bu67

My wife and I are working on a return genealogy trip to Cluj, Romania (Transylvania) in late September or early October. Also, friends want to meet us in Budapest for a few days during our trip. Finally, we want to go through England either at the beginning or end of our Central Europe adventure. Since we are prepared to make this a 3-week trip, I suppose we could add another destination (Prague) or just stretch our stay in the three locations mentioned. This year, we are planning to take a train from Cluj to Bistrita, a city near my maternal grandparents' birth places of Posmus and Viile Tecii. When in Bistrita, we would try to hire and English-speaking guide to take us to these villages.

I will appreciate any comments or suggestions about this possible venture.

janisj

What does "we want to go through England" mean? Just transit through London en route? Or visit London and some nearby places? Or actually tour through various parts of England?. If the latter, where specifically in England are you considering??

thursdaysd

Budapest can certainly occupy several days. I was going to suggest visiting Szeged on the way to Cluj, but turns out it would be a pain by public transport (I did it from Timisoara).

bilboburgler

I'm guessing you are of Hungarian descent (hope I've not offended you)

I might try and visit some spas in Hungary, there are so many, my favorite is Miskolctapolca

bu67

We have long-time friends in Brighouse that we would like to see either at the beginning of the trip or on the way back to the US. Unless they meet us in London, we could fly to Manchester. We are not planning to do any touring in England.

bu67

Let me tweak what I originally posted back on 28 March. I'm going to drop England from the proposed itinerary. Part of this trip will be doing some family research in Transylvania, east of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Let me start over.

Cities to include in the itinerary in no particular order. Prague, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca and Bistrita, Romania. What if we flew from the US to Prague, then via train to Budapest, train or plane from Budapest to Cluj-Napoca, train from Cluj to Bistrita (close to grandparents' birth places), train back to Cluj-Napoca, fly from Cluj to Munich & fly back to the US. I can see spending 4 or 5 days in Prague, 4 or 5 days in Budapest, and finally about 8 days in and around Transylvania. Hypothetical schedule:

Day 1 Fly from. US to Prague, arriving day 2
Day 2 Arrive Prague
Day 3 Prague
Day 4 Prague
Day 5 Prague
Day 6 Prague
Day 7 Prague
Day 8 Travel to Budapest
Day 9 Budapest
Day 10 Budapest
Day 11 Budapest
Day 12 Budapest
Day 13 Budapest
Day 14 Travel to Cluj - maybe by air
Day 15 Cluj
Day 16 Travel to Bistrita via train
Day 17 Bistrita/Transylvania (Posmus & Viile Tecii - about 45 minute drive from Bistrita)
Day 18 Bistrita/Transylvania (Posmus & Viile Tecii)
Day 19 Travel back to Cluj via train
Day 20 Fly from Cluj to Munich or ?
Day 21 Munich or ?
Day 22 Fly back to US

As you can see the itinerary is still incomplete. Are 5 full days in and around Prague and Budapest too many? I imagine there are some great day trips out of the 2 cities.

Travel_Nerd

A couple of questions: Have you now nixed going to the UK/London?

Why are you going all the way to Munich - you do not seem to have anything planned there? If it is for flights home, try to fly home from Romania if you can. If it is because of budget, consider how much it would take you to get to Munich (figure both time AND money with this) as opposed to flying home from Romania with some layovers.I don't know the flight research you have done thus far.

I cannot comment on your Romanian leg as I have not yet been there, but that portion seems a *bit* rushed to me in comparison to your other stops.. As Prague and Budapest days being "too many," I personally do not think so; but it also depends on what you are planning to see in both of those cities.

Knowing that your goal is to for geneology research and such, you could *probably* stand to lose a day from each Budapest and Prague to give you that extra time for your goal; but again, it does depend on what you want to see in both cities.

thursdaysd

Looks like there are night trains between Prague and Budapest and Budapest and Cluj. See what seat61.com has to say about them. Also, Budapest deserves as much time as you can give it.

bu67

The trip is pretty firm now.
Arrive Prague on 29 Sep
Prague 29 Sep - 5 Oct
Take train from Prague to Budapest on 5 Oct. Middle of the day.
Budapest 5 Oct - 11 Oct
Fly from Budapest to Cluj-Napoca, Romania 11 Oct
Travel (train?) from Cluj-Napoca to Bistrita, Romania 12 Oct
Bistrita, Romania 12 Oct - 16 Oct. Family research - genealogy - maternal grandparents born in Transylvania in 1890 and 1897.
Travel (train) from Bistrita back to Cluj-Napoca on 16 Oct
Cluj-Napoca 17 Oct
Fly from Cluj-Napoca to Munich 18 Oct
Munich 19 Oct. We were in Munich in 2022. My wife wants 1 more full day in Munich.
Fly from Munich non-stop back to US on 20 Oct

Plane reservations are made. Train reservations have not been made.