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11 Night London,Paris & D-Day

Viking Rivers focuses their sailings on the culture of each cruises destination. Onboard each sailing you have lectures, demonstrations and tastings as part of a Culture Curriculum.

Delicious Portuguese cuisine and French croissants will be a treat, and the serene countryside of Germany will soothe you during a Europe river cruise.

From royals to writers, London has loads to offer the curious traveler. Spend some time getting lost in this influential super city. 

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London, England , Paris, France , Rouen, France , Vernon, France , Les Andelys, France

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11 Night London,Paris & D-Day sailing on the Viking Radgrid

Departure dates: mar 2025 - nov 2026, stateroom prices for mar. 14, 2025.

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7 of the best river cruises around the world for 2024

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A cruise holiday isn’t always about setting sail across vast oceans. For an alternative type of break on the water, winding your way inland might sound similar but it’s a vastly different experience.

From crossing deep into the untouched areas of the Amazon rainforest to exploring some of Europe ’s finest cities, the river cruise experience is one that allows tourists to get to grips with the history, culture and tradition of a destination in a slow, immersive fashion.

This could be in the form of sampling Creole cuisine in Mississippi or discovering historic sites in Vietnam , but whatever it is, there’s plenty of choice across Europe , Asia , South America and North America .

Read on for a selection of the best cruises, from the Mississippi to the Mekong.

Europe’s second longest river – and arguably its most famous – river takes you through amazing capital cities and host of charming towns, as well as plenty of scenic countryside in Austria , Hungary , Slovakia and Romania. Cruises along the Danube can vary from a handful of days to almost three weeks, giving you time to explore the elegance of cities like Vienna , Budapest, Bratislava or Belgrade.

Emerald Cruises lets you see the best of the Danube with the addition of a hefty dose of traditional German culture in Munich. Leaving the Bavarian capital, you’ll travel to Passau before a quick cross-border trip to the Unesco-listed Czech city of Cesky Krumlov. Vienna is the next city, replete with opulent architecture, before a quick overnight stay in Bratislava on the sixth night. Guided tours and hikes around the castle are included, before you get three nights to explore Budapest, the Hungarian capital that is blessed with picturesque buildings, relaxed thermal baths and a buzzing nightlife scene. 

From £1,999pp, including nine nights’ accommodation, full board, tours of Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest and airport transfers. Departing 7 May 2024 to 20 October 2024.

Read more on Europe travel :

• The lesser-known Croatia destinations you may not have considered
• The best spas in Eastern Europe for an affordable, yet luxurious, break
• Lisbon travel guide: Where to eat, drink, shop and stay in Portugal’s vivacious capital

This famous river runs for over 4,000 miles throughout South America and is a major part of the eponymous rainforest, one of the most biodiverse and important natural areas on the planet. A river cruise remains the best way to reach deeper into the jungle, with many cruises beginning in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus or in the Peruvian city of Lima.

Start in Peru’s enchanting capital with the Peruvian Rivers and Rainforest Discovery cruise from Uniworld. You’ll fly to Iquitos, the largest city in the Amazon as your next stop, before delving into some of the most remote areas in the world as you take to the waters. From here, nature takes centre stage, with a variety of experiences – including jungle walks and kayaking on a lake – added to the enjoyment of natural features such as giant lilies, towering barrigona trees and around 10 per cent of the world’s known animal species.

From £8,799pp, including 10 nights’ accommodation, full board, return flights from London, domestic flights and various excursions. Departing regularly from 17 January until 6 November 2024.

Start in  Cairo  and make your way down to Aswan over a few days (though many shorter routes operate between  Aswan and Luxor  only). For a relaxing way to take in riverside scenery and some of Egypt’s most important historical sites, a river cruise is the ideal choice.

