Bike along the Danube River from Passau, Germany to Vienna, Austria

Test the waters with the rest of your family on your next adventure as we take our first biking holiday along the Danube River. Pedaling along from Passau, Germany to Vienna, Austria less than 40 miles a day, this trail is truly a perfect multigenerational and multi-adventure vacation. Destination and adventures specialist Hamish Adamson from the MACS Adventures – a Glasgow-based self-guided tour company – shares his adventure along the Danube and describes the two ways you can do it yourself. Hamish lays down the itineraries and gives some pointers on finding the path and when best to do it. Proving to be Europe’s favorite cycling holiday for a good reason, consider biking along the Danube and enjoy the charms of the historic villages and cities along the way.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Cycle the Danube River Path or Bike/Boat it from Passau to Vienna

Our guest today, Hamish Adamson, is from MACS Adventures, a Glasgow-based self-guided tour company. This is the company I used to arrange my West Highland Way hike in Scotland last June. Because of its popularity, I wanted the Danube Cycle Path to be the first biking adventure covered by Active Travel Adventures, but didn’t know anyone who had done it. Since I was really happy with MACS, I contacted them to ask if they could refer me to someone who had recently done the adventure and they directed me to Hamish.

CYCLE FROM HOTEL TO HOTEL ITINERARY : 8 Days – 7 Nights

Late March – mid October

Includes breakfast, but the rest of the meals are on your own.  You can arrange for ‘half board’, meaning you get dinner, too.  You are able to customize your itinerary should you want to plan to stay in say, Linz an extra day.  Your luggage is transfered to your hotel for you each day, so you just need your incidentals and lunch on the provided panniers (bags that hook onto your bike).  You must stick with your planned cycling itinerary (versus on the Bike/Boat tour, where, if you don’t feel like cycling one day, you can just hang out on the boat or wander around the town until the ship departs.)

DAY ONE : Arrive Passau, Germany

Passau is a city of three rivers: the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz. Be sure to take time to explore the many arches and tunnels! If you can, maybe get here a day early and take a city tour.

DAY TWO : Passau to Schlögener Loop

The Danube makes a 180 degree turn, the Schlögener Loop, on one of this adventure’s most special days. You can hike up above the path to get a panoramic view (about 30-40 minutes and it’s steep but well worth it!). Be sure to visit Austria’s only Trappist monastery and sample some of their special liquers. 45 km/30 miles [distances rounded]

DAY THREE : Schlögener Loop to Linz area

You’ll take a ferry across the river and then cycle to Eferdinger Basin across the plains to the wonderful city of Linz [also worth an extra day if you can spare it!] Linz is the capital of upper Austria and was named 2009’s European Cultural Capital. 55km/35 miles

DAY FOUR : Linz to Region Grein Take a diversion to the charming Enns, Austria’s oldest town. Cycle through the coutryside and visit the Celtic village of Mitterkirchen, Baumgartenberg’s famous church and Clam’s castle. Tour Austria’s oldest – and still working – theater in Grein.  60 km/40 miles

DAY FIVE : Region Grein to Region Melk

Landscape takes center stage today as you cycle with stunning wooded rock formations hugging both sides of the river. Look up above to see the Marie Teferi church as you head towards the Benedictine monastery of Melk. 50km/30 miles

DAY SIX : Region Melk to Region Krems Today you’re in wine country as you cycle through the vineyards and orchards of the Wachau Valley. Take time for a wine tour! It’s a day of terraced vineyards, palaces, monasteries, castles and taverns. Stop off in the towns of Spitz, Weißkirchen and Durstein. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its cultural landscape.  40 km/30 miles

DAY SEVEN : Region Krems to Vienna

You’ll take a train to Tulin (taken to shorten the ride today, but you can cycle it for about double the distance listed). You’ll cycle through the Vienna Woods as you make your way to the “Gates of Vienna”. You can check out the Klosterneuburg monastery, the Hofburg Palace, over 100 art museums, the famous Viennese cafes, the City Opera, Ringstraβe, Schonbrun Castle, and so much more. Do try to take an extra day or two here.  40 km/30 miles 

BIKE/BOAT TOUR 8 Days – 7 Nights

April – October

Includes ALL meals (buffet breakfast, pack lunch and a three course dinner with choices). Some itinerary customizing within a particular day, but you must do so within the ship’s schedule. Evening briefings on the next day’s itinerary with recommendations. Solo cabins as well as two party cabins (BOOK EARLY – Try to plan a year in advance and certainly book by January of that year]. This tour offers a chance to really get to know some of your fellow travelers from around the world. If you decide to spend more time in a city like Vienna or Linz, you will need to return after the bike/boat tour (which is easy) as you must stay with your original ship.

DAY ONE : Arrive Passau and embark. Sail to Mathausen.

DAY TWO : Mathausen to Grein. Visit Mitterkirchen. Cycle 35 km/22 miles[distances rounded]. Sail to Devin.

DAY THREE : Devin to Bratislava. Former Iron Curtain (you can still see some checkpoints and bunkers). Visit Hof palace and explore Bratislava. There’s time for a city tour that night. Cycle 18 or 49 km /11 or 30 miles. Sail to Vienna.

