Rad and Reisen Bike and Barge with family

Background

We are a family of 4, with a two recent grads, one from college and one from high school, who have traveled by ocean cruise ship somewhere around 15 times, from the Caribbean to Alaska to the Mediterranean and the Baltics, but we had never gone on a river cruise. We decided that the time had come to try the river, but that the only way we could feel active enough on a river ship would be if we did a "bike and barge" trip. We liked the idea of a more European experience, so we selected the Rad and Reisen "Danube Waltz" round trip from Passau with stops including Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest.

Pre-cruise

We flew from U.S. to Prague for 3 days and used a private transfer from there with a 4 hour stop in Cesky Krumlov to Passau. This worked extremely well for us, and we quite enjoyed both cities.

Ship

Company is Austrian, so that first language is German, and second language is English. Ship holds 187 passengers in very tiny cabins. We were mentally prepared for the basic accommodations, but it was still surprising to us how basic they were, when compared with ocean cruising. Our cabin was on lower of 2 decks (no lift). Cabin was clean, but so small that one of the two twin beds had to be folded up during the day in order to move around. Bathroom was so small that when seated on the toilet, our knees touched the shower, and we are not tall people. Door to cabin is opened by a metal key, which we left with the front desk clerk whenever we went ashore. No safe was available either in cabin or at front desk. Ship also had a tiny library, with a few board games (mostly in German), a lounge at front of ship, a bar, and a top open deck. Dining room was in rear on same deck as lounge.

Passengers

Most (but probably not much more than half) spoke German as a primary language. Second most common language was French, but a large proportion of the French speakers were from Canada. The third largest group were Americans. Although most passengers were older than us, there were 2 or 3 other families, some with younger teenagers.

Food

Food was mostly very good. Breakfast consisted of a buffet, which contained a good variety but was the same every day. For lunch, the ship made two different sandwiches which they wrapped in aluminum foil, but we usually preferred to make our own sandwiches from the breakfast buffet and have the waiters wrap them for us. We also took fruit and were given water bottles for the road. There were also granola bars, chips, and dried fruit available to take as snacks while riding. Dinner menus offered 3 main course options: meat, fish, or vegetarian. Although we found the quality of food good, we were frustrated by the lack of sufficient vegetables. It was impossible on most nights to get what we Americans would call a salad. On the other hand, there was a vegetarian soup every night that we all thought was outstanding.

Crew

The crew were wonderful. The all tried extremely hard to accommodate needs and requests of the passengers.

Biking

The best word to describe it is "outstanding." This was some of the best biking we have ever done. First, the rental bikes were superior. They were very sturdy and worked well for the varied types of conditions, including gravel roads and pebbles, yet they were comfortable and easy to peddle. Three of us had regular bikes, and I tried an e-bike for the first time and loved it! The routes were detailed in a brochure that we were given the first night, and the cruise director went over the route details either the night before or the morning of the ride. Most rides were 45-50 km, flat, and very scenic. Almost always we rode bike paths or farm roads with only bikes or a couple of tractors. We could go at our own pace and stop when we wanted. Our only restriction was to meet the ship at its next stop by the given time. We never found the time to be a limiting factor.

Port stops

No excursions were included. We were in Bratislava from about 2 pm until 9:30 pm and walked around the city on our own. In Vienna, we arrived at 1 pm and went directly to Schonbrunn Palace via taxi, where we toured on our own. From there we took public transportation to central Vienna, where we again toured on our own and stopped for our obligatory coffee and Sacher torte. We had no extra time, because we did book one excursion here, the operetta at night, which, although it was a bit touristy, we quite enjoyed. In Budapest, the ship remained in port from 0700 to about 0200 the next day, so we had plenty of time to see much of the city, including a night visit to the wonderful thermal baths.

Entertainment

This was either non-existent (better) or an accordion player (worse). Our younger daughter kept saying that she would prefer to attach her phone to the speakers and just play her recorded music rather than have to hear the accordion player/singer. We spent most of the evenings reading books that we had brought with us. I was surprised by our younger daughter's insight when she said that this is what life was probably like in the 1970's.

Summary

We were glad that we tried a bike and barge for our first experience with a river cruise. We really enjoyed the biking part of the trip, but the ship experience left a bit to be desired. We do not think we will be planning another river cruise in the near future, primarily because we think it would not be sufficiently active for us and that we would find the ship time too dull. We generally find the large ocean cruise ships better for our needs.

I think you have written off river cruising too quickly, because your choice of a first river cruise is hardly typical. If you had booked on a company that caters to Americans you would have found the food better, the entertainment better [still nothing like an ocean cruise, but much better than an accordion!], and included excursions every day [and the price higher]. AMA is one line that offers bike excursions, plus you can use the on-board bikes anytime you want. Another option is VBT, which offers biking land tours and now also has bike and barge tours [https://www.vbt.com/tourpage/bike-barge/] that would seem to fit your expectations better than this particular offering.