DrewMpls

I will be traveling for about 5 weeks. I fly into Prague on September 13th and flying back home on October 18th from Athens.

Right now this is the plan with no specific dates between cities. Prague - Warsaw - Budapest - Croation coast - Belgrade - Skopje - Athens. I have Prague and Budapest covered but all the rest are new to me. I am having the most trouble with Belgrade and Skopje.

Right now I am looking for general opinions Likes/dislikes about the cities I will be traveling to. Also I will be traveling alone and was wondering if anyone will be in these cities while I am traveling.

joesorce

I would consider Krakow instead of Warsaw. Or both.

DrewMpls

oh yeah thats what I ment. I went to Warsaw last year and was not really impressed.

Caroline1

Krakow is a must! Don't forget about Wieliczka Salt Mines while visiting Krakow. Also, how about checking out the Baltic coast with a stop in wonderful Gdansk. You can stop at Malbork (biggest Medieval brick castle in Europe) on your way to Gdansk.
Enjoy your trip.

Caroline1

You can check out this link for my suggested itinerary for Krakow:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...ine1&fid=2

I think one needs to know Warsaw's history to really appreciate this very special city. The restored old town as well as few other reconstructed parts are beautiful. However, due to a complete distruction by the Nazis in WWII most parts of the city never returned to its pre-WWII glory.
A visit at the Warsaw Uprising Museum http://www.1944.pl/
might explain why Warsaw looks the way it does today.

BarryK

We were in Skopje last month. Not a whole lot to see and do there, and not an attractive city. We stayed one night at Hotel Centar before travelling to Ohrid. It's a nice, small hotel, good location. Near the olympic pool (everyone knows the olympic pool), near the shopping mall, and near the train station. The outdoor cafes along the river adjacent to the mall are nice. Good place for lunch and people watching. Walk across the stone bridge to the old section of town, wander thru the bazaar. See Kale (old fortress).

If you have any time to spend in Macedonia, it's worth a trip to Ohrid. Beautiful town on a beautiful lake. Several ~1000 year old monasteries to see. It's about 2 1/2 - 3 hours by bus from Skopje.

GSteed

Questions: How do you plan to travel? How old are you? Is this an economy or a deluxe event? Museums or Pubs? Opera or Music Halls? Suggestion: Chart a route from city to city. Join available bus tours.

DrewMpls

I plan on traveling with the eastern and balkin rail passes. With a few points taking busses.

The rough idea for the route is:
5 days in Prague
4 days in Krakow
5 days in Budapest
2 days in Zagreb
7 days allong croatian coast ending up in Montenegro
5 days in Belgrade
3 days in Skopje
1 day in Thessaloniki
5 days in Athens
Things could change but this is it for now.

I am 28 years old. For travel and accomodations this is a economy vacation. I am iterested in relaxation, reading, Architecture, museums, history and the occasional night life. I will spare no expense on learning more. I could care less if I have to sleep under a bridge. But if I fould out I missed a really amazing structure by one block. I would be very upset with myself.

BarryK

Drew,
A few more words to add to my earlier post.

3 days in Skopje is way overkill. Spend one day in Skopje and the other 2 in Ohrid.

If you plan on taking the overnight train from Thessaloniki to Athens, after a day of touring Thessaloniki, buy your ticket to Athens before you leave the station. Sleeper cars sell out quickly. OTOH, you may want to stop in Kalambaka on the way to Athens. Meteora and the monasteries perched atop the mountain peaks are worth seeing.

I haven't been in Belgrade in 25 years, but unless it's changed considerably, you may want to cut a few days out there, too.

julies

To a fellow Minneapolitan--

We've travelled quite a bit in eastern Europe and hope to do more.

In the Czech Republic you may want to consider Karlovy Vary, which is 3 hours west of Prague, for a day or two(also known as Karlsbad). The spa city the czars visited has some beautiful architecture and a fabulous Russian orthodox church. In the town about an hour outside of Prague (is the name Sedleck? I can't remember, but it is the place where the bone church is) where people go to see the ossuary there is also a fascinating church that is unrestored. It gives great insights as to what many of these churches would be like if they hadn't had the money to faithfuly restore them.

