As of 2 September 2026, the Upper Danube is running very low; navigation disruptions are affecting parts of the river and cruise lines are managing itineraries around them.
Levels look steady over the next few days.
The constraint right now is Regensburg to Passau (watching the gauge at Pfelling).
updated 34 min ago
A below-normal or disruption status doesn't automatically mean your cruise changes: navigation is usually still possible, and whether a specific sailing is affected depends on the ship's draft and its route plans — a call each cruise line makes case by case. Your cruise director always has the latest plan for your sailing.
Regensburg to Passau — the river's tightest low-water reach — is currently disrupted, steady (watching the gauge at Pfelling).
Also known as the Bavarian Danube.
Passau — watched for high water where the Inn joins the Danube — is currently normal, steady (watching the gauge at Passau).
The Wachau: Melk → Krems — past Dürnstein — is currently below normal, falling (watching the gauge at Kienstock).
Vienna to Bratislava — the short hop between two capitals, watched both low and high — is currently disruption possible, steady (watching the gauge at Wildungsmauer).
The short international hop between Vienna and Bratislava — one of the few Danube reaches watched at both ends of the water-level scale, low and high.
This reach is free-flowing Danube, crossing the border from Austria into Slovakia between Vienna and Bratislava. Unlike most of the river's critical stretches, which are watched for either low water or high water but rarely both, this one earns attention at both ends of the scale — shallow enough to matter when the river drops, narrow enough to close when it rises.
On the low side, a falling river here can bring the same kind of ship-swap and bus-bridge response you'd see on the Rhine at Kaub or the Bavarian Danube. On the high side, this section has a real, sudden-closure history: in September 2024, high water closed the Vienna–Bratislava section and left passengers needing alternative transport while the river came back down — a calm, factual reminder of why lines watch this reach closely rather than treating high water here as background noise.
Vienna sits just downstream of the heavily engineered, dam-controlled stretch of the Austrian Danube, so this is one of the first free-flowing sections the river reaches after all that regulation — which is exactly why it responds quickly to both rain and drought. It's also a short, single-day sailing segment on longer Danube itineraries, so a closure here has an outsized effect on schedules relative to its length.
On itineraries like Passau → Budapest; Vienna → Budapest; Nuremberg → Budapest; Bratislava round trips.
Bratislava to Komárom — the Danube below Bratislava, along the Slovak–Hungarian border — is currently disrupted, steady.
Budapest & the Danube Bend — the city and the scenic bend at Visegrád & Esztergom — is currently disrupted, steady (watching the gauge at Budapest).
Budapest and the scenic bend upstream at Visegrád and Esztergom — bridges and docks set the high-water limit, and a string of natural fords sets the low-water one.
This reach covers Budapest and the Danube Bend upstream at Esztergom, Visegrád and Vác — free-flowing river through some of the most photographed scenery on the whole Danube. Both directions of trouble show up here: high water threatens the city's docks and bridge clearances, and low water exposes a string of natural fords through the bend that don't appear anywhere else on the upper river.
At high water, Budapest's docks along the Pest embankment close well before the river itself becomes genuinely unnavigable, so a docking problem here can show up before a sailing problem does. Rising water also affects bridge clearance for taller vessels, handled case by case rather than through a single published rule. At low water, the story shifts upstream: through the bend at Dömös, Nagymaros and Visegrád the channel narrows over natural sandy fords, and those shallow chokepoints — not the main Budapest gauge itself — are usually what constrains a ship's passage first.
Budapest is also where the Danube is conventionally split into 'upper' and 'lower' sections for river-cruise planning, and it's the turnaround or stopover point for a large share of Danube itineraries — so whatever happens here, whether it's a dock closure or a shallow ford upstream, tends to ripple through more schedules than a similarly sized disruption on a quieter reach would.
On itineraries like Passau → Budapest; Vienna → Budapest; Budapest round trips; Nuremberg → Budapest.
The Upper Danube — from Bavaria through Austria and Slovakia down to Budapest — is where most Danube cruises sail, and it's a river of contrasts: long dam-controlled sections that hardly ever cause trouble, interrupted by a handful of free-flowing reaches that do all the deciding. The stretch between Regensburg and Passau is the tightest of them: the Bavarian Danube's gauge at Pfelling is to the Danube what Kaub is to the Rhine.
Downstream, the free-flowing pattern repeats at the reaches passengers actually cruise for: the Wachau between Melk and Krems, the hop from Vienna to Bratislava (one of the few reaches watched for both low and high water — it closed briefly in the high water of September 2024), and Budapest with the scenic Danube Bend above it, where docks and bridges set the high-water limit and natural fords in the bend set the low-water one.
As everywhere on this site, the verdict is deliberately coarse and honest: status and trend, never forecasts. Cruise lines manage these reaches every season — ship swaps, coach bridges, reordered port days — and your cruise director will have the plan for your sailing.
The dial and verdict at the top of this page track the Upper Danube live, aggregated worst-first from official gauges on every watched stretch. When something is off normal, the stretch lines name exactly where. Whether a given sailing changes is a case-by-case call by your cruise line — your cruise director will have the plan.
The Bavarian reach between Regensburg and Passau — the river's tightest free-flowing stretch, watched at the gauge of Pfelling. When Danube itineraries change for low water, it usually starts there.
Sections do close occasionally — most recently, high water closed the Vienna–Bratislava reach for a period in September 2024, with passengers moved by land while the river receded. Closures are managed calmly by the lines and recover on their own timeline.
This is one of the few Danube stretches watched at both ends of the scale — low and high — so it's worth checking whichever direction conditions are heading. The stretch line above carries its live status; because this short hop links two capital-city port days, a change here ripples through schedules more than its length suggests.
Yes — in September 2024, high water closed the Vienna–Bratislava section for a period and passengers needed alternative transport while the river receded. It's a good example of why this short reach gets watched closely: it can close quickly, and it recovers on its own timeline.
It sits just downstream of the dam-controlled part of the Austrian Danube, so it's one of the first free-flowing sections the river reaches — which makes it responsive to both drought and heavy rain. Most reaches on this page are watched for one direction or the other; this one genuinely needs both.
Low water here usually shows up first at the natural fords upstream of the city rather than at the main Budapest gauge — which is why this page tracks both. If the stretch shows below normal, ships are still sailing; at disruption levels, lines adjust itineraries around the fords case by case.
Budapest's docks along the Pest embankment can close at a lower water level than the river needs to actually stop navigation, so a docking disruption can happen before a sailing disruption does. Lines typically move to an alternate berth in that case rather than skip the city.
They're natural shallow, sandy narrows through the Danube Bend near Dömös, Nagymaros and Visegrád — a different kind of low-water chokepoint from a single gauge reading. This page follows official soundings at these points because, on this particular reach, they tend to constrain a ship's passage before the main Budapest gauge does.
Pfelling
225 cm · level above local gauge zero — not river depth · measured 34 min ago
Passau
390 cm · level above local gauge zero — not river depth · measured 34 min ago
Kienstock
136 cm · level above local gauge zero — not river depth · measured 49 min ago
Wildungsmauer
105 cm · level above local gauge zero — not river depth · measured 49 min ago
Bratislava - Komarom
161 cm · controlling depth across the reach · measured 4 h ago
Komarom - Budapest (Danube Bend)
144 cm · controlling depth across the reach · measured 4 h ago
Budapest
34 cm · level above local gauge zero — not river depth · measured 4 h ago