Private Day Trip to Wachau Valley from Vienna

Driver was late. Took us to Krems and Melk Abby on Sunday morning and everything was closed. Wineries were closed. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE AND TERRIBLE DRIVER!!! He drove us to these 2 places and took us back to Vienna and our tour was 3 hours of only driving instead of 6 hours of visiting the advertised locations. Driver drifted into the oncoming lanes numerous times and missed his turn at a traffic circle putting in the opposing lane head on. Viator should know when sites are closed and so should the driver. That is the meaning of a TOUR GUIDE! There was no guidance only a waste of time and money. Lots of money for driving around with a stranger who drives very poorly. WE DEMAND A REFUND! We also cannot figure out how to contact Viator to file a complaint! PLEASE RESPOND! We have used Viator before successfully and plan to do so in the future unless Viator responds to our complaint and rectifies the situation. Otherwise, we will never recommend this service.

This was not a good experience. Our plan for the day was basically ruined by a driver with very limited knowledge. Perhaps it was his first time doing this route. We understand that the driver is not a tour guide, but he should have had some basic knowledge of the places we visited and how to best plan the day and maximize our time. To start with, he was about 20 minutes late to pick us up (things happen, we understand). Then after we got into the car there was complete silence (not even an introduction) until I started asking questions such as: what is the plan for the day; where are we going first; when are the tours at Melk Abbey and how long do they last, etc. It turns out that the driver knew nothing about the tour times at Melk Abbey, which is what caused the problems for the rest of the day. He said that there are tours every 30 minutes and that the tours last about 30 minutes. So, based off that info, we decided to go to Krems first, then Melk, and then Durnstein on the way back. He first dropped us off at Krems with zero information and said the time spent there was up to us, but initially suggested a 15-30 minute visit. We were there for about 45 minutes. Then we headed to Melk Abbey and arrived at about 12:30 PM, but we were very disappointed to find that tours in English were only at 11 AM and 2 PM, not every half hour as the driver told us. Also, we were told that tours lasted almost an hour. Thus, by doing the tour at 2 and finishing at 3, there was no way we could get back to Vienna by 3:30 PM (as we only had the driver for 6 hours). We called the driver and explained the situation and he agreed that we could do the tour at 2 and we would get back to Vienna a little late since he arrived late (that is the only reason he gets two stars instead of one). However, that meant that our time at Melk was almost 3 hours (too much) and we had to completely skip Durnstein on the way back. If the driver knew what he was doing, he should have suggested starting at Melk Abbey and doing the tour at 11 AM, and then visiting Durnstein and Krems on the way back to Vienna. To top it off, the driver had zero personality and very little knowledge of the two places we visited. This “Day Trip” is basically the equivalent of getting a taxi driver who knows nothing about the area you are visiting, at least if you get the same driver that we had.

L'abbaye de Melk et sa bibliothèque. Circuler sur les rives du Danube jusqu'à Durnstein est très agréable tout peut se faire en vélo. Le vin blanc local est très bon