DAY FOUR : Explore Vienna. Full day to explore this magical city. Consider taking in a waltz and operetta concert at a palace!

DAY FIVE : Krems to Melk. Ship turns around and heads back upstream. 33 km/20 miles. Overnight in Melk.

DAY SIX : Melk to Grein. 50 km/30 miles. Sail to Obermuhl.

DAY SEVEN : Schlögener Loop to Engerlartszell. 28 or 43 km/12 or 27 miles

DAY EIGHT : Passau and disembark

Bike Along The Danube River From Passau, Germany To Vienna, Austria with Hamish Adamson

We’re going to be going on our first biking holiday. This is a great vacation for somebody who wants to test the waters on adventure travel or the more intrepid traveler who wants to make it more challenging. Also, it’s an adventure that the whole family even those as young as ten can do. What a great bonding opportunity for parents or grandparents and children. The bike path is gentle with no steep climbs, virtually traffic free and is well-marked. You bike less than 40 miles per day, about 60 kilometers, so your butt is never going to get raw, which has always been my hesitation about taking a cycling tour. This also means that you have plenty of time to sightsee and explore the charming and historic villages and cities along the way. You even have the option of boating in at night or if you’re traveling with somebody who doesn’t want to bike.

It’s truly a perfect multigenerational and multi-adventure level vacation. Where are we going? Classical enthusiasts are going to recognize the background music by Johann Strauss, Blue Danube. We’re going to cycle alongside the mighty Danube River doing a section from Passau, Germany to the magical Vienna, Austria. You can even continue your cycle all the way to Budapest. This path is Europe’s favorite cycling holiday for a good reason. Because it’s the favorite, I thought we’d feature it as Active Travel Adventures’ first cycling adventure. I didn’t know anybody who had actually done it, so I reached out to MACS because I’m such a fan of them. One of their employees had done this adventure and he agreed to tell us about it.

Before we get going, I want to tell you a story. Remember the last episode number ten on the 15 Benefits of Adventure Travel? As I’m recording this, I have a big problem and I wanted to share it with you because I think it exemplifies what I was trying to relate in that episode. I live in Eastern North Carolina in the United States. During the winter, it may be freezing at night but it is usually about 50 degrees or about ten degrees Celsius during the day. Like most of the country, we have been in a solid Arctic freeze for almost a week. Our southern homes and our heating systems aren’t built for this kind of cold. We had a rain and then that froze and it snowed on top of that. My poor heat pump compressor froze up like an igloo. I rigged up what I thought was like a solar defroster. I wrapped it in black roofing tar paper and black trash bags in hopes that when the sun came out the next day, it would melt the ice. However, this time of year the sun is too low in the sky and the Western trees in my yard blocked all the rays. Thus, I’m going to be without heat until we finally get above freezing again. My house temperature is about 40 degrees, which is less than five degrees Celsius. I’m staying here so I can keep flushing out the pipes so they don’t freeze up and bust on me. My brother brought me a space heater so at least I’m able to keep one room warm.

My family and friends are all upset and worried about me but I’m not. I have found this reaction interesting. It ties back to what I was talking about in that last episode. I’m not at least bit stressed over it at all. This is a completely different reaction than I would have had not too many years ago. Being without heat for six days when the temperature are in their teens, which is about seven below in Celsius, is a big deal. I find myself rolling with the punches. Since I can’t change the situation, I better just deal with it. I believe that I’m building something I’m calling a Grit Bone that I attribute to my adventurous travels. These days, when I come across a new problem or obstacle, instead of fretting over it or whining like I used to, I’m becoming more detached about the problem so that I can analyze it and deal with the situation calmly.

If you look over my list of the Adventure Travel Benefits, you’ll see that I’ve been able to translate several of these to improve my home life in this situation. There is no doubt I’m going to appreciate heat come Monday, but throughout the situation I’ve actually felt empowered, much like I feel when I complete one of my adventures. I truly believe that adventure travel is life changing and has changed who Kit Parks is now. I have a few more personal items that I want to share but I’ll leave them until after the interview. Let’s get started.

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To begin, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Hamish Adamson. I’m a Destination and Adventures Specialist for MACS Adventures. We are a tour operator based in Glasgow, Scotland. I’m in my mid-twenties. I’m a keen cyclist and trying to become a keen walker as well, but my heart lies with cycling. I’ve travelled all over Scotland doing various adventures over the years and travelled in various other parts of the globe as well and travelled in New Zealand and US as well. I’ve got a passion for adventures and particularly for cycling.

I myself used this particular company when I did the West Highland Way hike that I did in Scotland, episode three. I became a big fan of MACS and you’ll find there that I recommend them quite often on the Travel Planners as a self-guided tour company where they make all the arrangements but you do it by yourself without a guide. I have even asked to be an affiliate with them. Anyhow, let’s get on with the interview. As Europe’s second largest river which runs through ten countries, the Danube River offers a great cycling holiday. In fact, it’s Europe’s most popular cycling holiday. Hamish himself did the Passau to Vienna section. I’ve asked him to tell us a little bit about his adventure and to describe the two ways that you can do this adventure.

