Advice on 3 weeks journey in Central and Eastern Europe
 

Hi,

My travel agents suggest the following itinerary in late Jul to me:

Day 1: Fly into Vienna
Day 2 to 5: Budapest (stay for 3 nights), then night train to Warsaw
Day 6: Warsaw
Day 7 to 10: Krakow (stay for 3 nights), then night train to Salzburg
Day 11 to 13: Salzburg
Day 14 to 15: Cesky Krumlov, via Cesky Budejovice
Day 16 to 19: Prague
Day 20: Fly out from Prague

We include Salzburg as my DW has not been there in her last trip to Austria.

Questions:

1) If I can allocate one more day, which city should I put more focus?
2) Based in Budapest, if I want to do 1 to 2 day trips, which cities are preferred: Eger, Szentendre, Visegrad, Esztergom?
3) Similarly, for day trips out of Krakow, any recommendation: Zakopane? Berchspaden?
4) For day trip out of Prague, Karolovy Vary and Brno are possible?
5) For Salzburg, does it worth a day trip to Hallstatt?
6) If I want to avoid night train, where should I stop over between Budapest and Warsaw, Krakow and Salzburg?

Thanks.

1. Why are you flying into Vienna rather than into Budapest. You won't have much time to see Vienna - only an afternoon and an evening.

2. I wasn't impressed with Brno and the UNESCO site there is closed for renovation so I would not recommend Brno.

3. In Krakow I did the Salt Mine which was very interesting but took most of the day even though it's not far outside the city. I didn't see the 2 towns you mention. If you choose Brno then don't make it a day trip from Prague but go there after Cesky Krumlov on the way to Prague.

A day trip from Prague could be to Kutna Hora. But my favorite town (of what I've seen in the Czech Rep) was Telc for it's beautiful square.

4. If you do a day train from Krakow then check the train schedules first. All the trains I looked at leaving Krakow took forever to get anywhere. I decided to fly out of Krakow.

BTW - you don't need to keep posting this question. If there are no responses you can top your own post.

I notice you are not staying in Vienna. Is that on purpose or an oversight? Hallstatt is very interesting,but your time in Salzburg is so short. In fact,most of your stays do not give you much time for day trips.I would really read up on all the options and then go to the ones that interest you the most

The reason that we fly into Vienna is that it is one of the options (also for Prague) of the cheapest flight package. As my wife is not so keen on the city, we shall just spend one night there and move on to Budapest the next day.

I have been to Salzburg alone and I think 3 days are pretty enough, unless we can grab some tickets for the music festival.

Here are a few links to my trip report with pictures from Prague, Český Krumlov, Olomouc and Kraków. Have a great time.

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...ague_2008.html

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...%B3w_2008.html

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...vnik_2008.html

((H))

Dsoch, thanks for your advice. We are not serious hikers but want to see some natural landscape. Is a day trip out of Krakow is doable to get what we want?

Maitaitom, very good reports with the photos. It is very helpful for our planning.

Hi; You can get good information to 'download' for two of the cities you are visiting on this site. Richard www.inyourpocket.com

Eger, is good from Budapest, visit the valley of the virgins for a wine taste, shiraz for an outdoors spa and the central university observatory in a tower for the best view.

In Czech you might like Pilsner to visit the brewery.

Bilboburgler, after reviewing the comments on this forum, I am also inclined to visit Egar rather than Danube Bends as day trip from Budapest.

For Pilsner, is day trip doable out of Prague or CK.

Pilsner is a day trip by train from Prague. The trip only takes an hour ( ithink but it was 2 years ago), but with lunch and a walk around town you will probably kill 4 hours. Train about an hour.

Danube bend is a bend. In Hungary you need to visit spas, such agreat way to let the body catch up