Bike Tour Reviews Danube Bike Path 5-nights (Active)
Self guided from EUR € 749
Self-guided:
Daily: Mar 30 - Oct 12, 2024
Description:
This fabulous 5-night tour along the romantic Danube River is a super 'sporty' experience for travelers interested in covering longer cycling distances each day. The 'Active' option described here treats you to an average of 50 miles per day. If you're…
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★★★★★ Tad Staley 1 month ago
Appreciate the support throughout, especially handling paths closed due to flooding
Lovely trip, with great bike paths, gracious accommodations and excellent directions. We appreciated the hard work of the local hosts, who had to make daily route adjustments due to flooding conditions, but their communications were very good.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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BikeTours.com staff reply from jan September 27, 2024
Thanks for the feedback and your business. Glad you had a great trip. Unfortunately the weather did present a problem for folks traveling in your region but many - like yourselves - made the most of it. Great picture and safe travels!
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★★★★★ Thomas Murphy 3 months ago
Danube bike trip
Everything was brilliant. Our bikes were excellent. The hotels were lovely in great locations close to the danube river. We had no trouble finding them. I would recommend the trip to anyone
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★★★★★ Tanner Welsh 5 months ago
Beautiful ride, a few weather-related issues
Overall this tour was a great experience. The scenery was lovely, basic logistics were smooth and easy to follow, and the bike was sufficient for the style of riding. Hotels were comfortable and clean, and one was way more luxurious than expected.
The only reason I didn’t give five stars is that my tour coincided with Danube flooding that closed many sections of the trail, making the route significantly more difficult to navigate. While the tour operators were very helpful when asked, there wasn’t much proactive support with information like alternate routes. I would’ve expected a bit more of a “Plan B” in place given that flooding is not an uncommon event, but instead I was often just figuring it out as I went. This made for a memorable adventure, but also that I had less time to stop along the way because I had to account for more time spent waiting and taking detours. I’d also recommend spending some time getting familiar with common bike-related road signs and relevant German words for “except” and “open/closed” - much better to know the basics before having to take an unplanned detour through a higher-traffic zone.
All this to say, if you don’t go during a flood you’ll probably not encounter any of these issues. And the scenery and tranquility of the ride are hard to beat.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- None
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Tanner Welsh 5 months ago
Beautiful ride, a few weather-related issues
Overall this tour was a great experience. The scenery was lovely, basic logistics were smooth and easy to follow, and the bike was sufficient for the style of riding. Hotels were comfortable and clean, and one was way more luxurious than expected.
The only reason I didn’t give five stars is that my tour coincided with Danube flooding that closed many sections of the trail, making the route significantly more difficult to navigate. While the tour operators were very helpful when asked, there wasn’t much proactive support with information like alternate routes. I would’ve expected a bit more of a “Plan B” in place given that flooding is not an uncommon event, but instead I was often just figuring it out as I went. This made for a memorable adventure, but also that I had less time to stop along the way because I had to account for more time spent waiting and taking detours. I’d also recommend spending some time getting familiar with common bike-related road signs and relevant German words for “except” and “open/closed” - much better to know the basics before having to take an unplanned detour through a higher-traffic zone.
All this to say, if you don’t go during a flood you’ll probably not encounter any of these issues. And the scenery and tranquility of the ride are hard to beat.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- None
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Patrick Holland 5 months ago
Excellent Active Holiday
Lovely way to experience Austria, lovely hotels and fine electric bikes. Would go again.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2024
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ John Vasicek October 3, 2023
great trip aided by perfect weather
It was a great trip, very well organized. Did not get lost once in a 250 mile journey. I went in late fall and the weather was perfect each day. I was on the bike an average of 4 to 4.5 hours a day, but was able to break that up by stopping for lunch, a beer or site seeing. I am 59 YO but an active runner. I used an eBike which helped with the headwinds, but I was still pretty tired / sore by the end of the trip. I saw lots of other 'mature' couples that were doing a similar trip as well. Even though the route is labeled as moderate, you are still doing 50 miles a day. I think you need to be in at least average to above average shape to enjoy the trip.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Francisco Castro July 28, 2023
Trip of my dreams, will never forget this extraordinary experience!!
The best way to travel around Europe!! This tour is one of the most beautiful we have done, the places, towns, museums, are simply like getting into a dream like no one could ever imagine!!
The people are very friendly, the organization is excellent, we never had any problems and when we had to go to the organizers, they responded diligently. This tour is highly recommended, I recommend that if you have booked dinner, arrive early or ask if there is a maximum time for dinner, because on several occasions we had problems with the time we got to eat. Otherwise, highly recommended!!- What was the date of your tour?
- July 12, 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Cathy September 23, 2022
I've wanted to do this for years!
