What to do and see in Germany, Germany: The Best Biking Trails

Reviewed By Pyrino

I researched several providers and decided to book with Touristik, and my contact was Vacation consultant Klara Stadler. Klara was extremely helpful, and patiently answered my numerous emails. Thank you Klara, you were superb! My wife and I (60 y/o) did the tour with our adult daughter. We had 1 ebike and 2 normal bikes. We booked the “The Classic Tour Category B” (3* hotels) which covered 7 nights accommodation and 6 days of cycling from 9 to 15 October 2019. It was so well organised. We paid extra for the meals at night. I did stress that our accommodation had to be reasonably close to the river, and it all was. The Austrian hospitality was amazing, all the hotels were great, and the traditional food (and beverage) was delicious. We had a nice train ride from Vienna to Passau then a 30 minute uphill walk from the Passau station with our luggage to the hotel. Caught the bus to the bike shop to find a very helpful, patient man who made sure we were all happy with the gear. We then had a 3 km ride back to the hotel (IBB Hotel Passau South, Passau) in the rain. The next day we explored Passau for a few hours, before departing in drizzling rain around 2 pm. Passau was a very scenic historic town, the junction of 3 rivers. Only 30 km cycled on the first day, which was an excellent introduction. Only mishap was a flat tyre. Luckily, it happened 5 minutes from a bike shop, (who couldn't speak English) but we were on the road in no time. Spectacular scenery, was tempted to stop many times. We had a lovely hotel, Gasthof-Pension Luger, right on the river. The next day we cycled 67 km to Linz, via the Schlogen Schlinge. The cycle path was blocked for clearing so we had to catch a ferry down river for 5 km. Day 3 we walked round Linz, then cycled 59 km to Grein via the Mauthausen concentration camp. Day 4 we cycled 66 km to Mitterarnsdorf via Melk Abbey. What an amazing place. On arrival, it appeared half of Austria was in downtown Melk. It was one massive festival. We found out later they were celebrating their patron Saint Coloman of Stockerau, who would you believe is Irish. We fought our way through the crowd, then did a tour of the Abbey. Day 5 was an easy 42 km cycle to Traismauer via the historic towns of Durnstein and Krems. Our hotel was apparently 600 years old, and the same family have owned it for 300 years. Our final day six was a big day to Vienna, (73 km) We had a great start to the day and covered the 32 km to Tulln in good time.. After Tulln, we were continually riding into a gusting head wind for the rest of our journey. One minute I was sailing along at 22 km/hr, the next minute I was down to 12. So, in summary, we have no regrets and we had a fabulous week. Yes, we saw plenty of luxury cruise boats sailing by, but I think we had a much better time, and a far greater sense of achievement. Was it harder than I thought?...you bet it was. Did I do enough training? No! But we cycled the whole 340 km, it was all on 2 wheels...no free lifts involved for any of us. It was a real team effort. We’d love to do it again but take double the time to allow for more exploring.