An enchanting drive beside the Blue Danube and beyond

Porsche Travel Experience: sublime routes, majestic destinations

6 September 2022

Take one majestic Porsche. Add glorious riverside roads, verdant forest and sprawling vineyards. And embark on a trip that winds through sleepy villages and past grand, royal residences

Warm-up in Prague: Today the city. Tomorrow the countryside and rivers

You have to have been in Prague, otherwise you can’t say you’ve been to Prague! Welcome to Day 1. Our limousine will chauffeur you to the historic 5-star Hotel Augustine and from here you can start either with a guided city tour or fearlessly navigate your way around without a guide through the hustle and bustle on the world-famous Charles Bridge. Explore the quiet side roads off the beaten tourist track and conquer the city of a thousand styles at walking pace. Walk from the Middle Ages into the 21st century on a single afternoon, from Gothic into post-modernism, from the Imperial and Royal Monarchy to the here and now. Have a chat with the locals over a world-famous Czech beer and Prague ham about their beautiful city. Get into deep conversation with them about their city's highly-individual TV tower. Iconic? Or eyesore? The performance of a Porsche is also a rich topic of conversation among Prague locals and you can indulge in such conversation in the evening at the gourmet restaurant Augustine with your tour guides and the Porsche enthusiasts with whom you will enjoy the next five days.

Opposites attract – a modern Porsche in front of an impressive old building

Your heart will race

It’s quite likely that you won’t have slept all that well due to excitement, because today’s the day it all starts. Early in the morning – so that you don’t lose a second of driving pleasure – we’ll set off for the Porsche Centre Prague, where your Porsche is waiting for you. On a two-hour drive past Budweis towards Gmünd, you and your Porsche will have the opportunity to get to know each other and perfect driving in a convoy. You’ll also enjoy a delicious lunch at a selected country inn. But the real main course comes after the meal: three-and-a-half hours of absolute pleasure rejoicing in the power of your sports car. The curvy, narrow, empty minor roads of Lower Austria are a paradise of lateral acceleration. If you don’t switch to sports mode on the trip to your hotel in Vienna, the Palais Coburg, you’ll be missing out.

From Prague to Vienna

But in addition to excellent cornering and pure condensed pleasure for all your sports car driver senses, Day 2 will conjure up further highlights for you that’ll make your heart rate soar: you’ll head down into the world-famous wine cellar of your hotel for a wine tasting and, after the dinner at the Restaurant Clementine that follows, you will dream of Day 3 in your exquisite suite. Your Porsche will also enjoy an extraordinary night: it will be parked in the ‘Tresor’, the spectacular underground car park of the Palais Coburg, freshly polished and as safe as houses. You should take a look at the way it parks. A true performance!

60,000 bottles from four centuries are stored under ideal conditions in six themed cellars in the medieval vaults beneath the Palais

Through Styria

Enjoy a good breakfast (in the glasshouse of the hotel’s Clementine restaurant, even breakfast is a veritable feast) so that your stomach is well lined because Day 3 is a very special day. We’ll start off from the hotel early in the morning again and head to the mountains. And mountains mean curves and more curves! Imagine the sound of the 12 Porsche models whose drivers simultaneously start their engines with a thirst for adventure. Imagine the sight of the convoy gliding out of town. Soon after leaving Vienna and the amazed Viennese behind you, you will travel through the hilly world of Lower Austria to Styria, in the green heart of Austria. The second largest state is an alpine landscape with dense forests, high mountains, orchards and meadows, vineyards, smart houses, friendly people and rugged crags. At the short pit stop at the top of the pass, a place named Kalte Kuchl, you’ll already have climbed up to 780 metres through the beautiful landscape of the pass. The crossroads date back to the 11th century, and the first roadside inn was built here in around 1500. There will be no lack of adrenaline as you make your way up to the Forsthaus. And amid all your enthusiasm about the steep Styrian curves, majestic mountains and the determination with which your Porsche sticks like glue to the asphalt, don’t forget about the food when you get there because Christian Übeleis’ cuisine is also an experience to be remembered. Even the most demanding restaurant critics agree on that.

This is how elegant it can be when asphalt, vehicle and driver become one

Day 3 will also give you ample opportunity to hear the whole sound spectrum of the different Porsche engines. After about two-and-a-half hours of goosebumps and your fill of adventure, you will arrive back at the Hotel Palais Coburg, hungry for a tasty bite of Vienna! In the evening you will head out for a taste of the metropolitan air and for dinner – at the legendary Artner restaurant on the famous Franziskanerplatz, famous for its wines and beef tastings.

