Bordeaux river cruise on Uniworld's SS Bon Voyage
After a plethora of ocean cruising and with restricted travel in place, this summer presented us with the opportunity to try something new, a Uniworld round trip river cruise from beautiful Bordeaux in the Aquitaine region of south west France. After a short flight from London we arrived at Bordeaux airport where we were greeted by a Uniworld representative and taken to our coach for our transfer to the ship, the aptly named SS Bon Voyage. Docked in the heart of Bordeaux the ship was ideally placed to explore this wonderful city, and though we didn’t have time to do so before setting sail we were already looking forward to returning later in our cruise.
Having visited the wonderful Oyster Box hotel in Durban, South Africa (part of Uniworld’s sister brand, the Red Carnation hotel group) and having watched Jane MacDonald’s trip on a Uniworld river cruise, we knew that our home for the next week would probably not be described as understated. From the dockside we could already see how the SS Bon Voyage stood out from the other river ships docked alongside her, with her bright blue playfully designed top deck decor. Upon entering the reception area it was impossible to ignore the opulent design and grandeur, with large ornate vases housing the most magnificent display of sunflowers ever, glossy wooden walls and reception desk which had been polished to within an inch of their life, and a vibrant wall mosaic depicting a typical French countryside scene. We couldn’t wait to explore the rest of the ship.
We quickly realised that the opulence wasn’t restricted simply to the decor, the service was set to be as personalised and attentive to detail as was the design and decor. We were personally greeted by Silvie, the hotel manager, who seated us in the gorgeous Le Salon Champagne lounge so that we could enjoy a much appreciated afternoon tea whilst the reception team checked us in. It wasn’t long until we were checked in and taken to our room, conveniently located a half flight of stairs up from the reception area and a few steps down the corridor.
Our suite, 303, was beautifully appointed with plenty of storage and luscious furnishings with the most exquisitely designed and comfortably bed taking up most of the room. The bathroom was lavishly appointed with marble tiles and countertops and a spacious shower. However, the highlight of the suite is the large sliding patio doors, and though we had unpacking to do we couldn’t resist throwing open the doors for a quick lie down on the sumptuously soft mattress adorned with Egyptian fine cotton bed linen to soak in the river views from the perfectly positioned bed.
Despite the suite being rather ‘cosy’ we managed to find somewhere to place all of our two suitcases full of clothes and all of our camera equipment and headed back to the lounge for the welcome talk with our cruise director, Thierry. Unlike ocean cruising we hadn’t pre-booked any of our shore excursions, nor did we fully know when or where we would be each day. However, we need not have worried, as every evening Thierry held a quick talk in the lounge to explain the itinerary for the following day, run through the planned activities and events and be on hand to answer any questions or respond to any change of plans.
During that evening’s introductory talk the ship quietly slipped its ropes and set sail for our first stop of the cruise, a little village called Blaye, located about 30 miles from Bordeaux at the intersection of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. As we sailed Thierry explained all of the possible excursions we could book onto for the entire week so that we could make some of our choices over dinner in the downstairs restaurant, the joyfully named Le Grand Fromage. In normal circumstances every meal is open seating allowing guests to eat when and with whom they would like but due to current restrictions all passengers were allocated a table in the restaurant that would be their permanent table for all meals throughout the voyage.
The restaurant itself was equally as lavish as the rest of the ship, decorated in beautiful blues and greens with gold finishing and plenty of lovely plants, ferns, flowers and herbs decorating almost every flat surface available. The dinner menu offered four courses with a choice of three or four options for every course, including some rather lovely vegetarian options. Overall we found the food on the SS Bon Voyage to be some of the best we have ever had on a cruise, especially some of the delicious fish dishes I tried, which given the size of the ship is quite an achievement. Despite the ship having the capacity to accommodate 124 passengers it was only just over half full for our voyage but this didn’t mean that they had cut back on the variety or quality of the food on offer. Although dinner was a seated affair, breakfast and lunch comprised a huge buffet laid out for guests to make as many visits as they wished, with the food generously served up by the ever attentive restaurant team, as well as a daily changing menu of dishes cooked to order. In fact the daily lunchtime pasta dish became a highlight of the voyage for me and I would start to look forward to it almost as soon as I had finished my breakfast!
We finished our evening meal just in time to make our way up to the top deck to catch the first of many beautiful sunsets we would witness over the coming week. Already we were loving the ease at which we could get anywhere in the ship within a few minutes. See a beautiful sunset out of the restaurant window, and within a minute and a couple of flights of stairs you can be outside taking it in from every angle. Take a seat on the top deck and the sun comes out - don’t worry you are only a quick nip back to your room for the sunscreen. It’s so easy to get about on a river cruise ship, and though there are public toilets we never used them, generally finding it just as quick to go back to our suite.
