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Wachau Valley Biking

Family of 3 spent 2 days in early May in Krems and Wachau Valley. I didn't see a lot of information on this topic before we left. This was our experience. We rented bikes from Wachau Explorer for 24 hours. It was close to the Krems train station and they were easy to work with. I was worried about 1) Safety riding on the busier north side of the river. 2) Biking up stream/up hill. They assured me traveling from Krems to Melk on the north side of the river was the best and most scenic route. 1) Ride was safe. I'm 60 yo and not a regular bike rider. Ride was not difficult and always felt safe. We were never traveling on the main road. Majority of ride was on a bike path, wine field access road, through cobble stone town centers. The times we were next to the road there was a curb between us and the road with a wide area to ride safely. Saw many young kids and family riding this route. Helmets were 2 euros to add, which we did. chain locks were provided. 2) It never felt like were were going up hill. We rented regular bikes (not eBikes). There was some up and downs through towns but all easy.

I will also add we had great weather. It was one of the best days of my life. The scenery, historic small beautiful town, terraced fields of grapes and places to eat and drink. We had made many stops and decided to take the hour long small local train that travels from Emmersdorf (across from Melk) to Krems with many stops along the way. It was 20-24 euros each, no cost for the bikes. There are bike racks on the train. It was a nice trip but if have time to ride back I would recommend that and add a boat crossing for the experience.
The Nextbike option mentioned in some posts, my US phone number didn't work to set up the App for it Others I met also mentioned this.

We bused up the north side again the next day and did several hikes in the Durnstein area and bused to visit Melk. FYI, the full day bus pass on the north side of the river didn't work for the south river side bus route to Krems (or at least that is what the bus driver told us).

It was early season and mid week. We didn't see any wineries open, we stopped for food in the towns we visited.

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Thank you for such a valuable post. Nice to know locks were offered, I wondered about that. We are headed to Wachau Valley in early July. Did you visit Melk Abbey? I was not sure if it would be practical to bike there, or should we plan to visit the Abbey on a separate day. We will be coming from Vienna so not sure if we could leave our luggage at station, visit Abbey and return for our luggage later before checking into our hotel. Thank you in advance if you can advise :)

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Replying to altmanleslie. We stayed in Krems and the day we biked we left Krems late, noon, and by the time we got to Melk we immediately turned around to catch the last train to Krems from Emmeersdorf which I think was 5:30pm. We made it to Melk again late the next day by the north bank local bus from Krems (after many hop on and offs) and we walked up to the Abbey from the town which didn't take long. We only had about 45-60 minutes to spend before we needed to head back to Krems on the last local bus. We walked into the Abbey outdoor courtyards but didn't buy a ticket to go inside the interior of the Abbey. We did pay to go into the gardens which was nice and easy to see in a short period of time. I'm glad we visited it, we had seen a lot in Vienna and decided on only a short visit to the Abbey.

You didn't say how many days in the Wacheau and I couldn't tell if you were staying in Krems or Melk? If you have two days, I would do as much biking as you can one day and start early. If you are arriving to Melk midday by train, seeing the Abbey seems a like a good plan if you can store your luggage. I don't know those details. Your hotel may help with this info. If you train to Melk and visit the Abbey, and you're staying in Krems. You might look into taking the local bus from Melk to Krems, it's about an hour but others have noted it's scenic and also gives you an idea of the lay out of the towns and river. Buses were not crowded during our visit in May.