Level of difficulty 3 |  Gastronomy 3 |  Length 17.6 km |  Time 2 - 3 hours

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One of the fastest ways across Vienna - SUPing over the Danube Canal. This varied tour shows many facets of the Austrian capital in a very short time. At a pleasant flow speed we paddle through the suburbs, the city center and local recreation areas.

General information

• Vienna Wikipedia
• Vienna City Cards
• Vienna tourist information
• Tour Video
• Climate
• Wind, waves, weather

Navigation rules

The Danube Canal is generally navigable all year round, but you should be careful about shipping. To be on the safe side, you should plan your tour between the Twin City Liner's intervals. It is easy to avoid all other passenger ships on the water, but the Twin City Liner can become a major danger due to its speed.

In general, paddlers behave in a way that does not hinder commercial shipping.

Avoid fishermen and occasional swimmers along the route early.

Dangers and risks

The flow speed of the canal is usually around 5 km/h and offers paddlers a pleasant propulsion. Even beginners can easily manage this leisurely pace, but should avoid boat traffic early on so as not to make hasty and wrong decisions due to a lack of experience.

The catamaran Twin City Liner runs year-round between Vienna and Bratislava and can pose an enormous danger to paddlers due to its speed and waves. Therefore, always check its timetable in advance and plan the tour accordingly between trips so that you don't encounter the speedboat. Luckily, you have several hours between arrivals and departures at the Vienna/Schwedenplatz terminal to paddle the Danube Canal undisturbed. The months of January to March are the best for this reason, as the City Liner only runs once a day on Saturdays and Sundays.

Also the liners of the DDSG Blue Danube operate regularly in the canal and can throw off inexperienced paddlers with their comparatively gentle waves. The frequency is quite high, so you have to expect several trips per day all year round.

Fishing takes place everywhere along the route, including fishing lines hanging from the quays in the center of Vienna. The last third of the tour, when heading out of town to the mouth of the Danube, is peppered with fishermen's houses and free water accesses. Always keep an eye out for fishermen and paddle in the middle if you get the chance.

The brick banks in the center (starting from the Augarten Bridge) throw back strong boat and ship waves into the canal and sometimes create unpredictable water conditions. On the one hand, you should of course avoid them as much as possible, but on the other hand, you should not paddle too close to the quay walls. You don't want to smash against the walls or get caught by the diffuse broken and receding waves.

Due to its lowland location, Vienna is often hit by strong winds, which can sometimes make paddling impossible or suddenly difficult. Therefore, always check the wind's strength and direction in advance!

At the mouth of the Danube Canal into the Danube (Praterspitz) and one kilometer further at the harbor entrance, eddies are to be expected. The wind can also increase there. Less experienced paddlers should best paddle along the right bank and, if necessary, kneel around the bend on the right to enter the harbor.

Directions

If you don't know Vienna well and are unfamiliar with the area, you should definitely use navigation to find your way through the labyrinth of the city. This is especially true when traveling from the south or from the city center. In these cases it is best to drive along the Danube Canal to Nußdorf.

The journey by public transport is less stressful, but sometimes longer: in Heiligenstädter Straße you'll find the Sickenberggasse bus stop (line N36) as well as the tram stops Sickenberggasse and Nußdorf (line D)

Nußdorf train station is located above the power plant and is a 300 m walk from the starting point. The S40 express train to and from Tulln passes there.

The current timetables for public transport (Wiener Linien) can be found online.

Cheap bus, train and flight connections to Vienna can be found on the comparison portals Omio and RailEurope.

Parking

In the streets around the start of the tour you can park your car free of charge on the side of the road and within a very short time you will be at the riverside under the Nußdorf power plant (e.g. Bachofengasse, Sickenberggasse, Eisenbahnstrasse). Attention: the inviting parking lot under the bridge and directly under the power plant is not public and reserved only for employees of the City of Vienna. Please do not park there!