We offer two variations of The Cycle on the Danube. The first would be a hotel to hotel trip. We offer two sections. The first would be from Passau, which is in Germany. You cycle to Vienna, the capital of Austria. The second section is from Vienna and then finishing in Budapest in Hungary. You cycle along the River Danube, along easy and flat cycle paths the whole way, cycling from hotel to hotel, stopping along the way taking in all the various sites and points of interest.

It’s cool that the path itself is fairly level. What percentage are you actually in towns versus the countryside?

It varies a little bit. Generally speaking, and the majority of your day, I’d probably say something between 80%, 90% your day is going to be on the dedicated and traffic free cycle paths. Once you get into the villages and towns, sometimes you have to deviate from the cycle paths and go onto quieter town roads. The majority of the cycling is free of traffic, which is great for cyclists who maybe it’s their first cycling holiday or people who are looking for a bit more of a leisure trip as well. You can relax when you’re doing the cycling along the Danube and not have to worry about running into any cars.

On average, about how long are you cycling each day?

Both the Passau to Vienna and Passau to Budapest trips, you’re probably looking at about 40 to 50 kilometers a day. That’s probably approximately 25 to 35 miles a day.

What does that take maybe half a day and allowing you to putz along the way and do some sightseeing?

Yeah. Obviously, everyone’s a little bit different in terms of how they approach their schedule for the day. Most people would probably check out of the hotel in the morning and probably cycle for a couple of hours and then maybe stop for lunch somewhere. Some people make a pack lunch themselves so they can stop anywhere they want. Other people like to stop at a restaurant or cafe and sit down and have a proper meal. Then you might continue cycling on for a couple of hours. The thing to remember about these trips is that getting from point A to point B as fast as you can is not the aim. You’re looking to take in all the sights along the way. I would probably say on average you’re probably looking at maybe three to five hours, depending on your ability and also how many times you stop.

Different from most of the adventures I cover on this podcast, this one seems very suitable for families. Is that correct?

Yeah. We offer a dedicated family version of this trip, which is a slightly amended itinerary as well. To be honest, both itineraries we’ve just been discussing, Passau to Vienna and Vienna to Budapest, would be suitable for families as well. Cycling is really straightforward. There are no hills to speak of. Because it’s traffic-free for the vast majority, you could be absolutely fine taking children probably from the age of ten upwards on the trip. Indeed when I was there, I saw numerous families and family groups on the cycle path.

Who provides the bikes? MACS or do we have to bring our own?

We can do either option. The majority of people probably get bike hire from ourselves but some people may be doing a cycle tour around Europe and might have their own bikes with them and would like us to arrange accommodation for them. We can do that as well. The bikes are hybrid touring bikes so they’re very comfortable, very practical. They come with panniers and bags on the side, so plenty of room for anything you want to take with you on the day. You get a wee handlebar bag as well, which is handy for putting your paper notes and things like that to help you gauge yourself along the route.

What about the rest of your clothing and belongings? Explain how that gets transported from one stop to the next.

We offer daily bag transfers as part of the price of the trip. Your luggage is collected from the hotel and reception or the designated pickup area in the hotel in the morning, and then it’s delivered to your next accommodation, usually late afternoon. All you have to worry about when you’re cycling is getting from point A to point B and enjoying the route. It’s pretty stress-free.

While I love to backpack, I used the luggage transfer service on my Scotland trip and I have to admit that was sweet to have everything lugged for you every day, waiting for you when you got there, and they just take it in the morning. That’s a nice service. I’ve only experienced lugging about 30 pounds on a bike was when I was relieving a long-distance biker that I met on my French trip. It gets tiring. This luggage transfer is a nice luxury. Let’s talk about the route markings. How easy is it to find the path? Is it easy to get lost?

The cycle path is going to split up into various sections, so each section will have a number on it and there are signs on the routes. Most commonly, on one day’s cycling, you’ll be following the same path, say it’s number seven, just follow the signs for number seven that day. We also provide written notes and maps as well. You’re covered in all bases really. To be honest, you don’t need any great navigation skills for this trip because you’re following the cycle path that follows the river. You can’t go wrong. As long as you keep going on the same side of the river and following that, you’ll get to where you need to go to.

When’s the best time of year to do this to both avoid the crowds and to have the best weather?

It probably depends on what the most important thing to you when you’re thinking about the trip. If you’re looking for the best weather, then probably your looking at June, July. It does tend to get quite warm in July and August, so that’s something to bear in mind. When I was in Cycle on the Danube in July, there was heat wave and the temperatures were well-over 30 degrees Centigrade, which is pretty warm for a part of Europe. If you’re looking to avoid the crowds, probably you want to look at the months of May or September, and they can also be very good for weather as well actually. The weather tends to be a little bit cooler probably more around twenty degrees centigrade and the paths are certainly a bit quieter that time of year as well.

You’re going to be going through some incredible historical areas and some beautiful areas. Can you tell us a little bit almost day by day about what we’d be seeing and doing? Also are we able to modify the itinerary a little bit if we want to stay an extra day in a certain town or city?