Our favorite country that we have visited in eastern Europe is not even on your list--Romania. The Bucovina area has truly unique painted wooden churches and beautiful scenery. The remote Maramures area in the northwest corner next to Ukraine has some very unique wooden churches, fabulous huge carved wooden gates and is really a slice of what Europe must have been like priior to WWII. I'd highly recommend the country.

JRock

I just spent a month in Eastern Europe - many of the countries you mention. I spent 2 days in Prague and found that to be enough; also added 2 days in Cesky Krumlov to canoe down the Vltava River (very nice). I spent 3 days in Krakow with night trains in and out. You could visit Auschwitz and be sure to go to Wielizca salt mine. I spent a day in Eger, Hungary - just a nice small town with some very interesting architecture from the Organic Architecture style. Next, I went to Budapest for 3 days where you should definitely check out Szichenyi Furdo (the Hungarian Baths). It is worth it to pay full price to use the locals entrance where they treat you very nice instead of using the Budapest Card to save 10% and use the tourist entrance where they treat you like cattle. Lots of good stuff to see in Budapest and try to catch an opera if you can. I recommend Slovenia - the Skocjan caves near Ljubljana and the Lake Bled area. Croatia was a highlight of my trip. I spent an afternoon in Zagreb just in between the train from Bled and the bus onwards to Plitvice National Park. Plitvice is excellent! But you only need one full day to see it all. I really like Split as well - try to stay within the walls of Diocletian's Palace. I got an apartment there for a few days and it was really fun. From Split, I took ferries to Hvar (good beach scene), Korcula (not as good as Hvar) and finally to Dubrovnik. There are lots of activities - kayaking, white water rafting, day trips to Montengegro or Bosnia, etc. I would recommend more time in Croatia and less in some of the cities in the northern countries. I haven't been to Belgrade or anyplace after. Have fun.

GSteed

Today: nit picking. Europe is in the area between 10 degrees West longitude and 60 degrees East longitude. Hence, Central Europe begins about Berlin and ends about at Moscow!

stephpaige

I'm looking for Belgrade accommodations, too - for next May. You're right - it's tough to find anything. When you return next week - let me know what you ended up doing there. Thanks!

Michal

<a href="http://www.mikulov.cz" target="_blank">Mikulov</a>

Roundtrip

Any posters here familiar with driving through Eastern Europe, as opposed to train or group tour travel? My proposed route would take us from Denmark, through Germany and, possibly, Poland before heading into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. But we've heard bad things about driving in Eastern Europe, particularly reports of a lot of auto thefts. Can anyone comment on that? We want to drive and see the famous sites along the route mentioned above so flying directly or taking trains aren't really options.

rex

Do you actually plan to drive in <i><b>Eastern</b></i> Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics and Russia)? Virtually all of this thread is about <i><b>Central</b></i> Europe.

I have driven in the Czech Republic and Poland (admittedly not a lot - - about five days), and I encountered no problems any different than in western Europe. I think others will tell you about the same for other central Europe countries like Hungary or the Balkans.

Best wishes,

Rex

SusanEva

Dear Roundtrip,

We have driven on three different trips through Poland and the Czech Republic. Each time we travel, the roads are improved - and they were fairly good to start when we began traveling in 1999.

No problems with auto theft, but we did take the usual precautions to lock the car, not leave valuables in sight, etc.

We saw many things in smaller towns because we were driving that you cannot easily see with public transportation. If you like to drive, I would encourage you to consider it.

Best wishes, SusanEvan

mijau

I live in Belgrade, so ask me any questions you ahve about it.

Roundtrip

Thanks to Rex and Susan for the replies. We are considering driving from tip of Denmark (coming down from Norway), through Germany and then into Poland, Czech Republic, and into Slovakia, where my father hopes to meet up with an old friend. I guess I'm old fashioned and still think of those countries as &quot;Eastern Europe.&quot; We're considering maybe a three-week driving tour, with stops in Berlin, the Bavarian Alps (Eagle's Nest!), Vienna, Prague, and Bratislava. Does that seem doable in three weeks? If not, I'm considering joining my parents in Berlin rather than being with them for the whole tour.

Caroline1

Sounds good.
I would suggest Gdansk, Wroclaw, Krakow and Zakopane for Poland.
Still, you might not have enough time to hit all (especially Gdansk).
So, Krakow and Zakopane and maybe Wroclaw since they are all on your path.
Happy travels!