Private Whole Day Wachau Valley E-Bike Tour
The Route
Tour Details
Duration: approximately 8 hours
Cycling distance: approximately 32,5 km
Ascent: 51 m
Descent: 61 m
Highest point: 220 m
Lowest point: 197 m
Itinerary
You will be picked up from Krems or Melk train station or from your accommodation in the Wachau valley and taken to Spitz on the Danube by car. From Spitz, you cycle by e-bike through the Wachau valley to Weißenkirchen in the Wachau. From Weißenkirchen in the Wachau, the tour continues along the Danube cycle path to Dürnstein. A short tour of Dürnstein is followed by a tasting of Wachau wines in the Domäne Wachau wine shop in Dürnstein.
You then cycle a little further to Unterloiben, where you stop off at the Loibnerhof – Knoll restaurant and enjoy Wiener Schnitzel with a glass of Wachau wine and apple strudel for desert. You then continue on your e-bikes through the plain of Loiben to Rothenhof, Förthof and Stein on the Danube, where you cross the Danube on the Mautern bridge to Mautern on the Danube.
From Mautern, the route continues upstream along the south bank of the Danube to Rührsdorf and on to the Arnsdorf villages, where you stop off at a typical wine tavern for a snack and some more Wachau wine before taking the roller ferry back to Spitz on the Danube, the starting point of your private e-bike tour through the Wachau valley.
The private whole day e-bike tour in the Wachau Valley for 2 travelers is € 1.680,00, for 4 travelers it is € 2.235,00 and for 6 travelers it is € 2.580,00.
Hotel pick up and drop-off (locations in the Wachau Valley)
Transportation by car to Spitz on the Danube and from Spitz on the Danube at the end of the tour
E-bike rental
Guided cycle on the Danube Cycle Path from Spitz on the Danube to Dürnstein, Krems, Mautern, Rossatzbach and the Arnsdorf Villages by 2 local guides
Ferry crossing of the Danube from Arnsdorf to Spitz on the Danube
Wine tasting at the wine shop of the Domain Wachau in Dürnstein
Wiener Schnitzel with a glas of Wachau wine and apple strudel for desert in the Loibnerhof – Knoll restaurant in Unterloiben
Stop at a typical wine tavern on the south bank of the Wachau with consumption of Wachau wine and a typical winegrower’s snack
- Booking is done by phone +43 680 301 7720, whatsapp or email office@radler-rast.com.
- Bookings are confirmed after a 200 € deposit has been transferred to our PayPal business account using the link PayPal.Me/radlerrast.
The balance is due at the end of the tour and can be paid in cash or by card. - This tour is a private tour for 2, 4 or 6 travelers respectively.
- 2 people per booking is required.
- Minimum age is 16 years.
- Exact pick up times will be agreed when booking.
- Most travelers can participate.
- Biking the Wachau Valley requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date.
Booking request
- Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before the start of this private e-bike Wachau tour.
Step by Step Description of the Tour
In former times, the Wachau stretched from Spitz on the Danube to Weißenkirchen in the Wachau and the valley floor from St. Michael to Weißenkirchen was called Thal Wachau. In St. Michael we get off the bike for the first time to visit the church of St. Michael where Charlemagne had a shrine to St. Michael built instead of a Celtic sacrificial site.
From St. Michael’s we continue through the Kirchweg vineyard. The name of the Kirchweg vineyard goes back to the fact that for a long time the path through this vineyard was the closest route to St. Michael’s. St. Michael’s became the mother parish of the Wachau after Charlemagne, King of the Frankish Empire, donated after 800 the area to the High Diocese of Passau.
The Kirchweg vineyards are characterised by loess and are mainly planted with Green Veltliner. In the Wachau Valley, mainly white wine is grown. Green Veltliner is the main grape variety which is an autochthonous Austrian grape variety that produces a fresh-tasting, fruity wine.
Grüner Veltliner is a natural cross between Traminer and an unknown grape variety called St. Georgen. Grüner Veltliner prefers warm climates and produces the best results on the barren primary rock terraces of the Wachau Valley or in the loess-influenced vineyards on the valley floor of the Wachau Valley, which used to be beet fields before they were converted into vineyards.
The Danube cycle path leads partly along the old Wachau road through small picturesque medieval villages, such as Wösendorf, where along the main road running from the church square down to the Danube you will find stately two-storey eaves-mounted vintner houses, some with projecting upper storeys on brackets.
On the Danube cycle path through the valley of the Wachau from Wösendorf further in the direction of Weißenkirchen, we pass the Prandtauer Hof in Joching, a baroque, two-storey, four-winged complex built in 1696 by Jakob Prandtauer with a three-part portal with a round-arched gate in the middle. The building was originally erected in 1308 as the reading room of the Augustinian canons’ monastery of St. Pölten. The chapel on the upper floor of the north wing dates from 1444 and is characterised by a ridge turret on the outside.
