Viking River Cruises is a company that was founded in 1997 by an travel industry veteran Torstein Hagen. Torstein Hagen is a Norwegian and very proud of his Viking heritage. It was his vast personal experience of travel that led him to river cruising. River cruising fast became a favourite with him and led to the establishment of Viking River Cruises.

The company, Viking River Cruises started with the purchase of four ships in Russia. Later the company acquired another European river based cruise line company, KD River Cruises. Today Viking River Cruises is recognised as one of the world’s leading river cruise companies. The company boasts many awards in recognition of its achievements. These include the prestigious Travel + Leisure ‘World’s Best’ award on multiple occassions, the Conde Nast Traveler (US) ‘Gold’ List on numerous occasions and also being voted ‘Best River Cruise Line’ by CruiseCritic.com.

Viking empowers discerning travellers to explore and discover the great rivers and inland waterways of Europe, Russia and China. From the bustling cities to the charming medieval villages and unspoilt landscape of extraordinary natural beauty and historic signifigance. Its hard not to experience the “wow” factor when viewing the hill top castles and lush green countryside.

Destinations for 2009 include:

• Dusseldorf to Basle
• Trier – Nuremburg
• Passau – Bucharest
• Amsterdam – Budapest
• Basel – Antwerp

Cruises vary in duration from 4 days to a grand marathon 16 days.

Prices start from €585 per person for the 4 day short cruise.

Watch out for future posts when we look at other cruise line companies.

In the meantime you can read more about Viking River Cruises at :

VikingRiverCruises.com

Jeff