AP Touring’s  Egypt Discovery  trip takes you on a round trip from Cairo. You’ll cross thousands of years of history, starting with West Bank the Valley of the Kings, before a short flight to Aswan to explore Abu Simbel and a sighting of the landmark Pyramids of Giza near the Egyptian capital. The scenery along the route is exceptional, too, with palm trees, green spaces and mini oases dotted in between the yellow-hued rock.

From £6,995pp, including 12 nights’ accommodation, 30 meals (including unlimited local beer and wine) return flights from London Heathrow, domestic flights within Egypt and activities in each of the 10 destinations. Departing regularly from September 2024 to April 2025.

Exploring this land of castles and fairytales is a worthwhile European trip, with tours often starting in the pretty Dutch capital of Amsterdam and weaving across the German and French countryside, with the route broken up by cities such as Cologne, Dusseldorf and Strasbourg. Many of the towns located on the banks of the Rhine, such as Koblenz, are incredibly picturesque, with a range of medieval castles and natural sites like the Black Forest also featuring.

Ama Waterways provide a seven-night cruise that runs from Basel to Amsterdam. Get your cultural fix at either end of your trip in either of these two cities, before admiring the vistas around the Rhine Valley, the medieval castles that loom over towns like Heidelberg and the timber-framed buildings that line the streets of Riquewihr and Strasbourg. Stops in both Freiburg and Dusseldorf are also included, as well as an optional excursion to Cologne.

From £2,399pp, including seven nights’ accommodation, full board and tours in each destination. Departing regularly between 18 February and 28 December 2024.

The views around the Douro Valley are some of the best in Portugal , whether you’re sitting by the banks in Porto or admiring the verdant hills and vineyards around Pinhao. This region, well-known for its port production, has cruises lasting roughly one week that usually begin and end in Porto – where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean – with a brief crossing over into Spain and Salamanca.

The Riviera Travel package offers an affordable eight-day Douro option starting and ending in Porto , with two nights to explore Portugal’s magnificent second city (and to go on a guided tour of a well-known port producer). Days three and four take you to sleepy Castelo de Rodrigo and the historic Spanish city of Salamanca (with guided tours and time to explore at your leisure) before traversing the cascading vineyards of the valley on your way back to Porto via the beautiful Peso de Regua (and a local wine tasting).

From £1,599pp, including seven nights’ accommodation, full board, flights from a London airport, one excursion one each day and airport transfers. Departing regularly from 7 April 2024.

The Mississippi

Discovering the Deep South is often done by car, but with new routes recently from Viking Cruises, exploring Louisiana, Mississippi, Minnesota and Tennessee has never been more idyllic. The famed cities of New Orleans and Memphis can bookend your tour, with lesser-known locations such as Baton Rouge, Natchez and Darrow making up the other stops.

Opt for Viking’s ‘Heart of the Delta’ cruise to if you really want to immerse yourself in the Deep South. The cruise begins with a few days exploring the French influences and Creole cuisine of New Orleans , before moving on to Baton Rouge – a haven of Creole and Cajun culture – and then onto Natchez, the oldest city on the river. You’ll travel through other towns on the Mississippi – complete with walking tours or excursions to the Atchafalaya Swamp basin – before reaching Memphis, the atmospheric home of blues music.

From £6,545pp, including 12 nights’ accommodation, full board, return flights from London and one excursion per destination. Departing weekly from March 7 until 13 June, with additional departures on 7 November and 13 November.

The Mekong flows through a host of Asia’s most fascinating countries, including Vietnam , Thailand , China and Cambodia. Most cruises only take in parts of Vietnam and Cambodia , though this mix of floating fishing villages, traditional markets and the two capitals of Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh will be enough for most travellers. With Avalon Waterways , you’ll combine energetic, modern cities with some of the most vibrant culture in Asia and a history that is equal parts sobering and fascinating.

