Elainetan

Hello
My husband and I have booked our ticket to Frankfrut and we plan to tour central Europe - warsaw, Krakow, budapest, prague, vienna then back to fra and take out flight back home.

we have planned our itineraries as follow and need inputs whether the following itineraries are practical.

Sept 18 ETD Frankfrut and we plan to take train down to Warsaw ( 3 nights in Warsaw)
Sept 21 Warsaw to Krakow ( 3 nights)
sept 24 Krakow to Budapest ( Budapest - 5 nights)
Sept 29 Budapest to Vienna ( Vienna - 4 nights)
Oct 3 Vienna to Prague ( Prague 5 nights)
Oct 8 Prague to Salzburg ( Salzburg 1 night)
Oct 10 Salzburg to Munich
Oct 11 Munich to FRA
0ct 12 FRA - ETD 1230pm

we are budget traveller and thought of travel using train or coach..
what is your advice and also... is there train direct from airport to warsaw please?

Thank you.

kja

You'll see some wonderful places, but to comment on your time allotments, it would help to know more: What are your interests? What kinds of things do you hope to see and experience on this trip?

Elainetan

Hi kja
thanks for your reply.
we love to see historical sites, We enjoy scenery, sight seeing,intend to visit castles, churches - appreciating the 'ancient architecture' and of course experiencing the local cultures, crafts, environment and food is a must also.

Thanks.

thursdaysd

Train schedules here: bahn.de

You will have to change at least twice between Frankfurt Flughaven and Warsaw. You might want to check for cheap flights, see: whichbudget.com or skyscanner.net

Elainetan

sure.. will check on those websites.
tq.

kja

Given your interests, this distribution of times seems a bit out of balance to me - but maybe I've misunderstood!

I don't have any solutions for you - only some options to consider.

You might want to consider adding time to Vienna, so you have at least 4 full days+ there -- it has some stunning museums and various grand buildings and churches and interesting streets/avenues to explore.

And Munich probably merits at least 2 (if not 3) full days. Before I visited it, my only image of Munich was tied up with Octoberfest - not my thing! But it is actually a wonderful city with some excellent museums and fascinating churches and some lovely public areas.

Although one could easily find more than enough to enjoy in 4+ days in Budapest and in Prague, you might consider cutting a day from each to make more time available for Munich and Vienna. Tough call!

You'll probably be spending part of your time in Warsaw recovering from jet lag, and so 3 nights there might make sense. You might, however, want a bit more time in Krakow than in Warsaw, so leaving as early as you are able on the day you plan to travel - or even leaving the day before (even late afternoon or early evening) might be worth considering.

Another option would be to skip Warsaw entirely. I'm glad I spent some time there, but I wasn't giving up time in other destinations to do so. (I was there for business, and was able to fit a fair amount of sightseeing around my obligations.) From my perspective, your itinerary is a little to tight for comfort, and cutting Warsaw - which is a bit further afield than anything else you plan to visit - might give you a bit more breathing room.

Or you might want to keep a few days for Warsaw in your itinerary if you don't think you'll get to that part of the world again, and instead cut, say, Munich (or Salzburg or ...), from this plan, since you might be more likely to be near Munich (or whatever) again in the future.

I thought Salzburg charming, and I think you will find it quite a contrast to your other destinations. If you can time your arrival and departure to give you something close to 2 days there, I don't think you'll regret it.

I only had a few hours in Frankfurt-am-Main's old town, and I thoroughly enjoyed them! I don't know if you'll be able to spend any time there, but if it works for you, it might prove worthwhile.

I think you should be able to use trains for all of your travels if that's your preference. Thursdaysd has given you the link to check.

When I was in Warsaw in 1994, there was easy bus transit from the airport to the center of town. But any good guidebook should give you that information. And whatever else you do, do invest in a good guidebook!

Hope this helps!

adrienne

<< is there train direct from airport to warsaw please >>

Do you mean the Frankfurt airport? Why didn't you buy air tickets to Warsaw rather than stop in Frankfurt and take the train to Warsaw?

I don't see any direct trains from Frankfurt Hbf to Warsaw; there are trains that have only 1 connection. You do know the trains take 10 to 12 hours?