For the Passau to Vienna trip, that is quite customizable. You can add in extra nights along route. If you want to have a day off the bike and go and explore one particular region, you can do that. Probably cutting it down a night is probably not something we generally advise. The routes are laid out the way it is to give you a nice and easy paced cycling itinerary. Passau is a fantastic starting point. It is actually a city of three rivers. It sits at the confluence of the River Danube, the River Inn and the River Elts, so it is quite a historic city. Quite a lot of our customers might have an extra night at the start there, so arriving a day earlier just so they can have a bit more time to explore. It’s a great place to take a tour of the city and stroll through the lanes and the arches and tunnels that surround it. Passau is a great starting point. For the Passau to Vienna route, you then move on to the Schlögener Loop area.

I want to talk a little bit more about Passau. It is a place where three rivers meet and periodically about every five years it does flood. At one of the tunnels, you’ll see a marker that shows all the different floods since 1501, so that’s cool. As Hamish alluded, be sure to take some time to wander through the tunnels and the streets. It’s a very cool city. People visit Passau not just for the scenic rivers but also for the old city. While there, be sure to take time to visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It has an organ concert daily and features the second largest pipe organ in the world. They do the concerts from May through September. Another cool thing to do is next to the Town Hall is a very significant jazz and political cabaret stage. I’m going to mangle this name called the Scharfrichterhaus. Try to check that out while you’re in town. You’ll find some gorgeous gothic and baroque architecture in Passau, and it’s worth an extra day trip if you have the time.

Passau is right on the border of Austria. You’re cycling through the upper Danube Galloway on the way to Schlögener where your first overnight stop is. Some of the highlights of that day will be a visit to the only Trappist Monastery in Austria, which is at Engelhartszell. They offer some delicious liquors as well, which is a nice way to start your trip. You’re also on that day taken the Schlögener Loop, which is where the river makes a complete 180-degree turn. It’s quite a famous part of the river. If you look them up online, you’ll see some fantastic photography of people. You can hike up the mountain side and get a really good panoramic view of this side of the river as it comes down and then loops around itself and goes back up. That’s a fantastic starting point as well.

We started from Passau, Germany and hug the border of Austria through the Schlögener Loop on day two, and then here we go on to day three, the Linz area. Linz is the capital of Upper Austria. It’s the third largest city and it’s south of the Czech border. Linz is home of the Linzer Torte, the oldest cake in the world that was first created in 1653. In the old city center, you’ll see the medieval arch and you’ll see lots of Neoclassical, Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles. Linz has got a big music and art scene, and it’s designated as one of UNESCO’s Creative Cities. Because Linz treasures its arts and music scene, they have a ton of festivals. You may want to try to coincide your visit along with a special festival that interests you.

Linz is a good-sized city, so you’ll eat well in Linz. You’ll have the traditional fare, tons of cute taverns and also plenty of ethnic choices as well. You can have the traditional fare, which might include the popular Linzer Torte, the Knödel, which is a boiled dumpling that is used as a side dish or can be sweetened up as a dessert, or the Strudel, which is a descendant of the pastry Baklava. Another specialty is Erdäpfelkäs. It’s a spread made from cream and mashed potatoes. If you have the time, try to add an extra day or two for Linz.

Day three, you’re heading into Linz that day. Some of the days you cross the other side of the river. One of those days is day three. You take a small passenger ferry across the other side of the river and then move on up from there. You’re starting to move into a more open landscape here and fertile plains. As you head into Linz, it’s a fantastic destination. It’s the capital of Upper Austria, and was actually the European Cultural Capital a few years back in 2009. It’s got some nice places to visit. It’s got a lovely main square as well, which is something I know a lot of our customers enjoy. The summer evenings, there are nice places to spend a few hours and enjoy a coffee or perhaps some of the local wines and beers and that sort of thing.

Then moving on day four, you’re going to the region of Grein. This day you’ve got a diversion you can do to Enns. This is the oldest town in Austria, and is beautiful and also has a lot of history too it as well. You continue along the Danube taking in lots of meadows and quite tranquil countryside on the way. This is a good day actually for people who have an interest in history because you can take in the Celtic Village of Mitterkirchen and also a church in Baumgartenberg. This is a castle and this is a climb as well. Your destination that day is in a baroque village of Grein, which is home to the oldest theater in Austria, which you should take a tour of as well. I did this when I was there. It’s really cheap, it’s about €5. Your guide is a local who has lived there for a number of years and knows a lot about it. It’s a working theater so the local theater performs in there. It’s been operating for hundreds of years.

Day five, you’re moving on to Melk. You’re cycling for some wonderful landscapes on this particular day and quite a lot of dense wood, rock formations on both sides and it’s quite dramatic along the way. There’s a pilgrimage church of Maria Telfari, which is perched high up on the Danube, so it presents quite a good view from her on the river. Then in Melk itself, you actually go a Benedictine monastery as well. Depending on how long you take to do your ride that day, you might have time to go there that afternoon. The monastery offers a couple of different options for having a look around, and they’ve got well-known gardens so you can get into the gardens if you wish. For a little extra, you can go into the monastery itself and have a look around as well.

