Viking Atla: 98 departures, six of which run all the way to Basel
Measured on 25 August 2026: 47 departures from Regensburg to Budapest, 41 from Budapest to Regensburg, and six from Budapest to Basel. Those six are of a different nature from the other 92.
What six departures to Basel mean
Going from Budapest to Basel means leaving the Danube basin for the Rhine's. Two rivers that meet nowhere and do not even drain into the same sea: the Danube runs to the Black Sea, the Rhine to the North Sea.
What makes the trip possible is the Main-Danube Canal, opened in 1992 after a century and a half of attempts. It crosses the watershed at 406 metres above sea level, the highest point ever reached by a European cruise vessel. The passage takes some sixteen locks, several of which lift the ship more than twenty metres at once.
On those departures you are no longer cruising the Danube: you are crossing Europe from one sea to another in a fortnight. A different trip entirely, and a different budget of days. If that format is what interests you, Viking Gefjon works it year-round with 76 departures.
The hull: a Longship, 190 berths
135 metres, 190 guests, 53 crew, 95 staterooms: 25 Standard, 22 French Balcony, 39 Veranda, 7 Veranda Suites and 2 Explorer Suites. One crew member for every 3.58 guests, a ratio belonging to the Longship class.
The 135-metre length is not an aesthetic choice: it is what the Main and Danube locks accept. Viking's entire European fleet is drawn around that constraint.
Atla, daughter of the sea
Atla is one of the nine daughters of Ægir and Rán, the personified waves of Norse mythology. The sources also make them, collectively, the mothers of Heimdall — a god born of nine mothers, which remains one of the stranger ideas in the corpus.
For a classic one-week route, Viking Var offers 163 departures and Viking Egil 149, on the same pair of cities.
Getting there from Montreal
One connection to Munich or Budapest — Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam — for 13 to 15 hours door to door, then an hour by road to Regensburg.
Booking: what you need to know
Viking's reservations site does not serve Quebec addresses: it redirects to a page stating it is unavailable and suggesting you go through an agent. The check takes 30 seconds and is better done than taken on trust.
On our side, nothing is booked without writing. Our Viking River Cruises advisors send you the exact fare, the inclusions and exclusions item by item, and the applicable conditions. AquaTerra Travels follows Quebec consumer protection rules and participates in the compensation fund for travel agency customers.
