Slavla

We booked with Lofoten Lights and our contact and guide was Claudia.

 

Be sure she knows you dock at Leknes as she will customize a tour going South and west toward the Atlantic for stunning beach scenes Also, Viking does not always stay in port the same number of hours.

 

We did one that lasted about 6 hours. If was 950 NOK per person and max number of pax is 7 (we bad 6).

 

We wenf fo Nusfjord, FLakstad, Ramburg, Sakrisoy (also squeezed in Reine on return), and A with the little "o" over it. I think fhe beach areas were near Haukland and Uttakleiv.

 

They have good reviews on TripAdvisor but we booked indeoendently with them on their website. Also contact email is:

 

contact_us@lofotenlights.com

 

We paid at the end with credit card.

Thanks so much for the advice.

I heard several expressions of disappointment about the Trolifjord boat excursion. The Lofoten islands is more about the beautiful beaches, fishing industry and lovely scenic fishing villages and bays rather than fjords.

 

The included excursion (at least on our cruise) was only 2 hours long and with so many hours in port, there was so much more to see.

 

We ended up scheduling a private group tour of six of us who met on CC for the full day.

 

In the Orkney Islands, the most popular excursion was the Orkney's Stone age. It sold out before we could book so we again did a private tour for the day with one other couple we also did the Lofoten private tour. Skara Brae was very interesting.

 

This is a great itinerary and it really is hard to narrow down your choices of what to do. We did a couple of excursions on several days and that tended to be cutting it a bit close getting back to the ship, getting something to eat and then ready to leave on next excursion.

 

In Geirangerfjord, Viking usually tenders so we did not even try to go back to the ship after the morning tour and got something to eat before meeting up with our kayaking excursion in port. We would definifely not have made if back to the ship.

Which private tour company did you use for Lofoten?

We also stayed at La Prima fashion hotel in Budapest. It was great! A perfect location. Right at the prime pedestrian shopping area on a quiet side street, and a few steps from a wonderful Hungarian restaurant. It's called the 100-year old restaurant and on the same block as the hotel. Fabulous food and friendly waiters happy to share their Hungarian specialties, including the palinka!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Marksburg, according to my husband ( I chose not to go on that tour after hearing how difficult it could be) was in fact somewhat difficult especially with the surfaces wet with rain. Two people slipped on the rocky path and there were lots of steps. Your program director will be honest about the difficulty.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Did they bus you from Lyon to Beaune for the tour there?:eek:

 

Was the problem low/high water?

 

All the great restaurants in Lyon, I would have just spent the entire time eating and drinking in town. Lyon is not a bad place to get "stuck". Chalon on the other hand!

I also would not mind being stuck in Lyon, escially the old town. But I have to defend Chalon a bit!

We spent a day/ night in Chalon. We enjoyed the Sunday morning market, but the rest of the town was closed up. We found only one open shop which was lovely, but most restaurants were closed for lunch and dinner! Not very tourist friendly, but.....we walked across the river and ate lunch and dinner at some fabulous gourmet restaurants. ( there were about 4 open on Sundays.) I would like to return when things are open,as we think it was a lovely place.

In fact, we were disappointed a lot of the trip to southern France that many places were closed- on Sundays on Mondays, 2 national holidays and at lunch.

Oh so sorry to hear of your bad experience, mathspokenhere. While we did enjoy Lyon very much and would have liked more time there, we would not have wanted to miss the rest of the trip or have such difficulty to see the other areas.

What was the reason Viking gave for stopping the rest of the trip? Water levels? Did they do anything to make up for the inconvenience?

I agree that with its experience Viking could have done a better job with alternate plans.

We had a lower-level balcony and did not especially enjoy looking out to a concrete wall a couple times either! Next time we will splurge on an upper deck. Thank you for sharing your experience. It is a good reminder that anything can happen.

We will be taking the Portraits of Southern France Viking Cruise later this year and we are so excited. This is our second Viking cruise and I am hoping it lives up to how wonderful the first one we did going down the Rhine.

 

There is an optional tour to the town of Cluny. Has anyone taken this tour and is it worth going to? Any other information about Portraits of Southern France tour would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I just saw this question. In case you haven't gone yet, here is my take:

We took this cruise in May 2014. We happened to very much enjoy the optional Cluny tour. It's a delightful town, interesting tour and there was an outdoor market the day we were there, which was a treat mingling with locals and tourists alike.

We did not enjoy the optional wine tasting in Chateau Neuf du Pape as much as the 2 wine tastings that were included in the other towns. The tasting itself was enjoyable but not worth the time spent in travel and the money. There was much time spent on looking at vineyards. I felt viking was just trying to fill up a few hours after the tasting. Although the town itself was so beautiful and quaint, there was nothing to do there as most shops were closed( except for a few wine stores)because it was a national holiday.