On day six, we’re moving on to Krems, so you’re going to be cycling through the Wachau Valley, which is the wine region of Austria. This particular area is filled with terraced vineyards and apricot orchards, there are lots of little castles and palaces and monasteries as well. You’re going to be cycling through villages such as Spitz, Weißkirchen and Dürnstein. These places are open and filled with nice places to eat and drink as well and also sample lots of local produce, which is a nice way to spend the day as well. There are lots of wineries that you’ll be cycling past that also offer tours as well. That’s something you can do and certainly something I would recommend. It’s always good to try little local drinks when you can. On day seven, your last day of cycling, you’re going to be heading into Vienna, the capital of Austria. You take a train for the first part of the section. This is just to cut down the cycling that day. If you want to do it, you could do the whole route. It would add up to about 70 or 80 kilometers that day which is quite a long day. We start off of the train, which cuts down the cycling to approximately 40 kilometers that day.

I’m just going to interject. Forty kilometers is roughly 25 miles. If you do it with the train, it’s a 25-mile bike ride or if you don’t use the train, it’s about a 50-mile bike ride.

You roll and cycle on through to through the Vienna Woods and then pass through the gates of Vienna. The highlights of this particular day, one of which will be the Klosterneuburg Monastery, definitely one to look at. Then you arrive in Vienna which has been known as the city of music. I spent a day in Vienna and I fell in love with it. It’s a delightful city and a perfect place to end your cycle. You’ve got a night there. In day eight, it’s when you head off. If you got to hire a bike with us, you would drop that bike off and make your own travel and continue your journey to wherever you’re going next.

Before we talk about how you can bike and also cruise the Danube at the same time, by that I mean at night you’re spending the night on a boat so you never have to keep packing and unpacking. It is a cool way to do it as well. I want to tell you some other cool things about Vienna. It is the capital of Austria and also Austria’s largest city, and the seventh largest in the EU. It is Austria’s cultural economic and political center. It is the home of Sigmund Freud. They also call it The City of Dreams. Most of this trip you’ll see much Celtic and Roman history. Vienna is considered to be in the top five of the quality of life indexes of places to live. It’s considered the most prosperous in the world.

Vienna is also considered the gateway to Eastern Europe and is the last great capital of the nineteenth century ball. They still hold over 450 balls a year, some have up to nine orchestras. The most popular is held in the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. Most middle class and upwards go to several balls in their lifetime. The wiener schnitzel, which you’ll find in almost every Austrian restaurant, is a powdered veal or pork cutlet, breaded and fried in clarified butter. It’s very good. Another common thing to eat is tafelspitz, which is a boiled beef. Here comes a bad one, Geröstete Erdäpfel, which is boiled potatoes mashed and then fried and served with horseradish sauce. You’ll find lots of street vendors with sausages or wieners and you can ask for mustard either sweet or spicy.

Make sure you take time to see the famous market, the Naschmarkt, see the city Opera House, the Ringstrasse and the Castle Schönbrunn. One popular thing are the Viennese cafes. Some say that Starbucks got its idea there. The Viennese create a culture of cafes that people spend hours there as is if it’s their own home. They claim to be the first to have filtered coffee. There are over 100 art museums. There are lots of things to see and do in Vienna so do try to stay at least a couple of days, if not longer to enjoy everything the city has to offer. Vienna has so much to offer from the cozy wine taverns, the wonderful food, the fabulous coffee shops, the imperial palaces, the art museums, the music, the balls. It’s a cultural mecca. Hamish, when you look back on your adventure, do you have a favorite memory?

A couple of highlights, probably on day two, I did a bike and boat itinerary. On day two, we got the opportunity as a detour to the main route and to go and visit Mauthausen concentration camp, which is not one of the most infamous concentration camps. It was one of the biggest during World War II. I’ve never had the opportunity to explore sites like that before. It’s a bit daunting at first. The eerie silence of the place and contemplating all the horrors that went on there. Personally, I find that aspect of our modern history quite interesting and it certainly gives you appreciation of the efforts that went to keeping us safe back then. Vienna for me was a great highlight. If you’re going to spend some extra time with nice little scenery, Vienna is a great city to do that. There’s quite a lot of history. They’re quite astounding tripping over famous palaces, opera houses, museums at every turn. It’s a great city for cycling. Cycle paths in the city itself are plentiful and easy to use. Everyone’s very considerate of cyclists as well.

One of the highlights probably in terms of the kind of landscape and things would be on day two of the Passau-Vienna itinerary, the Schlögener Loop, where the river makes complete a 180-degree turn. You can hike up from the river and put a 30, 40-minute hike up a steep path. It’s worth it for sure. The panoramic landscape you’ve got there is fantastic. If the weather’s good, that’s something I encourage people to do.

Do you have a favorite story that you tell your friends about this trip?

It was the people that you meet. The Danube is a popular path. There’s a wide variety of people doing it for a wide variety of reasons. Compare it to something like perhaps one of the Pilgrim walks such as the Camino de Santiago. Some people who are doing this Danube cycle are out for a pleasure holiday and other people might be doing it as part of a much larger tour through Europe. You can follow the Danube from the source all the way to the Black Sea. You meet a wide variety of people. I’ve got to speaking to lots of North Americans, lots of other Europeans. On one particular day, we had stopped at some places, some English fellow cyclists and we ended up having lunch together and enjoying a beer. That experience was one of the real highlights for me, the camaraderie along the route, there’s a real sense of everyone’s there enjoying the cycling and avoiding running into each other. That’s one of the highlights for sure.

I’m guessing if you see others with the panniers on their bikes that you can tell they’re doing the same type of cycling vacation and not just out for a day cycle?