After the Prandtauerhof, the country road is leading into Weißenkirchen, where there is a Gothic fortified tower from the 15th century, which is a former fortification tower of the Kuenringer feudal court. It is a massive, 3-storey tower with some partially bricked-up windows and beam holes on the 2nd floor.
From Weißenkirchen we continue cycling towards Dürnstein on the foot of the Buschenberg and Kaiserberg vineyards through the aluvial plain of the Frauenweingärten. The name Frauengärten refers to the fact that nuns from the women’s monastery in Dürnstein are said to have cultivated these vineyards.
Dürnstein is situated at the foot of a rocky cone that slopes steeply down to the Danube, with the baroque, former canons’ monastery which was founded in 1410 with the blue bell tower of the collegiate church and the roofless former convent of the Poor Clares situated on a terrace above the Danube.
Dürnstein’s main street runs along the longitudinal axis of the former thoroughfare and connects the two town gates. It shows a closed, almost entirely 2-storey, eaves-standing development, consisting mainly of simple, repeatedly staggered winegrowers’ and farmers’ houses, most of which date back to the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. The Kuenringer Tavern is a representative Renaissance building from the second half of the 16th century.
We leave the medieval part of Dürnstein in an easterly direction through the Kremser gate to reach the Domain Wachau. The Domain Wachau in Dürnstein is a cooperative of Wachau winegrowers that presses and markets the grapes of its members. In the Domain Wachau wine shop you will find their entire range of wines, all of which can be tasted.
The Kellerschlössel of the Domain Wachau is a small baroque pleasure palace with a wine cellar and press house located east of the village of Dürnstein in the vineyards at the foot of the Kellerberg. The 2-storey building on a cruciform ground plan with a central risalit and adjoining terrace to the west was built in 1720 for the Augustinian canons of Dürnstein by the Austrian baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer who also built Melk Abbey.
In Dürnstein, the rocks of the Schloßberg come right up to the Danube. The Danube then flows around an alluvial cone at the foot of the Loibenberg, the plain of Loiben, where a battle took place on November 11, 1805 as part of the 3rd Coalition War between the French and the Austrians and Russians, which is commemorated by a monument along the way.
Grüner Veltliner is grown in the vineyards on the valley floor of the Loiben plain, whose subsoil consists of sand and sandstone. Towards the east, the Loiben plain is bordered by the rocks of the Pfaffenberg, which reach as far as the Danube and at the foot of which lies a small hamlet, Rothenhof.
From Rothenhof it is not far to the Mautern Bridge, which we cross by bike to reach the south bank of the Danube. The first Mautern bridge was built in 1463. It was the second Danube bridge to be built in Austria after Vienna. The current bridge with the two semi-parabolic girders was completed in 1895.
From the Mautern bridge, you can see Stein on the Danube, which has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The first church settlement was in the area of the Frauenberg church, whose tower can be seen from the bridge. From the 11th century, a riverside settlement developed below the steeply sloping Frauenberg. Due to the narrow settlement area between the edge of the riverbank and the rock, the medieval town could only expand in length. St. Nicholas Church is located at the foot of the Frauenberg.
In Roman times, Mautern was an important settlement located in the province of Noricum on the northern border of the Roman Empire, on the Danube Limes. Fort Favianis protected an important river crossing at the eastern end of the Wachau valley.
Towards the end of the Roman period, in the second half of the 5th century, St. Severin of Noricum founded a monastery in Mautern. We learn about life in Mautern at this time from the Vita Severini of St. Severin, written by Eugippius in 511.
From Mautern on the Danube, the route follows the sidewalk at the foot of the Dunkelsteinerwald forest alongside the Aggstein main road along the Danube to Rossatzbach. On the opposite side of the Danube is the Loiben plain, around which the Danube meanders.
Opposite Dürnstein is Rossatzbach, an alley village on the Danube. From Rossatzbach you can cross the Danube by ferry with a view of the blue church tower of Dürnstein Abbey. Even if you take a dip in the Danube on the sandy beach at Rossatzbach, you have the view of Dürnstein before your eyes.
Rührsdorf
As we cycle along the Danube cycle path on the south bank, we pass through Rührsdorf. Rührsdorf is a riverside and street village parallel to the Danube with a narrow, multi-angled thoroughfare, which was located directly on the Danube before the Danube was regulated in 1862-69. The village is scattered with single-family vineyard houses with varying ridge and eaves heights.
Weißenkirchen in the Wachau
Opposite Rührsdorf on the north bank of the Danube lies Weißenkirchen with its elevated parish church. As early as the beginning of the 9th century, there were possessions of the Freising monastery in Weißenkirchen and around 830 a donation to the Bavarian monastery of Niederaltaich. Around 1150, the villages of St. Michael, Joching and Wösendorf were merged to form the large municipality of Wachau, also known as Thal Wachau, with Weißenkirchen as the main town.