It starts in Siem Reap, site of the Angkor Wat temple, before moving on to the Cambodian capital, where you can learn about the dictatorship of Pol Pot and visit several must-see landmarks. After this, Vietnam beckons, with a visit to the dizzying Ho Chi Minh City to see its admirable architecture. Visits to markets, old Vietnam War tunnels, temples and cooking classes are dotted in between these city trips for good measure, with stops at characterful towns like Vinh Long, too.

From £4,229pp, including seven nights’ accommodation, full board and activities on each day of the trip. Departing regularly from 15 January to 11 March and from 12 August to 2 December 2024.

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Low prices, revenge travel and a blockbuster IPO keep cruise industry shipshape

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“I’ve been waiting to catch this ice show,” wrote Jim on X this month, as the Wisconsin-based cruise fan excitedly posted a video of the world’s largest ice rink at sea.

The arena, which he described as a “dramatic upgrade from all previous ships,” is one of the features that helped Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas make headlines on its fully booked maiden voyage in January.

The debut of the world’s biggest cruise ship, which has a capacity of 7,600, caps a remarkable recovery by the global cruise industry, which in four years has transformed from one of the highest-profile corporate victims of the pandemic to one of tourism’s fastest growing sectors.

Bookings are surging, buoyed by new and younger customers being attracted to cruises as a cheaper option than land-based resorts as well as longtime fans indulging in “revenge travel”.

A wave of investor interest helped carry Viking Holdings to the second-largest initial public offering in the US this year when it listed earlier this month. The Bermuda-based group, whose offerings include an 87-day Arctic to Antarctica journey costing from £61,895, now has a market capitalisation of $12.7bn.

Its IPO raised $1.54bn, providing much-awaited gains to US private equity group TPG and Canada’s largest pension fund, CPP Investments, as customers continue to book trips.

“We are already some 35 per cent sold [for 2025] . . . our guests book far in advance,” said Viking founder and chief executive Torstein Hagen.

Overall 34.7mn passengers worldwide are expected to take a cruise this year according to trade body the Cruise Lines International Association — 17 per cent more than in 2019. The industry exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 7 per cent last year, marking a contrast to overall international tourist arrivals, including air passengers, which remained down 12 per cent between 2019 and 2023.

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The level of advance bookings is allowing Viking to expand: in December it ordered 10 river cruise ships for delivery by 2026, to sail popular itineraries such as the Rhine, Danube and the Seine rivers.

Viking’s competitors are also in expansion mode. Norwegian Cruise Line announced in April its largest-ever order of eight vessels, scheduled for delivery between 2026 and 2036. Carnival Cruise Line announced earlier this year its first new-build order in five years.

“There are a number of lines that have got a reasonable number of ships in the pipeline, which is driven by the confidence in not only the recovery through the sector, but the future growth of it,” said Alistair Pritchard, lead partner for travel and aviation at Deloitte.

Royal Caribbean shares have surged more than 80 per cent over the past 12 months, while Carnival shares are up more than 35 per cent.

The question now is whether the industry can retain this momentum — and whether demand will be as high by the time these new vessels arrive.

Since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped classifying ships based on their vaccination rates in July 2022, demand has been so strong that some analysts even wonder if the industry is trapped in a demand bubble.

“There’s the concern among people [if we are] in a demand bubble . . . and [if] there is a revenge travel bubble in cruise lines, like we saw with US resorts,” which benefited from an influx of US travellers amid international travel restrictions, said Patrick Scholes, a travel sector analyst for Truist Securities.

“I do think we are in a period of accelerated demand and it’s going to be hard to maintain these massive growth rates that we’ve been seeing,” he added.

Orders for vessels, which will take years to arrive, carry the risk that by the time they do, demand will have tempered.

“Once you put in order for that ship, your overheads are not going to change, and you can’t pay a crew if you don’t fill the ship,” said Bob Levinstein, the chief executive of cruise marketplace CruiseCompete.com. Unsold cruise cabins also mean fewer passengers to spend money on restaurants, excursions and casinos — which provide significant income. “Rule number one is always fill the ship, fill the ship, fill the ship,” he added.

