The Danube Route - Vienna to Budapest

Roger_This
Roger_This Posts: 136
edited April 2008 in Tour & expedition
I'm planning a leisurely trip from Vienna to Budapest in the second half of June this year, taking the southern (Hungarian) side of the Danube.

Any tips on accomodation, food, what to wear, potential pratfalls...

Thanks,

Roger.

Comments

  • Roger_This
    Roger_This Posts: 136
    mmmm - no reponses and only a few reads :(

    Am I in the right forum? Is this ride too easy to get any attention here?

    Any (polite) suggestions to get some feedback?
  • Special K
    Special K Posts: 449
    Sounds interesting. You'll probably find lots of good cycle paths for the first half at least.
    "There are holes in the sky,
    Where the rain gets in.
    But they're ever so small
    That's why rain is thin. " Spike Milligan
  • Brains
    Brains Posts: 1,732
    I did the earlier section, Regensburg, Passsau. Melk, Vienna.
    We B&B'ed it, no problem with accommodation, as long as you avoid July/August
    The path was perfect all the way.

    Section beyond Vienna was still being completed when we did it.

    So my one word of advise is get the Bikeline Esterbauser book for the route, not sure if they do an English version for that section yet, but even if it's in German, and you don't speak a word of the language it's worth getting just for the maps.

    http://www.esterbauer.com/
    bikeline radtourerbuch
    Osterreich
    Down arrow to 'Donau radweg 3'
    Tour
    Down arrow to 'ubersichtskarte'

    With the help of a dictionary you can figure out all the important details, like tourist offices, camp sites, B&B's etc etc
  • xilios
    xilios Posts: 170
    My wife and I were thinking of doing this route last year so we contacted the tourist offices of Austria and Hungary and they mailed us a lot of information on places to stay and cycling routes for free.
    www.bike-journeys.com
  • Roger_This
    Roger_This Posts: 136
    Thanks folks for the tips.

    I got the book in English a few days ago from Sustrans, looks like it has most of the information I need. I was just a wee bit uncertain about the accommodation situation in Hungary, but we aren't planning to travel very far each day (20 to 30 miles), so we should have enough 'slack' in the schedule if finding somewhere to stay turns out to be a problem.

    And we've managed to book three nights in Budapest using airmiles - woopee, had them for years and finally used 'em!

    Maastrict to Athens, eh? I once travelled from Maastrict to Belgium - not quite in the same league! Beautiful place Maastricht, btw.
  • Gotte
    Gotte Posts: 494
    Good luck to you - it's a journey I'd love to do myself. I've been to Vienna and Budapest on non cycling holidays, and both are great cities. Just try and avoid the English stag parties in Budapest, they are rather embarassing and take away from the feeling of being abroad. We went down a street of bars and all we could hear was English, and all we could see were football shirts. Bratislava, which is on your way, also has the same reputatuion, and being smaller, it may be less easy to avoid them (when we were there, though in 2004, there were none).
  • raybo
    raybo Posts: 87
    This new dedicated Prague - Vienna Greenway site (it is a demo site): http://czechgreenways.wordpress.com/ might have some information of use to you.

    Ray
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    I rode from Passau to Bratislava in 2005 which was very good until about 10 miles past Vienna when the bike path turned imtermittantly into a dirt track and started weaving around away from the river quite a bit.

    It was still nice enough but nowhere near as good as the Austrian bit which was almost all smooth tarmac right next to the water.

    I've no idea what it's like beyond Bratislava.
  • jc4lab
    jc4lab Posts: 554
    A leading guide is the Cicerone guide by John Higginson if you can track one down...I posted a similar thread a year or so ago which may be still in the archives and the feedback I got was the Danube had been flooded in parts in that year....There may be more threads in the archives..
    jc
  • Peasoup
    Peasoup Posts: 63
    I worked quite a bit in Hungary (not cycled much unfortunately though)
    If I can recommend a couple of towns to stay in I would suggest Gyor (approx 100km from Vienna). This looks industrial from a distance but the central old town is great with a good spa bath and good choice of restaurants, hotels and camping. If you get chance drop down 30km and visit pannonhalma.

    Further along the river towards budapest, Estergom. Nice old town with a spectacular Basilica. Also easy to pop over to Slovakia from here.

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