Danube Bike Path - Vienna to Budapest

The ride was enjoyable. Easy to follow instructions and GPS. The hotels were very comfortable. My favorite was staying in the hotel that used to be a monastery. Thermal baths nearby, cute town and wonderful people. Even though we had some rain, to be expected in spring, the flowers were in bloom. Especially the red poppy's. The boat ride into Budapest gave you a wonderful panorama of thee city. Great trip overall

The trip was fantastic and well worth doing - highly recommend. The cycle route was wonderful and the hotels were all great.
The paper maps, app and instructions for getting between towns were excellent and very detailed (with one exception, see below), but the instructions for navigating from the end of each day's route to your hotel for the night were not clear or sufficient, and on occasion, missing entirely. This unfortunately meant that after 2-3 hours of relaxed, lovely cycling through fields, castles, ruins etc, each day ended with 40 stressful minutes trying to find the hotel.
The first day's route gave an alternative option for anyone staying in Petronell-Carnuntum, rather than cycling all the way to Bad Deutch-Altenburg on the north side of the river and then 30min back to Carnuntum, an option was given of taking the ferry across the river at Orth an der Donau and then "following the cycle path to Carnuntum" - this advice was not sufficient, as there was no signposted cycle path on the south side of the river. I ended up catching a train to Carnuntum rather than cycle on a busy main road.
I was also given an incorrect time and date for the briefing session, and had to find my way to a different hotel in Vienna in order to attend a briefing session (it turned out all briefing sessions over a 2 day period had been wrongly communicated to all travellers, and the poor driver was having a very hard time of it).
Lastly, the tickets for the train and boat that I was issued were for incorrect dates, but I'm pleased to say that the company sorted this out very quickly and sent replacement tickets for the correct dates on to one of the hotels along my route, which was good service.
I liked the fact that both a map app and paper maps with detailed written instructions were provided, as the app drained my phone battery very quickly so it was good to have the paper maps and directions as well.
I would still recommend this trip very highly, but I hope that better directions to the hotels (and the alternative route on day 1) can be provided to future travellers.

The itenarary was very good. Unfortunately the heavy rains did some of the distances a bit difficult.
I must however point out that the bikes where not up to standard. On arrival several bikes where actually broken. If it had not been for our excellent Guide Victor, it may have been a disaster.

Budapest was the best city. Bratislava 2nd and Győr 3rd. The ride past Prinz Eugen’s hunting lodge (Schloß Hof), Bicycle Freedom’s Bridge and lunch at the Penny Coffea at the Slovakian side of the bridge (outstanding poached eggs on avocado bagels) and the ride past Devin Castle and the confluence of the Morova and Danube rivers was the nicest part of the ride.
The rest of the trip and the towns were very boring and monotonous. We had slippery mud in some sections of the trail with rain, and had to use the main roads. The train transfers went smoothly but did require carrying heavy bicycles up and down quite a few steps to reach the platforms.

The maps were more helpful than the written directions. All hotels were excellent, rooms, service and food. The bikes were quite heavy for the distances involved. The women did not like the seats, rubbed their lady parts the wrong way. Questions were answered quickly through What’s App. Inform riders than many restaurants in Europe are closed on Sundays. Have a map that shows where the hotel(s) are located. Considering the Danube flooding conditions, the staff responded quickly, but it would have been nice to be better informed each morning about changing conditions.

Our cycling trip was marred by inclimate weather which cut the tour short due to flooding of the Danube. Because of the detours that were forced upon us we got to see some of the national forest (although we had to clime over downed trees to get through.

The weather wreaked havoc on the trip - with highly unusual rainfall inundation and wind conditions in Austria and Slovakia. The subsequent flooding affected the routes and led to the tour company cancelling 2/3 of the trip. The local tour company struggled to manage communication with everyone. We were booked into a different hotel for the 2nd night and not provided with directions to this hotel. Budapest was lovely and we had great weather there, but we did not experience most of the bike route.

We were looking forward to enjoying this well-planned out trip, mostly on well-maintained cycle paths, but the weather had different ideas! All started out great in Vienna on a warm and sunny day. Our hotel in Vienna was pleasant and the trip guide / Austrian partner, was very helpful and patient with the many travelers needing his guidance. But then Storm Boris hit with torrential rains and strong winds! We struggled through mostly wet and rainy days. However, we got great support in changing out our bikes, due to mechanical and ergonomic issues when we arrived in Bratislava. There certainly were some very enjoyable moments, especially the hotels and food (we chose the half board option) but we cut our riding short on the fifth day to avoid additional days of rain and cooler temperatures. The local partner helped us with securing a hotel in Budapest a day early and with a train ticket from Komarom to Budapest. We know that our trip would have been totally amazing had the weather cooperated! There was no way to predict the unexpected 10-year deluge in Central and Eastern Europe.

