Grand Danube River Sightseeing Cruise Vienna

Schwedenplatz and the Danube Canal

The cruise starts at the ship station on the Danube Canal at Schwedenplatz, right on the edge of the first district and served by metro lines U1 and U4. The Danube Canal is a regulated arm of the river that curves around the historic centre, and the first stretch of the Vienna boat tour follows it eastwards past the Urania, the domed observatory and cinema at the end of the Ring, and under a series of bridges whose walls are covered in some of the best street art in the city.

From the open deck or the panorama windows you see the embankment promenades, the floating pontoons where the Viennese spend summer evenings, and the mix of old and new buildings along the water. The host on board points out the main landmarks in English and German as the ship heads towards the point where the canal rejoins the main river.

The Prater woods and the Freudenau lock

Beyond the first district the banks turn green. The Prater, Vienna's great park and former imperial hunting ground, stretches for kilometres along the right bank of the canal, and the ship passes its woods and meadows on the route known as green Vienna. This stretch is the calmest of the cruise, with herons on the banks and rowers on the water, and it ends at the Freudenau lock, where the canal meets the Danube.

Passing through a lock is an experience in itself: the ship enters the chamber, the gates close and the water level is adjusted before you continue onto the broad main river. Just downstream the ship calls briefly at the Marina Wien station. This part of the Danube Canal cruise takes about 45 minutes and is the whole of the shorter 2-hour option.

The Danube Island and the Reichsbrücke

Once on the Danube itself, the ship turns upstream along the shores of the Danube Island, the 21-kilometre strip of parkland created in the 1970s and 1980s when the New Danube flood channel was dug. The island is the city's summer playground, with beaches, cycle paths and the site of the huge open-air festival held every June. On the city side you see the old grain silo converted into a hotel and the roof of the national stadium rising above the Prater trees.

The ship then passes under the Reichsbrücke, the main bridge linking the centre to the districts across the river, which collapsed in 1976 and was rebuilt in record time. The Reichsbrücke station is the gateway to the modern Vienna route, and from here the skyline changes completely.

The Danube Tower and the modern skyline

The modern Vienna route is dominated by the Danube Tower, the slender concrete tower built in 1964 that rises to around 252 metres above the Danube Park, with a revolving restaurant and observation deck near the top. Around it stand the towers of the Danube City, a business district of glass high-rises grouped near the international organisations' headquarters, and on the opposite bank the Millennium Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Austria.

Seen from the water, this is the Vienna that most visitors never reach, and it is the main reason to choose the full 3.5-hour cruise over the shorter route. The ship turns before the Nussdorf district, where the Danube Tower is the obvious landmark for photographs, and begins the return towards the Danube Canal.

Nussdorf lock, Spittelau and the return to the centre

The return route re-enters the Danube Canal through the Nussdorf lock system at the northern end of the city, an elegant complex of weirs and gates designed in the Jugendstil era to control the water entering the canal. From here the ship follows the canal south through historic Vienna, and the banks fill with landmarks: the district heating plant at Spittelau, transformed by a celebrated Viennese artist into a building of golden spheres and irregular tiled facades, the long Rossau Barracks, and the glass Ringturm at the point where the Ring meets the canal.

The cruise ends back at the Schwedenplatz station after about 3.5 hours, in the middle of the old town, with Stephansplatz a few minutes' walk away. Food and drinks are available on board at your own expense during the whole trip.