Bordeaux Cruise?

My wife and I are kicking around the idea of a Uniworld Bordeaux cruise next March. We did a Uniworld last month and loved it and can't wait to do another one. Our question to the board is, does it make sense to cruise Bordeaux?

We ask this because with all of the great wines and food in each location, we feel as if we would be negligent if we ate our meals on board while right off of the ship is some of of the best food in the world. We know how great Uniworld is, but part of the fun of going to a place like Bordeaux is local culinary experiences.

I invite any and all feedback. Our alternatives to this dilemma is to rent a house (or hotel) in the region and do it all by car and hire guides or go with a less inclusive cruise line. What do ya'll think?

We are doing a wine cruise with AMA in the fall, our second wine cruise with them. Loved the first one and all of the wine focused events and excursions included as part of the cruise. This year looks to be even better for those of who are fans of French wines.

We will often have lunch in town when on a river cruise and not make the trip back to the boat just to eat. Love to sample local wine and cuisine - those are two of the things we love most about traveling in Europe. We also enjoy going into town after dinner and finding a nice local spot to have a glass of wine and soak up the experience.

We also very much enjoy independent land travel in Europe using public transport. Why not do both, adding time at the beginning or end of your river cruise? Or mix and up and save the river cruise for next vacation.

Hi CaviarGal- Thanks for the great reply. We would both love to do extensions but with have two smallish (aged 8 & 7) kids and our jobs are not conducive for trips that last over 9 days.

Then I would go with your instinct on this trip and take another river cruise at another time.

You can read about the current Viking cruise in that region here on CC boards.They had some problem with first one,but others seem to be going better.

We re thinking of this one too.On Scenic for 2015.BUt waiting for more feedback about that region on a riverboat.We ve done lots of France in car and loved it,but getting to point where we prefer NOT DRIVING anymore.So love the convenience on this type vacation.

We also do like Caviargirl and eat onshore when we chose.Not STUCK on boat ALL the time.

Did you look at the member reviews? There's a recent one for the Bordeaux cruise on Uniworld. It's not terribly detailed, but the reviewer enjoyed it.

I know I love that Uniworld takes care of everything, and you don't need to worry about lining up guides, lodging etc. Since this cruise is in such a compact region, it appears (in the Cruise Companion) that you do have a lot of opportunities for wine tastings.

I understand not being able to leave jobs and children for too long, but even adding a day on either end would allow you to experience a little more of the region on your own.

I too have just returned from a Uniworld cruise, and it's a 5* review when I get to write it.

I am also booked for the Bordeaux cruise - I did wonder about this because I don't drink. I decided in the end, it was the itinerary and excellent on board experience that I was paying for. The food on my recent cruise was even better than a couple of years ago on the same route.

We just returned from the Bordeaux Viking cruise (April 6th sailing) and we were rafted up with the Uniworld boat on several occaseions. The Uniworld boat is smaller than the Viking boat and did not seem to have the bridge issues and docking issues which have plagued the initial sailings of the Viking boat. The Uniworld boat seemed very nice and I think they got to go into ports that we had to be bussed to. So, if I were choosing this itinerary again, I'd go with Uniworld as opposed to Viking. Don't get me wrong - we totally enjoyed this trip with Viking, but I think the larger boat size may play to Viking's disadvantage in this particular situation.

id4elizabeth- What did you think about the iternerary? Is that trip better served by going it alone or did having all of your meals included. My wife and I are foodies and are stuggling to see the value of booze and food included at gastronomy ground zero. How many nights did you actually stay late in port of stay over night?

Thanks!

We were several nights in port in the town of Bordeaux (I think 3 altogether) and overnight in Libourne. But we ate all our meals on board as I recall.

It's a tough question you pose. We enjoy having a floating hotel where we don't have to pack and unpack all the time, and having someone else handle the logistics, but this is one place where doing it on your own is certainly feasible. If you based yourself out of Bordeaux, I think you could do most everything on the itinerary as day trips, as long as you were comfortable renting a car and driving in France. And for sure take a Garmin or similar GPS loaded with French maps as it would be easy to get lost.

(We did a lot of driving in France this trip as we drove from Paris through the Loire Valley to get to Bordeaux and then drove from Bordeaux across the middle of France over to the Rhone to get the Viking Portraits of Southern France cruise, and then rented another car for 4 extra days in Provence. We could not have done this without our Garmin!)

You'd also have to do a bit of pre-planning and make reservations for wine tastings at the Chateaux you wanted to visit ahead of time. It's my understanding that you can't just show up at these Chateaux and get a wine tasting or tour of the winery - reservations are required. I think you can do this through the Office of Tourissme in Bordoeax. But I'd do this months in advance, although March may not be as crowded. BTW, in March, you'll be looking at bare vines - we went on the April 12th sailing and the green shoots were just beginning.

Hope that helps.

Liz- What did you enjoy more, your Viking Rhine or Bordeaux? My wife and I have only done Uniworld Danube and we both loved it.

The Bordeaux definitely - hands down.

Hi, Los_Pepes. We're a few days into our first Bordeaux cruise (I'm chronicling the trip on a thread on this forum called Live from Bordeaux) and so far, it's a pretty amazing way to see the region. I'm on Viking. It, along with two other river lines (CroisiEurope and Uniworld) pretty much offers the same itineraries. It's a magical place -- and the city of Bordeaux, itself, is a big surprise. Love it.

Happy to answer any specifics about the trip -- please post 'em on the Live From Bordeaux thread if you can.

Thanks.

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Thanks Carolyn. I will post questions over on your thread.