Yeah. We work with a local partner for this trip. You can recognize the panniers generally and there’s a knowing nod when you’re going past someone who you know is doing the same trip as you. The cycle paths are used by locals as well, so it’s a good opportunity to meet people from the local area as well. Lots of people use them to get from one town to another to visit friends and family, as well as meeting other tourists. You also get a chance to meet locals as well, which I think is always a bonus.

A lot of us English speakers don’t speak German. Is that going to be an issue?

No, I wouldn’t say it would be an issue. I am an English only speaker as well. I did study a bit of German in high school, as a lot of people may have studied French or Spanish and so on. I was able to say hello and say certain phrases like, “Can I have a glass of water?†and that sort of thing. To be honest, the tourism infrastructure along the Danube is really good. All the hotels and accommodations that we use have staff that can speak English. It’s not something people are worried about. I wouldn’t worry too much. All your documentations in terms of your navigation and things like that are in English. What we offer in terms of our service would be a 24/7 emergency assistance. If there are any issues and you’re trying to speak to someone but they can’t speak English, then you can give us a ring and we’re on the end of the line to give you a hand. Everyone on the Danube is friendly and most of the time you’re going to be able to find someone who speaks English. Certainly at the hotels, there are always going be at least one or two people who are English speaking.

I have to comment on what Hamish just said. Number one, part of the fun and some of my favorite stories are when I was trying to interact and could not speak the local language. It ends up sometimes being some of your fondest memories. Number two, one of the nice things about going with a company such as MACS is that you do have a safety net of help should you need it. When I used them for my Scotland trip, I never had to call. It’s nice to know that they’re there.

We alluded earlier to the fact that this could also be a bike/boat adventure. This is particularly nice if somebody doesn’t think they want a bike every single day for a few hours for seven days, or let’s say it’s a family and maybe not everybody wants to do all that. There are lots of different reasons that you might want the option or you just don’t want to unpack every day you want to be in your same cabin every single night. Can you tell us a little bit about the bike/boat option?

We offer a couple of different variations of that. The first would be from Passau-Vienna. Although it’s a slightly different itinerary to the hotel one. The second one is from Passau all the way to Budapest. The bike and boat option is fantastic. It’s a good one for beginners and probably a good one for people who want a little bit less hassle. Because you’re not sightseeing from hotel to hotel, you only unpack once, which is a big appeal for a lot of customers of ours.

The other big appeal is the fact that the trip’s full board as well. You don’t have to worry about any of your meals. You get breakfast, a pack lunch and then a three-course dinner when you get back on board the boat. The cruises are all generally multi-nationality as well. It’s a great chance to meet new like-minded people. You cycle through very similar areas to the hotel routes but just doing it in a slightly different order. The trip I did in was the bike and boat one. It was the first time I’d done the combination of the two and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was a fantastic trip.

How big is the ship? Is it dedicated to your clients or is it a mix of whomever books on the ship?

The two boats that we offer trips on are broadly comparable in terms of size. It’s going to be between about 80 to 100 people on board. The river cruise boats are quite a decent size. Generally, there are about three decks, you have a lower deck, a main deck and an upper deck on the boats that we work with, and they are dedicated cycling boats. However, the benefit of doing these bike and boat trip is that if there’s maybe a member of the party who isn’t that enamored by cycling and might enjoy puttering about in the morning and having a look at where the boat is docked and the surrounding area, and then hopping back on the boat when it moves on to its next stop. You can do that as well. Likewise, if you’re a keen cyclist but maybe one day you’ve maybe overdid a bit too much the previous day, you can relax on the boat and take a day off and go up on the sun deck, relax with your book and that sort of thing. There’s quite a lot of flexibility when you take a bike and boat trip I would say.

What kind of flexibility, if any, do you have if you do the bike and boat? Can you do an extra day in Lintz for example or do you have to stick with the itinerary?

That’s not possible unfortunately. The boats depart weekly, departing on a Saturday for the Passau to Vienna trip, and on a Sunday for Passau to Budapest trip. You’ll be staying on the same boat for the duration. The departure dates are fixed. I would say the itinerary on a daily basis. You have a daily briefing in the evening, which is conducted in English. The tour director will go through what route you’re in and discuss points of interest. What they also do is point out places where you can take detours as well. These can vary from maybe a few kilometers up to maybe an extra ten, fifteen, twenty kilometers. There is an element of customization available within the parameters about the safety of cycling. If there’s something that particularly interests you, if it’s something historical or if it’s something more related to food and drink for instance, then you can pick and choose maybe an add on at the end of the day that would more suit your interests.

Tell us about your favorite dishes and what kind of food we can expect to enjoy?

The food was fantastic actually. It’s a mixture between some classic European dishes and also some more traditional Austrian dishes. We had quite a wide variety. We had some lovely fish dishes on a couple of days. The foods we select the night before, so it was a set menu to choose from every evening beforehand. You would have the choice of a meat dish, a fish dish and also a vegetarian option as well. It’s three courses. There were lots of nice dishes where there is a strudel for dessert some nights, meatballs and they served sausage and things like that. The food was high quality and there are plenty of it as well. What you do as far as lunchtime, your pack lunch, the way they operate breakfast is a buffet style.

