Trafalgar Seine River Cruises Paris Normandy Prices 2027

Published on Jan 14, 2026, 3:30 pm CST

5 min read

Key points

Trafalgar plans to add a third river ship, Trafalgar Harmonie, on the Seine River from April 2027
The new Best of the Seine with Paris & Normandy itinerary is an 8 day Paris round trip with calls and excursions across Normandy
Trafalgar says Harmonie is a 126 passenger ship with a 3 to 1 guest to staff ratio and seven cabin categories
Trafalgar's first two river ships, Verity on the Rhine and Reverie on the Danube, are scheduled to begin sailing in April 2026
Best of the Seine pricing is advertised from $3,699.00 (USD) for the Paris to Paris sailing

Impact

Booking Timing And Price: April through peak season 2027 inventory on the Seine can move early, so travelers should lock refundable terms and insurance as soon as preferred weeks appear
Paris Hotel And Air Demand: Expect higher pre and post cruise hotel demand in Paris around embarkation weeks, and align flights into Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) or Paris Orly Airport (ORY) with buffer nights
Land Tour Combinations: Travelers combining the cruise with Trafalgar land itineraries should price the bundle against separate bookings, because included transfers and extensions can change total trip cost
Normandy Day Planning: Excursion heavy days in Normandy can run long, so travelers should treat same day rail or flight connections as high risk and plan overnight buffers
Advisor Selling Angle: The product targets guided touring customers who want river cruising without losing structured sightseeing, which may shift demand from traditional Seine operators on comparable weeks

Trafalgar is expanding its new river cruise business into France, adding a third ship, Trafalgar Harmonie, to sail the Seine River beginning in April 2027. The ship will operate an 8 day itinerary called Best of the Seine with Paris & Normandy, built around a Paris, France round trip with Normandy focused stops and excursions. Travelers who already book Trafalgar land tours, and travel advisors who sell guided touring, are the primary audience for this product, because Trafalgar is positioning the sailing as a guided, experience led river cruise that can also be combined with its France land itineraries.

The practical change for travelers is added Seine capacity under a mainstream tour operator brand, with advertised pricing from $3,699.00 (USD) for the core Paris to Paris sailing. Trafalgar is also marketing a cabin upgrade offer on select 2027 departures, which matters because it can narrow the price gap versus competing Seine sailings once you compare cabin categories.

Who Is Affected

Travelers planning a 2027 river cruise in France are the most directly affected, especially those who want a Paris first itinerary that mixes city touring with Normandy history, small towns, and classic day trips like Giverny. Trafalgar's published Seine content highlights Paris, Vernon, Rouen, Versailles, and the Normandy beaches as core themes, with the cruise structured for April through October style seasonality.

Travelers who prefer Trafalgar's guided model, including its onboard Experience Director and Experience Manager pairing, are also a good fit, because the company is emphasizing hosted storytelling and pre planned logistics on shore. The included experience set is designed around Trafalgar's established branded formats, including Be My Guest visits and a Make Travel Matter experience in Paris focused on preservation and sustainable urban planning.

Separately, anyone looking at Trafalgar's 2026 European river debut should understand the sequencing. Trafalgar's first two ships, Verity on the Rhine and Reverie on the Danube, are slated to begin sailing in April 2026, and the Seine product is an expansion the following year rather than a first step.

What Travelers Should Do

If you are considering a 2027 Seine sailing, start by choosing your week based on Paris priorities first, and Normandy priorities second. Paris hotel rates, museum reservations, and even dining availability can be the limiting factor, so a simple way to reduce stress is to add at least one buffer night in Paris on arrival, then fly into Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) or Paris Orly Airport (ORY) with daylight arrival times so you can absorb delays without losing embarkation day. For a practical pre cruise planning baseline, use Paris Travel Guide to map neighborhoods and transit before you lock hotels.

If your decision is rebook versus wait, treat the cabin upgrade offer and the cancellation terms as your thresholds. When Trafalgar advertises a free cabin upgrade on select 2027 sailings, it can be worth booking earlier if the deposit is refundable or reasonably transferable, because the value is tied to a specific sailing rather than a generic discount. If the fare is nonrefundable, then waiting until your preferred cabin category is available on your exact week is usually smarter than chasing an incentive that forces you into suboptimal dates.

Over the next 24 to 72 hours after you see your preferred dates appear, monitor the full trip cost, not just the cruise price. Add up airfare, Paris hotels, and ground transfers, then compare Trafalgar's cruise only pricing against any bundled extensions. If you are building independent side trips, keep an eye on rail and road disruption signals around Paris and Normandy corridors, because they can affect tight turnaround days, including Paris Rail Strike Disrupts Trains January 13, 2026 and Le Havre Port Farmer Checks A1 A13 Traffic as examples of how quickly ground conditions can change.

Background

Trafalgar is entering river cruising by scaling from chartered ships before it commits to building its own vessels. For 2026, it plans to operate Verity and Reverie, both 128 passenger ships chartered from sister brand Uniworld, where they sailed as River Queen and River Princess. Industry reporting and ship data listings identify River Queen as a 1999 built vessel and River Princess as a 2001 built vessel, now operating under Trafalgar branding for the Rhine and Danube programs.

Harmonie extends that model onto the Seine, and Trafalgar says the ship will carry 126 passengers, with a 3 to 1 guest to staff ratio and seven cabin categories. Travel Market Report also describes Harmonie as a Uniworld ship that Trafalgar will charter, although the operator has not publicly detailed the exact former vessel identity in the same way it did with River Queen and River Princess.

For travelers, new capacity on a high demand river like the Seine ripples beyond the ship itself. First order, it creates more booking options for Paris round trips, and it may shift pricing pressure across comparable spring and fall weeks as operators compete on inclusions and cabin categories. Second order, it can concentrate hotel demand in Paris on embark and disembark days, and it can tighten same week inventory for Normandy side trips and transfers, especially when travelers add independent pre and post stays. The best way to manage those ripple effects is to build buffer nights around the cruise, and to treat Paris logistics as the anchor of the whole plan, because that is where flight delays, local transit disruptions, and hotel sellouts most often compound into missed cruise day connections.