It is not that strange that the Danube Cycling Route has become a classic. Where else can you find so much carefree cycling pleasure? The approximately 300 km from Passau to Vienna are done mainly on asphalt paths beside the river. While the mountain peaks alternate around you, you follow the flat banks of the river. Through a landscape that is continually changing, where castles and cathedrals, historic towns and cheerful villages are presented to you doubly: in reality and reflected in the blue water of the river.
 

The trip starts in Passau, a town full of narrow cobble-stone streets, antique dealers and restaurants, where the Inn, the Ilz and the Danube converge. You then take car-free towpaths, following the meandering river on its winding path through the green hills, past forested slopes, spacious pastures, picturesque villages, impressive monasteries, romantic castles and baroque towns like Linz and Vienna.
And there are countless other less well-known highlights along the route. Grein, for example, a jewel of a town with an impressive castle, Ybbs with its cheerful Altstadt, or Melk, with its baroque monastery the famous Benediktinerstift. Another highlight is without a doubt the stage through the Wachau, a protected nature reserve with high cliffs and with terraced slopes covered with grapevines where highly-praised wines are produced. This ‘queen of stages’ ends in Krems, a town with an Italian touch, with many narrow streets and views.
The final destination of this classic can be nothing less than Vienna itself, the town of coffee houses and Sachertorte, grandeur and nostalgia, music and visual arts, the Prater and the Stephansdom, Hundertwasserhaus and Schloss Schönbrunn.

The route from day to day
Day 1		Arrival in Passau
Day 2		Passau - Schlögen, 44 km
Day 3		Schlögen - Linz, 53 km
Day 4		Linz - Grein, 65 km
Day 5		Grein – Melk, 51 km
Day 6		Melk - Krems, 40/55 km
Day 7		Krems - Vienna, train + 39 km
Day 8		Transfer by train to Passau and departure
1 km = 0,62 miles