4 Star Along the Danube - Four Country Tour Tour Reviews — 1 to 30 of 108

The trip was exactly as promised and more. The chosen bike routes were very scenic, appropriate distances and gave us a great flavour of Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The bikes were good quality and in excellent shape - top marks. The food was outstanding! Lots of food choices, special menus to highlight local foods and top quality ingredients. The Primadonna is a gorgeous boat, and our room was just as lovely as the advertising showed. One special highlight was using the boat to do a night tour of Budapest - the most beautiful city I have ever seen.

Most people on the trip were German, with a mixture of Dutch, French. There were only a few Americans and Canadians. The boat staff were mostly Serbian. That meant that there were inevitable language issues. For example, we paid 100 Euros to do a night bus tour of Vienna in English. But some German, Duthc and French travellers ended up on the bus too, so our tour guide ended up having to repeat all tour instructions in 4 languages, which was frustrating and inefficient. In the same vein, every evening we had briefings on the following days cycling trip. Our Serbian hotel manager did his best, but the information was often confusing, and the maps provided by Danau Tours were pretty average. This led to a number of wrong turns and navigation mix ups over the week.

In North America, we are used to having water provided free of charge when dining. So it felt cheap that we were asked to pay 7 Euros for a bottle of water at meals. Considering the cost of the trip, that didn't sit right. To be fair, we traveled around Europe after the trip, and we never encountered free water in restaurants, so it appears that is a European norm.

Lastly, although it is called a 4-country tour, you only cycle in 3 countries: Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The only time you set foot in Germany is in Passau at the start and end of the week. So if you want to tour Germany, plan in time before or after the trip.

We had such a great time on our trip & thank Leslie for his leadership & organization to make it fantastic! We had a junior suite as we booked early & it was perfect! The food was very good, the ship very clean and all the staff were friendly & helpful.

The only 2 suggestions would be:
1 - the bike app needs to be upgraded or tweeked as people were having trouble downloading & our phones were dying to quick using the app. Also, everyone should get one for free.

2- please put water bottle holders on the bikes! I drink a lot of water & find it hard to put in blue holder & the water kept leaking (on my phone!)
Also, a nice touch would be souvenir water bottles from the boat owners :)

All in all, a super trip! Thank you

The night cruise around the city of Budapest with everything lit up was glorious.

Our tours in Budapest on the bus was with an exceptional tour leader. She brought the city alive with all the history and beautiful locations we visited. Very passionate about her city. The walking tour in Bratislava was Wonderful. Daca gave a well thought out tour of the city center-absolutely the best.
Our biggest issue was the language, even when bike tours were explained in English we did not always understand certain words.

Our waiter Uros, gave us exemplary service. Very professional, friendly, helpful. Always looking out for us
All crew members were top notch

I especially liked the ability to bike through farmlands, quaint country villages, vineyards, apple orchards and see old castles, church spires, rolling hills in the background and of course, the beautiful Danube river was always on our side. Most of all though, was the chance to visit Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna and Munich on foot and enjoy the different food offerings and beers!
We did do the excursion into Budapest at night and that was fabulous. Seeing the three bridges all lit up and riding around Pest after having goulash and watching the dinner show of dancers and musicians was lovely, I'd do it all over again!

The biking was scenic and beautiful. The best biking was in Budapest and then in Austria on the last day. It was an experience I will never forget.

The scenery was beautiful, very memorable. The staff was excellent, accommodating and professional. Thank you for that. The e-bikes were great, and definately made riding fun. Unfortunately, due to flooding on the Danube, we did not get to experience important parts of the trip. The staff did their best to make up for this, but we did miss out on anticipated stops and excursions.

Budapest and Vienna were fabulous cities to see. I would suggest that more info, printed the day before on bike routes be given out to everyone. The info meetings were hard to get all of the details and minimal route information changes. Also, bike routes for each day should be based on temperature and wind direction with advisories about how much water to bring along, where to get more. The bike route that was suggested for Bratislava was terrible: prior information on the 30 mph wind gusts that we headed back towards the boat in and 90 degree temperatures made the trip difficult and dangerous: my husband almost suffered from heat stroke and we could not find any place on route to get water after making the return after the bridge crossing.

.The trip was well managed by Lesley.He was great. The boat staff were not very helpful so that was a bit frustrating at times.Food was good. Lots of activites. Biking was fabulous.

Vienna and Budapest at night. Coffee and cake at 1600. Breakfast buffet. Large lager.

Our favorite parts of the trip was the day in Budapest and also the last day of riding. The scenery and stops were all beautiful.
While the daily itinerary sessions with the cruise director were well done and informative the timing should be rotated between the different language groups. The other group was larger and therefore always ran longer than planned.
We found the bikes to be of good quality but you may need another crew member to service them after each ride. We pointed out that there was an issue with my wife’s bike but on the next ride the front brake was still rubbing. Also another member of our group’s chain was quite noisy. Still dealing with these bikes is a massive job and I give the crew full credit.

The route was amazing and the guides were great. The food was average at best. Folks were assigned a table for dinner. Despite that, the waiters still had to ask everyone whether they had ordered the fish or the chicken. Folks should have been able to sit with whomever they wanted to. Being stuck with someone who was a pompous ass for a week is ridiculous when the waiters can't even get who ordered what correct anyway.

