A relaxing diversion, with interesting things to see on the way My wife has been keen on a trip through vienna for a while. We chose the passau to vienna trip as other reviewers rated it higher than the similar vienna to Budapest. Both follow the danube. The best thing about this trip is that being relatively gentle paced it allows time to visit places on the way, which is really the whole point. We saw a WW II concentration camp (utterly horrific) , visited a trappist monastery and tasted their beer and spirits, saw an awful lot of other churches, monasteries and gardens. The whole cycling route is dotted with pleasant cafes. The route plan recommends good restaurants and we were not disappointed. Austria is accustomed to vegetarian and vegan diets. The palaces and museums of vienna are spectacular, the kaisers crypt is worth a visit. We recommend a great veggie restaurant in vienna called Tian. The guide notes are very simple but in a good way. I recommend having a phone with Google maps or similar when you get to the cities though... Much easier to navigate the busy streets. The bikes on hire are a good standard, though we like to bring our own saddles and pedals.We took the option of an extra few days in vienna, I knocked a star off because the information on this part was not so well organised. We were given turn by turn instructions but no accompanying map and there was some confusion about whether we were supposed to have a vienna pass. (this would have saved us a lot of money it turned out later)
The setting of the dinner and the concert (all in the Hohensalzburg Castle, but in two different settings) was extra special. The dinner was served in smaller, intimate rooms with a very attentive wait staff and fabulous views of Salzburg. We found the food to be very good. The salmon was cooked to perfection. After dinner, the concert is performed in a smaller recital hall. The chamber orchestra played Mozart, Strauss, Hayden and Dvorak. They were well trained musicians and the skill level was exceptional. Well worth the money.l
The trip was very well planned. Our two guides were excellent - very attentive to our needs and well organised. The back up driver / mechanic was excellent making sure our bikes were fully prepared each day. Some of the accommodation had multiple lights of stairs which was a big problem with heavy cases. The guides really helped with this when they could but this was definitely an issue.