Two-and-a-half hours of goosebumps and no lack of adrenaline — There's always plenty to discuss on a tour like this

From Vienna to Budapest: Fairy tale routes. Fantastic cities.

Vienna has been repeatedly voted the most liveable city in Europe! Following breakfast in the Clementine, you will experience exactly why this is the case on a city tour. Afterwards, at the fast-paced lunch buffet, recharge your batteries for a beautiful stretch of serpentines on Hungarian soil – the narrow, empty roads of the Gerecse Natural Park. A landscape that was created to be openly navigated – but also much more than that, so you can explore your driving limits. The winding roads lead through fields of corn and sunflowers and deciduous forests that look as though they’re from a fairy tale. How can you describe the feeling when road and sky, driver and vehicle, sounds and the sound of the engine become one?

A beautiful view: parked up by Esztergom’s St Adalbert Cathedral

In the afternoon we drive past the mighty St Adalbert Cathedral which is enthroned high above the former capital city of Esztergom. We will marvel at it tomorrow, because this imposing building is one you simply can’t miss: even a Porsche looks like a toy in front of its majesty. The view over the Danube from this hill is magical. After sunset, the swallows take over this wonderful place and the peace is shattered. But we don’t want to stay that late, because you aren’t here to stop for a rest, but to drive! And Budapest awaits you for aperitifs and dinner – in your royal home for the next two nights. The Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace.

The road is calling!

A thorough bred Porsche just raring to go hunting down corner — Definitely not an optical illusion: a thoroughbred Porsche just raring to go hunting down corners

From Budapest to Szentendre and Visegrád: Excursion into ancient Europe

You’re bound to have slept royally in your palace, awakened full of energy and can’t wait to leave for a journey through time, setting off at precisely 9.11 am following a princely breakfast. The first stage destination,the ancient village of Szentendre – or St Andre – which sits on a tributary of the Danube, has been inhabited since the Stone Age. In 1926, the village was turned into an artist’s colony, and its narrow, picturesque alleyways now teem with galleries, art and handicrafts, and you are sure to find the ideal souvenir here. Turbo shopping is the motto here, because after just 45 minutes your shopping excursion will be over! Now you’ll need to get some tension back in your body and concentrate because we’ll be heading back to the Middle Ages via the Danube Bend.

Right in front of your hotel, the majestic 'Széchenyi lánchíd' spans the Danube — The majestic Széchenyi lánchíd – Chain Bridge – spans the Danube right in front of your hotel

As we head to Visegrád, there is a short but challenging curve section ahead of you. Visegrád Castle has seen many kings come and go since the Roman Empire. It has been decaying for centuries, but has recently reopened to visitors. After that, it might get a little emotional. We’re going to embark on the last activity that we’ll be doing together. Drive on. To delay the end, we’ll take a detour back to Budapest. We’ll glide along the edge of Danube and give it our all again. Let the enchanting landscapes and dense forests of the Danube Bend fly past us. We’ll enjoy this incomparable sports car feel of speed and performance out of sheer desire and not hurry. We’ll take our time to visit St Adalbert’s Cathedral and let it make a peaceful impression on us. For the Grand Finale, we’ll roll over the Chain Bridge directly to the Hotel Gresham Palace – in the happy knowledge that you’ll always reach your destination at the wheel of a Porsche, no matter where you are in the world.

In front of the hotel you’ll say goodbye to your sports car, say thank you for the heart palpitations, adrenaline and feelings of happiness and enjoy a few hours without any scheduled activities until we spend our last evening together – whose extraordinary setting should definitely remain a surprise.

Hotel Gresham Palace: an art nouveau jewel

After breakfast at Gresham Palace, the day’s yours! Enjoy what is quite simply the best city hotel in Europe. This art nouveau jewel has experienced so much over the years that you quite simply want to nestle your ear against the wall in one of the countless cosy niches in the lobby, hoping that these silent witnesses will give up their secrets. From the horse-drawn carriages that ran between the peacock gates, the hustle and bustle of the shops to the cabaret that was held semi-secretly in the cellar during communist times where the laundry is today. Most recently it was the soldiers of the Red Army who lived, or resided, here. Or join us for a guided city tour: experience the synagogue and the famous Ruin Bars that have established themselves in abandoned houses in the Jewish quarter. The Szimpla Kert, the heart of a diverse bar scene, is a must for a visit to Budapest. There’s almost always something happening around the clock here: farmer’s and antique markets, street food camps, designer shops, and exhibitions and concerts. Some Ruin Bars even have a hotel. A particularly beautiful place is the Mazel Tov, especially its Jewish cuisine with live music.

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