Vivienne boat/barge tour reviews — 1 to 30 of 106

Everything was top notch! The people. the crew, the food...everything!
One suggestion...when serving dinner entrees from whatever country the boat is currently in, please include the type of meat in English (ie: chicken or pork, etc.)

Wonderful scenery , small villages , the Danube River, the accommodations on the Vivienne were satisfactory .
The staff were friendly and accommodating, our dining room waiter Canon made us feel welcomed and looked after all our needs.Dietary requests were not completely met compared to previous tours.
If we were to compare this tour to a tour on a smaller barge ,as opposed to a larger barge we would definitely opt for a smaller vessel after this experience .

Excellent trip we enjoyed the rides each day and the towns that we rode through.

I totally enjoyed our trip. The biking was wonderful and I appreciate Leslie taking time to brief us before each ride, it was so helpful.

Loved every part of the trip. We are not cruise trip people, but this was an excellent experience and would do it again. The number of passengers was just right. The staff was outstanding. Thank you.

We loved the entire experience! Boarding the boat and unpacking once was wonderful. We’ve done many bike rides and the daily grind of packing, unpacking and being down at the tour vehicle gets a bit exhausting.

We had the junior suite and it was great. Plenty of storage space and the large windows were fantastic ! The food was excellent and we were able to gather a group of eight other friends to join us so every night and every day at breakfast we had a table of 10.

Probably our only suggestion would be that we would’ve liked to have spent more time in Vienna. We could’ve skipped the day before and it would’ve been nice to arrive in Vienna first thing in the morning and have a full day there.

We are ready to book another bike and barge in the near future.

The entire barge experience…including raw ambiance, the food presentation, the planning on behalf of the staff, and even the boat itself.

Discovering the Danube and surrounding countries and the extensive history leading up to their current status. I wish you had more time in Vienna.. like maybe an overnight since the barge was parked so far away from the center of town and it was a holiday (May 1), our visit was less than satisfying.

We had a wonderful time for a first bike and barge. Would highly recommend this trip.
The staff were incredible and of course the biking. For couple of days there was strong head winds so had the work really hard as we had regular bikes..well worth the effort and sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

The friendships made on the trip were wonderful. The organising of the bikes was excellent. The waiters and waitresses were lovely and all so professional.

Budapest
Cycling through Wachau Valley
Service and food on Vivienne

This trip was excellent from its start to finish. The staff made everyone feel welcome and communicated each day’s plan very thoroughly. We enjoyed making new friends and our guide, Thomas, helped make our experience so positive. What a great way to explore the four countries and cities such as Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava. The final biking day through the UNESCO valley was outstanding.

This trip was excellent from its start to finish. The staff made everyone feel welcome and communicated each day’s plan very thoroughly. We enjoyed making new friends and our guide, Thomas, helped make our experience so positive. What a great way to explore the four countries and cities such as Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava. The final biking day through the UNESCO valley was outstanding.

i loved biking through the country side and small towns. We would stop for ice cream and even visited a winery. It was nice having the guide, didn't have to think about where we had to go each day. Visiting all of the towns along the way tasting their food and beer and shopping in the small shops was fun. The boat had a good vibe and relaxing atmosphere.

The service, food and the beautiful boat. It was a wonderful trip.

We had a wonderful time aboard the MS Vivienne for this tour. The cabin was quiet and comfortable, no movement from the water. The food and staff aboard were wonderful. The cycling was beautiful, we got to visit several historic cities and we met some very nice people. We would definitely sign up for another bike and boat tour like this!

This is an excellent bike and barge. The Vivienne was a beautiful boat with excellent staff. The schedule is well laid out, allowed time to enjoy the biking and scenery. The navigation app worked really well but take a phone holder for your bike so you can see the map. I have Bluetooth hearing aids so the directions were also provided by audio which was very helpful. That city bus tours were ok, if you are a city traveller you could have navigated both Budapest and Vienna on your own.
The cruise director has lots of information and will answer your questions…. If in doubt ask questions.
The food was amazing … you will not go hungry.

Liked the disco night. The fourth ride was beautiful.
Meals were also good and super service.
My e-bike was too heavy for me- suggest a more compact and less heavy bike for smaller women. Also, we had wanted to book a guide for the 9 of us and there were only 2 on this boat. We would have enjoyed having one to eliminate getting lost and also helping us find fun locations to stop enroute. We did this on our Italian trip and it made a large difference to our enjoyment.
Your staff are very helpful and pleasant. Well done overall.

