Austria Tour Reviews — 331 to 360 of 1028

This was a fantastic trip! The boat was great and the crew was the best. Meal were great and nicely served - significantly past my expectation for a trip focused on biking. If you are doing this trip, here are some things I wish I had known....

- You will spend more time on the boat than you might think - pack clothes for that and excursion days as well as what you were for biking

- Speaking of clothes, it is hard to get things to dry if you wash them out by hand - there is a clothesline in the shower but bring your own clips

- You won't have much shore time on biking days or excursion days, so don't bother looking up 100 things to do in a city. Think in terms of a few hours not a whole day

- That being said, I would suggest setting something up on your own in Vienna in the evening - especially if you are into Classical Music - that is, after all, the town for it. We went to the ballet and it was wonderful. Our friends went to the Opera - you might want to take nicer clothes for either of those - they still dress up for concerts..

- Don't bother getting Florints (money) in Hungary - everyone we talked to took Euros, but do get train tickets from your tour guide if they are offered - they are hard to find and the machines are not in English and VERY hard to figure out (we finally found some young people who graciously helped us out)

- Don't count on Wifi. Period. We never managed to pull in any

- The app they use sounds really good but we found it completely useless - even our cruise director said not to use it. It doesn't help, and most of the time when we had a question on the route I couldn't pull in cell service

- Speaking of cell service....play around with what service your phone pulls up. Sometimes if I changed carriers I got a much better signal

- Try to find a group to ride with - it really helps with directions and is much more fun

- The Ebikes are VERY heavy - someone said 65lbs - I don't know if that is true, but they are very heavy and hard to manage. They might help when you are riding, but they are hard to handle - not for anyone who isn't pretty strong especially stop and go in small towns - it is a challenge.

- Every day you have to catch the boat before it leaves port. You don't have to be a professional biker, but you do have to ride along at a pretty good clip. That took us by surprise...it was no jaunt through the countryside - but I am older (60) so maybe that is a matter of perspective

- They set out salad stuff for you to take with a sandwich for lunches - I would suggest taking a small tupperware if you think you want salad on the road, but I would also suggest taking baggies just in case you don't want their prepared sandwiches (which were OK, but not real exciting). They put out cold cuts and breads/rolls and several days we made our own (helpful hint - don't put mayo on in the morning - take the packets and put them on when you eat - just to be sure it is fresh). I also made up some trail mix and took rolls (with Nutella packets) for snacks so the baggies were really helpful.  SHOW MORE 

The lodging and breakfasts were terrific, especially in Vienna, Bratislava, Gyor and Budapest. The bikes were very good; in excellent condition with good features. We have biked all over Europe along the main rivers, including the Danube. We expected to ride along the Danube more on this trip, but realize that Eurovelo does not have bike paths close to the river, for most of the trip from Vienna to Budapest. We did the Athletic tour which was good for us, but we did have challenging weather (rain, wind, cool temperatures) on one day.

The magical moments were riding in avenues of trees along the Danube, on paths in the villages in northern Hungary, the old city In the stunning giyor and in all of Hungary it is a complete surprise in the landscapes and the historical cities.

Great trip. I was hurt on the first day and had to ride to my destinations with my luggage in the van. The van drivers were kind and helpful. I appreciate Tripsite making this possible for me.

One suggestion: travelers are required to pay the city tax when they check out. If would be good if this were included in the cost of the trip.

So many memorable moments. Beautiful ship, quite luxurious, wonderful food, spectacular towns and villages along the Danube and Vienna! What a place. I loved the classical concert in L’Orangerie at Schönbrunn Castle and the scenery between Krems and Melk. I had to pinch myself several times as I was cycling through Austria along the Danube. I had done the tulip tour on the Iris the previous week which was great too but harder cycling and not such good weather. I also didn’t use an e-bike in the Netherlands and had some pretty strong winds and long days cycling. So the Swiss Crown tour was a more relaxed week and totally different. The e-bike made it pretty easy too and the self guided tours made it easy to stop at more places along the way.
I know the Swiss Crown tour director, Jurgens, aka Ding Dong!, had to deal with some staffing issues during my week on board but he made everything so easy in spite of working lots of extra hours. There was a much bigger group of German speaking passengers than English speaking and I felt that they got more attention than we did at times and so I’d suggest being a little more outgoing towards the non German passengers. But overall the whole thing lived up to and beyond my expectations. A trip of a lifetime!

