How Active Can Your Clients Get on a Viking Ocean Cruise?

Viking Cruises’ tagline is “Exploring the world in comfort.” In advertisements, this motto is accompanied by images of boomer-aged travelers looking at art in a museum, sipping wine in a vineyard, and relaxing on a private balcony while some of the world’s most scenic destinations roll by.

It’s all very sophisticated… but somewhat sedate.

With lots of Baby Boomer and Gen X travelers wanting to stay active while they tour the world, it’s understandable that they might assume that a Viking cruise – ocean or river – doesn’t provide enough opportunities to be physical.

Advisors who have never been on a Viking cruise or have only ever done the complimentary included excursions might think the same. (On the river, included tours tend to be short walking tours, while at sea, the included tours are typically panoramic bus rides – usually with a stop at a site of interest.)

On a recent “Into the Midnight Sun” cruise, TMR decided to give the line’s “demanding” tours a try to see how active you can get with the cruise line.

Out of seven ports (we got on three days after embarkation so missed one port), we did four extra-fee tours all labeled as “demanding.” (There were no included tours that are rated above easy on our sailing.)

Here’s what we discovered.

Viking’s Demanding Tours in General

It didn’t take long to figure out that Viking’s use of the word “demanding” when describing a tour has nothing to do with how physically difficult it is. It quickly became apparent that “demanding” had more to do with the physical mobility requirements than with whether an excursion was challenging or not.

Additionally, in talking to a member of the excursion team, we were told that if there’s any significant walking time on a tour, it’s automatically given a moderate or demanding rating.

As a passenger pre-cruise, it’s nearly impossible to know what “demanding” actually means when a tour that takes in the Royal Yacht and Edinburgh Palace has the same rating as a mountain hike with serious elevation gains.

In many cases, we found that demanding refers to the fact that all – or even part – of a walk is over cobblestones. Or it might indicate that a good sense of balance is required, as is the case with boat rides on RIBs (rigid inflatable boats). In other cases, demanding meant a hike was long, even when it was completely flat.

Even attending the late afternoon port talks, which included a roundup of all the next day’s tours, it was still sometimes hard to determine whether a demanding tour was actually going to be difficult to do.

While we will offer some examples of truly demanding options on the “Into the Midnight Sun” itinerary, online searches for reviews of excursion options for your clients’ travels can help determine the best choices for them. If clients are willing to wait to book until on the ship, the shore excursion team can also provide guidance for which ones are actually challenging.

We’ll add that based on our experience, there are not truly challenging excursions in every port of call. (Honestly, that was fine by us as eventually we needed a break from so much physical activity.) If this is something that is important to your clients, independent exploration or finding a third-party tour will be necessary. You can also remind them there’s a nice gym onboard.

Hiking with Viking

Hikes are Viking’s most common “demanding” excursion option. Of the four demanding excursions we did, three were straight up hikes and one was a hybrid sled dog/hike experience. Two ended up being easy, one was moderate, and one was challenging. There were many other hiking excursions throughout the sailing, including at least one where we heard from other passengers that the difficulty level was indeed high.

The easiest of all was the “Stromness Shorline Walk” near Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. Rated as demanding in the brochure, the description, nevertheless, includes the terms “walk” and “scenic stroll,” which really should have clued us in.

In fact, it fit the dictionary description of a stroll to a T. A bit over two miles long, on a flat, paved walking path, the shoreline walk is pretty, but in no way challenging. (The last 10 minutes or so of the walk, which is over large, uneven paving stones seems to be the sole reason for the demanding rating.)

After that first hike, we weren’t sure what to expect from our next “walking” tour, but it turned out to be solidly physical. “Walking the Nature Trails of Mousa Island,” near Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, took participants across rolling field trails with plenty of rocky bits. In total, the hike takes about two hours roundtrip and totals approximately two miles (the entire island is 1.5 miles long and one mile wide).

The day of our hike was a rare day of heavy fog, so the entire experience had an otherworldly feel, as if we were passing through time, especially once we hit the main draw of the hike: the 43-foot-high Mousa Broch (one of the best-preserved specimens of a broch in all of Scotland). At the broch, hikers can choose to climb the narrow stairs to the top of the tower.

After two “walks,” the last of which gave us a good workout, we were looking forward to the “Lofoten Islands Coastal Hike,” one of two hikes offered that day. Sadly, we chose the wrong one. (The “Tjonndalen Scenic Hike” was sold out, but those who did it reported that it was strenuous with significant elevation gains.)

The coastal “hike” curls around a mountain cliff, taking walkers from one beach to another. The scenery is beautiful, but the walk is easy. The pathway is a mix of packed dirt, gravel, and stones and somewhat up and down, but nothing extreme. It took less than two hours to complete.

Our most difficult hiking excursion was also the most surprising – and our favorite, by far.

After so many easier-than-expected hikes, we didn’t have high hopes for the “trekking” part of “Husky Trek through the Arctic Hills.” (We were thrilled for the “husky” part!) However, it was the only one of the hikes we did that we would give a true “demanding” rating to.

In this unique excursion, two guests are hooked to one husky sled dog via waist harnesses. Once the dog is released, she (they’re almost all females, as males are too strong) will pull her “walkers” along a two-mile (ish) trail through the woods and up into the marshy, arctic hills.

And when we say pull, we’re not kidding around. If you’re not careful – and pull back to slow the dog down – you could easily end up face down being dragged. These dogs are powerful, and they love to pull. Between the workout of trying to hold your dog back from top speed, and the elevation gains over the uneven, spongy hills, trekking with a husky gives you a solid workout – enough that my lower back was sore the next day. (You also get plenty of time to pet and cuddle the huskies, which is always delightful.)

There were at seven other hike choices throughout the itinerary that we didn’t try. From talking to one of the excursion team members, we got the impression most were easy to moderate. 

Biking with Viking

E-bike excursions are another commonly-offered excursion – the “Into the Midnight Sun” itinerary had three of them. We chose the one in Bergen, but sadly decided to skip it when it rained that day. (The “E-bike & Hike in Valldal” in Eidsdal sounded right up our alley, but it was sold out by the time we tried to sign up.)

In general, e-bikes are easier to use and require less effort, but they do require some pedaling. (The cruise director on board was fond of telling everyone, if you’re going uphill with an e-bike and stop pedaling, it will roll backwards.)

Most of the e-bike tours on offer were also in cities, meaning mostly flat terrain on paved streets, with occasional stops for sightseeing. Hardcore bikers would probably find these options dull, but they present an alternative way to see a city, while getting a bit of a workout in.

Viking’s Other Demanding Tours

Other than hiking and e-biking, there were a few other so-called demanding tours throughout our itinerary including RIB (rigid inflatable boat) rides for scenic views (usually bird related), one kayaking tour, and one horseback riding option.

Other than one person who did a birdwatching RIB tour – she raved about the bird watching, but made it sound easy – we never found anyone who had done one of these these tours. The description of the kayaking tour (using sea kayaks) sounded like it likely was indeed moderate to challenging. As described during a port talk, the horseback ride sounded fairly tame, with no cantering or galloping permitted.

In conclusion, it is possible to be truly active on a Viking cruise, but it does take some research to figure out which tours will provide the most challenging activities. Just because Viking calls something a hike, doesn’t mean it really is. Your clients can wait until they get onboard to ask, but they do risk some tours (especially for activities that are capacity controlled — think kayaking) being sold out.