Although they refinanced when interest rates were at lower levels, many cruise lines are carrying more debt as a result of pandemic shutdowns. Norwegian Cruise ended 2023 with a $13bn debt pile, double that compared to the end of 2019. Carnival’s net debt balance meanwhile has exploded from $10bn to $30bn.

Meanwhile the price of cruises remains subdued in comparison to runaway increases for hotel rooms and flights .

Cruise vacations were 27 per cent less expensive than land-based all-inclusive resorts, said Goldman Sachs analyst Lizzie Dove, although this gap has narrowed from 50 per cent at the height of the pandemic.

“Despite the companies operating in an oligopoly, cruise pricing has not been able to keep pace with inflation or the broader lodging industry,” Dove said.

Cruise companies have for decades offered last-minute discounts in order to fill the cabins, prompting repeat cruisers to hold off hoping for a better price.

The industry’s cheaper operating costs compared with hotels and resorts have contributed to affordability. The majority of staff come from relatively low-cost countries such as the Philippines, and cruise lines typically pay little corporation tax, analysts say.

Passenger ticket revenue per occupied berth day last year was 7 per cent higher than 2019, trailing overall US lodging’s average daily rate increase of 18 per cent, according to Dove’s analysis.

Capacity is also a factor. With supersize ships such as the Icon of the Seas arriving, “we have seen a little bit of softening prices over the last six months or so where capacity comes in”, said Deloitte’s Pritchard.

The flipside for cruise operators is that demand, for the foreseeable future, is steady and shows little sign of strain even as customers’ personal finances become more stretched by inflation.

The lowest cost of a 7-night cruise on the Icon of the Seas touring the western Caribbean in February — the next available date at such a rate — is $1,511, according to Royal Caribbean’s website.

“Cruising still remains an exceptional value proposition,” chief executive Jason Liberty said in an earnings call last month, although he admitted he wanted to raise prices. “Customer sentiment remains very positive,” he added “Looking to the rest of 2024, the year is shaping up to be exceptional.”

The company lifted its annual profit forecast for a second time after posting net income for the first quarter of $360mn compared to a net loss of $48mn a year earlier.

Norwegian Cruise Line also increased its full-year guidance after posting record bookings for the first three months of the year. Chief executive Harry Sommer said consumer sentiment was “healthy and resilient”.

Cruise lines and analysts argue that the industry’s competitive prices compared with other resorts have attracted young “new-to-cruise” passengers.

Bolstered by family-friendly attractions both in ships and private islands in the Caribbean and in the Bahamas, nearly half of the company’s guests were millennials or younger, with the number of new-to-cruise passengers increasing 16 per cent from a year before, Royal Caribbean added.

Prospective passengers also have more options than before with higher-end operators expanding and the ultra-luxury market betting that cruises will remain popular.

“We’re totally different [from] the big guys” said Viking’s Hagen. The operator targets customers aged at least 55 and bans passengers younger than 18. “Our ships are small and I think that’s increasingly what grown-ups want to see.”

Additional reporting by Alexandra White

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Honoring Those Who Freed Europe

Commemorate Operation Overlord on this 12-day cruisetour. D-Day was the catalyst for the liberation of Western Europe from German occupation. In Paris, your ship is docked in the heart of the city, offering views of the Eiffel Tower. Sail through Normandy and visit D-Day sites, explore fascinating museums and relive epic events of World War II. Witness poignant displays and hear inspiring tales of bravery as you join us on a journey of remembrance.

