jh4wvu

Two of us (34/ male) are planning on spending 16 days between Prague, Vienna, and Budapest and wanted to see what folks could suggest.

We were going to purchase a tour through Cosmos but several of our friends who have travelled to Europe said we would be better off planning it ourselves. More bang for our buck. (Even my AAA agent said we would save money by doing it ourselves rather than having them plan it)

So I have spent my evenings in Barnes and Nobles reading and online trying to find the "best" deal. Probably will be using Orbitz for most of these bookings.

We are mainly trying to get the flight and hotels settled by this weekend and then will fill in the blanks with the fun stuff. Still trying to decided if we want to rent a car for the whole trip (about $800 plus gas) or just take advantage of the public transportation or both.

If anyone has suggestions of "must see" stuff as well as anything else that would be great. Anybody have experience with the hotels we are looking at?

Preliminary Itinerary - July 25 - August 11

Arrive in Prague on July 26 for 5 nights
Hotel: Hotel: Hotel Am Konzerthaus - http://hotel-am-konzerthaus.h-rez.com/
Possible day trip to Cesky Krumlov

May stop in Brno for lunch and walk around for a bit on the way to Vienna (if we rent a car)

Vienna for 5 nights
Hotel: Domus Henrici - http://www.domus-henrici.cz
Possible day trip to Melk Abbey

1 night in Bratislava. It was suggested to stop overnight in Bratislava and stay at the Marrol's Hotel Bratislava - http://www.hotelmarrols.sk

Budapest for 5 nights
Hotel: Boutique Hotel Bristol - http://www.boutiquehotelbristol.com/

Fly out of Budapest on August 11

Thanks for your help in advance.

Chris

BigRuss

Do Prague for 6, Vienna 5 and Budapest 5 if you want "equal time" for the three b/c arriving in Prague after your transatlantic flight will wipe you out for most of the day. You do not need a night in Bratislava, a day trip from Vienna should suffice -- it is really small.

Your Prague hotel link is for a Vienna hotel. We stayed at Bishop's House and liked it, there are lots of recs on this board. Stay in Prague 1 area.

You do NOT need a car in major European cities. The public transport is uniformly good, unlike major US cities in the south and west where a car is a necessity. The money you will save by not dropping off a car in a different country from the one in which you pick it up will more than pay for your train tickets from point to point. In Vienna, there is at least one tram line that will basically give you a tour of the city. In Budapest, the #2 line (I think) gives great river views along the Pest side.

I wouldn't choose your Budapest hotel. It is far from the river, from Parliament, from St. Stephen's Basilica, from Dohany Utca, from Liszt Ter (a lively night spot) and even from Deak Ter, the main square of the Pest side of the city. We stayed at the K&K Hotel Opera, which is right around the corner from the Opera House, meters from Andrassy ut., and a short walk to the Chain Bridge. It's ranked #8 of 300+ on Trip Advisor and had a great breakfast spread. I don't know your price range, but I'd strongly consider staying closer to the river and closer to Andrassy ut.

I don't know Vienna and I don't know your interests, so "must see" is a relative concept. Here are suggestions:

Budapest:
Dohany St. Synagogue, the Weeping Willow and Jewish Quarter tour
Budapest Castle and Fisherman's Bastion
Parliament and Imre Nagy Memorial
City Park, Heroes' Square, Anonymous
Gellert Hill
Margaret Island
Museum of Terror (I think is the name -- it's about KGB and Hungarian secret police control of Hungary in the Cold War)
Absolute Tours Hammer & Sickle tour (http://www.absolutetours.com/tours/r...ckle-tour.html) -- we took it, was excellent, if you're there on a Monday, do this tour then because the other museums are closed

Prague:
Castle
Communism Museum
Petrin Hill
Josefov
Tyn Church
Day trip Terezin

jh4wvu

Hotels I was looking at should be as follows.

Prague - Domus Henrici - http://www.domus-henrici.cz
Vienna - Hotel Am Konzerthaus - http://hotel-am-konzerthaus.h-rez.com
Boutique Hotel Bristol - http://www.boutiquehotelbristol.com

I was copying and pasting and put them in the wrong cities.

Chris

Ingo

I agree with BigRuss that the location of your hotel in Budapest is not very good. I found the area to be a bit run down, Rakoczi ut. is a VERY busy and noisy road. I stayed at the Corinthia Grand Royal, I can recommend it highly. If you can find something closer to Deak Ferenc ter then that would probably be perfect.

