We are wine enthusiasts and going in a cruise to Bordeaux was a long held desire of ours. We had never done this and decided to take a river cruise because my wife has problems with motion sickness and we thought, as it turned out to be the case, that a river cruise would be trouble free in this regard. The flight from the US Midwest to Bordeaux was long and required 2 plane changes. As usual, airline travel is never ever free of some problem or the other. No change this time but they were solved effectively. Reaching Bordeaux we were met by the Viking people and we were always directed and escorted by them.
One of the things we both really liked about this type of travel is that you do not have to pack and change hotels with an intermediate ride by bus, or train. Once you were in your cabin you did not have to move from it. Service was excellent, food in the boat was much much better than we expected. People, other passengers and the crew, were nice and friendly. We did some dancing at the boat and attended some lectures but the main things we did were outside the boat.
This whole area of France is medioeval and wonderful to walk. Old churches, castles, walls, twisty narrow streets, and wonderful wine everywhere. We went to a number of wineries and I was amazed by variety of methods they used to produce their wine. We walked the vineyards, gardens and the Chateaux, all very nice. The most unique thing we did was in the town of Cognac, which produces Cognac of course. We went to Camus and after the visit got to this wonderful room that smelled of cognac and wood, and learned to blend our own cognac. Each one of us got his/her own bottle, something totally memorable to me.
Nice, comfortable. It provided all we needed to have plus a place to sit down outside and watch as the boat went down the river