Cruise on Danube
 

I am going on a vacation to Austria and one of my stops is Vienna. I am interested in taking a day long river cruise on the Danube River. I would like to find a river cruise that allows you to get on and off along the way because I would like to stop in Melk, Spitz, and Durnstein. The only company I found was Blue Danube, but they do not allow you to get on and off the boat at stops along the way. Does anyone know of a company that does? If not, has anyone taken the Sunday cruise from Vienna to Durnstein?

Try these sites

www.brandner.at
or
www.ddsg-blue-danube.at

These companies offer cruises that may interest you.You can get off and explore the small towns of Spitz or Durnstein.



Also note the rail combination that would help you save time.
I would not advise the sunday cruise as the time Vienna to Krems is not very interesting. As you proceed upstream against the current that can be very strong the trip is slow making it even less enjoyable.
If you need more information please advise

The area Melk to Krems is very interesting and worth your visit.

We recently did the trip from Vienna to Krems, using the "combi ticket" which included train fare to Melk, a tour ticket for the beautiful monastery there, a boat ride to Krems, and then a train back to Vienna. It was an ideal day trip, with nice sights along the river and plenty of time to tour. Just ask at the train station for the "combi ticket"-- I think we paid 39 Euros apiece which we thought was a great deal. Remember that it includes a tour of the monastery (or something else in Melk-- but the monastery is the thing to do, in my opinion). Some folks didn't realize their transport ticket covers the tour, and I think they paid admission fees for it. And the garden at the monastery has a beautiful building where you can sit and enjoy the scenery along with a sandwich and beer. It's so pretty there, you can't go wrong.

With the combi-ticket, do you have specific train times to Melk and from Krems? We are thinking of doing that, but we would prefer leaving as early as possible, getting to Melk, boat to Durnstein then somehow getting to Krems for the late afternoon/evening before returning to Vienna.

Any thoughts? Is there a way to get from Durnstein to Krems without the boat? What if you add Spitz to the mix? Can you get between Spitz, Durnstein and Krems sans boat?

Also, knowing that the boat from Melk doesn't leave until 13:50, how much time do you need in Spitz and Durnstein?

TIA,

gnr :S

Stephanie,

You say they do not allow you get on and off the boat at stops along the way. This might be true on a single ticket, but if you buy separate tickets for Melk to Spitz and Spitz to Durnstein you can stop and visit each town.

You can take an early train from Vienna (Westbahnhof) to Melk, take the 11:00 boat to Spitz, take the 2:40 boat to Durnstein, and then the train back to Vienna (arriving at the Franz-Josef Bahnhof or Heiligenstadt Bahnhof).

If you want to stay longer in Melk, you can take the 1:50 boat to Spitz and the 5:20 boat to Durnstein.

You could also do the entire trip in the opposite direction. This option would give you a longer time on the boat (and less time to visit the towns) because it is upstream.

Gnrbernstein,

The combi-ticket doesn't require you to take any particular train.

You could certainly get off the boat at Durnstein and take the train from Durnstein to Krems (an 11-minute ride) where you would change trains and proceed on to Vienna on your combi-ticket.

I don't know whether the combi-ticket would allow you to break your journey in Spitz and take a later boat on to Durnstein or Krems.

Timewise you could do it. Taking the 1:50 boat to Spitz, you would have 2 hours and 40 minutes there before boarding the 5:20 boat to Durnstein. The last train of the day from Durnstein to Vienna is at 8:43

Not to confuse this issue but a local train runs regularly between Spitz, Durnstein and Krems with a direct connection to Vienna.This allows many variations for a longer visit to Durnstein, Spitz etc.together with the river cruise.
Many things to see, good restaurants and wine.
Depending on the season ,many festivals are held in these towns to celebrate grape and fruit harvests.
some of the best white wines of the world are grown in this area.
Note: no problem finding the train stations. These are small villages.Signs to the " Bahnhof" easily guide you. The trains run on time and be prepared to get on or off immediately. They are usually in the station less than two minutes.

Assuming four towns in one day is impossible, between Spitz, Durnstein and Krems - which two would be better. Durnstein seems like a good choice, but I can't get a good read on the other two.

gnr

Oh, can you get local train info from bahn.de or is there another site for that?

gnr

Krems is a much larger town than Spitz; the former has a population of maybe 20,000. I have only seen Spitz from the boat, but it is a picturesque village.

