Anyone Done Hungary, Austria and Slovakia?

[jqdsffjdsoge]

Hi there,
As subject line. My significant other and I want to do a bike tour of the above countries. We live in SE England, and so if possible, would like to get to Vienna without flying.

The information on Seat 61 tells us that this is going to be difficult, as there are 'ICE' trains which don't take bicycles etc etc etc.

So has anyone done it? Guessing that it's going to be a relatively painful and circuitous route?

All advice welcome.

[MockCyclist]

Definitely can't take bikes on ICE trains.

I've got back from Vienna by train a few years ago, but I cross the n sea at Rotterdam. I think I went Vienna - Munich - Utrecht - Rotterdam then the ferry. Check out DB trains. You may have to find a route to Frankfurt from your location.

[pal]

The high-speed routes from Paris to Austria aren't very bike-friendly, but life gets a bit easier if you can start (the continental bit of) your journey from Amsterdam: you could use the CityNightLine service to get to Munich, and local-ish trains from there; or go to Hannover, and pick up the EuroNight train to Vienna. (The bahn.de website is a good one to use for planning: select the 'bicycles..' option at the bottom of the page: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query. ... ountry=DEU ) Getting to Amsterdam from your end of the UK would most logically, I suppose, involve taking the ferry Harwich-Hook of Holland, then riding or taking a train to Amsterdam. In terms of time, it might not end up being much quicker than piecing together a route on slow trains from Paris, but (imho!) it's a more enjoyable way to travel.

As for the tour itself: the only riding I've done in that bit of the world is the Danube cycle way, which is very pleasant, though the scenery east of Vienna (and beyond) is less dramatic than elsewhere. The bit upstream of Vienna is nice, though, esp. if you like wine...

[MockCyclist]

Oh yes that's refreshed my memory about how I got to the start of my tour. If you can get to Hook of Holland in the morning, it's possible to pedal to Utrecht if you don't hang about, and get there in time to eat and get the overnight train south. I did it from Europoort.

[jqdsffjdsoge]

Thank you for this information. I just checked the Train Line Europe, and one -way is £179, which is outrageously expensive, but I'm hoping that if we book sufficiently long in advance, that will be cheaper.

[pal]

Yes: there are usually a few cheap tickets if you book early. One issue (unless they've fixed it since I last travelled this way...) is that the calendar for bike bookings doesn't align with the calendar for ticket bookings -- so the cheap seats go on sale some time before the bike bookings are available. But the (very helpful) D. Bahn booking office were able to sort this out, by making a provisional booking of the train tickets, then adding the bikes to the reservation when the time came: contact details for their UK office are here: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/home/ ... e-uk.shtml

[b1ke]

Have you considered Megabus? £25 to Cologne (that's if you go next week) and then work out connections from there. 9.5 hour journey. Pretty sure you can do Megabus from Cologne to Munich as well. Then perhaps local trains to Vienna?

They'll take a bike on the European service so long as it's bagged. Check their FAQs.

[iviehoff]

If you buy direct international railway tickets they tend to be expensive, but you can save money by ticketty-splitting them sometimes. In principle you can often do this yourself on bahn.de website - there are assorted comments on this on the Maninseat61 website. But if it sounds too much like hard work you can use the Deutsche Bahn UK ticket agency http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/home/c ... e-uk.shtml They did me a good ticketty-splitting job when I wanted couchette tickets from Vienna to Romania once, saves a lot of money if you split it at the borders, and they may sort out the bicycle issues too, though clearly you'll have to pay a premium for the service.

Hungary is mostly flat and many of the towns aren't very interesting, though plainly it has some jewels like Budapest. Thus it tends to be of less interest to the cyclist than the other two countries you mention. Slovakia also isn't so interesting for its towns, with similar exceptions, but makes up for it by being a lot more scenically interesting. Austria has both scenery and pretty towns etc, but the best of its scenery is in the Alps. Depends what you are looking for in a cycling tour.

[Barrenfluffit]

I thought that both Hungary and Slovakia were interesting but from a cultural perspective. Slovakia in particular wasn't very touristy (away from Bratislava) so was more "authentic". Speaking German was sometimes the only way to communicate.

Re trains. Its also possible to catch trains to the borders, ride to the next station and catch a local train thereafter. It's not ideal but local services may be more frequent / useable than international ones. This was how I got from Bratislava to Budapest. Along the danube the rail systems can run in parallel so you have a choice about which to use.

Agree that the route between Vienna and Hainburg is quite dull, straight gravel track between woods.

[albal1]

Sorry i thought you meant touring in said countries. Did the ev6 last summer. From vienna it gets interesting. I loved it. Very flat. Very friendly in slovak. Vienna was my favorite capital. Hungary best food by a long way.

[Dean]

I thought Hungary and Austria should do some sort of swap - if you had the lovely Hungarian people in lovely Austria, it would be a perfect destination.

[davegtt]

I thought Hungary and Austria should do some sort of swap - if you had the lovely Hungarian people in lovely Austria, it would be a perfect destination.

Interesting, I thought Hungary was nicer - as well as the nice people, Budapest is definitely my favourite capital in Europe. Possibly my favourite country in Europe along side Slovenia (mainly for views)

[iviehoff]

Eastern Transylvania is the main Hungarian speaking region of Romania, where you get scenery and Hungarians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania I agree that Hungarians have a distinctive culture and the best sausages in central Europe.

[jqdsffjdsoge]

Eastern Transylvania is the main Hungarian speaking region of Romania, where you get scenery and Hungarians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania I agree that Hungarians have a distinctive culture and the best sausages in central Europe.

'er indoors and I are both vegetarian.

Well, I am. She's vegan.

[iviehoff]

Well, I am. She's vegan.

The shops are well stocked with what you need to cook for yourself. You - but not your wife - can at least enjoy my favourite Slovak dish bryndzové halušky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryndzov% ... lu%C5%A1ky omitting the (optional) bacon: halušky are small potato dumplings similar to Italian gnocchi, and bryndza is soft sheep cheese - it's also popular in parts of Hungary. Most traditional cuisine of the region is heavily meat-based, and, as in Spain and Italy, meat stock or ham is sometimes included in "meat-free" dishes. Most easily available vegetarian dishes in the region are pasta (těstoviny) and pizza. The Czechs/Slovaks are also inclined from time to time to eat what we think of as a dessert for a main course: a plate of blueberry dumplings (borůvkové knedlíky) or pasta with poppyseed (těstoviny s mákem), (using the Czech spellings as that's what I'm familiar with, Slovak is usually barely any different), will fill you up, though for your wife there is a risk of butter, especially in the latter.

Slovak for
Without meat bez mäsa
Without cheese bez syra
Without ham bez šunkou
Without bacon bez slaninou
Without butter bez masla

If you like pretty villages, do try to get to Čičmany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Ci%C4%8Dmany