The Weinviertel
Weinviertel means “wine district”, so the region is full of vineyards and cellar-lined roads. It is ideal for relaxing and enjoyable trips—also and especially by bicycle.
The 14,000 winemakers in this lovely hill country north of Vienna produce one third of all Austrian wine. It is no wonder that encounters with wine are frequent and varied here: in the sociable setting of heuriger wine taverns, for example, or while hiking or taking tractor rides through vineyards, during one of the traditional wine festivals or on an excursion to one of the many idyllic cellar-lined roads.
Where wine dwells
The Weinviertel has many cellar-lined roads. Today, they are not just production and storage places for wine. Each is an oasis where the pace of life slows down. They can be pretty as a picture as in Hadres, romantic as in Falkenstein or impressive as with the cellar complex in Retz, a subterranean city that is more extensive than its counterpart on the earth’s surface. A cellar-lined road tour is a pleasant way for you to immerse yourself in this unique world. Specially trained tour guides tell you stories amusing and enlightening about history and architecture, about work in the cellar and the wine waiting to be sampled that matures far below the surface.
Vineyard cycling
But the Weinviertel is beloved not just among wine enthusiasts. Bicyclists also rave about it. That is understandable given its extensive 1,600 km system of cycling routes. The system consists of family-friendly paths most of which are away from roads and free of longer ascents. The routes lead through picturesque vineyards and romantic cellar-lined roads to fortresses, castles and a considerable number of well-run museums. And of course also to wine: The Weinviertel is crisscrossed by 13 cycling routes named after grape varieties and totaling 760 km in length. Most of the individual routes can be covered in a day, even at an easy-going pace, so they can easily be combined into multi-day tours.