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Viking River Cruises

• Mississippi

Viking Ocean Cruises

• Scandinavia
• British Isles & Ireland
• North America
• Caribbean & Central America
• South America
• Mediterranean
• Quiet Season Mediterranean
• Australia & New Zealand
• World Cruises
• Grand Journeys

Viking Expeditions

• Great Lakes
• Longitudinal World Cruises

• Expeditions
• Complimentary Brochures

London Cruises

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• Special Offers
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Viking River Cruises

• Mississippi

Viking Ocean Cruises

• Scandinavia
• British Isles & Ireland
• North America
• Caribbean & Central America
• South America
• Mediterranean
• Quiet Season Mediterranean
• Australia & New Zealand
• World Cruises
• Grand Journeys

Viking Expeditions

• Great Lakes
• Longitudinal World Cruises

• Expeditions
• Complimentary Brochures

Mediterranean Cruises

From ancient Rome to Moorish Spain, classical Greece to the Holy Land, the empires of the Mediterranean left a remarkable historic legacy—set amid unmatched beauty. Admire the turquoise splendor of the Greek Isles, the vineyards of Provence, the élan of Barcelona and more.

Iconic Western Mediterranean

• PRICE & BUILD

Journey to Antiquities

Ancient Mediterranean Treasures

Mediterranean Odyssey

Empires of the Mediterranean

NEW! Malta, Morocco & the Mediterranean

Trade Routes of the Middle Ages

Greek Odyssey

Venice, the Adriatic & Greece

Italian Sojourn

NEW! Cities of Antiquity

Cities of Antiquity & the Holy Land

Mediterranean & Italian Sojourn

Italy, the Adriatic & Greece

Ancient Adriatic Treasures

Mediterranean Antiquities

Ancient Mediterranean Antiquities

Mediterranean’s Iconic Shores

NEW! Iberian & Mediterranean Odyssey

Iceland, British Isles & Iberia

Iberian Explorer

Iconic Mediterranean Treasures

Mediterranean & Adriatic Sojourn

Adriatic & Mediterranean Sojourn

Passage to India

Voyage of Marco Polo

NEW! India & Europe Grand Passage

NEW! Australia, Asia & the Mediterranean

NEW! Viking World Cruise

NEW! Viking World Journeys

NEW! Viking World Voyage I

NEW! Viking World Voyage II

NEW! The Mediterranean & South Atlantic

Atlantic Crossing & Mediterranean

NEW! Atlantic & Mediterranean Horizons

NEW! Mediterranean to Caribbean Sojourn

Southern Atlantic Crossing

Atlantic Crossing

Atlantic Ocean Passage

West Indies to Iberia

NEW! Mediterranean Discoveries

Highlights of mediterranean cruises.

Join Viking and discover a region awash in culture and history. Civilization is said to have begun and evolved on these shores, whether as the birthplace of democracy or science or with the refinement of wine or art. From the sun-soaked shores of Spain and Sicily to the ancient past of Greece and Israel, Viking reveals millennia of history to you during our many journeys along these fabled waters. Here is a sample of what you can look forward to on a Mediterranean voyage:

• Rome’s monumental Colosseum and Pantheon
• Vatican City’s glorious St. Peter’s Basilica
• Tuscany’s hilltop medieval towns
• Classical Athens, birthplace of democracy
• The architectural brilliance of Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona
• The fine flavors of Italy’s Chianti and Portugal’s port
• Venice’s romantic, car-free lanes and alleys
• The magnificently preserved walled city of Dubrovnik
• Breathtaking beauty of the Greek Islands
• The holy city of Jerusalem

Sign up to receive updates from Viking

Stay current with special offers, news and destination-focused content.

Company Information

• Order a Brochure
• Special Offers
• Sweepstakes
• Travel Advisors
• Media Center
• Investor Relations
• Health & Safety Program
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Manage Cookies

Viking River Cruises

• Mississippi

Viking Ocean Cruises

• Scandinavia
• British Isles & Ireland
• North America
• Caribbean & Central America
• South America
• Mediterranean
• Quiet Season Mediterranean
• Australia & New Zealand
• World Cruises
• Grand Journeys

Viking Expeditions

• Great Lakes
• Longitudinal World Cruises