Hello, I'm traveling this June to Prague for 8 full days. I am 25. It will be me, my fiance, and our 5 year old daughter. We want to spend 3 days elsewhere, but we can't decide where. Initially, I considered Nuremberg or Rothenberg ob der Tauber. Lately, I've been thinking possibly Salzburg and Hallstatt. I've, also, seen quite a bit about Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and other places. We would even consider taking a quick flight to London, Paris, Venice, or Amsterdam, as they are pretty cheap. It's so hard to decide! My five year old is a great traveler and she will happily join us in whatever we decide to do. I love history, food, beer, culture, beautiful sights, castles, all the usual things. We are considering renting a car or taking a bus or train to get to where we end up. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've been researching for days and can't make a decision. Thank you so much for your help!

Well where does one start-all those places are great IMO -trains are great for cities and even go to rural areas. Renting a car in one country and returning it in another can result in steep drop-ff surcharges. And with that few days I'd chose some cities = like Prague to Salzburg and take a bus an hour to the wonderful Sound of Music Country just east of Salzburg and then it's just about an hour to Munich for a day and for lots of flights home. For lots on trains, check www.seat61.com - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Berlin is only a few hours (about max for kid that age) and is a scenic ride when it goes thru Saxon Switzerland - Berlin has lots to see and do for several days.

I would vote for Prague and Vienna (where there are things to do for your five year old) or Dresden, which is a short train ride away from Prague.

In Vienna for kids:
•the Prater (an amusement park with a big ferris wheel)
•the Zoom Kindermuseum (no German required)
•the aquarium
•the tram that does the ring around Vienna
•at certain times of the year, there is swimming in the Danube (Donau in German)
•the butterfly house near the Hofburg. Buy an ice cream there and lie in the sun on the lawn.
•the Konditoreien (cake shops) - buy something wonderful from Oberlaa and enjoy it with a coffee or hot chocolate
•a bike ride with your young one in the kids' seat

Lavandula

You just have three days. Your ideas all require at least four travel hours and eat up the good part of one of these three days. Also three days is very little time e.g. for Berlin or Vienna. So the most obvious choice is Dresden. It isn't that huge and just two hours by train. See the old town, do at least one museum like the Green Vault and maybe do a trip to Meißen or to Schloß Moritzburg or Pillnitz.

> I love history, food, beer, culture, beautiful sights, castles, all the usual things.

Agree with Lubitsch. Dresden is close by (2 hours by train or bus) and has all this. Plus the National Park Saxon Switzerland for great outdoors (also if you just want to look.)

www.schloesserland-sachsen.de

www.saechsische-schweiz.de

(English versions available for both websites.)

I also thought of Dresden as a good choice. or Vienna, if it appeals. I think Salzburg plus Hallstatt is okay but maybe you need more days? Personally, I'd take them from Prague, 8 days seems like a lot in that one city unless you have plans of what you want to do there so long.

Dresden, which has a few museums worth a visit: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjpsKahy

We did a great loop that included Munich - Prague - Salzburg - Innsbruck and then back to Munich for departure. Of those I wished I could of also added Vienna but we ran out of time. Budapest is also beautiful but again I think you might run into the same problem we did. You don't want to spend all of your time commuting and not actually enjoying the places. It is a good problem to have though, narrowing those list of places down to one or two - enjoy!

We loved Vienna. Such a wonderful city.

I vote for a train ride too. Kids love those.

there are direct train ride to Dresden from Prague in just a few hours - less than to Vienna. And a scenic ride thru Saxon Switzerland and along the river to Dresden. Dresden is manageable in a few days - Vienna not so. but, again any of those places would be great.

Well.... we didn't see everything but we went to Vienna for a long weekend and we were very happy with what we did see. I am sure the train ride would be more scenic to Dresden.

I don't understand why among all those options nobody even mentioned Kutna Hora, a city on UNESCO's heritage list, just as Brugge does. Not to mention that you'd spend far less than all those other cities where you'd pay a considerable amount of euros.

Unfortunately 1st time visitors or about would naturally want to see a Vienna than a Dresden. And though I like Dresden it is no Vienna, a world-capital city with lots of glamour. apart from its riverside I recall most of Dresden rather dreary, being built during days being in communist East Germany.

That's only the area between the train station and the center of town. Depending on the amount of time available, a smaller city might make more sense that a large capital.

It's about time to pay another visit to Dresden, Pal, and venture out from the city centre to the scenic residential areas along the river!

This is a very valid point actually. While I absolutely love Prague, especially the architecture and the history, then 8 days is a very long time to spend there. The old town area, which is the main area that you'll want to explore is actually quite small. Some of the outlying areas of Prague are not as appealing and could in fact be any other Eastern European functional, yet drab, city. The old town though is spectacular.

Perhaps you could remove some of the days allocated to Prague, even when traveling with a young one, and have more time available to visit other areas. 4 or 5 nights in Prague Old Town would be ample in my opinion.

With 8 days, I had assumed they might take a day trip to Kutna Hora or Karlštejn Castle, etc etc.

Obviously it depends on your interests and any of the cities you mentioned would be fine.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Krakow. I combined it with my trip to Prague and loved it. You can take an overnight sleeper train to and from Prague/Krakow. It's comfortable and will not take up a full day of travel time each way and it can be your hotel for two nights.