In the summer of 2025, we had the wonderful opportunity to do back-to-back river cruises with Viking. The first cruise was on the Rhine River. While Viking’s cruises sail in both directions, our cruise started in Basel, Switzerland and ended in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In this episode of the Real Food Traveler Podcast, we, RealFoodTraveler’s Courtney Drake-McDonough and Jimmy McDonough, describe what to expect from the ship and sailing experience and from each destination along the itinerary. To listen, click on the player, below. We also link below to our Part 2 podcast about the journey along the Rhone River, the Lyon & Provence itinerary.

Save this article to Pinterest so you can listen anytime to know what it’s like to go on the Rhine Getaway with Viking. Photo and graphic by RealFoodTraveler.com.

Hungry for more? See if back-to-back river cruises could be right for you.

What’s a Viking River Cruise Rhine Getaway Really Like

Here’s the itinerary we experienced on the 8-day “Rhine Getaway” cruise:

Day 1: Basel, Switzerland
Day 2: Breisach, Germany
Day 3: Strasbourg, France
Day 4: Speyer, Germany and Rudesheim, Germany
Day 5: Koblenz, Germany (and the scenic Middle Rhine where you’ll see many of the beautiful castles shown in Viking commercials)
Day 6: Cologne, Germany
Day 7: Kinderdijk, The Netherlands
Day 8: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Hungry for more? Hear what the Lyon & Provence Viking cruise is really like.

In this episode of the Real Food Traveler Podcast, we cover the onboard experience:

• Layout of the ship and types of staterooms, the leisure areas, dining areas and where you can get some exercise.
• The food scene – what’s available, when and where plus the quality of the food and ways the Viking crew connects to the local cuisine.
• Entertainment, lectures and demonstrations you’ll experience including what you need to really pay attention to.

In this Real Food Traveler Podcast episode, we help you get acquainted with the Viking ships so you know what to expect. We sailed on the Viking Idun. 

Hungry for more? An ocean cruise-lovers guide to river cruising.

Then, we talk about each port and itinerary, so you know what to expect on Viking’s Rhine Getaway:

• For each destination, we tell you a little about where it’s located and what it’s known for.
• We cover what we did there and liked about it, on the Viking excursion and/or on our own.
• With each port, we provide our “Don’t miss” tips. It could be something to be sure to see, do, eat or drink, from our personal experiences there. These insider tips will help enhance your visit in each port.
• We also tell you a little bit about the second of our back-to-back river cruises with Viking which was on the Rhone River. Plus we tell you a bit about the difficulties we had during the time in between the two cruises and what we learned from those experiences.

Scenes from the Viking River Cruise along the Rhine River, including the Black Forest, Strasbourg, Koblenz, Cologne, Breisach, and castles along the Rhine.

Hungry for more? Luggage packing tips for two or more weeks.

Learn more about Viking River Cruises on their website.

The Real Food Traveler Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio and wherever you like to listen.

-Story and photos by Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher and Managing Editor of Real Food Traveler and Jimmy McDonough, Eco-Friendly Food, Travel and Adventure Editor

Please note: We were hosted for portions of our back-to-back river cruises with Viking which is common practice in our industry to facilitate providing information. However, as is always the case, that does not affect our opinions and we bring you the truth as we’ve experienced it for the service of our readers and podcast listeners.