Vienna to Prague...anyone?
 

Hi all,

The significant other and I are considering a self-guided cycling tour from Vienna to Prague this summer. I am a pretty hardcore cyclist. Her? Not so much. I probably will not be successful in getting her to ride over 40 miles a day.

Any experiences/recos on tour companies or other thoughts?

Thanks!

Be aware that parts of that route can be fairly hilly, with lots of ups and downs (rolling hills). We biked from just south of Prague to Cesky Krumlov and then to the Austrian border near Linz, maybe 1/3 of that route was shared with the typical Greenway route to Vienna.

If your SO is new to touring, I would suggest a much lower-key and easy route in order to make sure she wants to do it again. The classic route is along the Danube from Passau, Germany, to Vienna (or vice versa, I've done it both ways). The hardcore cyclist in you will scoff at how easy it is (all flat), but if you let go of that hardcore mindset and enjoy it for what it is (a cultural experience) I bet you'll both really enjoy it. I've recommended this route to many first-time European tourists and all have come back with good reports. In fact, this was the first European tour I took my wife on, back in 1999, and she had such a good experience that since then we've done multiple tours in other areas. If you want to have tours with your SO again in the future, make sure you knock it out of the park with this first one and have it be enjoyable for your SO first and you second.

rather than start in Vienna and go to Prague.

I went south from Prague to the Danube at Linz, then you follow the shore of the river
on a well developed popular touring Route, (even in 1991)

Left, down stream to Vienna.. once on the Levee road on the river shore it's Casual .

.. there are river cruise boats to get you back Upstream..

Geez!!! I'm jealous!! I have a nephew in Prague. I still can't pull it off. I hear Prague can get much cheaper a little way out of town.

Having once lived there, I can say that Prague is not expensive to begin with. Of course, with any locale your outskirts and rural are cheaper, but really we're talking about knocking the price of a pint of beer down from $1.25 to $1 :)

Then again, I haven't been there since Dec 2012, I hope things haven't changed much!

Our friends did the route and didn't find it too strenuous. I am envious. I looked like a great tour. I am researching Prague to Munich, arriving at Oktoberfest! Prost!