stever

Glad to hear that the Ibis Centrum in Budapest would be a fine location to stay at and I appreciate the tip on the bus to Vienna (if I have time) and cheap places in eat in Prague. When I travel I usually only eat vegetarian so this area is good to know. I don't drink but the Czech beer sounds great if I did! Putting the House of Terror on my list. That's right up my alley.

basingstoke2

DW sticks to mostly vegetarian too and that cafeteria had plenty of meatless choices. The Mucha restaurant worked for her too - they had some interesting salad and meatless dishes.

eliztravels

Here are some thoughts re airfare. I used this site which I heard about on Fodor;s before booking our flights to Prague for Sept:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com

It allows you to compare flights from most airlines for a month at a time and is a very easy way to monitor trends. I followed it for a few weeks before booking, with flights from Toronto ranging from about $900 to $1400. When I saw something under $1,000 with an acceptable airline I booked. (You can't book on this site-- go directly to the airline website) The prices went up the next day, down again for a day or two, then up again, and stayed there. I think the prices you are seeing now are about as good as you are going to get--4 to 5 months out is generally the best for international flights according to what I've read. Not sure where you are flying from so can't say if this looks like a good deal or not.

stever

Thanks everyone and especially for this matrix flight compare tool. Pretty cool... I"m leaving from Dulles and flying into Prague, then after 5 days there, taking the train to Budapest and 5 nights later flying back to Dulles (DC). Delta is $1074 in mid October for this RT flight. I doubt I'll do much better and it's the quickest flight there and back... I may book it soon unless you think I should wait.