Hungary

This was a fabulous trip through beautiful countryside and famous cities. It was a combination of cruising, biking, and history.

We had problems getting in touch with Allianz when we needed to change our arrival time in Budapest due to a flight delay. The cruise and biking were wonderful.

Nicely paced, well thought out itinerary. Easy paths with GPS guidance, though needed to pay attention closely as it was too easy to get off the designated trail though very obvious pretty quickly from GPS if you make a wrong turn. Nice to have a floating hotel so you were not packing and unpacking. Enough time for meals and breaks with great van/trip support. Ebike option was greatly appreciated

Disappointed. My 5th VBT. Would not recommend in current form. First the good: Lovely weather, lovely scenery. Guides Petr and Matyas were superb with excellent knowledge and communication. Many of the rides or parts of the rides were also lovely. The ship and accommodations were lovely. I didn’t use the tour guide in Prague—just as well as I found out. The guide in Passau was wonderful, the guide through the brewery at the monastery was fabulous, the guide on arriving in Budapest was absolutely superb. Now the not-so-good: Being a VBT group on a larger ship did not work well. We did not have daily meetings to coordinate the day—the guides met individually with dining tables, but so one person’s question did not get heard by the next table. C’mon guys, how difficult is it to meet on the Sundeck each evening for a cocktail and a recap of the day and Here’s-what’s-up for tomorrow? On other VBTs there was group time to bond and enjoy each other. Not on this trip. How hard would it be to cordon off a small part of the dining room for VBT? Yes, I know the Ship didn’t want to do that. Rubbish. Insist on it. The other passengers wouldn’t care—they didn’t want to mingle with us. None ever wanted to sit with us at supper. INSIST on it, VBT. I signed up for what I know as a VBT experience, not an Emerald experience. Bike rides: By and large, some wonderful rides. Many along bike trails up and back along the Danube, The better ones were through countryside with multiple small villages and old, old churches and buildings. The not=so-enjoyable included stretches on sidewalks or trails along busy highways, and the awful included long stretches of city rides where we were constantly watching out for pedestrians, baby carriages, and other bikers. Crowded. And how much of the city did you think we would see? I didn’t pay all this money to ride on busy streets and paths that I can ride at home! The 12 mile ride back from Castle Hof was fine for about 4 miles and then was awful. Busy, bumpy, crowded and a 3 mile stretch riding on a busy 2-lane road that was frankly dangerous. Figure out a new route. If you wanted us to visit the Castle Hof, then bus us out there and let us do a large loop in the area, returning to the Castle and then bus us home. And for that matter, don’t feel you have to start our biking at the ship. Bus us 20 miles from the ship and let us bike rural Hungary, not urban Budapest. Or urban anywhere, for that matter. And lastly, Covid. At least 8 or our 23 people turned covid positive between the last night on the ship to the first full day of the post trip. The ship promised, from their website “socially distanced dining” and “excellent health and safety protocols” among other things. HorseHockey. Masks were only required in the hallways. Not in the lounge and not in the dining room. Yes I understand that you can’t eat with a mask, but you can have a cocktail with a straw. And the dining room and the lounge were large gatherings of people in a closed space. Big risk areas. There was no regular testing on the ship for all these confined people. And although the sit-down dinners were fabulous, there was no alternative. How hard would it be to have a Buffet option so that one could take one’s food to the sundeck? Or actually be served there? Or served in multiple sittings so the ship could actually fulfill its promise of “socially distanced dining?” And the staff all wore these clear plastic face coverings that allowed us to see their smiles, but in fact directed all their exhalations downward—that’s right—down to your food they were carrying, the bread they placed on your plate, your salad…(you get the picture). Clearly, the ship’s procedures are inadequate and certainly fall short of their website rhetoric. They say they are safe, but clearly do not know how many guest turn covid positive after they disembark the ship. We had at least 8 of 23, and we were conscientious about masks. You do the math for 140 passengers. So Kudos for the Good, above, but I would recommend avoiding this trip in it’s current form. Thank you. JB, MD