Once you’re finished breakfast, you are invited to go and make up a pack lunch yourself. You select your breads, your continental meats and things like that. Then they’ll package it up for you. You’ve got it all ready for you when you’re ready to stop for lunch along the route. If you want all that’s included in your holiday costs, if you wanted to stop on the route and have lunch at a restaurant, you could do that as well. You just leave your packed lunch for the day.

In case someone’s not paying 100% attention, I want to clarify that the full board is strictly for the bike and boat adventure, and not with the bike only adventure. On the bike only, if it’s the West Highland Way, I just had breakfast. Can you explain or clarify that for us please, Hamish?

Hotel to hotel itinerary as standard we include breakfast. We can also offer half board options as well for that. That would be having breakfast and dinner. Then you would look after lunch and that would be a supplement for that option. For that itinerary, we like to give people a little bit of flexibility. It’s nice to be able to stop at a restaurant on the way so they can explore in the evening time. For the bike and boat itineraries, they are all inclusive. You have for breakfast, lunch and dinner included throughout.

On my Scotland trip, I paid the single supplement because I was traveling solo. Is that also the same on this trip?

Yes. For the hotel to hotel options, it would be a single supplement and you can do that trip as a solo traveler as well. For the bike and boat trips, there are single supplement payables as well. They have dedicated cabins allocated for solo travelers. Sometimes that can present a little bit of a problem in terms of availability. Cabins are limited to the number that they offer to solo travelers. As a bonus, I would actually say that the bike and boat option is a great one to think about if you are traveling solo. It was something I mentioned to the rest of the team here at MACS Adventure when I got back from my trip. I think it’s a good one for solo travelers because you’re on a boat with lots of other people. I find that it was a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. After a couple of days, after the initial getting to know everyone phase, it was a bit like when you were a kid and you went to summer camp or something. You make good friends along the way for the week. If you’re traveling by yourself, I think that can be a nice thing to have.

Obviously, I’m a fan of your company. I’ve also become a convert to hiring companies to plan my tours whether it be self-guided like MACS offers or a fully-guided tour because adventure travel is a little bit different. It’s a little bit more complicated than traditional travel. For the intrepid traveler that would like to plan their own adventure, is this something they could do by themselves?

For the hotel to hotel option, planning yourself will be probably be doable, but we’ve been offering trips like this for a number of years now. We’ve developed a real expertise in terms of putting together the baggage transfers and organizing the bike hire and things like that. As with most holidays, if you work hard you could probably plan out yourself. I think the benefit of having someone like MACS Adventure do the trip for you is that all the stress is going to be taken out it. We pick everything from your bike hire, hotels and bag transfers and transfers on request to their starting point from the airport and things like that. It can take the stress out of it. I know when I’ve tried to organize trips like this myself after a few weeks of trying to do it I sometimes think, “Why did I start this?†I would rather have someone else do it for me.

I’m going to ditto what Hamish said. I was so anti-tour until I started using tour groups such as MACS because on adventure travel it’s different than what I envisioned as tour companies where you’d follow behind the white flags. Go to my episode 000. I was so against it. With adventure travel, because it can be a little bit more complicated and then they have the boots on the ground, they know what the complications are. If you’ve read my Scotland thing about the Kingshouse thing, they knew that was closed. If I planned it by myself, I’d have been in a pickle.

It’s nice to have somebody that they’ve already figured everything out. You know how when you go on a trip, “I would have done this differently next time around.†You don’t have time to go back and do this next time around. It’s nice that someone has already figured out all the logistics for you. All you have to do is just go on the adventure. They don’t even charge that much, I don’t think relatively speaking for the value that you get. Not only is it more stress free, it is a huge time saver. I can’t even imagine the logistics of figuring out some of these adventures because you don’t know the terrain, you don’t know how far you are to go each day and then what time you need to stop in or where should I stay. I don’t have time for that anymore. Anyhow, I’m a convert and I don’t think I’m going to self-plan adventure trips myself anymore. I’m changed. Hamish, we’ve mentioned my trip to Scotland and your trip on the Danube. MACS goes all over the place. How about you tell us a little bit more about the company?

The company was founded in 2003. It was founded by a chap called Neil Lapping, who’s originally from South Africa, but then somehow made his way over to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. We originally started off offering guided walking trips along the West Highland Way, which is arguably Scotland’s most famous walking route. Then the years passed, the company grew and began to focus more on offering self-guided trips, which is now all that we offer is self-guided. The cycling part of the business came along a little bit later. It’s grown from there. In the last few years, we’ve come on leaps and bounds and we offer walking cycling trips in the majority of Europe. We’ve now started offering trips now in North America and some trips in Asia as well.

We opened up a couple of international offices as well. We have an office in Germany. We’ve opened up an office in Boulder, Colorado, which I think is going to be a great help for our North American customers in terms of being able to speak to someone on the phone in the same time zone. We have about 20,000 adventure seekers travel with us every year and that’s growing every year as well. As a team of 60 of us here in Glasgow, we all work on putting together itineraries, developing tours, solving problems in case anything goes wrong on tour and then making sure that our customers have a fantastic time from the moment that they inquire with us to the time that they come back.

Is there anything that I forgot to ask you that you need to convey to the audience?