So pleased with the quality of the hotels! The app worked well and we were pleased with the quality of the bikes—-no problem with them. Especially enjoyed the comfortable seats! Thank you to Victor for delivering the bikes and giving us the necessary information for the tour.

Very enjoyable trip on flat surfaces theough mutiple countries , cities and cultures. Easy pace each day with plenty of items to explore. Overall great experience

While to bike, the GPS app, and the lodgings were all good, this trip had problems. First, I was routed to the wrong city/hotel on the first day. My trip itinerary and my GPS instructions put me in the wrong city so I had to ride additional miles to get to where my luggage was located. Very poor but doable. My main complaint is about the lack of communication from the local on the ground operator. My bike, while good, had an issue with the seat slowing lowering so every 30 minutes or so I would have to raise it back up. I called the company and was told someone would call me back, they didn't. I called again and was told that they would contact someone to come and look at the bike and that they would call back in a couple of minutes, they didn't. I called again and received the same response and the same result of not calling back. They are open until 8pm so at 7:45pm I called yet again and this time there was no answer and no way to leave a message. They did call back the next day and send me a list of bike shops in my next city. I was told to have the repair made, send them the receipt, and I would be reimbursed they were vague on how I was going to be reimbursed. I decided to stay with readjusting my seat every 30 minutes because I lost all confidence in them.

I will say that Rebecca from TripSite was excellent. I called her after the no answer phone call. She followed up with me later that day as well as the next day and patiently listened to my story. Thanks Rebecca!

Misunderstanding on inclusion of meals at the hotels other than Vienna, Bratislava, & Budapest. We specified that we’d like them included and they were not. We were able to find restaurants, but obviously that increased the cost for us.

We had a great time! As a bike guide in the US myself, I know how these things work. You cannot foresee every situation. And as a guide, we know to be flexible. And because of that we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Here are some thoughts for improvements for your next guests. These by no means took away from our enjoyment and are meant for future trips.
-- The hotels in general were nice. A few issues here and there (mostly normal stuff).
-- In Hainburg - Altes Kloster - there was no individually controlled AC. It was fine for us because the night was cool.
-- The breakfasts at all the hotels were excellent
-- In Esztergom, the Portobello Hotel was not so great. The hotel room actually smelled bad. My wife says it smelled like old shrimp. They sent someone up with a spray can which they left for us. That "hid" the smell for a while, and you got used to it. But when you stepped back in the room from outside you could clearly smell the mustiness. Also there was no coffee maker in the room (which is always a nice thing to have). We did OK there, but I'd recommend a different hotel for future guests.
-- Traveling by train from Gyor to Komarom was interesting. No elevators and no escalators. We had to carry bikes up and over (or down and under) the tracks to get to the platform. This is the kind of thing it would have been nice to know ahead of time.
-- There was no ferry service from Szentendre to Budapest. We ended up taking the train. While the docs say you might have to take the train, I think it would have been nice to have been told ahead of time that there would not be a boat.
-- Perhaps too, a little more heads up about possible river flooding and the need for detours (honestly, the guy we met with the bikes may have mentioned this. I'm just bring it up as a "nice to know" tip for future guests.

Again, none of these took away from *our* trip (except maybe the Portobello Hotel). As a bike guide these are the kinds of thing we like to look for and inform our guests about ahead of time.

And yes... we will see you on another adventure soon! We had a blast!

Thanks
-Philip & Caroline

tripsite was always a little confused and there were mistakes made, we got our info the day we arrived for the first day of our tour. The hotel did not know a thing about our packets, and again I had to make a call on vacation. The person that showed up was clueless about bikes did not know how to put on pedals or adjust the seat. He did not have our train tickets as someone forgot to put them in the packet. one of the bikes was missing a fender and a bag. The hotels were hit or miss. The Stockl hotel was dirty and smelly, we both got a rash that was scaly and itchy. I had to call Euro bikes to get our train tickets again. As they forgot to digitally send them. ,( second time). The directions were hit or miss. Gps was better. I have done many bike tours and I loved the Danube tour just need a more organized company. Electric bikes worked great!!
castles were great!

Vienna, Budapest and gyor. There wasn’t much to see along the ride.

Our party of 4 had an amazing time on this tour. We loved the cycling and each day was different. The accommodations that we stayed in were all comfortable and had amazing breakfasts!
You will need some extra Euros for ferries and we crossed the Danube 3 or 4 times and it was not always covered. Also, the stairs at the train stations can be challenging with your bikes, especially for heavier e-bikes. We managed though and had a great time!

The fall weather made for a beautiful ride along the Danube. The GPS was excellent at guiding us down the bike lanes and thru the lovely villages and cities. The route has impressive paved off road trails most of the way with occasional packed gravel trails. The hotels were excellent and our bags were always awaiting are arrival. We have taken other trips with Tripsite and they have all been well organized and fun.