This is the second part of the blog series about river cruising. This post will take you in-depth into the day-by-day breakdown of Uniworld's Bordeaux, Vineyards & Chateaux itinerary. If you missed the first blog in this series about river cruising, you will want to check it out here: why-take-a-river-cruise.html Uniworld is an all-inclusive river cruise company. Some river cruise companies do not include excursions and tours as part of the price but Uniworld does include most of them in the price you pay. They also include gratuities for all staff onboard and tour guides so that you do not have to worry about paying those either. One item that I do want to mention is that on this itinerary Uniworld did offer three optional excursions that you could pay for in addition to the complimentary excursions. However, these three options excursions are limited in size (very small) so I can understand why they do have to charge extra since not everyone on the ship can participate in the special tours. Day 1: Arrival Into Bordeaux, FranceArrival into Bordeaux is fairly easy. Depending on where you are coming from, you can take an airplane or train to get to Bordeaux. Our flight from the United Sates took us into Paris with a short layover and then to Bordeaux. If you fly into Bordeaux then you can take advantage of Uniworld's complimentary transportation from the airport to the ship which is what we did. There are also many train routes that go to Bordeaux from other locations in Europe. You can definitely take one of these train options, however, Uniworld will not pick you up from the train station. For roughly 20-30 euros you can get a taxi to take you to the ship from the Bordeaux train station. Depending on what time you arrive onboard, you can grab a light lunch or snack. Your stateroom might not be ready yet but you can enjoy the ships common spaces or go out and enjoy the wonderful city of Bordeaux. Day 2: CadillacThe ship departed Bordeaux this morning in route to Cadillac so we were able to enjoy a leisurely morning onboard which is perfect for getting over jetlag. If you are familiar with sweet dessert wines then you probably are aware of Cadillac. This area is known for their sweet dessert wines called Sauternes. This wine is my least favorite that we tried during the trip. I do not prefer sweet wines but with the correct food pairing I could see their appeal. Uniworld allows its guests to select which bus they would like to ride on to take the excursion. This is wonderul if you are traveling with a group or friends so that you can pick the same bus/group so that you can tour together. This also helps keep the size of each tour down. This tour split us into two groups, however, some tours were split into even smaller groups consisting of only a handful of us in each group. This is definitely a huge plus for Uniworld and keeping the group excursion size down. Our first excursion was visiting a Sauterne Estate with a wine tasting. Our bus group was taken to Chateau Filhot for our tour. After the Estate, we were taken to Chateau Royal de Cazeneuve for a wine tasting lunch and exploring of the Chateau. Both the lunch and Chateau were both really nice and we really enjoyed this day, even though the wine was not exactly what we like. Day 3: PauillacUniworld had two different tour options to choose from in Pauillac. The first is the one that we selected was a Medoc panoramic tour with exclusive wine tasting. The other option was a vineyard bicycle ride with wine tasting. We thought it was going to rain this day so we selected the first option which was the bus tour. The Medoc region has a number of Grand Cru status wines so this was an area that we definitely wanted to explore. Once again the bus groups were split up onto two buses (4 groups) which made for very intimate groups. The panoramic bus tour was very nice and we did drive past a number of beautiful vineyards and chateaus before reaching the one that we were going to visit called Chateau Du Tertre. This was an absolutely beautiful Chateau, personally my favorite. Day 4: Blaye and BourgeBlaye is a small little village that we spent the morning in on day 4. The ship docks right next to the Blaye Fortress which you can walk to from the ship or go through the guided tour that Uniworld provides. We did the walking tour through the Blaye Fortress which was built in the 17th century by military engineer Vauban. Right outside the Fortress on the main street in Blaye is a street market where residents purchase meat, produce and seafood. This area is known for their white asparagus which we were able to try someonboard the ship one evening for dinner. Afterwards, we were driven on a scenic drive along the Route de la Corniche Fleurie. This is a road that runs between Blaye and Bourg. The road is narrow, and a little intense at times if the bus had to pass other large vehicles on the road. But it was very pretty and scenic. The ship later moved to Bourg where we were able to explore the little village on our own. It is a very steep village with amazing views. Definitely a cute place to spend an hour or two but not much to do but walk around and enjoy the scenery. Very relaxing village. They are also known for their chocolate figs which we tried and enjoyed. Day 5: Saint-EmilionDay 5 was absolutely my favorite day of the trip. The ship was docked in Libourne and we traveled by bus a short distance to Saint-Emilion. The vineyards in this area were the first to be protected by UNESCO because of the history of the area. The vineyards and wine are fantastic in this area, however, the cobblestone streets and exceptional architecture is what makes this area amazing. One of the most amazing sites in the city is a 12-th century church carved into a cliff. Only the tower is above ground and the rest of the church is underground. I would have loved to take pictures but they do not allow any of the church. But as you will see in the pictures below you can see for yourself the amazing architecture of this area. This area also has a number of cute restaurants with courtyards which are amazing and where we were able to eat lunch after our tour of the city. Later that day we also visited a Premier Grand Cru in Saint-Emilion called Chateau Franc Mayne. This chateau is different than the others that we had already visited on this river cruise because they have an underground cave system and store their wine barrels in the caves. We were taken on a tour through the cave system and also were able to try some of their wine. Once again, this was my favorite day of the trip! Day 6: LibourneTwo days a week Libourne has a huge Farmer's market. We happened to be there during the market and it was amazing to see all of the produce and good displayed outside and how many people were in attendance. After the market we decided to go on an active tour which was a guided bike tour along the Dordogne River and through the countryside. The total bike ride was 6 miles. We also stopped in a small church that had been completely renovated and the walls hand painted just like they had been back many centuries ago. Later that afternoon the ship left Libourne and traveled back to Bordeaux. After dinner onboard, Uniworld had open air buses for us to ride on and tour beautiful Bordeaux at night. Day 7: BordeauxThe last day of our river cruise was spent in Bordeaux. We did the "do as the locals do" tour of Bordeaux. This was small group tour which included stopping to enjoy many treats at local sweet shops and seeing the main sights in the center or Bordeaux. After the tour we went back to the ship for lunch onboard then went for a run along the Bordeaux riverwalk which is where the ship is docked. This is a wonderful area with a lot of people walking and enjoying the beautiful city of Bordeaux and the waterfront. Day 8: Disembarkation in BordeauxUnfortunately, after 7 nights we had to leave Uniworld's River Royale, the wonderful staff onboard, the amazing tour guides and fantastic food onboard. We truly had a great time and are looking forward to our next river cruise.
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