The one thing I would mention for the bike and boat itineraries is probably the importance to get booked in early. Those trips are popular because the boats only sail on certain days the week and the availability can go very quickly. That’s something I would definitely encourage people to do is to get their plan sorted out as early as they can and get in touch. For the hotel to hotel trip, there’s probably a bit more flexibility. If you find that you have a few weeks of vacation coming up and you fancy a cycling trip, then usually we can organize the hotel to hotel one with a few weeks’ notice. We always encourage people to get in touch nice and early because we can guarantee the departure dates and things like that and make sure you get the trip you’re looking for.

When you say far in advance for the bike and boat, are we talking a year? What are we talking about here?

The bike and boat season runs approximately from April to October. Definitely for the summer dates, you’re looking a year in advance to guarantee the dates that you want. Sometimes you can afford to push it into the fall. This time of year in November and December, and then we’ll move into January and February, which is peak booking time for holidays. The availability starts to diminish. Probably a year is ideal. Probably between a year or eight to six months is probably the minimum you would want to look at.

You’re a big cycler. If we had to choose another cycling holiday besides the Danube, what should we choose?

I’m going to be biased here and suggest looking at Scotland. One of my favorite trips that we offer is Cycling from Perthshire, which is an hour and a half north of our capital city of Edinburgh. Starting there and cycling through beautiful part Scotland. Perthshire is famous for its tall trees and lush green countryside and lots of walks and glens and that sort of thing. Scotland’s got some great cycling opportunities, probably not as well developed as somewhere like the Danube, but I think in some ways that can be a good thing. There are not as many cyclists on the roads as you might find in some other parts of Europe. If you’re willing to gamble on the weather, and some days you might get a wee bit wet but in some days you might get some glorious sunshine with that fantastic mountains and forest in the background as well.

Speaking of bad weather, on my Scotland trip, my bad weather days of which I had two, ended up being my favorite story days.

I’ve had the same experience. Sometimes when it’s raining outside and everyone has to stay in their hotel and BnB for the day, that’s quite often when you learn a lot about your fellow travelers and have to make a friend for the rest of your holiday and certainly maybe for going on afterwards.

Many thanks to Hamish Adamson for his insight on biking alongside the Danube River. For non-native English speakers, remember that there’s a Google Translate button at the bottom of each of my web pages. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, be sure to do so you’ll get the free Travel Planner for this and all future episodes in our monthly email. You can get it by clicking on the Newsletter link at ActiveTravelAdventures.com.

I want to tell you about a couple of personal things. Number one, I think that I may have solved by Podcasters Pooch problem. Remember that I said that now that I’m spending so much time in front of the computer producing this show that I put on weight? I ordered a walking desk. It’s a treadmill with a desktop so I can gently walk all day long. I hope that this works as I refuse to buy fat clothes and things are getting a little tight. Number two, I’ve been training for my upcoming Costa Rica hike at the end of this month. On this trip I’ll be attempting to climb Cerro Chirripó. It’s Costa Rica’s tallest mountain. The highest mountain I’ve climbed so far was about 8,500 and Chirripó is about 12,500, which is 2,600 and 3,800 meters respectively. Where I live in North Carolina is flat, so this is going to be interesting. I’m also going to be white water rafting the Pacuare River for the second time. Except this time, I’m going to be doing it for two days and staying overnight in the rainforest. My sister is coming with me and this is her first adventure travel vacation. I’m super excited about the whole adventure.

Number three, putting on the show costs money and I don’t want to accept advertiser money. I definitely don’t want to see ads for things I may not even support sitting in a banner ad alongside the ATA web page. I don’t like listening to ads inserted into podcasts. What I’ve decided do to help defray some of my expenses is to go directly to the companies that I’ve already vetted and love, people that I trust and believe in and ask to become an affiliate partner. What this means is that at no additional cost to you, if you click on some of the links that may be affiliate links in the future, I may earn a small commission. If you like what I’m doing with this program and you’re going to be doing it anyway, clicking on my links is a way to support the program and it doesn’t cost you a dime.

I believe this is a win-win solution and I hope that you’re going to agree. At the time of this recording, I’m not an affiliate of MACS but as many of you know, I’m a big fan and I have sent them an email asking to be one. All along, I’ve been promoting MACS on many of the Travel Planners without any compensation because I believe in them. My integrity is on the line with every recommendation I give you and I take that responsibility strongly. You come before any potential commission. Anyhow, I want to explain this.

Finally, on the survey that I asked you to take, you said you want adventures in South America. On our next episode, we’re going way south of the equator to Patagonia. We’re going to be going to Chile and Argentina. This adventure is on the bucket list of many of you. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it. If you haven’t taken the survey, just go to ActiveTravelAdventures.com and the link is on the home page. Many thanks also to Naxos for providing the music of The Beautiful Blue Danube for us. It was conducted by Ondrej Lenárd. Listening to this music, don’t you just feel like getting all decked out and waltzing in a ball? Thanks for reading. I’ll be back and until next time, adventure on!

Important Links:

• 15 Benefits of Adventure Travel – previous episode
• Hamish Adamson
• MACS Adventures
• episode three – previous episode
• episode 000 – previous episode
• Neil Lapping

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