Thank you for the tips! I'm starting to think we may have to skip Rothenburg as well. Sadly.

My friend's budget is $2500 at the most, including airfare - and she lives in the middle of the country, so airfare is more expensive for her than I coming from LAX. Rothenburg is a bit out of the way from the big cities as well.

Perhaps we will do the Wachau Valley instead.

I'm sure there are beautiful places around Prague as well - I just need to research them.

I had this grand vision of us railing from town to town, swept up in the beauty of Europe. I'm hoping I'm not too disappointed by just being in the big cities (Prague, Vienna, Salzburg).

I found much to enjoy in those cities!

Should be a great change from taking cruises, and if you really do run out of things to keep you happily busy, you can always take a spontaneous day trip. Any good guidebook should give you some ideas.

Austria as described by StCirq fits my idea of it.
I went several times and have yet to find the people pheasant.
Albeit I count one Austrian as a close friend.
Prague is great as well as Dresden which is very close.
I would personally choose some places not too far away. The idea of spending so much daytime in train or bus has no appeal to me.
Don't forget that in Europe you needn't cover ground to have a lot to see.

WoinParis - what would an ideal 12 day itinerary be like for you? Total budget should be under $2500 for two people for hotels, food, and train. (The other $2500 is airfare to and from the States for us)? I'm always curious to hear where others would travel.

I rode a bike from Prague up to Dresden this year. You can follow my name back. The Prague the tourist normally sees is only a very small part of the city which has some very fine green spaces. Going north using the trains is certainly pleasant enough with interesting geographical features on the German border. Castles, concentration camps, and rebuilt ancient cities litter the way to Berlin. People are pleasant though prices roughly double as you cross the border.

Melnik is certainly worth doing a small train trip to.

Hi Eric
I do mainly family holidays nowadays.
Last vacation we took in Europe that was not on the beach was 10 days in Slovenia, walking along lake Bohinje , visiting caves, taking a rope cable that brought us on a ski resort (in june) where we spent half a day, we spent one night in Bled and 7-8 in LLubjlana, visiting Tirana, Trieste, some other cities.
Cost as 120 €/night (apartment for 6 - we were 6 (5 adults or like and 1 kid) + car (300 € for the week ?) + fuel (100 € ?) + entries to attractions (150-200 € ?) + Flights (150 €/pp).
Excluding food : less than 500 €/pp.

Dresden to Prague - sit on east side of train for best views of Saxon Switzerland the train runs smack thru -not much of interest of west side.

Hello all!

First I'd like to say, "Thank you" for everyone's help and constructive criticism.

I THINK we've decided on our itinerary and it goes as follows:

May 15 - Fly into Paris/Check in/Explore during day
May 16 - Train: Paris-Zurich-Prague. Overnight sleeper train
May 17 - Check into hotel in Prague
May 18 - Prague
May 19 - Prague
May 20 - Prague - Vienna. Check into hotel in Vienna
May 21 - Vienna
May 22 - Vienna
May 23 - Vienna - Budapest. Check into hotel in Budapest.
May 24 - Budapest
May 25 - Budapest - Ljubljana
May 26 - Ljubljana
May 27 - Llubljana - ? to fly home

Does this appear more reasonable?

Still has problems. Forget Paris, fly into Prague. Forget Ljubljana, fly home from Budapest.

Your first few days make no sense to me. Why fly into Paris if you have no interest? Fly into the first city you want to visit, Prague, in this case. And adding on Ljubljana at the end detracts from your overall trip, IMO. What you have listed above is two full days in Prague, two full days in Vienna and one full day in Budapest. If you cut the superfluous stuff, you can end up with enough time in each Prague, Vienna and Budapest to have experience some of these places. Going more places means you see less, not more.

Getting worse again. :-( I agree with thursdaysd and Kathie.

We originally wanted to fly into Paris and then do an overnight train for the sake of doing the sleeper, however I had already been thinking of possibly just flying into Prague. It'll be roughly the same cost as flying into Paris and then taking a hotel and the sleeper.

Ljubljana is not that far away from Budapest (we want to visit, however not as excited about it as Prague and Vienna).

She's been to Paris, I have not and truthfully long to see the Eiffel Tower so I figured, hey, why not do 1.5 days in Paris - quick little visit, then we'll enjoy a train to Prague. One of the main reasons for this trip was to enjoy railing vs flying. But on the flip side, 1.5 days in Paris is not enough to do a great city justice.

I don't ask this in a defensive manner, but how is Ljubljana detracting from our trip?

I'm totally open to suggestions !

Could Ljubljana be done as a day trip from Budapest?

I would say no. It is 4+ hours by car according to Google maps, and 21+ hours by train.

If you drop Paris Ljubljana is a little more feasible, but Prague, Vienna and Budapest each have loads to see and deserve several days.

"how is Ljubljana detracting from our trip?"

IMO, by leaving you with too little time anywhere. Traveling by rail can be a great way to travel, and it isn't just that it's a different way of traveling than going by cruise, but perhaps even more importantly because it gives you time to actually see the cities you visit. By traveling around so much, you are, I think, defeating that purpose. JMO.

Less indeed can be more!

why Ljubljana specifically, except as another place to add to your list?

I agree that it adds nothing to the trip and leaves you less time in the places you actually want to see.

Honestly, Paris, [if you want to go, go!] Vienna, Budapest and Prague will fill all of your 12 days and more.

Ljubljana is a very nice small city. I liked it enough the first time that I've been back. But it isn't close to the same class as the other cities on your list. And it doesn't fit well with them, geographically or, to some extent, culturally. It is part of the Balkans, not Central Europe, although less so than countries further south.

Hello! I know it has been awhile - work has been crazy busy. Her and I will be discussing this Sunday what we want to do, given our respective budgets and such. I will keep all of you updated :)

Thank you once again for your feedback. It was all greatly appreciated.