The scenery on this tour was amazing. The Danube River valley is quite picturesque! The bike trails were awesome.

Staff was amazing, wanted to help and please you al the time. Food was good. Meat portions could have been a bit bigger since we need lot’s of protein to bike. We need non guided and I would not do that again, missed the knowledge of the area that a guide provides.

I would strongly recommend taking the guided tour as opposed to non guided. The app to use is very average and doesn’t give you any information along the ride.

Our group truly enjoyed the week on the Vivienne. The bike trails were well maintained and routes well marked which enabled us to enjoy the amazing scenery each day. The staff on Vivienne was incredible.
Two complaints were the e-bikes were very heavy
and there were no water bottle holders on the regular bikes.

Boat was nicely appointed and good clean cabins. A small gym room with some weights would be a nice addition Tomas was a superb guide. A great balance between local knowledge and keeping 18 riders moving at a comfortable pace. Leslie , the cruise director was always available and worked hard to keep us informed for the next day and volunteer ice packs when needed! Even a restocked bottle of our favourite gin was procured when the bar ran out! Crew were excellent; bikes were always on shore or back on the boat as needed. Service at meals and bar were first class. Bratislava was the most interesting city tour; being the place where the iron curtain came down. Budapest night walking tour was spectacular. We found the e-bikes to be very heavy and a 30 minute familiarisation on day one would have beeen good. 95% of the meals were good. Certainly the most scenic and interesting cycling that we have ever done. Total was about 205km in the week. Take care on the 2km long bridge on the second day. It’s a very narrow cycling track; best walked if comprised by height and traffic noise! Overall, we thoroughly recommend this tour.

This was truly the best trip I’ve had in a long time! Everything about it was fantastic from the incredible sites We visited to the breathtaking biking routes. Every day was amazing. The experience on the boat was unforgettable, with outstanding staff, delicious food, and excellent service. Leslie, our cruise Director was absolutely top-notch. He was informative, funny and always ready to answer questions. Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one highlight because the entire trip was so special. I’ll definitely be recommending this adventure to all of my biking friends!

Biking the Wachou valley, outside Vienna. It was an incredible ride, with great places to stop along the way. The trip was great, the crew handled all those bikes great. Would have liked more time in some of the cities, and more diet options.
But, that’s being kinda picky, it was a great trip and would recommend.

Wonderful biking throughout! App was helpful as was the route book. The arrow stickers Leslie put out were great. Bus/walking tour in Bratislava was good. Would have been nice if we stopped to taste some specialty foods. Not much time to explore. The bike tour in Budapest was fine while we were on the bike paths, but then the guide took us on some VERY busy streets with no bike lanes and mingling with cars, I was scared. then he lost three of us. Vienna concert was lovely. The Vivienne staff was very friendly and worked hard to get the bikes in and out, feed all of us and serve drinks. Great job by all of them. Leslie was always around and did a great job of managing all aspects of the trip.

The bike riding, the staff, the food and the new friends we met during the week were all amazing. The last ride from Krems to Melk was absolutely breathtaking! I literally cannot stop smiling!
Tip: expect to take some wrong turns, just enjoy the ride.

This tour exceeded my expectations. I loved the variety of biking along the Danube River and through vineyards and beautiful small towns, and free days to explore some larger cities by foot, bike or bus. Having one home base was perfect & our cabin was very comfortable.

I recommend that you view the trip as a sampling of the beautiful areas and not expect that you will be able to thoroughly tour many of the landmarks.

We opted for a guide, Tomas, who was wonderful, leading the way and giving us a great experience. Leslie, the cruise director, was good as well. He had lots of tips and his almost daily talks were full of humor and good advice. The ship staff was also terrific, making us feel at home and providing great service. The e-bikes were not the best, very heavy and a bit unwieldy ( I ride an ebike at home so I am quite familiar with them). Otherwise a fabulous trip and I would highly recommend!

Excellent organization and service.
Enjoyable cycling routes and good information.
The facilities on board the ship and the staff’s attitude are exemplary.
Very good guides on the city tours.