We plan to do a day trip in September from Viena to Melk and then take the boat to Krems. I assume you can hop on and off these boats and catch the nest one? We would like to get off for a couple of hours in Durstein and then complete the trips to Krem and get a late train back to Vienna.
Should we book the train tickets ahead or can we get them the day of travel to be flexible with the time?
Any other advice for this trip?
Vienna to Krems is a local service and there is no discount for advance purchase. There may be one between Vienna and Melk, but the walk-up price is not very expensive and I would prefer the flexibility.
Sorry, I don't know if you can break your journey on the boat. There is also a parallel bus service along the river bank, and that offers a day pass for ten euros with unlimited trips and journey breaks.
I can't give you a definitive answer about the boat as I took it all the way to Krems and didn't stop in Durnstein. I do remember somebody on here saying that the boat schedule didn't work well for doing that and best thing to do is take bus from Durnstein to Krems to get the train to Vienna. Maybe if you search for past threads you can find that answer.
You can catch a bus (WL1) at the east edge of the village (about a 5 min walk from the village centre) in Durnstein to the Krems train station. It's about 15kms between towns so a taxi is doable as well. The Krems boat dock is a fair distance from the train station anyway. We purchased a combo ticket (rail+ship+Melk abbey) last September from our hotel's concierge for around $55eu. We left Vienna around 9am, caught the 1:50pm boat cruise and were back in Vienna by 6pm.
Does this train package require you to take a particular train or can you use it whenever that day?
The package tickets are for any train and any boat that day, but don't include the bus from Durnstein to Krems if you decide to do that. It does include the entrance to the Melk Abbey also.
Here is a prior post with some good information from Emily, the esteemed Vienna expert.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/vienna-melk-day-trip
Thanks, Nancy. The advice I gave in the link above still stands. September is a lovely time to do this trip. I strongly suggest that you not disembark from the boat at Krems as it is a long, long walk to the train station. Do yourself a favor and get off at Duernstein and take the WL1 bus to the Krems train station when you are done.
How do we find this bus to Krems. That looks like what we will plan to do. How much time should we allocate to explore Durnstein and Krems?
Duernstein is about as big as a dot, so finding the bus stop is really easy. On the east side of town after you pass through the main gate, the bus stop is on your left.
As I have suggested in other posts, I would focus your time on teh villages of Spitz, Weissenkirchen and Duernstein. See the abbey in Melk if you like. You won't have time for Krems. It is a nice town, but nothing really as special as these other places. The Wachau is all about the villages and vineyards and apricot groves - not the larger towns.
Thanks for the posting & updated details as we'll be exploring this area in Sept, also. Looking forward to trying some of the local apricot food items while walking through the villages.
