Danube cruise :)

Are both the AMA ship and the Viking ship owned by the same company?

Just recently back from our Uniworld Madrid-Douro River-Lisbon trip. Uniworld does a wonderful job on this trip and it is highly recommended. The food is great, the hotel in Madrid is top notch. The excursions and side trips are very well done. I would highly recommend Uniworld for this land and river cruise!

It was nice not being on Viking and having all inclusive without every tour guide and bus driver sitting there with the hand stuck out! The food and quality of wine served aboard our boat far exceeded that on our Viking river cruise last fall. Having cocktails all inclusive was great also. Service aboard ship was great.

I believe this has been brought up several times, but the boats, buses, and employees are all owned by another company. On our boat there were three Uniworld employees: Our Tour Director, the hotel manager, and a Uniworld representative that just floats around visiting the different cruises for mgt observation and not a normal part of the boats team. This is the same for all of the companies Viking, Uniworld, AMA, etc. except CruiseEurope.

The scenery along the river is spectacular. This should be a must do trip for river cruisers. All sailing is done during daylight hours, so none of the scenery is missed. Warning: We had cruisers that didn't like taking their heads out of their computers. This cruise goes through beautiful steep/deep river canyons and through the largest lock in all of Europe. Those people were in agony because wifi is often lost in certain areas of the river and the others had to listen to their constant bitching about it. If you have to stayed wired to the world constantly, this is not the cruise for you!

If I had one negative thing to say about the trip it is the Intercontinental Hotel in Lisbon where we stayed. Even though it is a 4 Star hotel, service sucked and the hotel staff had a none caring g-a-s attitude. The hotel is also not very convenient to the City Center. If Uniworld could do one thing to improve this trip it would be to dump that Hotel. This feeling was shared by many/most on our trip.

Got2Cruise: this was on another site...(I can't verify it's accuracy):

Ships Owned by Douro Azul

Spirit of Chartwell

AmaVida

Queen Isabel

Douro Spirit

Douro Queen

Douro Queen

Douro Cruiser

Douro Princess

Douro Prince

Enigma (yacht)

Cenarios (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Carlota Do Douro (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Catarina Do (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Viking Torgil

Viking Hemming

FWIW, I will say that the on the Viking Torgil there was no feeling of it being anything but a Viking ship. We've sailed before with Viking and this had the same exact vibe. So in our case having another owner really was a non-issue.

Got2Cruise: this was on another site...(I can't verify it's accuracy):

 

Ships Owned by Douro Azul

 

Spirit of Chartwell

AmaVida

Queen Isabel

Douro Spirit

Douro Queen

Douro Queen

Douro Cruiser

Douro Princess

Douro Prince

Enigma (yacht)

Cenarios (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Carlota Do Douro (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Catarina Do (scenic, day and evening cruises)

Viking Torgil

Viking Hemming

 

FWIW, I will say that the on the Viking Torgil there was no feeling of it being anything but a Viking ship. We've sailed before with Viking and this had the same exact vibe. So in our case having another owner really was a non-issue.

Thanks. Very interesting information.

My understanding is that Douro Azul builds each ship to the specifications of the particular cruise line [subject to the limitations of smaller locks on the Douro] -- so they don't look alike; and while they staff the ship, it is under the direction, and therefore at the luxury/inclusiveness level, of the cruise line. So the ownership doesn't affect the experience and each ship still feels like that cruise line, rather than some Portuguese cookie-cutter.

Scenic begins this itinerary next year and owns and operates their ship on the Duoro.