Swimming

In principle you can also swim and bathe in the Danube Canal, this has a long tradition and is also permitted. However, due to the current and the associated dangers, it is only recommended for good and healthy swimmers. Further information can be found at the Donaukanal Swimming Club.

As a city on the water, Vienna offers countless bathing opportunities. The Gänsehäufel public bath on the Old Danube is Vienna's top address when it comes to bathing in nature. But besides the Old Danube there are numerous others possibilities to enjoy and relax in the water.

If it is too cold to swim outside, you can always take a dip in the Therme Wien Spa in Oberlaa (10th district).

Tour

From the power plant in Nußdorf to the port Alberner Hafen.

Length

17.6 km

Time

2 - 3 hours

Start and landing

Start at the Nußdorf power plant along the cycle path and under the riverside railway bridge.

Land at the harbor Alberner Hafen left before the harbor entrance.

SUP rental

SUP Center Wien – Gänsehäufelbad
Moissigasse 21, 1220 Vienna
Phone +43 (0)660 8343759

Boats2Sail
Am Kaisermühlendamm 106, 1220 Vienna
Phone +43 (0)660 6151 204

Sailing school Hofbauer Alte Donau
An der Oberen Alten Donau 186, 1220 Wien
Phone +43 (0)660 6151 204

Flotus – Stand Up Paddling
Labellweg 19, 1220 Vienna

Snowboard – Surf – Shop
Favoritenstrasse 28 1040 Vienna
Phone +43 (1) 606 79 88

Graffiti, great city & green space

When is the best time to paddle on Vienna's Danube Canal? Whenever there are no speedboats making their destructive waves. For this reason, we decided to set sail on the last possible weekend in March before the Twin City Liner starts its spring season again. Over the winter and into March, the fast passenger ship is only encountered sporadically or on weekends, which is why it is quite easy to plan a canal crossing outside of scheduled times.

During the Middle Ages the Danube Canal used to be the main branch of the Danube near Vienna. It extends over a length of about 17 km from the northwestern end of the city to its southeastern foothills. Thanks to the pleasant and constant flow speed of around 5 km/h, you can enjoy two to three hours of urban SUP fun from the Nußdorfer Weir to the harbor in Albern.

Starting the tour along the promenade called Nußdorfer Lände is ideal because, on the one hand, you can comfortably get to the water thanks to the stairs and the extensive water access and also because you can park for free in the surrounding streets.

For example, if you park your car on Eisenbahnstrasse street or Sickenberggasse street, you walk to the Danube Canal within a few minutes and there you can get your equipment ready for touring hassle-free.

But there is one thing that paddlers should get used to right from the start: the interested and sometimes enthusiastic looks from cyclists, joggers and walkers along the riverside promenades. After all, not many people paddle this downtown canal. Since we naturally want to promote standup paddling as an environmentally friendly outdoor sport, we set a good example and let the cool Danube carry us through the districts of Vienna. Unfortunately, the forecasted tailwind of up to 15 km/h (3 bf) is not noticeable.

Vienna's traffic lifelines run over the waterfront promenades and project their noise backdrop down to the river. In between – how could it be otherwise for a metropolis of millions – walls full of graffiti. Visually unnecessary tags, but also very often beautiful murals, will remain a constant companion along our path. If you want to find out more about Vienna's graffiti culture, we warmly recommend the book Graffiti Wien #1 . While passersby keep waving at us and audibly showing their sympathy, at some point we forget to count the number of bridges we have already passed. After 17 km there will have been 34 bridges and footbridges. But there is still a long way to go until then.

Although it is only mid-March, the banks are already relatively green and people everywhere are enjoying the fresh air on this sunny Sunday. Up to the Augarten Bridge it is relatively easy to land on both sides of the canal along the first 4.7 km of the tour, as the banks are sloping but flat enough. Along the entire route there are also stairs leading from the water to the land. For these reasons you can start paddling trips from almost any point along the canal.

There is a dedicated swimming club for people who swim in the canal, which is actually practiced all year round. But you should be careful when passenger ships come by, because the canal is around fifty meters wide throughout. As a swimmer or as a paddler, there is little room to avoid the waves. What is relatively comfortable around the leisurely ships of the DDSG Blue Danube can become life-threatening when the Twin City Liner passes by.

