5 Star Austria Tour Reviews — 211 to 240 of 670

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.

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).

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!

The route, the people we met

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.

Highlights: Beautiful scenery along the Danube whether you are on the boat or riding your bike. The staff was extremely friendly & helpful. The food offered was excellent along with the service.
Biking: I’m a regular cyclist (Road & Mountain) so I chose to ride a standard (non ebike) bike. The bikes are heavy and geared way too high. Fortunately, the terrain is relatively flat so the number of times needing lower gears were few.

This was the best trip ever, which makes it hard to think of just one memorable part. Truly everything was memorable, the sights, the food, the experience of biking through small towns, the crew especially Leslie our cruise director. If I had to pick one special moment it would be while biking through the countryside we came across a quaint Food truck selling homemade lemonade. We rested, ate our lunch, shot some darts and drank the most delicious glass of blood orange lemonade.
When the trip was over, we all said “let’s do another one next year!”

Every day was a blast. There are several Lake Constance (Bodensee) tours. We selected the 12-day (11 night) package, which had 9 days of bike rides and one day of "rest" at St Gallen, Switzerland. The rest day turned out to be another adventure because we decided to take the Appenzeller Bahnen (Appenzell Railways) to explore Appenzellerland, per-Alpine landscape, where we hiked up to beautiful lake Seealpsee.

Tips for others: don't stress the biking. Take it easy; take a lot of pictures; make a lot of memories

Most memorable parts? Food, people, the rides through the country

I was very impressed with the ship, food, crew and all around organization of everything. I expected the photos from the website to enhance the appearance and size of the ship, but in person it was just as impressive. I wouldn't say our cabin was large, but it offered all that we required. There were multiple storage areas, a safe box, refrigerator, coffee station and the outlets were where they needed to be.
The ship was very clean. All cleaning seemed to be done while passengers were at meals or on excursions. I did not see anyone pushing a vacuum or hauling trash, but yet the carpets were free from dirt, and all public spaces were tidy and well-tended.
The crew were helpful and friendly. We got to know a few of them (Patrick, George, Samwell and Dida) and have fond memories of them. I hope we didn't pester them too much with our questions and demands.
The meals were wonderful - well presented and more than enough to satisfy any appetite (I now need to diet to make up for all my indulgence). Some dishes I preferred more than others, but it was good to get a taste of the local cuisines. There were generally options for vegetarians, seafood lovers and meat eaters, and always a choice of a tasty dessert.
We chose a Bike and Barge excursion, so we got to explore the area on bike. We had reserved electric bikes. These were easy to get the hang of, well maintained and easy to peddle. The scenery was beautiful and most of the biking was on bike paths although there were some challenging areas involving traffic and finding our way. The afternoon before each bike day, we were given a presentation detailing the path we needed to take and what we might encounter. We were also given a booklet with maps, points of interest and more details.
I would highly recommend choosing Tripsite for your next vacation.

I really enjoyed my trip on the Swiss Crown. The boat is beautiful, the food is fabulous, and the staff is amazing. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. I especially loved the city tours we took. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who wants to see a variety of places and people. The Danube is gorgeous and was surprising sparsely populated in places. Gliding along with a drink on the sun deck is a wonderful way to experience the river itself. I did not ride the bikes, but my entire family enjoyed them and said they were easy to ride. Please take this trip. You will have a great time!

Beautiful vistas daily as we cycled along the Danube

The most memorable part is the memories of our group of 8 being able to experience the biking and river crusing together. The staff on the boat were marvelous and a lot of fun.
A suggestion is to have the full itinerary of the trip available at the beginning of the trip. Often we had no idea what time we were arriving or leaving from the dock, or what time we were getting on the bikes and waht time we had to be back to the ship. So more clarity of the weekly schedule would have been very beneficial.
Other than that the trip was incredibly scenic and overall we had a wonderful experience.

How can I choose a most memorable part? There were so many! Cycling across the New Bridge to Bratislava, and in the breathtaking cities of Budapest and Vienna, relaxing drinking wine with new friends on the upper deck of the barge floating down the Danube. The whole trip was filled with memorable and precision moments.every day.

