Hungary Tour Reviews — 181 to 210 of 627

We were very fortunate that we had beautiful weather the entire trip, except for a brief hail storm as we returned to the barge in Bratislava. The alternate days of biking and city touring was excellent in that it allowed time to recover from saddle sores, and the e-bikes were very comfortable for the long distances we biked. The crew was fabulous and accommodating to every need, and the Cruise Director (Leslie) made sure we were prepared and had everything we needed to make our biking a pleasure and free of stress.

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.

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 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

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.

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

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.

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!”

Different city tours were the memborable part both positive and negative. We loved our tour with Peter in Vienna on bikes we did not like our tour with a different Peter in Budapest, he was rude to one of our rides, very opinionated against the West defense of Ukraine, and then left us in the middle of town since he had another tour to go to.

the communication about the departure from the very beginning was a fiasco and then throughout the German presenations were about 50% longer than the English ones. BUt Leslie the Tour Director did a great job overall.

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

We very much enjoyed our time on the Bike and Barge tour. The boat was very comfortable and the service and food were top notch!
There were some issues with staffing the on-site tour guide position, however, the best effort was made to provide as much information and guidance as possible.
The scenery is spectacular!
The bikes were very good quality and quite comfortable. The E-bike was perfect because it allowed us to turn the power off on flat trails and then use assist when we encountered any inclines.
Our only disappointment was the lack of time spent at each location. At times, we did not arrive until late morning or early afternoon, leaving little time to cycle or explore.
I would definitely recommend this type of tour for anyone looking to have an active holiday. A wide variety of activity levels can be accommodated.
We were also very impressed with the support we received from Tripsite during and after the booking phase.

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.

Overall the trip was enjoyable. But the food was quite bland. Also they asked about food restrictions/ preferences, but did NOT accommodate them in any way. The directions for the biking were lacking in detail and the maps could be more zoomed in, especially on the days with many turns and route marker variations. It should also be made clear that many of the routes were directly beside busy roads. It is a great itinerary.