Danube Bike Trail – Vienna to Budapest by Bike

Following a stop over day in Vienna we continued our trip along the Danube.

Day seven was an easy ride into Bratislava, under 50 miles. After a joint departure from Vienna we separated to cycle solo, but we soon caught up with each other again. There wasn’t much scope for varying the route along this section.

Once again we got caught out a little with our campsite. We could see a tent symbol on the map but because of the large scale it wasn’t possible to see just which road it was on. I made the best estimate I could and set the gps to navigate us there. On arrival, we could see the site but it was at the other side of a lake. We cycled very carefully along a dirt track round the lake, which was quite a tourist attraction if somewhat dirty around the shore, and ended up at a grubby bar. The site was a lot nearer but out of reach beyond a wire fence which extended into the lake – it may have been possible to carry the bikes into the water and around the fence but I decided against this due to the potential for accidents and losing my camera underwater. The only roadway that would have got us there was a motorway and there was no cycle facility. We had no choice but to retrace our steps round the dirt track and go the opposite way around the lake, along some very dodgy areas, to find the site entrance.

Once there it turned out to be something of a culture shock. The buildings were old and poorly maintained, the site was noisy, there was a dodgem car fairground ride near the tent space, and we felt pretty uneasy about camping there; but after the trial of actually getting there we knew we would be staying the night.

On day eight, we cycled just 36 miles and settled early at Kisbodak, on a site in a clearing in a wood. The shower was an outdoor affair, just a three-sided timber fence and a tarpaulin for a door, and solar heating. Despite the all day heat the water was cool.

The following morning, we had a detour into Mosonmagyaróvár to see the castle and town. The building may have started out as a castle but now looked more like a municipal building. Interesting enough but hardly worth a couple of hours extra cycling. So far we had cycled for three days on the Danube Bike Trail and barely seen the river; we wondered if we had to wait until Budapest. We continued to Győr, and found a municipal site on the edge of the town. It looked as though it might have been a repeat of the Bratislava experience, which we couldn’t face again, so we cycled back into the town and booked into a small hotel instead. At least we weren’t restricted to three minutes of hot water in the shower.

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Day ten brought us no sight of the river either, until we arrived at camp. We passed through Tata and rested a while, in preparation for a big climb just out of the town. At the top of the hill, the Danube was at last in sight. This was to be the last climb of the trip. We camped at the best site so far, with excellent facilities on the shores of the Danube.

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Our view of the Danube was to be short lived as on day eleven, the trail moved inland again until we reached the Mária Valéria Bridge at Esztergom. We kept our view of the river for most of the rest of the day, including waiting a while for a ferry crossing to the North side at Szob. We returned to the South side to get to our target site at Tahitótfalu.

Our final day was a leisurely 26 miles to Budapest, following the path along the Danube to the city centre. We made our way to the excellent “Biker Camp”, a small site in an urban garden with all facilities.

The next day we had a look around Budapest before our departure.

Czech Greenways – Prague to Vienna by Bike

Our travel plan – to use the Czech Greenways route to get to Prague and then the Danube Bike Trail to Budapest.

I found this site with routes and gpx files for my Garmin.

I downloaded the gpx files and consolidated them into one route, then sub-divided at suitable points so I could upload to my gps. The final section, Valtice to Vienna, was not available as a gpx file so I compiled this route myself using Google maps, in mapping and satellite mode, by reference to other resources.

The routes turned out to be very accurate, virtually turn-perfect. Overlaying the track file onto the planned route shows hardly any deviation that was not planned.

On day one, we cycled almost 58 miles together, finishing at Sedlčany. Our campsite was a sports ground (with permission). We resolved to identify a campsite from our large-scale map and aim for that each day. Just as well as we came across very few by chance.

Day two, we found ourselves cycling along rolling countryide in the heat, passing through Tabor. During the hottest part of the day we rested in the shade so on this day we cycled just 46 miles. We departed from the route, so far followed perfectly, at Plana Nad Luznici to get to our chosen campsite near Skalice.

Day three, we re-joined our route and 44 miles later made camp early, by a lake at Nová Bystrica. The following morning we decided to cycle separately; my pace was faster, and I preferred to continue following the “official” route instead of taking the occasional short cut along the busier roads to avoid the hills.

On Day four, I cycled mostly alone, crossing the Vranov Dam and on through the Národny Park Podyji. At one point in this heavily wooded area, the path became ever more overgrown and eventually was blocked with a bale of straw. Here, I was cycling alone, without a paper map, so I had to use the gps to find a way out. The forest tracks weren’t marked on the gps so all I could do was head for the nearest village and keep moving in that direction along the many twisting paths. I couldn’t see any way to get out to the South, where I needed to be, so I took a long detour to the North and round the forest to the next target camp site. I crossed into Austria and we met up again at Retzbach. I cycled 74 miles that day.

The next morning we crossed back into Slovakia and then I cycled alone along the planned route to Poysdorf. The last part was back across the border into Austria, at Schrattenburg, and this is the point where I was navigating using my own route towards Vienna. I planned the route from a large scale overview and a bit of intuition using Google satellite view. This turned out to be quite successful and even if it didn’t follow the official route precisely it got me along 60 miles with hardly a hitch.

On the last day, we cycled to Vienna using our own route choice again, upon arrival there was the most spectacular thunderstorm I have seen for many years ! I took shelter along with many other pedestrians under the canopy of a petrol station, before making the final few miles of 60 in total to the chosen campsite. It was ideally placed close to the Danube Bike Trail, the second leg of our trip to be followed after a day in Vienna.

If you are planning a similar route using gps, I can recommend using the route files from here, but with an alternative way through the Národny Park Podyji. I ended up on mountain bike routes and had to push up through some very poor tracks through the forest.

We had just one large-scale map to share so on three of the six days I cycled with just the gps for navigation; it worked flawlessley even though I wouldn’t normally suggest going without a map.

There seemed to be very few campsites along the route but plenty of shops and small supermarkets, so stocking up with provisions was never a problem.

Checking on Google satellite view later, showed that the forest route certainly did seem to exist, so I cannot explain why it should have been blocked.