By boat to Bratislava and other Vienna, Austria Transportation Tips

'Mode': TO
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: May 2006 saw a new fast boat service operating between Vienna and Bratislava. Wisely we booked early, weeks before we left home. The boat only takes 100 passengers and is proving very popular - there were people turned away as we waited to board. If you want to spend the whole day in Bratislava, you'll need to catch the first boat in the morning - it goes at 8.30am and there's not another until 12.30pm.

It's a really stable boat, you have no idea of how it's hiking along until you step outside onto the back deck. The scenery may not be as pretty along this stretch of the river as it is through the Wachau (the other direction from Vienna) but there's plenty to see - fishing huts along the bank, villages, a ruined castle, barges and other river traffic. Finally you arrive in Bratislava, passing under the Bridge of Slovak National Uprising and disembark, ready for your day in the city.

Passports are checked as you board the boat and again as you leave but the formalities are brief. You'll need to check your own visa requirements depending on your nationality - as Australians we didn't need anything.

Check the website here for timetables and fares. Booking online proved impossible, it just kept freezing us out so our travel agent handled the booking for us. The boat leaves from Schwedenplatz on the Donau Canal.

We made the return journey by train. Trains run every hour until about 11 at night, and the fare is cheaper Bratislava to Vienna than the other way around.

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Website: http://www.twincityliner.com/start2_e.php