The Wachau
Thirty-six kilometres of Danube, terraced vineyards and an abbey on the rock above
- When to go
- September 17° · 9 rainy days
- Per day
- ~47 · 77 · 100 €budget · mid · comfort, per person · checked 21 Sep 2026
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 78 km Vienna
- Right now
The Wachau is 36 kilometres of Danube between Melk and Krems, and it is done in a day: both towns are an hour by train from Vienna, and between them you go by boat or by bike along the river. The terraced vineyards, villages and abbeys are why the valley has been on the UNESCO list as a cultural landscape since 2000.
The boat runs from late March to early November, up to four times a day each way in high season, calling at Dürnstein, Weißenkirchen, Spitz and Emmersdorf. Downstream, Melk to Krems, takes about an hour and 45 minutes; upstream about three hours — so the order is train to Melk, boat downstream, train home from Krems. A one-way ticket is €40. For a round trip from one town there is a combined ticket, boat one way and the local train along the north bank plus a bus the other, at €57; the train only runs from Krems to Emmersdorf, and a bus covers the rest to Melk.
The Danube cycle path is flat and signposted the whole length of the valley, so Melk to Krems is half a day's ride with stops. Public nextbikes are picked up at a station in one village and left in another, and a bike goes on the boat for €3, so part of the way can be ridden and part sailed.
Guides for The Wachau
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
The Wachau in 1 day
→One loop from Krems to Melk and back: train and bus there, a boat down the Danube on the way home, with the clifftop…
What to see in The Wachau
Melk Abbey
A Benedictine abbey on a rock above the Danube, in its baroque form of 1702–1736. Admission is €16 and takes you through the museum in the former imperial rooms, the Marble Hall, the terrace over the valley and the library, with the church seen on your own; from March to October it opens 9:00 to 17:30.
€16 · at least 2 h 30
Dürnstein
A village with the blue-and-white tower of its abbey and the castle ruin above, where Richard the Lionheart was held in 1192–1193. The climb to the ruin takes about twenty minutes, and from the top you see the bend in the river.
free (ruin freely accessible) · 20–30 min (climb to the ruin)
Spitz
A village built around the vineyard hill of the Tausendeimerberg, with vines and apricot trees in the middle of town and a late gothic church from the fifteenth century. The boat calls at the bank below it.
free
Krems and the Kunstmeile
In the Stein quarter, by the landing stage, stand the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, the Kunsthalle and the Caricature Museum. That is an afternoon for a wet day, or after the boat before the train to Vienna.
€18 (combo ticket) · half a day
Grüner veltliner and riesling
Wachau labels carry the style of the Vinea Wachau association: Steinfeder is a light wine up to 11.5% alcohol, Federspiel up to 12.5%, and Smaragd above that and the longest-lived. The label lets you choose without a tasting.
Wachau apricots
The Wachauer Marille has held an EU protected designation of origin since 1996. The harvest starts around mid-July and lasts three to four weeks; if apricots are the reason to come, that is when.
Two things you probably did not know
The Venus of Willendorf, a limestone figurine some thirty thousand years old, was found at Willendorf in the Wachau in 1908. It is now in the Natural History Museum in Vienna and is one of the best known prehistoric finds anywhere.
Wachau apricots have protected origin status and are picked over just three weeks in July. They go into brandy, dumplings and jam, and the blossom in April draws as many people as the harvest.
Ready for The Wachau?
Within reach from here
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