You can get train info from bahn.de, but you need to use the full names of the stations: Krems a. d. Donau, Spitz a. d. Donau, and Durnstein-Oberloiben. (There are within the German speaking countries multiple places with these names.) Alternatively you could download from the Austrian Railroad a PDF file with the schedule for this rail line: www.oebb.at/Angebot_Reisen/Zentrale/Fahrplan/ Kursbuch_Aktualisierung/Fahrplanbilder2004/kif811_03.pdf

Noo need to download rail schedule just go to www.oebb.at click on english then to travel or timetable. it will provide all the things you need. Just enter the town names.

In my opinion Spitz id a better visit than Krems.

Spitz is an old village ( first settled 800-900AD) with an interesting church, one castle in town and an interesting ruin above.Just walk up the street toward the church steeple and the small town square. The square has a fountain with several cafes and a bakery nearby.
You can buy the local wine direct from the vintners doorstep.Some of the best white wine in the world.
TThe vineyards are mostly on terraces around and above the town producing a perfect setting.
The town also has a ship museum relating the centuries of trade on the Danube in a former cloister.But this takes more time than you may have.

Krems is a good sized industrial city with a nice church and downtown pedestrian zone with old buildings, several nice museums but some distance apart.
If you look for a typical Wachau village pick Spitz. if you want McDonalds pick Krems.

I forgot to provide this web site for Spitz. It is in german.

www.spitz-wachau.at

click on tourimus and impressionen for good pictures of the town. Other sections will also give some information that may help you.

Thanks for the links. Am off to check them out.

gnr :-)

Checked the links. Thanks. Is there a way to get more of those timetables? I prefer those than entering each location/day of the week seperately. You know, the old fashion way. ;-)

We are going in Oct. so there will only be one boat a day in each direction at that time. I'm thinking we will go to Melk by train (morning Melk), 13:50 boat to Durnstein (afternoon Durnstein), then train to Krems for the evening before returning to Vienna. I would love to see Spitz (looks pretty in its pictures), but don't think we'll have time for all of them. The other possiblity is Spitz after Durnstein then back to Vienna, skipping Krems, but I need to check train info to see how the return to Vienna would work. Plus, with Krems being bigger, it might be a better evening place.

gnr

Re question- old fashioned way. I assume you mean a regular timetable for each day. try calling to the bahn - they may send you one Phone country code 43 01 930000.
When do you go in October? If it is in the beginning of the month,I may have another solution for you.
If you can not get a schedule, I live in vienna and can get one for you.

Yep. Just a timetable. Thomas Cook used to have a rail guide (they may still have it) and it had the times and the days the train ran, all on one sheet. You used to be able to get that from bahn.de, but they changed their site. I like to just print it out and take it with me in case our schedule changes or whatever.

Thanks for the offer of getting one for me. We are arriving in Vienna by train from Budapest, and since this isn't so drastically urgent, I can pick up a rail guide at that station. (I assume :0) I can finalize everything at that point.

gnr

Stephanie - Here's a great link for you to use while on the boat.

http://www.passports.com/trips/cityf...anube%20Cruise

gnr

Vienna has numerous Bahnhofs( train stations. Most " Krems2 trains leave from Franz Josef Bahnhof in the 9th District on the D or #5 street car line. If you can not get the correct schedule where you arrive from Budapest( either West or Sudbahnhof)try the Franz Josef. They have them.
No need to make train reservations- just pick a day and go.
Early October is perfect time as the wine grape harvest will be happening in that area.

I went back to the bahn.de website and found that the Personal Timetable setting gets you something similar to what I was looking for. The pdf pages Thomas gave work best for this trip though since they show all stops, not just your origination and destination stations.

I think I've finalized everything. Take an early train to Melk, AM in Melk - 1:50 (13:50) boat to Durnstein, Durnstein until 5:30 (17:30), train to Krems for dinner, then back to Vienna at 9:00 (21:00). Don't really see how to fit Spitz in unless we are extremely bored in Durnstein, but even then, we'd probably just go to Krems earlier and not get back to Vienna so late.

Thanks for the input. This is the day I'm most looking forward to on the trip.

gnr :)>-

Just wanted to report that the day went exactly as planned above except that we only spent a little while in Krems. We found many of the items of interest shown on their website then took the 7:00 train back to Vienna. We bought food at the market at the train station and ate sandwiches on the train.

It all worked great. Loved Durnstein. Melk Abbey was okay. Too many tour groups and we never did see the Melk Cross. The town was cute. If we had to do it again and it was summer (i.e. more than one boat), we would go to Melk to the town and the abbey gardens, then take the boat to Spitz, then to Durnstein, then boat/train to Krems, then train to Vienna.

The boat trip itself was fine. It was a floating restaurant so if you didn't want to eat you sat out on the deck. This was almost an issue because it started raining, but fortunately it ended quickly and was very nice the rest of the way.

Thanks for all the help with this.

<font color=#990033>~gnr~</font>