Once the sun had set we headed back to Le Salon Champagne to finalise our shore excursion choices for the voyage over a post-dinner cocktail. Typically there were a couple of options for every stop, one usually a little more active than the other, as well as a couple of extra cost excursions for those that wanted to do something a little different. Over drinks we were getting to know our fellow travellers, with guests gathering to enjoy the complimentary drinks served up to us by the ever patient and knowledgeable bar team. The lounge itself was decorated in a similar theme to the restaurant with green and grey furnishings offering large, homely sofas adorned with the softest of soft cushions to sink into as well as more upright tub chairs. Bringing life into the lounge are the enormous plants and ferns dotted around the lounge, with the centrepiece being the lavish wood and gold, glass ceilinged bar area. From early in the morning until late at night Le Salon Champagne was a wonderful place to pass the time of day.
Waking up in Blaye the next morning we could see the destination for part of our excursion that morning, the historic Blaye citadel, within a stone’s throw of our balcony window. We were only in Blaye until lunchtime so we chose to join the excursion which included a coach ride a little way along the river followed by a walking tour of the citadel, leaving us a short time to explore this quaint little French village before boarding the ship for our sail ten miles towards the Dordogne river to our next stop Bourg.
Already we were relaxing into the river cruising experience. Having heard that it could be quite regimented with a tight schedule we were pleasantly surprised how flexible it was, with plenty of opportunity to independently explore the villages and towns we stopped in, as well as daytime sailings to just sit back, relax, and watch the world go by. In fact we were getting to love the uniqueness of river cruising, with ships more often than not docked right in the heart of a town or city meaning you can just come and go whenever you want, and usually staying overnight allowing evening visits too.
Rightly or wrongly we were also pleasantly surprised with the demographic of our fellow travellers on this river cruise. We had expected that river cruising might attract a slightly older demographic but we were wrong. Our fellow guests included families with teenagers, a majority of middle aged empty nester types and some solo travellers, with a broad range of nationalities including Americans, Canadians and a mixture of Europeans. Most evenings from pre-dinner drinks until late into the night the lounge was buzzing with guests chatting and getting to know each other while enjoying the often locally themed entertainment, including a rather lively duo of male singer and his accompanying cancan dancer.
Something we did find quite unusual about this river cruise was the way the ship dotted about the two main rivers, often doubling back on itself with no apparent rhyme or reason to the scheduling of the ports of call. However, the reason for the rather random stops became apparent as the cruise progressed, with low bridges, tides and other river ships playing a part. In fact, one of the most pleasant (and quite unusual to river cruising as we have since found out) thing about a river cruise from Bordeaux is the lack of traffic and other river cruise ships along the way. We only docked ‘next-door’ to another ship once and that was a brief overnight stop in Bordeaux mid cruise to catch the low tide in order to sail under the low bridge inland of Bordeaux (more on that later). Anyway, this meant that early the next morning we slipped the ropes in Bourg and headed back towards Blaye to dock on the other side of the river in a little place called Medoc, the gateway to the numerous vineyards along the riverbank.
Destined to reach Medoc by lunchtime we again enjoyed a leisurely morning sailing along the river with a rather lovely oyster tasting event scheduled for the late morning in the cute little cafe style venue, Le Cáfe du Soleil. Le Cáfe du Soleil is located at the rear of the top deck, with the cafe style seating extending out onto the deck surrounding the aft facing infinity swimming pool and is used to hold special events and occasional al fresco light lunches.
At the other end of the top deck the SS Bon Voyage is a storage area for the ship’s bikes, which are taken ashore for the planned cycling excursions, as well as being available for guests to request to use to explore an area independently. Wanting to make the most of every experience river cruising offers, we had booked to go on a 15km cycling excursions that would take us through the vineyards of the Medoc wine region with a visit and wine tasting at Chateau Malescasse, a recently renovated modern chateau with a premier cru classic rating. Although we had been a little cautious about taking part in an active excursion we found the bikes incredibly easy to ride and the pace perfect, so much so that we then decided to do another of the bike rides later in the voyage.
During our well earned dinner that evening we set sail back to Bordeaux where we were stopping overnight in order to leave early the next morning to catch the low tide that would let us get under the Pont de Pierre ‘Stone Bridge’ which, with its 17 low arches and 6 metre tidal range, makes it one of the most challenging navigations of this voyage. This was the one occasion on the whole cruise that we were docked next to another cruise ship, but since we had to leave at 6am the next morning we remained on the outside of the ship we were docked alongside.