Therefore, every tour should be compared in advance with the timetables and frequencies of these ships. Fortunately, the City Liner only circulates between Vienna and Bratislava from the terminal at Schwedenplatz Square. The Blue Danube ships can be encountered on both sides of Schwedenplatz Square, but they don't pose a problem if you avoid them early enough.

As soon as you pass the Augarten Bridge, things get really urban. We let ourselves drift through the urban jungle between the brick banks and don't know where to look first. Ingenious graffiti art here, a beautiful historical building there, passers-by waving and taking photos on the bridges above us. The song Vienna Calling suddenly flashes through my head and my heart beats faster when I think that I am once again in our capital, the world capital of music and diplomacy, the world's most livable metropolis (as of 2023), but also the spy capital of Europe. I resonate with the pulse of the city and try to remember every detail.

Unfortunately, the Blue Danube Line's horn breaks my concentration and we are called to make room so the ship can dock at the ship station at Schwedenplatz Square. Shortly afterwards we turn right into the merging Wienfluss River and treat ourselves to a relaxing break in the standing water between the Urania and Strandbar Hermann. Here you can also wait comfortably until the Twin City Liner has whizzed past and avoid its brutal waves.

Caution is advised, because we both hook one after the other onto an almost invisible fishing line, which the gentleman on the bank doesn't like at all. It is therefore best to paddle in the middle of the canal when the way is clear and look for fishermen on the banks, as you can meet them anywhere along the route.

We slowly leave the inner city and paddle into increasingly quieter areas. The foothills of the districts Landstrasse and Leopoldstadt reveal sloping meadows with trees and easily accessible banks. Vienna is also a very green city of millions, especially because of the Danube Canal, and there are idyllic places everywhere to relax in urban nature.

Above us on the left, in the second and probably third row, is the well-known Wiener Prater, which skilfully combines parkland and amusement park on almost 6 km². However, you cannot see it from the water.

We approach the Südosttangente (A23 motorway) and turn our heads steeply to the right one last time. The three towers of the YOUNIQ Vienna TrIIIple house micro-apartments and are definitely an eye-catcher. They form the monumental conclusion to the urban section of our tour, because the last eight kilometers to the port Alberner Hafen run straight through suburban and natural areas.

The area is not very diverse in terms of landscape, but we enjoy the countless fishing huts on the left bank of the canal. At some point the sounds of the A4 eastern motorway will die down, making way for the spring-like chirping of birds that will accompany us to the Praterspitz and further to the harbor entrance in Albern. In the estuary area and at the harbor entrance you have to expect eddies and sometimes stronger winds. To be on the safe side, stick to the right bank and kneel if in doubt.

At the quay, turn the corner sharply to the right and you can easily go ashore via a staircase on the left along the harbor entrance. We came from the big city and ended up in rural areas, which shows very well how strong the contrasts were along this paddling route. Vienna Calling – we will definitely be back soon!

Ideally, there will be a parked car waiting here for the return journey, as there are enough parking spaces in this local recreation area. On the way back to the city you should definitely visit the small cemetery of the nameless (Friedhof der Namenlosen). This is where a number of unknown drowned bodies that were recovered from the Danube until the 1930s found their last earthly home.

Paddlers who neither shuttle nor are picked up take the bus back not far from here. About one kilometer from the landing point is the bus stop Alberner Hafen from where the buses go towards the city. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Nußdorf; for other destinations it is best to inquire about the Wiener Linien network map. If you are traveling back by public transport, be sure to take the SUP bag with you on the board so you can pack your stuff up again and transport it on public transport!

Alternatives: From here you can paddle the main stream of the Danube another 35 km to Hainburg, the last town before the Slovakian border. If you want to go further afield, you can paddle from there to Bratislava within a day (15 more kilometers). Tours lasting several days could even take you to Györ or Budapest if you are in for a real adventure.