EuroVelo-6 Bike Tour, Sept 2026
Our Trip Summary - Salzburg, Passau, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest; 479 miles!
Summary:My cousin Jen and I flew to Vienna with our bikes in cardboard boxes. Our first stop was Salzburg where we spent 2 days seeing the filming locations for the Sound of Music; then off to the start of our Danube tour in Passau. We followed the Danube (Donau) river on the EuroVelo-6 bike path all the from Passau way to Budapest. This is a common river cruise route (Viking).Our favorite city was Bratislava, the food was a level up from all the other cities, and things were so much cheaper. The city was alive with activity and had a fun vibe, they even had an evening 10k fun run through the city on our first night. If you can get past the graffiti, and broken windows, it's a great city to be in! By contrast, Vienna felt like a city of investment bankers, kinda quiet and orderly, but not much life to it. Other highlights were the Vadaus pools in Esztergom; Széchenyi Thermal baths and New York Cafe in Budapest. Melk to Krems was a really nice section on the EuroVelo. Switch to the north side of the Danube at Spitz using the Spitz-Arnsdorf cable ferry so you can bike from Spitz to Krems. Be sure to have cash for the ferry crossings! From Spitz to Krems you bike though many quaint towns, a nice change from seeing the river. |
Day 1, Vienna to Salzburg, 21.9 miles.Jen and I met up at 11pm at the Vienna Airport the night before, and stayed the night at the Moxy Airport hotel. We brought our bikes on the flight with us, they were free to bring as the airline does not charge extra if the weight is under 23kg.In the morning we assembled our bikes, and realized one of us forgot to pack her quick-release axle skewer; the part that holds the front wheel on. It was a Sunday, and it took a bit to find a bike shop open on a Sunday. I uber'd to the bike shop, bought the skewer, came back, and we were rolling in no time. Our bike boxes nest together, and we stuck them above the lockers in the hotel luggage room to keep them out of the way. We had to take a later than scheduled train to Salzburg, so we biked around Vienna for a couple hours. Salzburg was a delight, we decided to spend the next day in Salzburg as well. We stayed at the Bahnhoff hotel in Salzburg, and it was great. We got a great restaurant recommendation, Braurestaurant IMLAUER and stayed out biking till about 10:30p. It was pretty dark out, but we each had full set of lights. ...more |
Day 2. Sound of music tour, Salzburg, 21.29 miles.We spent most of the morning biking around Salzburg looking for sites from the Sound of Music. We found the Von-Trapp house, it's a hotel you can stay at. We snuck in and wandered around for about 20 minutes (easy to do by bike vs car) before getting kicked out. We got a got to see the dock where Maria and the kids fell out of the canoe. We found the Gazebo used in the film, though it was moved from the original location... the yellow wall where Maria sings "I have confidence"... the fountains and gardens where they sing doe-ray-mee.Amazing weather, and amazing tree lined bike trails. We then decided to take the train to Passau to start our Danube river bike tour, it would have been about 2 days of biking to get there, and we would rather have that extra time since we're biking 400+ miles in a short time. The Bahnhoff hotel in Passau, also did not disappoint. ...more |
Day 3. Passau to Linz, 64.5 miles!We did a metric century ride (103.8km) today!We stopped at the point where 3 rivers come together, some have bright blue water, and some black, and you can see them mix. Annoyingly my Garmin GPS doesn't show the river on the map, which makes it hard to know what side of the river we're supposed to be on. We had a slight 14mph crash. In Jen's words " I was too entranced by the majestic views" and her handle bars caught the guard rail, and she went over the bars. She rolled out of it unscathed, just a few bruises, I think she scrubbed some speed against the guard rail before she hit the ground. I got another flat tire (was down to 20 psi, so I changed it). At one point we had to cross the river, and the ferry operator only takes cash (3 euro per person), which we did not have. Jen worked her magic and got a collection going at the local hotel for us. The nearest ATM would have been 20km back where we came from. There's a big bell you have to ring if the ferry is on the opposite side of the river. Had two amazing pizzas at La Veneziana A few more ferry crossings. The bike trail at one point crossed the railroad tracks, but we had to lift our bikes over the tracks. Had a nice dinner in a bier garden which was all lit up at night. Stiegl-Klosterhof ...more |