St. Lorenz
The small church of St. Lorenz opposite Weißenkirchen in the Wachau, situated on the rocks of the Dunkelsteinerwald forest and the Danube, is one of the oldest places of worship in the Wachau. It was built on the south side of a Roman fortress from the 4th century AD as a place of worship for boatmen, the north wall of which was incorporated into the church.
Wachau nose
The Wachau Nose looks as if a giant has been buried lying down and only its nose is sticking out of the ground, with nostrils large enough to enter. When the Danube rises and flows through the nose, the nostrils then fill up with Letten, a gray deposit from the Danube that smells of fish. The Wachau Nose is a project by the artists of Gelitin, which was supported by Kunst im öffentlichen Raum NÖ.
Parish church of Weißenkirchen in the Wachau
As you continue along the Danube cycle path on the south bank of the Wachau upstream between St. Lorenz and Unterkienstock, a beautiful view opens up on the opposite side. Here you can see the parish church of Weißenkirchen from the 13th century dominating the village with its monumental, square north-west tower from 1502 and the vineyard terraces of the Weitenberg in the background.
The Danube at Bacharnsdorf
Bacharnsdorf is the first of the Arnsdörfer villages when approaching from Mautern. The Arnsdörfer developed over the course of time from an estate that Ludwig II, the German, gave to the Salzburg church in 860. Over the course of time, the villages of Oberarnsdorf, Hofarnsdorf, Mitterarnsdorf and Bacharnsdorf developed from the richly endowed estate in the Wachau. The Arnsdörfer were named after the first archbishop of the archdiocese of Salzburg, named Arn, who reigned around 800. The importance of the Arnsdörfer for the archdiocese of Salzburg lay in wine production.
St. Michael
From the Danube cycle path in Bacharnsdorf, you have a beautiful view of St. Michael. The late Gothic fortified church of St. Michael, the mother church of the Wachau, lies at the foot of the Michaelerberg, which drops steeply into the Danube over 300 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by a cemetery and a well-preserved 15th century fortification with a massive, three-storey round tower in the south-east corner. St. Michael’s goes back to a shrine to St. Michael, which Charlemagne had built around 800 on the site of a Celtic sacrificial site.
Parish church of St. Rupert in Hofarnsdorf
The parish church of St. Ruprecht in Hofarnsdorf was possibly originally the site of a Roman fortification tower. It was founded by the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg and was originally the chapel of the Salzburg Meierhof. The church is named after Rupert, the first abbot-bishop of Salzburg. The present church dates back to the 15th century. It has a Romanesque west tower and a Baroque choir. There are two side altars with altarpieces by the Krems Baroque painter Martin Johann Schmidt from 1773.
Spitz on the Danube
Spitz on the Danube is a market town on the left bank of the Danube that wraps around the Tausendeimerberg. As a gift from Charlemagne, Spitz belonged for a long time to the Bavarian monastery of Niederaltaich, which is located in the diocese of Passau between Passau and Deggendorf on the Danube. This is why the parish church of Spitz, which was incorporated into the Niederaltaich monastery, is dedicated to St. Mauritius.
This private whole day Wachau e-bike tour offer is for a private tour for 2, 4 or 6 persons respectively.
The private whole day e-bike tour in the Wachau Valley for 2 travelers is € 1.680,00, for 4 travelers it is € 2.235,00 and for 6 travelers it is € 2.580,00.
Hotel pick up and drop-off (locations in the Wachau Valley)
Transportation by car to Spitz on the Danube and from Spitz on the Danube at the end of the tour
E-bike rental
Guided cycle on the Danube Cycle Path from Spitz on the Danube to Dürnstein, Krems, Mautern, Rossatzbach and the Arnsdorf Villages by 2 local guides
Ferry crossing of the Danube from Arnsdorf to Spitz on the Danube
Wine tasting at the wine shop of the Domain Wachau in Dürnstein
Wiener Schnitzel with a glas of Wachau wine and apple strudel for desert in the Loibnerhof – Knoll restaurant in Unterloiben
Stop at a typical wine tavern on the south bank of the Wachau with consumption of Wachau wine and a typical winegrower’s snack
- Booking is done by phone +43 680 301 7720, whatsapp or email office@radler-rast.com.
- Bookings are confirmed after a 200 € deposit has been transferred to our PayPal business account using the link PayPal.Me/radlerrast.
The balance is due at the end of the tour and can be paid in cash or by card. - This tour is a private tour for 2, 4 or 6 travelers respectively.
- 2 people per booking is required.
- Minimum age is 16 years.
- Exact pick up times will be agreed when booking.
- Most travelers can participate.
- Biking the Wachau Valley requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date.
Booking request
Departure details
- Traveler pick up is offered.
- We pick up guests from all Wachau valley accommodations, from train stations in Melk and Krems and from cruise ships that dock in the Wachau valley.
- If hotel or cruise pier is inaccessible by car due to restrictions, pickup will be held from a nearby location within short walking distance.
Return details
- Returns to original departure point