Very well organized
Suggestions: make coffee available before breakfast.
Food was great and we loved the 4 course dinners, but the wait between courses was consistently a bit too long.

Wonderful trip! Beautiful scenery, easy bike trail, nice accommodations. Tripsite did a great job organizing and setting up the trip. The representative at Austria Radreisen (the on-site bike company) was friendly and helpful in fitting our bikes, answering our questions, and making sure we were satisfied. The bikes were especially nice, easy to ride and shift with plenty of storage. Our luggage was always waiting for us at each hotel when we arrived.

Lake Konstance was a wonderful biking experience. The ebikes were great! I would recommend some type of rearview mirror on the bike. We did the 5 day “easy” trip but there were 3 fifty mile legs. We cut thing short by taking the ferry and that worked well. Anna from Tripsite was excellent switching our hotels as a result of shortening. Luggage delivery to the hotels was seemless! Both hotels were great with excellent breakfasts.
We had perfect weather the whole trip.

The cycling was fantastic! The beauty of the towns along the Danube and the chance to get a closer look with the ability to stop to rest, shop or taste wine or beer at will was just phenomenal! The food on board was so good, and the staff was very welcoming.

This was the best river cruise we’ve been on. We were longing for something more active & this cruise was perfect. Cycling along the Danube was unforgettable & everything we imagined..stopping in the beautiful little towns, meeting friendly people, experiencing the food & drinks along the way. The Swiss Crown ship & staff were an added bonus! Thank you! We can’t wait to come back

The boat was awesome! Clean and modern - like new.
I have taken many bike tours in Europe and this was the best.
The daily rides tended to be a comfortable 40-to-45 miles per day.
I rented a trail bike and my wife rented an e-bike - both were very serviceable.

We loved our trip aboard the Primadonna! The rooms themselves were a little dated and nothing fancy, but the food and the service aboard was fantastic. The time off of the ship was by far the best part. We loved the freedom of being able to wander from port A to port B in our time, but having the comfort of knowing that our luggage and lodging were safely waiting for us at the next location.

We especially loved the town of Melk and a restaurant called Rathauskeller. It had great food and the waiter, Joseph, was very nice and a highlight of our trip. Another suggestion would be in Schlogen, on your first bike day, get off the ship a little early and go for a hike up to viewing point of the Scholgen UNESCO site.

The bike were really good quality. They come with a bike lock and two rear mounted panniers. The saddles are quite hard after a several hour bike ride, so if you're sensitive to that, I would suggest a gel seat cover of some sort. Most of the towns you visit have awesome pedestrian zones, where you can lock up your bike and just wander from shop to shop without having to worry about cars. The bike paths themselves were very nice. They were mostly well labeled and separate from the street. The worst section of bike paths is actually on your first day, from Ottenheim to Linz. In Ottenheim the signs get a little vague as to which way to go, and entering Linz (a large city) you are on a bike path but facing oncoming traffic that is leaving the city, crossing streets that our actively being used by cars. All other paths were wonderful, and scenic. We felt very safe every day. I also highly suggest that someone from your party attend the nightly briefings on the next days bike path. This gave good information on what to expect. English is definitely not the primary language on the boat, but they do a good job of having a separate time to talk with the English speakers about what to expect. They also assign you a table in the dining room based on your primary language, so that was nice too.

All in all this was probably the best trip my wife and I have ever been on, and will do another one like it in the future.

the staff onboard the Swiss Crown provided excellent service

Wonderful trip. The crew of the Fortuna was wonderful along with the 5 course meal every night. Our guide, Axel, was a treasure. I cannot recommend this trip enough. The biking was lovely and not too hard. The countryside was beautiful. Most amazingly, the trip went off without a flaw, especially when you consider how many moving parts were involved to make this work. We were constantly going through locks, which was always interesting, while sipping beer or wine on the top deck after a day's ride. I just want to thank everyone who made this unique and luxurious experience possible.