zoechka

My dear friends,
We are going to Vienna arriving August 13, leaving August 23
US and 3 teenagers (love WWII team, hiking, and food)
We would love to make the most of Vienna, Prague, Budapest but can't decide how many days nights to spend in each city - leaning toward 6 days in Vienna, 3 days in Prague, one day in Budapest. Need ideas for time management , iternary, must see and do there and on a way to the cities listed. Please HELP!!!! Thank you!!!

MmePerdu

If you've determined that your interest in Budapest will be satisfied in a day, why not skip it, save the travel time & bother and add the day to one of the other locations.

zoechka

Only because of the limited number of days we thinking one day of Budapest, would like to hear suggestions though thank you

MmePerdu

My suggestion is as above, add the day to Prague rather than spending only 1 day in a major European city.

Also, you'll get a better sense of the meaningful amount of time you have in a given place by counting nights, rather than by days. So for 1 full day, you'll need 2 nights, which then accounts for travel time, usually most of a day.

TheEurogoer

I went on a trip that was planned as six nights each in Vienna and Prague. I found I had seen enough of Vienna in five nights, so I added another night to Prague, making the trip five nights Vienna and seven nights Prague and I'm so glad I did that. Given your time frame, personally I'd make the trip four nights Vienna and six nights Prague. Budapest is quite nice, but I don't think essentially a day trip will do that city justice and I would go along with MmePerdu and suggest skipping it on this trip.

BigRuss

Five Prague, five Budapest. A day trip to Budapest is a complete waste of time. Either you go or you don't. You won't see or experience Budapest (and what makes it different from Vienna or Prague as the lesser capital of the Hapsburg Empire or the non-Slavic capital of commie satellite, respectively) in a single day.

But if you're really going to try to see all three to some degree: 3-4-3.

annabelashley6

When I visited Prague I was only there for 2 whole days and managed to see the majority of what I wanted to see. However, we did a whole 18 hours sight seeing in one day and I have to admit it was a little bit intense whilst living cheaply - returning to a room shared with 34 other people and a loaf of bread for dinner :')

So I suggest going for 3 days, just to let your hair down a bit more. In Prague it's definitely worth it to pay a small sum of money to go up the Bell Tower in the Old Town Square and get an incredible and unique view of this gothic city. I also recommend going to visit the John Lennon Wall which is a place of beauty and happiness - there are sometimes people there with paint to hand out to the public, but perhaps invest in some paint whilst you're there to be sure you can leave your mark on this historic wall!

If you're a literature fan, I highly recommend to take a short detour to take a look at the Franz Kafka statue, it's very unique and inspiring. Be sure to also wander inside some of the beautiful Churches there too.

Also, if you're willing to venture a little bit out of central Prague you can get a train for very cheap to a place called Kutna Hora, and then a quick changeover to a small town where there is a church with tens of thousands of bones inside, all made to be macabre decorations for you to see (there is a small entrance fee but it's very very cheap). It doesn't take long to look at everything there but I could have spent hours in there just looking at the intricacies of the bones.

However, as with many great European cities, walking around aimlessly is such a key part of enjoying a particular location. Prague is beautiful and timeless, and if you find yourself lucky enough to be there on a nice Summers day take full advantage!

Obviously I was there on a very tight budget, but if you have more cash to spare go ahead and look at some more activities to do that may involve a bit more money such as the 5 hour tour around
Terezin Concentration Camp (you mentioned you were interested in WWII).

I hope this helped and I hope you have a great trip!

kja

Do you already have tickets into and out of Vienna? Then for one thing, consider putting ALL of your time there at the END of your trip.

I agree that you would be better skipping a day trip to Budapest and using that time elsewhere.

BUT it's your trip. Trying to see all three cities in the time you have will necessarily mean skipping a LOT. So I think you need to decide on some priorities and lay them out on a calendar. It's really the only way to decide what will work for YOU.

Good luck!

fourfortravel

kja offers sage advice: use a calendar and plan your priority activities for each city as well as the transportation time between them (in your case, the train is most practical).

Also factor in that Central Europe can be hot in August and how that may affect your pace. Many stores and restaurants take "urlaub" (holidays) in August, though it's barely noticeable in the capital cities. In Austria, at least, stores and many restaurants are closed on Sundays; and, for your planning, Monday, 15 August is a public holiday.

Happy Planning!

kja

(@ fourfortravel: )