Although the Captain invited all of the guests up on deck to witness the 6am sailing under the bridge he made the mistake of telling us that we would be returning back under it at the more convenient time of 4pm, so not surprisingly not many people joined him for the first navigation under the bridge. Our first port of call that day was a little village called Cadillac, 20 miles inland from Bordeaux along the Garonne river. We had decided to opt out of the excursions on offer that day, choosing instead to wander into Cadillac for a meander around the town, stopping for a morning coffee in a local cafe. After lunch we set sail for our longest journey yet, sailing all the way along the Garonne then turning into the Dordogne to our furthest destination, Libourne. Along the way we sailed back under the Pont de Pierre bridge but this time around the Captain and crew were joined by most of the guests on the open deck, with the suite butler performing a sabering ceremony as we passed under the bridge.
We arrived in Libourne that evening and we were here for two overnights, with the voyage highlight planned for the next day, a full day in the gorgeous St. Emilion. But before we could disembark for our day trip, the Captain had to untether us from our berth to sit in the middle of the river whilst a muscaret passed us by. If, like me, you had never heard of a mascaret, it is a tidal bore which occurs on estuary rivers and in Bordeaux can create waves up to two metres high. If the ship was berthed at this time it could cause damage to either the ship or the dock, so the Captain had to take us into the centre of the river to ride the wave. We waited with baited breath and though we could see the wave approaching us the actual event was a little bit of an anti-climax, but nonetheless an interesting occurence to witness.
With the ship safely re-berthed we set off on our excursion to St. Emilion where we had a guided tour around the underground church and crypts, followed by a tour and wine tasting at Chateau Soutard, before some free time in St. Emilion to explore the town which has 97 wine shops and get some lunch in one of its many restaurants, cafes and bistros, many with Michelin stars. We found a little cafe in the square overlooking the town and enjoyed a glass of local wine with a delicious charcuterie board of cheese, meats and local pate.
Being in Libourne for two full days meant that the next day we were able to explore this lovely riverside town and the surrounding area, firstly on a cycling excursion, followed by a walk around the town and its local market. Leaving Lilbourne we headed back to our final destination for the voyage, back to the beautiful city of Bordeaux where we would be docked for a further two nights, which would give us plenty of time to explore the city where our journey had started.
Since the ship was docked right in the heart of Bordeaux we decided to explore the city independently, starting with the long walk along the promenade to the Basilica, where there was a large local market taking place. We spent some time in the unusual Basilica with its modern stained glass windows before wandering back through the centre of this gorgeous town stopping to admire the traditional limestone buildings with French balconies, the cafes and bistros, the lovely artisan shops, and the historic buildings. After lunch we headed out along the river in the other direction to the Cité du Vin wine museum. At the museum we spent an hour wandering around the exhibitions before heading up to floor 8 where we enjoyed a glass of cold crémant wine (the local version of champagne) whilst enjoying the elevated view over the city. Wandering back along the river to the ship it was lovely to see the locals out and about enjoying the weekend in the cafes and restaurants dotted along the river bank.
For our final evening on board the SS Bon Voyage we had asked to eat in La Brasserie restaurant located at the front of the ship next door to the Le Salon Champagne lounge. La Brasserie seats only a dozen guests and offers a bistro type dinner in a small French cafe type setting with views out of the front of the ship, perfect when docked in the heart of a city like Bordeaux. There is no additional cost for eating in La Brasserie, although it only opens if enough guests request to eat there. The dinner was delicious and, although we had loved all of our meals in Le Grand Fromage, we welcomed the chance to eat in a different environment where we could sit with some of the friends we had made on the cruise.
Although we had come to the end of our wonderful week on the SS Bon Voyage, they remained hospitable until the end, allowing us to stay on the ship until we needed to leave for the airport. Our transfer, which they arranged for us, was planned for 11.30am, and although we had to vacate our room at 8.30am we still had a few hours to enjoy the open decks watching Bordeaux waterside waking up and preparing for the local Sunday being set up along the promenade.
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Thank you to our preferred travel partners Panache cruises and Uniworld cruises who invited us on this 7 day Bordeaux river cruise on board SS Bon Voyage and paid our cruise fare and transfers.
If you enjoyed this blog why not take a look at our Tradewind Voyages Golden Horizon review or our Stay and Explore Jersey trip with Cosmos Travel.
IIf you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache cruises - please mention that you have been referred to them through Visit With Us.
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