Day 4, Linz to Sankt Nikola an der Donau, 50.3 miles.We had a nice breakfast with poached eggs, salmon lox and avocado at a cafe called Tiny Dancer.The Eurovelo 7 took us to Mautausen, and we spent the afternoon walking the grounds of the concentration camp. The gas chamber and crematorium were still there, and the entire grounds looked largely restored/preserved. We booked an apartment around 5pm which was about an hour away. We got some food for take out, and headed to the apartment, but the address on booking.com was about 2km off from the apartments actual location, so we were fumbling around trying to find the place in the dark. The apartment was super nice, and the 80 year old owner grows his own berries and fruits, and gave us some of his jelly and juice as a gift. ...more |
Day 5, Sankt Nikola an der Donau to Krems, 53.3 miles.Woke up to an amazing view from our apartment balcony, it was dark when we arrived last night, so this was our first glimpse of the hills, and the owners garden below.We saw too many castles and chateaus to count. We stopped for lunch in a town called Melk which had a nice church on a hill top. We had a tail wind for a good part of the day, and we were booking it at 16 mph for a solid hour. The direction signs have a lot of information on them, and it's a lot to take in when biking past them! We met a local couple on the trail, and they said the part we were about to bike was better on the opposite side, we took their advice, and yes, there were tons of cute towns to bike through. The section from Spitz to Krems was really nice, be sure to bring cash for the ferry crossings! We booked an apartment in Krems, it's right in the middle of the old town, and our balcony overlooks the church. Hopefully the bells don't keep us up tonight. ...more |
Day 6, Krems to Vienna, 54.6 miles + 3.5 miles.We didn't have to look far to find breakfast. Literally just below our feet was a farmers market that sprung up early morning. We went down and picked some fresh fruit, and four farm fresh eggs. Krems was a ghost town the previous night, but this morning it was hustling with (I'm assuming) river cruise passengers. We could see the tour guides walking with their baton/flags.There's a weird melon smell we sense biking through the forests, I think we've nailed it down to this pink flower (Policemen's Helmet). Glad we have GPS, the Eurovelo 6 occasionally takes you through interesting towns. If we just followed the river, we would have missed quite a bit. 54 miles today felt like a breeze, we had a slight tailwind most of the day. There was a family we met the day before, and their (SRAM) crank arm fell off one of their bikes. The bolt that holds it on snapped, so there wasn't much we could do. It didn't seem like it was a press fit... We finished biking around 5pm, and had a chance to enjoy some hotel AC before going out for dinner. We did a repeat of our Noodle King sashimi, and some yummy grapes, cheese, bread, chocolates... We stumbled upon the Prater Amusement park and it was fun to walk around and people watch. Marriott Vienna was only 119 Eu ...more |
Day 7, Vienna to Bratislava, 50 miles.Started our ride out of Vienna around 10:30a with a bit of rain. We rode through a long park, only to realize the end was private property, and there were no bridges, so we had to backtrack out. The ride was a bit dull today, not many lunch stops, so we laid out the tent footprint (tarp) and had a picnic. Border crossing was uneventful, with no markings. We reached 50 miles in record time (4:30p) and checked into a nice hotel.First impression of Bratislava was, there's a lot of graffiti. Second impression, the city is alive, and has an exciting vibe about it. There are tons of people walking, eating, out and about. There's a night marathon running through the city tonight, so we watched all the runners navigate the cobblestone streets at night, running. We had a great dinner (Zylinder Cafe), goulash, goat cheese potato dumplings with fried bacon fat cubes, roast beef with fried onions and capers. Everything had so much flavor. We really enjoyed our night out, and decided to stay an extra day here. We got a fried apple pie from McDonalds. Tomorrow, rest day, and check out the castle across the street. Just looked up what the FKK sign means: In Austria, an FKK sign marks designated naturist or clothing-optional areas, standing for Freikörperkultur (free body culture). ...more |
