Austria (all)

A mountain bike ride from Mittenwald to Bolzano/Bozen in five days

This site has a number of excellent tour descriptions at all levels in Austria, with maps and useful practical information.

A large list of cycle tours, 30 at the last count. Most are in Germany, but others go all over central and northern Europe. See the overview page. English translations are available for all pages.

An enormous collection of bicycle tours all over the world.
Eine enorme Sammlung von Fahrradtouren in der ganzen Welt.

A massive travel site, this guy has been everywhere.

Hier finden sich einige deutschsprachige Reiseberichte von Fahrradtouren, die hoffentlich unterhaltsam und informativ sind, aber auch vielleicht die eine oder andere Anregung für Leute geben, die selber einmal so etwas machen wollen. Für englischsprachige Radtourenberichte habe ich hier auch einen Anfang gemacht, ebenso für schwedischsprachige Radtourenberichte, wobei noch ein bißchen auf norwegisch und dänisch dabei ist, aber diese drei skaninavischen Sprachen sind so ähnlich, daß man entweder alle drei ein bißchen lesen kann oder eben keine davon.

A fun tour throughout Vienna. Hello friends, we had fun by participating this event. Even, we didn't follow the dress code 'naked'...

The tour started near Vienna's 'Russian memorial monument' at Schwarzenbergplatz. Took us all the way to the 'belt street' (Gürtel). We hit the old railroad station 'Westbahnhof' and have been riding back to the town center. A fun tour, in order to promote bicycling... Even Vienna's police has been smooth like velvet. I felt like in San Francisco... Enjoy the pictures. Good luck to all our followers!

A fun Tour inside the city of Vienna.

This event has been sponsored by British folding bicycle manufacturer. As Heide has one from this brand, she couldn`t be stopped to participate. Very hot weather conditions made it a very sweaty tour over paved and unpaved roads. Three rounds round the 'Lusthaus' at Vienna's Prater. In total just nine Kilometers... Heide has been recognized as the first women at the arrival. Enjoy the pictures. Good luck to all our followers!

I heard about this easy going mountain bike competition. As it has been so nearby to our home, and some bike friends pushed me to participate, I did so... A wonderful ride with the chance to meet a lot of new bike comrades... Enjoy the pictures! Good luck to all our followers!

Every year, we are going to Grieskirchen. All participants from the bike club WHC Voesendorf. All of them retired. Still going strong. Enjoy the pictures! Good luck to all the followers!

Every year, we are going to test our shape. All participants from the bike club WHC Voesendorf. All of the retired. Still going strong. Enjoy the pictures! Good luck to all the followers!

Update 2011 - In, out of and through Austria by train taking your own bicycle with you

Rail services of the Austrian national federal railway company OEBB have seriously deteriorated the last few years. There are no direct connections to France, Belgium, Netherlands any more and the rest is a fragment. On domestic connections passengers suffer from delays, overcrowded trains, bad service and all sorts of unpleasant experiences including overcrowded trains cleared by the police.

Most important for tourists with bicycles is that in 2010 most of the trains that still had bicycle capacities were robbed of the luggage van.

Beside bicycling, we tried a hike, which is not so far from our home... Destination: 'Trefflingfall' located in Lower Austria. Reachable via train 'Mariazellerbahn' (a 'narrow rails track' train)or by car, following the Hwy 39 from St.Poelten on. Passing little towns like Obergrafendorf, Kirchberg, Loich, Winterbach. Right in the middle of the village 'Puchenstuben' one has turn right a downhill road to the 'Trefflingfall'. A sort of hidden place. Safe to go. A lot of safety ropes surrounds the hiking path down to the river fall. Worth to go! Enjoy the pictures! Good luck to all the followers!

Man on a bicycle can go three or four times faster than the pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories. The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well. [...]

Bicycles are not only thermodynamically efficient, they are also cheap. With his much lower salary, the Chinese acquires his durable bicycle in a fraction of the working hours an American devotes to the purchase of his obsolescent car. The cost of public utilities needed to facilitate bicycle traffic versus the price of an infrastructure tailored to high speeds is proportionately even less than the price differential of the vehicles used in the two systems. In the bicycle system, engineered roads are necessary only at certain points of dense traffic, and people who live far from the surfaced path are not thereby automatically isolated as they would be if they depended on cars or trains. The bicycle has extended man's radius without shunting him onto roads he cannot walk. Where he cannot ride his bike, he can usually push it.

The bicycle also uses little space. Eighteen bikes can be parked in the place of one car, thirty of them can move along in the space devoured by a single automobile. It takes three lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by using automated trains, four to move them on buses, twelve to move them in their cars, and only two lanes for them to pedal across on bicycles. Of all these vehicles, only the bicycle really allows people to go from door to door without walking. The cyclist can reach new destinations of his choice without his tool creating new locations from which he is barred. [...]

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.

A Web site devoted to the challenges of getting you and your bicycle on a train and to your destination in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Specific ``how-tos,'' detailed photos, hints and tips, useful links, etc.

Walk, bike or ride along the undiscovered byways of Bohemia and Moravia and help preserve the natural and architectural heritage of the region. Visit Central Europe's greatest treasures: Prague and Vienna.

The Prague-Vienna Greenways is a network of 100-year-old hiking trails between Prague and Vienna. Travelers can walk or bike between historic towns and villages, visit romantic castles, medieval churches and monasteries, discover old Jewish sites and savor some of the most picturesque countryside in Europe.

The routes stretch 250 miles along the Dyje River Valley in Southern Moravia and the Vltava River Valley in Southern Bohemia, the settings of numerous folk and music festivals. The new wine trails connect Moravia with the Austrian wine region Weinviertel on the way to Vienna.