What are the best excursions?
We are excited to be on the Rhine & Moselle cruise (Amsterdam to Basel) Sept 30th. What are the excursions we should sign up for? Do they fill up very fast when excursions open 90 days prior? Thank you.
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We are excited to be on the Rhine & Moselle cruise (Amsterdam to Basel) Sept 30th. What are the excursions we should sign up for? Do they fill up very fast when excursions open 90 days prior? Thank you.
Comments
The excursions typically are readily available. We have never had an issue. But you should still sign up sooner than later. Unlike some other cruise lines, there is no preference given to room type or early signup for higher priced rooms. The only issue is with the bike tours. It is easier to opt out than opt in if you change your mind close to the excursion date. Tauck will hire an outside bike company and they bring only a specific number of bikes. We did this tour back in 2017. No Rhine trip would be complete without a trip to Heidelberg(Watch the Student Prince prior to going.). Unless you are really into wine, go to Reichsburg castle. You will dock at some point in the night, in Bernkastel but the itinerary makes it unclear when you will depart Bernkastel. Try to go into town at some point on your own. We actually had an evening there to go off ship for dinner on our own. If you like Van Gogh, the Kroller-Mueller museum has a great collection along with other art.
The “best” excursions are those that align with your interests.
I never pass up an opportunity to visit the Rijksmuseum, or any other museum. The bike excursions are always slow paced and offer an opportunity to see the countryside, particularly outside of Amsterdam. I noticed that more rides now use e-bikes and I would not enjoy that at my age. I do not know if they are used on this tour.
The Alsatian wines, especially Riesling and Gewürztraminer, are our favorite so that would be an easy choice for us.
Signing up in advance gives Tauck the opportunity to gauge the interest so they can plan accordingly. You are not locked in and are always given an opportunity to change your choices. We’ve been on several river cruises in which one of the directors has given a brief overview of the choices to help you make up your mind. I, however, would not sign up for a bike ride then cancel at the last minute.
Enjoy!
Like Ben said, only the bike rides could have a chance you'd miss out if you don't sign up but even then, they will give you a lot of latitude once on board. I've changed at least one excursion on every river cruise we've taken since Tauck started having people sign up pre-cruise. We did sign up for a bike ride vs Rijksmuseum last summer but the cruise director voiced caution not to take it if you hadn't ridden a bike recently and offered not only to let us switch to the museum but would arrange something else since we've been to that museum twice on other cruises. We did do the ride but I have to admit using my recumbent bike at home allowed me to forget how much arm strength you need for a real bike.
Definitely sign up for what interests you most. Are you athletic and want bike rides and faster paced walking or do you want a more leisurely time? The only excursion I'd skip is Baden Baden which frankly was a bit boring. We enjoyed Strasbourg and Heidelberg.