The elected rout of the tour was the best we can think of . The views, the panoram, the environment... Everything was very beautiful and enjoyable.
Most of the hotels were very good including the breakfasts. The best of all was the one in St Gallen, but the others were more than sufficient.
In regards to the bikes... Well we are used to Carbon or even Aluminum bikes with full suspension. The bikes we got were Irone ones, very heavy and with no shock absorbers, nor in the front neither in the tail. It caused the biking to be uncomfortable in spite of the fact that 95% of the roads were padded...
Regarding the OFF ROAD GPS SOFTWARE.. It quite Allright But it didn't guide us to the hotels so in order to get there we needed to use Google map

Cycling along the River, crossing on the small ferries, stopping for coffee, kuchens or farmhouse meals was such fun.
We thoroughly enjoyed, probably more than the city, the cycling route through the wine valley and small villages. Absolutely breathtaking and the history! Small cobblestone streets that you push your bike through whilst checking out the local offerings. Spectacular.

The bicycle was perfect. The hotels were TOP rate. The routes took us to beautiful out of the traffic bike paths while routing us through charming villages. There were clear options for alternative travel on bad weather days.The service and attention to questions while preparing to leave was very prompt and thorough. Overall a great experience. I would recommend tripsite to any interested in an action adventure.

More of a boat trip than a ride. Lots of time stuck on the boat, minimal time at each location. Many rides cancelled or shorter than the advertised tour.

The cycling, food, and service by ship’s staff were all great! We had the good fortune to meet some very interesting and fun people from Canada and Scotland, attended a couple very good concerts in both Vienna and Prague, and basically saw a part of Europe we never thought we’d see. Budapest, Vienna, Prague were all very interesting, and beautiful cities, and our guide, Thomas, made it all even better! Juergen, the cruise director, was very helpful, as well, finding us when we lost our group at one point and getting us back to the ship. Between Thomas and Juergen, we were able to sample a lot of good food while on the bike rides, and they provided great company at dinner, as well. I believe Thomas ate with us nearly every evening.

A couple notes: 1) I brought pick-pocket proof pants, as I’d heard that we needed to be careful. I didn’t really need them. Probably a better purchase if you’re visiting Paris and/or Barcelona. 2). The 3rd level rooms had balconies, where the 2nd level rooms do not. The room for the balcony is taken from the indoor room space, so you actually pay more for a balcony, but lose space in the room. We had a 2nd level room and the other 2 couples we traveled with both had balconies. They were envious of our extra room. Be sure to take along a travel clothes line to dry your clothes.

We also found the e-bikes were well worth the extra $$. Both my wife and trained using standard bikes, and physically were in decent shape for the bike rides, which were all pretty easy, fun rides. We found the e-bikes let us relax and enjoy the trip a bit more than we might have on regular bikes.
The ship, the Swiss Crown, was in excellent condition. The food was very, very good, and seemed to get better each day, as did the bike rides. The table service on the ship was excellent and the servers were all very personable, helpful, and friendly. One member of our group was vegan, btw, and the ship did a great job of accommodating him.

In all, we had a great trip and would do it again! Thanks to all for a wonderful time!

This was my first bike and barge trip and it was wonderful! I plan to do more biking and cruising! It was fun traveling with 14 friends.

The whole experience was fantastic!
The operator was extremely well organized - all our bikes were ready, the explanations were detailed and thorough and the maps/information booklet was very useful.
Hotel selections were fabulous and a real treat to arrive at each after day of riding. Hotel staff were well prepared to deal with biking groups; our luggage was always easy to retrieve.
The "extra" day we spent in Lindau was also very enjoyable.

The bike rentals were heavy, I normally ride an enduro style mountain bike which is super light compared to the rentals. Next time I would look into different bikes as there was two big hills we had to climb for one hotel.
All hotels were amazing and paying extra for city centre was worth it.
We were surprised to find that there was a huge language barrier in Germany- they were not at all accommodating and even rolled their eyes when we spoke English. All European countries I have been to will at least try and we can get a meal ordered.