Same for Prague. The Domus Henrici looks very good, but again, it is located quite far from the city centre (which is not necessarily bad) in a quiet neighbourhood. The action (especially at night) is elsewhere. And that's probably what guys at that age are looking for, right?

In general, I personally would get crazy and need a vacation afterwards if I spent 16 nights in a row in cities. But that's just me. I'd throw in some nights in small towns/the countryside.

annhig

jh - I like the time you've given to each place, but IMHO it's a shame that you won't be spending some time in the countryside. I know that this is more difficult to do when you don't know the area, and in high summer, you are going to want to book ahead, especially with 4 of you.

in order to give yourselves a countryside experience, I would suggest borrowing a night from each of your three main destinations, and spending them somewhere in the Salzkammergut, walking, boating, cycling. st. Gilgen is highly thought of by bettyk on this forum and she has posted many threads about the advantages of staying there. we ignored her, stayed in ST. Wolfgang, and rather wished we hadn't! there are boats for getting around the lake, [wolfgangsee] and an old-fashioned train for transport to the top of the mountain.

Whilst in Vienna, as well as Melk, i strongly recommend a day trip out to the "heuriger" [wine taverns] of Grinzing, perhaps after a trip to the top of the Kahlenberg on the bus [you can walk down through the vineyards, stopping at hueriger on the way, but make sure that you drink water and eat as well!]

as for Bratislava, I disagree with BigRuss - it's well worth a night in the city, especially if you can get a room at the hotel marrols. we loved that place. walking distance of the old town, lovely rooms with free wifi and mini-bar, welcome drink, generous breakfast, super staff, ..what more can I say. there's plenty to see in the time that you have given yourselves there, the centre is very interesting, and there are lots of nice-looking restaurants, including curiously lots of sushi bars, bizzarely.

have a great trip

regards, ann

bratsandbeer

Taking the train from Prague to Vienna and from Vienna to Budapest would be the way to go. Much cheaper than renting a car.

Not to confuse you but you might like something like the following.

You could do Prague 4 nights, Vienna 4 nights, Budapest 3 nights and one night on the overnight train to Venice. And see Venice for 4 nights - that is if you have not been there before.
We did this in 08 and it was a fun trip.

BigRuss

Agree with Ingo: wherever the hotel in Prague actually is, it is NOT close to the tourist attractions (other than the Castle), is not conveniently located with relation to Malostranska and especially is far from Old Town. The point of staying in these cities is that they're not particularly large (compared to London, NY, or even Chicago, Paris, Madrid) and are eminently walkable. They're not nearly as walkable, or as enjoyable, if you stay so far from where you want to go within the city that it takes 20+ minutes on public transport to get to a site you want to visit.

I'd rethink the Prague and Budapest hotels, and double-check on the one in Vienna to get a better location.

iris1745

Agree with BigRuss. Stay near the city center. You can use this hotel site, that allows you to select district 1 in each city. Now you will be within the old city. Just add the city to the web site. Then scroll down to find the district. Richard booking.com/

joannyc

I'd add one night in Cesky Krumlov and take that night away from probably Budapest (although I liked Budapest better than Vienna). Whatever you decide, look into getting tickets for the baroque theater tour at the CK castle... one of the four remaining in the world and very few people are allowed on each tour.

No need for a car as public transport is very good in and between these cities. And, you typically incur a very large drop fee for picking up in one country and dropping in another. And, then there are all the parking fees.

For Melk, you can take the train out there and then a boat/train combo back to Vienna. Do go, it's well worth a day trip!

Have a great trip! And, if you search on this site for any of those cities, you will find a wealth of information as it's a very popular topic!

LucieV

We just returned from Budapest. We spent 4 nights at the Gerloczy Hotel, perfectly located just a few blocks from Deak Ferenc ter. I cannot recommend it more highly. Not only did we love the hotel and the cafe (we ate there for breakfast* every day, for lunch twice, for dinner once), it has gone into our list of memorable places to stay. I felt like I was back in Vienna in 1971.

http://www.gerloczy.hu/

*(though we chose NOT to do the 10 Euro breakfast...we're light eaters, so it was significantly less expensive for us to order croissants, cappuccinos, and juice a la carte.)