AmaCerto - Danube Waltz

Where this cruise calls, day by day

8 ports over 7 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Budapest

   HungaryDepart

   Two cities on opposite banks - flat, commercial Pest and the hills of Buda - with the Danube running straight between them, so the ship ties up inside the view rather than outside it. Berths line the Pest embankment near the Chain Bridge, often two or three vessels rafted together. Most itineraries hold overnight for the floodlit Parliament from the top deck.

   • Buda Castle hill, Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion terraces
   • Soaking at the Széchenyi or Gellért thermal baths
   • The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial, a short walk from most berths
   • The Great Market Hall and the ruin bars of the old Jewish quarter

   Getting ashore

   Ships moor on the Pest embankment near Vigadó tér and the Chain Bridge, walking distance to the centre, but rafting means you may cross another vessel's lounge to get ashore.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; late Nov-Dec for the Vörösmarty tér Christmas market

2. Day 2

   Budapest

   HungaryPort

   Two cities on opposite banks - flat, commercial Pest and the hills of Buda - with the Danube running straight between them, so the ship ties up inside the view rather than outside it. Berths line the Pest embankment near the Chain Bridge, often two or three vessels rafted together. Most itineraries hold overnight for the floodlit Parliament from the top deck.

   • Buda Castle hill, Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion terraces
   • Soaking at the Széchenyi or Gellért thermal baths
   • The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial, a short walk from most berths
   • The Great Market Hall and the ruin bars of the old Jewish quarter

   Getting ashore

   Ships moor on the Pest embankment near Vigadó tér and the Chain Bridge, walking distance to the centre, but rafting means you may cross another vessel's lounge to get ashore.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; late Nov-Dec for the Vörösmarty tér Christmas market

3. Day 3

   Bratislava

   SlovakiaPort

   A small capital that folds its old town into a few blocks beneath a boxy white castle, with ships mooring on the embankment right below it. The contrast is the interest: Habsburg coronation streets on one bank, the Petržalka high-rise slabs and a flying-saucer observation deck on a bridge over the other. Prices drop sharply here after Vienna.

   • Bratislava Castle and the view over the Danube to Austria
   • St Martin's Cathedral, where Hungarian kings were crowned for centuries
   • Michael's Gate and the Čumil bronze peering out of a manhole
   • The UFO deck on the SNP Bridge, or Devín Castle ruin out at the Morava confluence

   Getting ashore

   Berths are on the city-centre embankment, a five to ten minute walk from the pedestrian old town, though rafting is common when several vessels overlap.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Dec for the Hlavné námestie Christmas market

4. Day 4

   Vienna

   AustriaPort

   The catch with Vienna is that the Danube does not actually run through the city it built. Vessels moor on the Handelskai and Praterkai stretch northeast of the centre, and the Ringstrasse is a shuttle or a few U-Bahn stops away, so budget the transfer both directions. At the other end is imperial Vienna at full scale, plus coffee houses that treat sitting for three hours as the point.

   • Schönbrunn Palace and its gardens
   • The Hofburg complex, the Spanish Riding School and the Kunsthistorisches Museum
   • St Stephen's Cathedral and the lanes around it
   • Café Central or Demel for Sachertorte and a newspaper on a wooden stick

   Getting ashore

   Berths are on the Handelskai/Praterkai reach several kilometres from the historic centre; expect a coach shuttle or the U1 rather than a walk.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; late Nov-Dec for the Rathausplatz Christmas market

5. Day 5

   Weissenkirchen

   AustriaPort

   A Wachau wine village of a few hundred people pressed between terraced vineyards and the river, with a fortified parish church up on a rise that was built to be defended against Ottoman raiding parties. There is little to do beyond drinking Grüner Veltliner and Riesling where it is grown, which is broadly the point of the stop.

   • The fortified church of St Michael above the village
   • The Teisenhoferhof courtyard and its small Wachau museum
   • Tasting Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from the Achleiten terraces
   • Walking or cycling the riverside path toward Dürnstein and its blue church tower

   Getting ashore

   Small vessels use a pontoon landing on the bank and the village is a few minutes' walk, but berths here are limited and some calls tie up at nearby Wachau villages instead.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Sep-Oct for the harvest

6. Day 6

   Melk

   AustriaPort

   Melk's Benedictine abbey sits on a rock over the town, a long ochre-yellow Baroque block visible for kilometres up the river. The interiors are what you climb for: Troger's ceiling in the marble hall and a library of twelve rooms of manuscripts. Sailing on downstream from here through the Wachau is the best hour of scenery on the Danube.

   • Melk Abbey's library, marble hall and gilded church
   • The abbey terrace looking down the Danube valley
   • The Wachau sail between Melk and Krems past Spitz and Dürnstein
   • Wachau apricot products, from schnapps to dumplings, sold all over town

   Getting ashore

   Vessels moor at the landing on the Danube about fifteen minutes' walk from town, with the abbey a further climb; most lines run a shuttle up.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Apr for apricot blossom, Jul for the fruit itself

7. Day 7

   Linz

   AustriaPort

   Linz is a working steel city that spent seriously on culture, and the results line the bank where ships moor: the Ars Electronica Center's media labs on one side of the river, the glowing glass slab of the Lentos art museum on the other, with the old main square a short walk inland. Plenty of passengers skip all of it for the coach to Salzburg.

   • Ars Electronica Center, a hands-on museum of digital and machine art
   • Lentos Kunstmuseum on the Danube bank
   • Hauptplatz, its Trinity column, and Linzer Torte at a Konditorei
   • The Pöstlingbergbahn tram grinding up to the pilgrimage church above town

   Getting ashore

   Ships tie up on the Donaulände by the Lentos, roughly ten minutes' walk from the Hauptplatz.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Dec for the Hauptplatz and Volksgarten markets

8. Day 8

   Passau

   GermanyArrive

   Passau is squeezed onto a narrow spit where the Inn and the small dark Ilz meet the Danube, and from the fortress above you can watch the three currents hold separate colours for a while before mixing. The old town behind it is Italian Baroque - Salzburg architects rebuilt it after fires - and it is a common start or end point for Danube itineraries.

   • St Stephen's Cathedral and its organ, among the largest in the world, with midday recitals in season
   • The three-rivers point at the Dreiflusseck
   • Veste Oberhaus fortress, reached on foot or by shuttle bus, for the view down onto the spit
   • Flood high-water marks painted up the wall of the old town hall

   Getting ashore

   Ships tie up along the Danube promenade below the old town, and you step straight off into it - no tender, no terminal.

   Best months

   Apr-Oct; Dec for the cathedral square Christmas market