Danube cycle route

[damitamit]

Anyone have any experience of the Danube cycle route?

I need to be in Budapest for a mate's Stag Do at the end of May, so was thinking of instead flying to Munich and cycling to Budapest over a week. The Danube trail looks like some easy flat riding all the way to Budapest.

Looking for info on

- the route. Struggling to find actual distances at the moment so I can work out how many days it will take. As its flat, looking at ~80-100 miles a day
- camping on the route. Is it possible to wild camp?
- getting from Munich to the danube. Any particular route?
- any other things I should know?

Many Thanks

Amit

 

[vernon]

Why not catch a train from Munich to Vienna and then cycle the 350 kilometers to Budapest at a leisurely pace after sampling a bit of high culture in Vienna?

Try 'The man in seat 61' web site for European train travel information.

There's a great Bikeline publication which will meet your needs:

Danube Bike Trail part 3.

Stanfords stock it at £14.95

 

[661-Pete]

Have a look at Tony's blog of exactly the same route, done two years ago.

My son was also planning, separately, to ride that route that same year, but alas he had to abort early due to mechanical problems.

Be warned that the Danube path is prone to severe flooding at times!

 

[Andy in Sig]

It's a shame you're going from Munich because the best bit of the Danube bike route is the first 100 km. That said, you will have a pleasant ride to it from Munich. The simplest route is to follow the bike path on the banks of the River Isar but I found that to be a little boring. I would recommend following quiet country roads and doing a route along the lines of: Airport - Erding - Landshut-Mallersdorf-Straubing and then down the Danube route.

You should get ADFC (German national bike club) mapping for the leg to to Straubing and thereafter the Bikeline books for the Danube route. You will be able to get all of these in any local bookshop and therefore your first port of call should be a bookshop in Erding (which is only a few km from the Airport).

 

[Brains]

We did exactly that route in May 2005, two weeks after major floods along the river.

We took a train from Munich to Ravensburg (which is the nearest town to Munich on the Danube), it meant we flew out, got on the train and spent the first night in a cheap hotel in Revensburg putting the bikes together, we then started off in the morning.

The book, as others have said, that you must have is the BikeLine book, there is an English version available, we had the German version which even not speaking the language was worth it for the maps alone, and you can still find the camp sites from the map.

Camping along the way is possible as long as you can do discreet stealth camping, there are a number of sites, we mixed camping with B&B's which we found cheap and plentiful. we only took the real camping basics, a micro tent, sleeping bags and mats, no cooking gear or anything as food is available all along the trail.

We typically did about 40-50 miles a day as their is quite a bit to see and took a week to do Revensburg to Vienna.

The train line runs all along the river, so you are never more than 3 miles from it, which means that if you start at Revensburg and get a bit behind schedule (or its raining, or its a boring bit) you can hop on a train for a few stops and catch up

Coming back we took the train from Vienna to Munich and flew back from there. Much easier than trying to organise triangular flights

I think its a great idea. Do it.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I suspect you might mean Regensburg as Ravensburg is south of Ulm and about 100 km west of Munich.

 

[Brains]

I suspect you might mean Regensburg as Ravensburg is south of Ulm and about 100 km west of Munich.

I probably do.
The place with the amazing sausage shop next to the impressive bridge

 

[Andy in Sig]

Regensburg.