Cycling through the Wachau area was incredible! The quaint villages were beautiful. The Danube was unfortunately in flood so we missed out on parts, but the staff did what they could to allow us to cycle and see various sites.

The villages we biked through., the people we met & the city tours we did.

The entire crew was exceptional! The only complaint, and it’s a big one, was lack of communication from headquarters when unexpected flooding altered the itinerary. The boat was not able to land where planned and there should have been an email sent out to inform us that they were working on it and to stand by for more information when they knew more. We had friends on the previous cruise and they knew Saturday morning that they were not going to land in Passau. No messages were sent from headquarters to inform us that things were in flux and we had passengers on our cruise that went to an empty dock in Passau and this could have been easily avoided had headquarters been set up for group emails.

The Hungarian dinner, music and bridge tour was one of the highlights.
The guides gave personal help with excursion directions. They were out on the trails that were our shepherds leading us.

The scenery, the historic buildings, and food.
Budapest biking was difficult, as maps weren't detailed enough.

Visita da cidade de Budapeste. Cidade maravilhosa e o passeio a noite foi incrível

We enjoyed biking off the route to visit some small towns. Google maps worked great to get us back on track to meet the boat. Really appreciated the knowledgeable guides on the Vienna and Budapest bus tours.

It was an amazing trip, only issue was getting an e-bike as a tall person. I was able to get one from a local bike shop in town who were great, but if It was something that caused a little more work on my part and considerable worry that it would be there.

Internet sucks. Needs to be available throughout the ship, not just in the bar. Also we were not told how to use our electric bikes. And some parts of the bike route were hazardous, e.g., loose gravel, fast auro traffic. 3 of 4 of our group wiped out at least once.

Good trip. I knew of 2 people who complained of having a "cold" toward the end of the tour. 3 days after returning home I tested positive for covid having minor symptoms. Not the fault of Tripsite but I think you should be aware.

The Danube Bike and Barge cruise was an enjoyable experience. The crew on the ship could not have been more attentive to our needs. How those folks got 129 bikes on and off so efficiently and with smiles was something to behold. The country side views and the little botagas along the way were a pleasant spot to stop and take it all in. The app made the route effortless to follow. The guided city tours were informative and exciting. An exceptional way to visit a city at a very reasonable cost. The paved paths with no vehicle traffic took any thoughts of danger off the table. It was pedal away and relax especially with the electric bikes that were top notch and very easy to maneuver. The food was presented and tasted like a Michelin star restaurant and a varied menu made choosing dishes difficult at times but our waiter obliged and we just had both. Now the most difficult part lies ahead deciding which bike and barge cruise we are signing up for next year.

The Primadonna was comfortable, well-organized, had good food and created a good tour of beautiful parts of Europe. The bikes were easy to ride and very high quality. My biggest concern is that without GPS, the routes were impossible. Even the few German speakers had trouble with the routes. I would not recommend this trip to anyone who does not know how to use it. I believe you have to have a specific plan for your phone ( and/or a European SIM card. The ship claims to have wi-fi but it is erratic. I could not text or email most of the trip. The tv’s in each room had no English channels so we were not able to track the news. We were the only Americans on the ship so we good friends of other nationalities and that was great.

Everything went very well. The crew did an amazing job!

We really enjoyed going to three capital cities that we had not visited before, while being very active and seeing the countryside. The rides were not difficult but we were glad that we rented e-bikes for the occasional steep spots and headwind. We will definitely do a bike and barge trip again. Since we like sightseeing, next time we would look for an itinerary that includes more villages/places of interest and less long distance biking in isolated areas.

The boat was very nice. Swiss Crowne. The crew and cruise director were wonderful, always very helpful. The food was very good. The only recommendation I would have is that the timing for the cycling and meeting the boat could have been better. We rode each day and we would have liked to have had more time while riding through some of the towns., The weather in the morning was a bit of a hindrance - but we realize that could not be helped. In the future I would prefer a trip that has guided cycling tours so we can get more historical background.

All in all, we enjoyed the trip, very relaxing and would recommend this trip for people who want a combination of cycling and touring.

The biking was certainly the highlight. Loved it. The boat was great, rooms good sized ,staff lovely. Food was not great but ok for price. The vegan in our party was not planned for but chief did his best. Overall certainly recommend.

The last day of biking was the best! We biked through beautiful vineyards and to the quaint little town of Durnstein for some chocolates and apricot liquor tastings. It was the only day some of our group really used their e-bikes - the other routes were mostly flat with few opportunities to change gears or use the e-bike assist. For a relatively experienced biker, there was no need for an e-bike on this trip.

The ship, crew and food was were great. Our room was spacious and enjoyed the large window in our room. The dining room staff and food was better than I expected. Bikes were ready for us each morning. I did not rent an e bike and had no problems. The director did go over the bike route with us each day outlining the map route booklet given to us. It needs to be stream lined to much formation. A daily printed summary would be helpful. They do post a daily program in the lobby but a hard copy would help.

The travel along the Danube was breathtaking, stops memorable.
Disappointed with the ebike. Although was expecting the bike to be fitted, all participants had the same frame. They adjusted my seat and that was all. I found the ebike extreme heavy! And thus more difficult maneuver. My ebike has a smaller frame and 43lbs. The bike I had was a larger frame and 65lbs. I did have a significant crash so didn’t continue with the biking. The rainy weather contributed to the crash.
I strongly suggest various frame bikes.