seeksocean

Thank you Fleur! I have a Prague hotel reserved. Now looking for my best options for a Vienna hotel. In the Innere Stadt area. And possible tours/food tours

MoBro

In Vienna, we really liked the historic Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth. Great location with elegant service. Fabulous breakfast.
We contacted the hotel directly for a discount.

https://www.kaiserinelisabeth.at/en/hotel/about-us/

seeksocean

Thank you! That hotel is on the top of my list of ten candidates.

Klgallo

After everyone's input and loads and loads of research our trip plans are coming together and I thought I would share them with you.

AMSTERDAM

Staying four nights at the Estherea Hotel. We are arriving at 9:00 a.m. from San Francisco and assume we will get to our hotel at about 11:00 a.m. We hope to stay awake through the day and get on local time. Planned a canal tour at 7:00 p.m. with Those Damn Boat Guys. The next morning we are going on a Food tour with Eating Europe called the Jordaan Cozy Food Tour which we hope will give us our bearings in the City and find places to eat for dinner. https://www.eatingeurope.com/amsterd...-walking-tour/ Saturday and Sunday at 9:00 a.m. (we are hitting the Van Gough and the Rikjsmuseum. Was able to get the tickets for the Rikjsmuseum months ago, but Van Gogh tickets were only available two months out. Our last night we have a reservation at Blauw for Indonesian food. Also recommended by posters. Amsterdam has so much to see that we are looking forward to wandering around and play the rest of our time by ear. Some places on the agenda is the Resistance Museum, the Maritime Museum and going to Noodermarket on Saturday, the Albert Cuyp Street market and drinking at some cool bars and pubs that people have been recommending. Don't know if we are going to see the tulips. Again, playing it by ear.

BUDAPEST

We are staying four nights at the Aria. It has a music theme and a great rooftop bar. https://ariahotelbudapest.com. We have made a lot of plans and then there are all the must sees that have to be done around the tours. We arrive via plane from Amsterdam around 1:00 p.m. We booked an evening food and wine walk with Taste Hungary https://tastehungary.com/tour/budapest-dinner-walk/. Seeing Carmina Burana at the Opera house one night. Doing a Jewish Heritage tour run by the Jewish community. https://jewishtourhungary.com/en/jewish-quarter-tour It was highly recommended on the Rick Steves Forum for Hungary. Also planning a Danube night cruise with Legenda https://legenda.hu/en There is also the torture museum which I am not sure I can endure. There are a lot of wonderful sights and must sees and my wanderlust is definitely peaked in this City as I look foward to walking down the streets of Vaci Street and Andrassy ú.

VIENNA

Staying four nights at Das Tyrol. https://www.das-tyrol.at Still haven't gotten my arms around this city. What Museums should we see besides the Belvedere to see the Kiss. Should we spend half a day and go to Schonbrunn Palace. What about the Spanish Riding School? We are going to the Opera and seeing Marriage of Figaro. We splurged for very good seats, but what to wear? I am definitely not taking a gown. I hope I will be forgiven wearing black pants and a cashmere sweater. Saturday is another food tour. This one is called Vienna's Highlights: Food, Coffee and Market Walking Experience. https://www.viator.com/tours/Vienna/...a/d454-50366P1 As you can tell we like food tours. It gives us the opportunity to get our bearing in the city, find great food and get some fun insight from the guide. Most places except the Museums are closed on Sunday, but luckily there is a food festival called Genuss Food Festival at Start park. Our 27 year old son is looking forward to sitting in a Cafe drinking coffee and reading a book like the great intellectuals, but the rest of the time is up in the air.

PRAGUE

Staying three nights at the Aria hotel. Another food tour with Eating Europe, but the rest of the time it is wandering the streets and seeing the wonderful sights. The Navalis festival is on the evening of May 15th.

BERLIN

Talk about a big city and so much to do. We chose to stay at the Hotel Alton Kempinski as it is right next to the Brandenburg Gate https://www.kempinski.com/en/hotel-adlon. Many of the sites are within walking distance of the Hotel and there is a S-Bahn and U-bahn stop right there. I had been to Berlin Christmas 1987 when it was still East and West Berlin and wanted to go back to see the united City. The only plan we have made is a five hour private tour of Berlin which is going to emphasize the Cold War as well as the Berlin Airlift. There is so much to see that we have narrowed down the following as must see:
(1)Reichstag Building which you can registers two months in advance,
(2) Museum Island
(3). Berlin Spy Museum
(4) Berlin Underground Tours.

When we return I will update you on our adventures.
.

tomboy

Vienna: Kunsthistoriche Museum..........WONDERFUL art museum....not to be missed; spent 3 hours could have spent 6. the Treasury, if you want to see a memorable gold crown. spent 30 min., could have done it in 10, but just to see the crown that Emperor Franz Josef (king of Austria-Hungary) wore

Budapest- Parliament; Ethnography Museum (across the street....good display of the roots of central Europe); baths; Central Market;

seeksocean

Thank you so much Klgallo for starting this thread. So much great information! I’ll be revisiting all of the comments as I finalize my solo trip. I wish I could have added Budapest…just not enough time. My travels actually originate in Switzerland and France with a reunion of friends. Thank you again!!

seeksocean

I have everything pretty booked out. I’m just looking for recommendations for tours, food tours, etc. to do on my 3 nights (2 full day..Sunday and Monday) in mid September. Any tour (especially food tour) guides that you particularly recommend would be great. Hoping to catch an opera one of the nights I am there. I am staying in the Innere Stadt district.

••• I realize that I should read up with all the different comments, but I can’t delete this so I will do my due diligence and check it out. Thank you!