Day trips form Budapest and Prague

There is plenty to do in Budapest for a week! My absolute favorite site there was the Central Market. The strudel there made Vienna look like nothing! It did remind me of my maternal grandmother's cooking! My maternal grandmother was from Eastern Europe (now Belarus) but the cooking was similar.

Be sure to visit Castle Hill. I also enjoyed seeing the musical "Elisabeth" in Hungarian (yes, in Hungarian but with English surtitles). If it's on, don't miss it.

My girlfriend and I spent 3 nights in Budapest as a side trip from Vienna when I got a home exchange in Vienna two years ago. I wish I had planned an extra couple of days.

You can go to a castle outside Budapest where Elisabeth, Franz Joseph's very strange wife, had a residence and to a small town known for its artisans. There are tour bus excursions to these places but I know you can go to the artisan village on a regular train because my girlfriend did (we split up for part of our time there because we had different interests and mine was NOT SHOPPING; hers was.). My girlfriend enjoyed the excursion and I saw some museums instead.

A word about English in Budapest: Not everyone speaks it. I certainly do not know much Hungarian. Nevertheless we had no difficulty getting around.

I have never been to Prague, but it's on the list towards the top at this point.

I was in Budapest this past May and spent 4 full days there and didn't see everything I wanted to. So, you can easily spend the entire time in Budapest.

Regarding English in Budapest, I really didn't find any difficulty finding someone who speaks English. All the young people in their 20s & 30s I met, spoke excellent English. The older generation however, doesn't. But, most of the people you'll come across at touristy places, will be able to communicate with you. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

I agree - with four or five days you won't need day trips. But if you insist, you can visit Szentendre and Godollo from Budapest by public transport. See http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/the-sore-foot-tour---budapest-austria-venice.cfm?81 for my second visit to Budapest.

Thank you very much for all your replies. I am hoping that this is not our last visit to that part of the world and I would like to break up the time between larger cities and get some feel of the country side.
Can anyone comment regarding driving conditions in Hungary and Czech republic. We have previously driven in France, Portugal and of course U.K. countryside. My wife is concerned about road signs and direction more that the drive conditions per se.

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Karl

We will be driving in Czech Republic in August so I will try to write a trip report when we get back and comment on the driving. I did read on another post here that driving through the CR is easy. We did drive in Poland in 2003, and didn't have any problems. Just make sure you have a good map with you. I have already bought my map from Barnes & Nobles. My guidebook does say that the road from Prague to Karlovy Vary (which is one of our destinations) can be dangerous because of people driving fast so we will just have to be extra cautious. We drove throughout Costa Rica several years ago, over the mountains & on narrow, windy roads, so I hope the drive from Prague to KV isn't worse than that.

Have you finalized your itinerary yet?

We went to Prague several years ago and rented a car to drive to Cesky Karmilov. Not difficult at all and definitely worth the trip. Especially because you can see this lovely place after most of the tourists go home, if you spend the night there. Our only problem was we drove back into prague to catch a flight and did not recognize the sign to the airport so took a wrong sign. So make sure you know both the name of the airport and the word in czech. Only time we had a trouble but we were really stressed.. Luckily I'm a good map reader.


Here is a link to my recommendations about accomodations

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/apartment-in-prague-5.cfm

We're off to Budapest this summer too

We are planning to split our time between Hungary and Czech republic. We are not much of a big city people but will spend four days each in Prague and Budapest whilst travel outside into the country of rest of the time. Places that we have planned have been chosen from previuos trip reports and discussion. I have not finalised the iteneray yet which I plan to have accomplished this weekend so that I can get the accomodations in place.

Thanks fo reveryone who have taken time to comment and I will be looking for your trip report Kwoo.

karl

Regarding driving suggestions for Budapest...DON'T!! Really, no one pays any attention to the signs, the lights, pedestrians...it is a nightmare city to drive in and since the public transportation is so good I'd recommend not even having a car in the city.