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Melk to Durnstein by Bike, Hike Durnstein to Krems

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At the end of October, my husband and I plan to spend 2 days exploring the Wachau Valley. Our plan is to leave our luggage in luggage storage in Vienna and take an early morning train to Melk. We’ll explore the Melk Abbey, then pick up bicycles from Nextbike and bike to Durnstein where we’ll drop off our bicycles and spend the night. The next morning we’ll hike the first stage of the Wachau World Heritage Trail from Durnstein to Krems. From Krems we’ll take the train back to Vienna sometime that afternoon or evening.

Here are my questions:

  • I’ve heard conflicting things about the Nextbike bikes in terms of availability and reliability. Does anyone know of any bicycle shops that will let me pick up a bike in Melk and drop it off in Durnstein?

  • I’ve read recommendations to bike on the Melk side of the river for the best views and to cross at Durnstein. It sounds like the towns are on the other side of the river though. Is it worth crossing at Spitz to enjoy more towns and food options? Would you recommend crossing earlier? I know that side of the river also means biking by the road so I’m interested to know if it’s worth it from that perspective as well.

  • Does anyone have any feedback on the Durnstein to Krems section of the Wachau World Heritage Trail?

  • Any amazing restaurants or heurigers anywhere from Melk to Krems that we should absolutely visit? Or anything along the way we need to stop and see?

I’m also glad to hear anyone’s feedback on any part of this plan.

Posted by
1256 posts

Hi. 2 years ago we rented bikes in Melk. We got a late start, partly because the bike rental place we used - maybe 1/4 mile from Melk wanted cash only, so we had to go back to Melk to find an ATM. We rented from a bike shack via the Melk tourist office. We had reserved and they had us on the list. Bikes fine and she gave us several options of where to drop them off. Very informal process. We rode only to Spitz and back, both sides, crossing on ferry at Spitz. Ferry crossing was fun but VERY time consuming. Path on south side was more natural and quiet; few towns. North side was more thru towns, by wineries, but also on roads as I recall. Enjoy!

Posted by
212 posts

Your plan sounds like such an amazing experience! We are also traveling late October/early November throughout Austria. I've been quite surprised how many places (hotels, smaller attractions, etc) are closed that time of year. Obviously everything in Vienna seems to be open, but once outside of Vienna we have had to change up our itinerary quite a bit due to seasonal closures. I just wanted to give you a heads up to book that overnight hotel in the Wachau ASAP as there could be a limited supply. Happy travels!

Posted by
476 posts

I believe we rented our bikes from wachaubike.at. They delivered to our hotel in Melk and we left them locked up on a rack at the boat dock in Krems. If you communicate with them by email, I am sure they would tell you which options are possible. On a different trip, we used hotel bikes for free from our hotel in Melk, and then brought them back up to Melk on the boat from Krems. Perhaps your hotel in Durnstein can hook you up with bikes?

I have biked once fully on the North Bank and visited the Venus of Willendorf museum (tiny - takes only a few minutes) and once on the Melk side. That time we pushed our e-bikes up to the top of the Aggstein ruins in the rain because the e was not up to the climb and neither were we. We agree it was worth it. Then we took the Spitz-Arnsdorf cable ferry across and continued our ride to Krems. I feel like the Melk side of the river was mostly a dedicated bike path for the part we rode, and more of the ride from the ferry on down was shared with cars through the small towns, though there was very little traffic. I would probably vote for staying on the Melk side and taking the ferry.

Both of my rides were in september.

Posted by
2141 posts

Attention

A landslide blocks route B33 and the parallel bike lane near Aggsbach-Markt on the south embankment of the Danube river.
https://heute-at-prod-images.imgix.net/2024/06/03/d7812030-195f-416c-a2a3-ddca327e3157.jpeg
https://heute-at-prod-images.imgix.net/2024/06/03/8261b970-07b4-45f0-af5e-a19a0d63595f.jpeg

The removal of the rocks will take a considerable time. Therefore a special ferry and a shuttle bus service for bikers has been established.
See map here: https://www.donau.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Bilder_und_PDFs/Informieren_und_service/DNOE_%C3%BCbersichtskarte_umleitungen_felssturz_DIN_A3_Autospinne.pdf

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