This trip was made by me and my wife around lake Konstanz, which is located in the border areas of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Lake Konstanz is a clear and clean water lake. Is is a very beautifull path, very well signalized and safe one. You travel through open green fields, huge orchards, with beautifull nature scenarios. The paths are easy ones, some of them have some slope, but I would quote the overall trip between easy and intermediate, for people like us: active 57 year old people. We would say this trip is an intense one which combines biking and visiting places, so you are 8 ~ 10 hours down the road daily.
The bikes were brand new, the luggage transfer worked on time in all 10 days. GPS files, map, and overall guide were excelent ones! Make sure you have a local internet connection in your mobile, it hepls you locate yourself a lot anywhere.
The selection of hotels were very good, we had a problem with street noise in one of them.
We´ve travelled from Brazil to Germany and started next day the trip. We had a jet lag of 5 hours time difference and this has caused us to start late in the first day. Then we arrived in first destination late, so it took us some days to start leaving hotels earlier. I would strongly recommend this trip for any friend, just pay attention to the time of the year to avoid extreme temperatures or excessive rain.

The whole tour was fantastic.
Perfect cycling path on all 3 countries crossed.
nice villages and mood.
Perfectly organized and targeted for families.

The most memorable aspect of the Danube River Bike and Barge was the incredible scenery that we experienced. Every day was visually stunning but varied from the day before. We biked through hardwood and conifer forests, vineyards, classic villages, wooded pathways always along the beautiful river. The people we encountered were friendly, helpful and fun. It is a treasured memory.

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.

Vineyard ride thru austria

Fantastic tour, suitable to me and my wife. The boat "Swiss Crown" was luxurious, and we loved the real outside small balcon of the room. All facilities (meals, bar, crew service) were very good. The "social" part, include meeting of varios kind ol people, was very interesting. The tour organizer' (Yorgen) was one of a kind!!! We are planning our next tour in Holland (Tulip Tour).

This started very badly with our reservation having gone missing. Our start day was on a weekend, making it even more challenging. Stress level was through the roof!
Local hotel staff was excellent at the Wyndham in Salzburg, ensuring that we got our room and also printed off the package that was supposed to have been left for us (vouchers). The next day we went to pick up our bikes…’sorry, your tour starts tomorrow’ , oh, today IS the 25th. Fortunately, bikes were found for us.

Off we trundled with minimal guidance from the mapping app…thank goodness one of our group had a European SIM card, so Google maps was a bit more helpful. It would be nice if the maps & book (that WE didn’t get) told us which bike path to follow clearly. We figured out we were basically following the R2…until we weren’t…

The hotels were generally great, if a bit off the beaten path. So, no wandering about in the towns after we had our showers and got ourselves changed.

Meals, both dinners and breakfasts, were tasty and ample. Most of the hotels could use some decent pillows; they were either flat or lumpy.

Sorry, while I enjoyed the trek, I think Pack-n-Pedal let us down on this trip. I don’t believe I will use them again. Some minor offer of compensation for the stress they caused us would have been welcome.

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.

Our tour director made everything we did fun. Thanks Juergen.

The ship and the food were a very favorable part of the trip, lovely.

The bike tours were boring and ill described by the guide. Less farmland and more quaint villages would have met our expectations. The last day was the best.

Using Tripsite to book our bike/barge trip took a lot of stress off of our trip planning especially during the pandemic. Whenever I emailed, I got a quick response and I was able to rebook easily more than once. The boat, Princess Katherina, was well run. We met many new people and even though we were the only USA participants, we were seated with other English speakers who became quick friends and travel mates. I was always pleased with the vegetarian options for dining and all food choices overall were exceptional. The 34 staff onboard contributed to efficiency and support whenever we had questions or needs. The bike routes were well marked and the panniers and front pack for holding the map worked perfectly. I would definitely get an e-bike next time as I struggled a bit with rainy weather but as seventy and seventy-two year olds exploring a new country, the trip was flawless. If you like castles, abbeys, river trails, this trip is perfect! Don't miss the pear cider at the small farmhouse on day two or the Mauthausen Memorial if you go. The Memorial and the Abbey in Melk were highlights of the trip even though they were a bit off the beaten path. Also, having an upper deck cabin was essential for me as I had never slept in a boat before and I preferred to have access to fresh air. Book this trip and have fun!

Vienna and Budapest were definite highlights as well as the bike ride from Krems to Melk which was fabulous!

The route, the people we met

Ship was very nice and staff were friendly and helpful. Everything was spotless clean and bed was comfortable. Dinner meals were pretty mediocre and some of sack lunches included greasy deep fried items. Bikes were in excellent condition and the bike routes were fine, but the written descriptions for navigating the routes were indadequate.

Great biking on an iconic river through the major cities in grand luxury.

A wonderful experience! Good food, lots of fun. Leslie the cruise director was phenomenal! I'm not sure its possible, but it would have been nice to have a little more time in the major cities. The bus trips were a great introduction for a return trip.