Discover and experience the Danube by boat

Already in Roman times, the Danube was used as a connecting route between West and East. However, the motives for traveling have changed greatly over the centuries. While in former times the function as a trade route was in the foreground, today a trip on the Danube is considered a popular vacation destination and leisure activity. The motto here is "the way is the goal": At a leisurely pace, the small cruise ships and excursion boats move downstream, offering their passengers impressive scenery that can only be experienced in this way from the water. More and more people are discovering river cruising for themselves, for which the Danube offers a particularly diverse range of options. On a Danube cruise from Passau to Budapest, four countries are visited within a few days, each with its own culture, cuisine and language. Ideal for catching a glimpse of Europe's diversity.

There are many cities along the Danube, which became rich through trade in goods. One of them is the city of Passau. Due to its location at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers, the bishop's town became a trans-shipment center for salt in the Middle Ages. The salt delivered from Hallein via the Inn was stored in Passau and, among other things, transported further along the Danube. Even today, the Schaiblingsturm on the Inn promenade from the 13th century bears witness to these important times in Passau's city history.

In Austria, Linz, Krems and Vienna established themselves as important centers of economic activity. Linz gained importance above all as a supraregional trade fair city, where cloth, iron, honey, salt and wine were traded. As a trading center, the city exuded international appeal, so that at the beginning of the 18th century merchants moved in, founded factories and opened branches. In the middle of the 19th century Linz got its own shipyard, where in 1842 the first iron ship in Europe was launched. Today, the Danube city, which has been designated a City of Media Arts by UNESCO, boasts its own airport with international connections.

Even today, the Danube is part of an international transport route that, through its merger with the Rhine-Danube Canal, stretches from the Dutch North Sea to the Danube Delta on the Black Sea. The economic importance of this transport route is unbroken, but due to the special charms of this waterway, cruises are becoming increasingly popular. Known and unknown places and cities can be experienced in a completely new way.