Day 8, No biking, 14k steps (6 miles).Started the day with an amazing breakfast. The quality of food is on another level here. Vienna felt like a city of bankers, and Bratislava feels like a city of artists. There is a lot of graffiti, and none of the buildings look like they've been painted in 50 years; but with that comes amazing food, and great service.We walked up to the big castle on the hill, and in the courtyard were tons of actors in costume demonstrating jobs done in the medieval times. Making thread, chainmail armor, pottery, weaving... Much more lively compared to other castle tours we've done. ...more |
Day 9, Bratislava to Komarno, 68 miles.Today we just needed to get some miles in. It was a long day of biking into a headwind. Not much to see from the trail, and no bathrooms, stores, restaurants, water faucets... We kinda knew this ahead of our ride, so we packed plenty of snacks and drinks. Almost 4,000 calories burned, probably more since we had a 8mph headwind most of the day.Got my Slovakia flag sticker put on my bike. We have a nice 1 bedroom apartment with a kitchen tonight for 97 Euros. ...more |
Day 10, Komarno to Esztergom, 37.4 miles.The high was 89 degrees today, we made it a short day to avoid the heat. Our apartment has a kitchen, AC, and a washing machine. We're also just a 5 minute walk from the thermal baths. This apartment was $44/night, incredible.The Vadaus thermal baths make a visit to Esztergom worth it on it's own. This place is amazing, the water is crystal clear, all fed with natural mineral water, there's no chlorine smell at all. They have around 6 large outdoor pools at different temperatures, a lazy river, water slides... lot's of food options... Glad we had most of the afternoon to spend there. Just one more day of biking left to get to Budapest. ...more |
Day 11, Esztergom to Budapest, 45.6 miles.We made the final leg of our bike tour!!! We made it to Budapest!!!In total, from Passau to Budapest, plus 2 days in Salzburg we covered 478.75 miles so far! I'm at 730.5 miles including Amsterdam - Bruges! We crossed the bridge into Hungary. The Danube river is looking quite low now. Saving tomorrow for touring the city. Happy to be done biking for a while, though we might scoot around Budapest on the bikes for a few miles tomorrow. ...more |
Day 12, walking around BudapestVisited the Széchenyi Thermal baths, Vajdahunyad Castle, and New York Cafe.Visited 'shoes by the Danube'; bronze shoes line the banks of the river to memorialize those who were murdered there. They were asked to remove their shoes before being shot because shoes had value. ...more ...more |
Day 13, Our last day of the trip.We took the train from Budapest to Vienna, and checked into our Moxy Airport hotel for the night. I checked in for my flight, and there was still no option for adding my bike box. I could see it is a 250eu fee for Austrian airlines. I knew this going in, even though I booked United airlines flights, and United doesn't charge extra for bikes, this flight was code shared with Austrian Airlines. Even with the ~$300 bike fee, this flight was still $500 cheaper than any other options; my ticket was $1,051.83 (SFO-Amsterdam, Vienna - SFO).I get on chat support with Austrian air, and they tell me I had to register my bike box 48 hours ahead, and I could not fly home. We went to the airport that night and it was straight forward registering the bike box, crisis averted. They couldn't figure out how to charge me for the box, so they said pay it in the morning when I drop the box off at check-in. I went to baggage drop the next morning, and they still couldn't figure out how to charge me, so they let my box fly free. Something about the United system not playing nice with Austrian Air's system. At check in, Austrian air had my name on my boarding pass as Ericdouglas, instead of Eric like it says on my Passport. Again they told me, sorry you cannot fly. I explained, I know how to spell my name, something in their system appended my first and middle name. Clearly I somehow flew my flight to Europe just fine, and I explained that everything will be ok. We stared at each other for another minute, and she finally let me through. These Austrians are uptight, talk about unnecessary added stress being told you cannot board your flight, twice. Anyway, another trip wrapped up! Made it back home to SFO. Apparently with the 3 bike trips (and 1 scuba diving trip), since June I've lost 14 lbs. 1008 miles in total! See less ...more |