Way back in 2005 I took a river boat cruise down the Danube and saw people cycling along the bank. Finally, after retiring and after covid, my dream ride happened. We weren't sure about the distance from Passau to Vienna, so we chose to take the ferry from Passau to Linz and start from there. We rode ebikes. This was a difficult choice for us because we ride quite a bit weekly in the States, but we were glad to have the ebikes. The bikes are a little heavy so riding on the econo mode gave us the feel of a regular weight bike. That detail aside, the ride, the hotels, the meals, and of course the people, were all fantastic. We planned to dress in layers and that served us well; mornings would start cool and afternoons could warm to the low 70's in early September. The scenery was amazing. Each hotel was lovely and if not directly on the trail, quite easy to find in the town/city. Because we rode through small towns, we saw a part of Austria that you cannot see from a boat or bus tour. The route was mostly well marked and when we did get off the beaten path, there was always someone who could point us in the right direction even if we don't speak the native language. We ate in our hotels, in small pubs, and a grocery store on Marback where we had a freshly made sandwich eaten on the deck at the edge of the river. It was all delicious. The beautifully refurbished family home in Mitterkirchen was lovely as was Stephanie, the owner, who greeted us. We sampled local wines as we traveled through the towns and Wachau Valley and had a fabulous dinner at the Hotel Schloss in Durnstein, while overlooking the Danube. We met people young and older from vairous parts of Germany, the UK, Canada, and local Austrians. I was a little worried about getting to the hotel in Vienna as we had to go down a main road and around a rotary, but Austria is such a bike friendly country that designated bike routes took us from the bridge to our hotel. An added bonus, when we did have to leave, the hotel was about 300 yards from the train station that took us directly to the airport. We won't wait years for the next bike trip, we're already looking at Vienna to Budapest!
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 10, 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- First bike tour
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Goherd September 2, 2019
Flawless......
Everything was excellent. Hotels exceeded our expectations. Bikes were great. Liz was very patient with our changes and special requests. We did the 4 day Danube. Very easy ride.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 8/13/19
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ vacationsmakemehappy May 16, 2019
Nice LONG ride
Disclaimer - I loved the vacation pedaling along in pretty much isolation, just my husband and I, and peaceful time in beautiful scenery. We loved the hotels we stayed at along the trail. For the average Joe though, the sport version isn't for you. That's why I wouldn't recommend this sporty trip to most people.
See below for more detailsThe sporty ride was just that. Long days in the saddle, which we expected since my husband wanted to do the short (meaning less days not miles) due to work obligations. The 45-50 mile days seemed fine, but the 57 mile day was long.
The sporty version left little time for sight seeing along the way. We had to strategically plan out where we were going to spend our 2-2.5 hours of sightseeing time each day, because there was no possible way to see everything. We were on the bikes riding each day by 7:45-8:15, typically had a picnic lunch somewhere along the way with food we either carried with us or picked up along the way at a grocery store. (One of our picnics was standing by a rock waiting for the taxi to pick us up at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp to take us back to the taxi station downtown - would highly recommend the taxi unless you are VERY sporty or have an e-bike-info said there was a longer more gentle route, but we were having difficulty following some of the directions included.)
If going early in the season or on days with poor weather, I highly recommend taking some food and WATER with you. Only on the first ride day and the last ride day were any of the 'trail magic' stops open for an unexpected cup of coffee, beer, or food. Most things were shut down tight. It was in the low 40s when we started out 3 mornings and also raining 2 of those. Make sure you have GOOD rain gear -not water resistant - and waterproof gloves. Wringing out your cycling gloves and then having to put them back on isn't really very comfortable. Luckily our rain gear (except gloves was superb) Make sure your rain coat has a hood to put up under your helmet or take a waterproof helmet cover.
There were many places where we had detours (even on the bike path) due to various construction projects which made parts of the trip seem a bit harder navigating than they would otherwise have been. This seemed to happen both long ride days which made those days even longer.
Take toilet paper with you and be prepared to take a squat ladies - and men. There were long stretches with nothing in sight at times, and when you have to go...! I kind of expected this, so we were prepared.
The bikes we had didn't have cages to hold water bottles, so we had to carry the water in the pouches included on the bike. But to get a drink you had to stop unhook snaps, drink, rehook or roll down waterproof bags, and start again. I can't imagine we would have been able to or wanted to carry that much water (heavy) for warmer weather. Without easy access to water, the trip was extended about 5 minutes for every drink stop. Not that long but over 50+ miles, it adds up and takes away from time you could be doing more interesting touring. SHOW MORE
The bikes in general were heavy. We didn't get the road bikes though, because we knew we would have to be carrying supplies and the road bikes didn't offer that.
We LOVED our hotel room in Feldkirchen an der Donau -- Faustschlössl Hotel-Restaurant. The food was FABULOUS! Salmon with pesto and asparagus
We also LOVED our hotel room in Gasthof „Zur Donaubrücke“ and eating in the dining room - NOT lounge. The only thing we didn't like about this hotel was that reception/lobby was in the bar which is smoking permitted. On the day we checked in, it was so smoking I waited in the hallway. I wasn't willing to duck under the smoke cloud to get checked in. I'm not a smoker and have asthma. It was NOT happening.
We'd been to Melk Abbey before so didn't do that. But we did go into town. There is a great little bakery coffee shop on the left side of the left fork (probably main shopping street) kind of across from the butcher store which would be in the center of that fork mentioned when you go into town from the bike path. Great espresso and desserts. And they had GLUTEN FREE CAKES which made this GF necessary girl extremely happy!!!
Make sure you take an extra day in the Wachau/Krems/Durnstein area. It is FABULOUS!!!!!
The luggage transfers went off without a hitch - thank goodness!!!
SHOW LESS
Be prepared to carry your luggage up to the top floor of every hotel.- What was the date of your tour?
- April 28 (1st ride day), 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No