We are a Kiwi couple (mid 50s) planning a budget style tour for around 18 days of Krakow, Prague,Budapest and Vienna. We also want to see some of the countryside and Eger, Pltvic Lakes, Rab Island and Lake Bled sound great.We plan to fly into probably Vienna from London and exit via Bled.
Our questions to those who have done this before are:
- should we train/bus or travel by rental car?
- is Bled airport okay for exit as it is sort of at the end of the trip
- would Vienna be the best place to start
- we figure 3 days in each of Krakow, Prague, Budapest and Vienna which leaves 6 days for the balance. Is that sensible or not?

ttt

Hi be,

>...a budget style tour for around 18 days of Krakow, Prague,Budapest and Vienna.<

>we figure 3 days in each of Krakow, Prague, Budapest and Vienna which leaves 6 days for the balance. <

I suggest limiting your visit to the above mentioned cities.

If anything, I would skip Krakow.

Have a nice trip.

<<I suggest limiting your visit to the above mentioned cities.

If anything, I would skip Krakow.>>

For 18 days?

I thihk this is full-time folly, in the advice department.

Or are you saying, ira, load up on the "other" destinations ("some of the countryside and Eger, Pltvic Lakes, Rab Island and Lake Bled&quot and keep the number of days/nights in cities down?

I think the whole plan sounds quite sensible, though I have never been to Hungary myself.

And for what it's worth, each of the four countries you mention is smack dab in the middle of <i><b>Central</b></i> Europe.

Best wishes,

Rex

I've been reading about Krakow and wouldn't skip it, either. It seems like you'll have time for five cities comfortably in 18 days. The trains are so fabulous, I'd recommend you not hassle with a car unless you really need to reach an out-of-the-way place.

Contact Euraide.com for help with train tickets. They don't charge extra fees on top of the train fare, except a shipping and handling fee ($45, I think) for the entire reservation made at one time.

Your trip sounds fabulous. Please post a report when you return.

In general terms, your contemplated trip is certainly feasible, although you are perhaps a little ambitious in your plans for ancillary stops. We took a similar trip in fall, 2003 and it was one of our best trips ever. We flew to Krakow and traveled by rental car through eastern Slovakia to Budapest and ended in Vienna over a total of 16 nights. We considered going to Prague also but chose to save it for another time to be able to see areas we would be passing through that we would not likely visit otherwise (such as Zakopane, Pl and Presov and Kosice, Sk).

Re Bled airport, it is the airport for Ljubljana but is actually closer to Bled. We flew there this fall when we visited Slovenia and Croatia. It is a small airport but was fine.

You might want to consider flying into Krakow and exiting from Prague. By doing so you will be able to visit your major destinations by traveling in a half circle, whereas starting in Vienna and exiting from Bled will require traveling almost in a complete circle to connect the dots and involve traveling greater distances to do so.

We have done very limited train travel in Europe so I'll leave it to others to comment on that. Driving was very easy. Although many of the roads were single lane, they were well marked and well maintained.

I would suggest that you forego your stops in Slovenia and Croatia as being too far removed from your main target areas. Lake Bled is very pretty but if you are interested in beautiful mountain scenery, you will pass through the Tatra Mts. in the Zakopane area en route from Krakow to Budapest.

My only other comment at this point would be to consider 4 nights in Krakow. We considered it to be the highlight of our trip. If one of your days is the day of arrival, you will only have 2 full days there. You can easily spend a day in the Old Town and the second going through Wawel Castle and the Kazimierz (Jewish Quarter) and have no time left to see the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp or the Wieliczka salt mine, each of which are very worthwhile and require at least a half day.

I'll try to answer any other questions.

dcdee seems to have a great post going there, so I'll just add that when we were considering all of our options this las trip, I saw the Eger is just off the main Krakow - Kosice - Budapest line. Since you mentioned the town, I wanted to say that it's a great visit and I would highly recommend it for its own wine, its many churches, the Turkish Minaret and the castle overlooking the very attractive main square. Not huge, but enough to fill a day or two with an overnight. If you had more than 3 days for Budapest, you wouldn't run out of things to do, by the way.

I can't comment on how easy that would be to do driving as I haven't done it, although I've been to all those places except Bled. I thought there were definite issues on renting a car and trying to cross country boundaries in that area, and to try to drop off in other countries.

Anyway, I loved Krakow and sure wouldn't drop it, I preferred it to Vienna. If I were going to drop anything, I guess it would be Bled because it doesn't make sense if you follow dcdee's suggested route, which also makes sense to me as you won't be spending the time backtracking in a full circle.

YOu could do Krakow-Budapest-Vienna-Prague. YOu could throw in Bratislava to that easier than Slovenia, I think. You could also easily do that route by train, but that may not fit your desires and you can't see the countryside as much. You can take the train from Krakow to Budapest fairly easily -- it's a direct rail line to Budapest from Tarnow just a bit east of Krakow where you may have to change trains, I'm not sure. You could then take the train from Budapest to Bratislava and Vienna and then up to Prague.

I also imagine you are going to have better flights out of Prague than Bled, but you'll have to go through somewhere anyway, so maybe not. I just suspect you will as Prague is more of a major destination.

I agree with Christina regarding her opinion on Krakow and Vienna.
Krakow is a must see! Actually, Krakow is my favorite city on your list and in general. It has a magical atmosphere.
It seems like Krakow-Prague-Budapest route might work best for you. If you are looking for beautiful nature and a little break from the cities I would recommend the breathtaking Tatra Mountains (Zakopane could be your base).
Also, don't forget to visit Wieliczka Salt Mines while in Krakow (Wieliczka Salt Mines are right outside the city).
Also, dcdee's point about adding an extra night in Krakow is very valid since there are many attractions around Krakow which would require that additional time (one of them being the Wieliczka Salt Mines).
Have a great time on your trip!

thank you for the most helpful of replies. We are very grateful for the time you have taken and trust you all have great holidays soon too. We will report back!!

Bruce

I had a final query. dcdee said that hiring a car was great so which rental firm did you use?

thanks Bruce

bewallace-- We rented through Autoeurope. The car was actually from Budget but the rate was better through Autoeurope than directly from Budget. Also, the car rental company would not do a one-way rental dealing directly but would through Autoeurope.

I've been to all your major city choices and a car is a big mistake within those cities. If you want to stay in the smaller cities then do get a car. Driving around over there is no problem. Parking in the majors is a problem. You have plenty of time so maybe you could rent a car for a few days to make an long easy drive from Prague to Krakow or Krakow to Budapest, and drop the car off as soon as you arrive in the city. But drop off charges in another country are usually very high. Shop around if you decide to rent a car.

If you do a round trip starting in Vienna--given the relatively small size of the area, going to Bled is just by-passing Vienna--you could rent a car and avoid cross-border drop-off charges. There is no problem in driving any of the area. I've done all of it at some point since 1967 except for Poland.

The buy/sell option has been mentioned on this board for rental more than 17 days, but this option is not available from Vienna (Munich would be the closest city) and I think that with the foreign pick-up and drop-off charges, it would be more expensive than a rental for that amount of time.

i don't own a tour company, but i also agree.. DO NOT DROP KRAKOW.
totally unbiased suggestion.

the entire town is a world heritage site. although one can see there had not been the funding necessary to spruce up all the buildings ( at least 5 yrs ago there wasn't).. it is a gem.

i also love vienna.
and prague is .. well. so unique, although a lot of icing on the cake.

If you are flying up from NZ would be best to start off and return from somewhere with good flights from AKL or CHC, I think Emirates will get you from AKL or CHC thru to Vienna.