There is a new train that goes from the Warsaw airport into town.

You only have 2.5 days in Krakow - not nearly enough time for this wonderful city.

Skip either Salzburg or Munich as you haven't allowed much time for either one - only a few hours in Salzburg (the train will take most of the day) before moving on to Munich the next day.

From Krakow to Budapest you can check the schedule for the Orangeways bus. The train takes about 10 hours.

You're moving around quite a bit over an area that requires many hours on trains.

thursdaysd

I was disappointed with Warsaw - the rebuilt old town just looked too fake to me. Unless you really want to go there I'd skip it in favor of extra time elsewhere.

adrienne - they're starting from the train station at the airport, not Frankfurt Main.

cdnyul

A train trip from Frankfurt to Warsaw, combined with a three day stay in Warsaw can only be described as cruel and unusual punishment.

Trains and train stations in Poland are magnets for drunks, the homeless, skinheads and Roma pickpockets. I suspect it is the same in other failed socialist experiments but I have no first hand knowledge.

There are only two old towns in Poland, Torun and Krakow. The old town in Warsaw is reassembled from the ruins of the old town of Malborg. Skip Warsaw.

You can see what countless millions have seen in Krakow in a couple of days. The area around Krakow can easily fill the the twenty five. The are mineral springs, spas, and scenic drives and hikes, and a lot of castles.

www.zamki.net.pl

The best and the cheapest way is to rent a car in Germany. I would start in Berlin, and end in Frankfurt.

Mark

bilboburgler

Train to Warsaw will be the painful bit, Warsaw is an aquired taste and I might avoid, have you thought about Gdansk as an alternative?

I wouldn't worry about trying to balance Prague, Vienna, Budapest, we all see different things, I found Vienna a little dull compared to the other two, even after I found the textile museum.

Munich, after having to spend a fair bit of time there due to the Messe I cannot see any reason to visit at all. Dresden or Liepzig stand out as finer

Elainetan

Dear fellow travellers,
appreciate your replies and suggestions.
This part of Europe is totally NEW to us and is our first time to travel on our own . ( Normally we travel with a group of friends). We are trying to cover as many interesting attractions as we can ...( but not overloaded)...

We decided to skip Warsaw...and we have 2 options in mind and need your help to fine tune/ comments.

Option 1
Sept 18 : ETA FRA - MUnich ( 2 nights in Munich)
* I have checked, Munich is extremely expensive due to Octoberfest- we are not into Octoberfest thingy... so, we thought of staying some where outside Munich but easy access to Munich?? any town that you can recommend OR Should we just skip Munich and go Salzburg direct??

Sept 20 : Munich- Salzburg ( 3 nights in Salzburg)
Sept 23: Salzburg- Vienna ( 4 nights in Vienna)
Sept 27: Vienna - Budapest (5 nights in Budapest)
**October 1: Budapest- Krakow ( 4 nights in Krakow)
October 5: Krakow- Prague (5 nights in Prague)
October 10: Prague- FRA
October 12 : ETD FRA 12.30pm

** We are not sure this is practical?? How long is the journey from Prague to FRA??

Option 2:
18/9 FRA to Prague ( train/flight) - Prague ( Prague -5 nights)
23/9 Prague to Krakow - Krakow ( Krakow- 4 nights)
27/9 Krakow- Budapest ( Budapest - 5 nights)
2/10 Budapest -Vienna ( Vienna - 4 nights)
6/10 Vienna - Salzburg ( Salzburg-3 nights)
9/10 Salzburg- Munich ( Munich - 2nights)
11/10 Munich - FRA -
12/10 ETD FRA 12.30pm

Please help!!! Once we have finalised our itineraries, I think again, we need your inputs on the transfer between countries/cities & accommodation as well.

Thank you.

Elainetan

Dear Bibloburger
Your suggestion- Dresden -If We opt for Option 1 ( Prague- FRA) in my previous posting, perhaps we could stop at Dresden before FRA??

thanks.

elaine

adrienne

Prague to Frankfurt - 4 hours on the bus to Nurenburg and then 2 hours on the train.

You can check train schedules on this site:

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml

Both itineraries look good to me.

Elainetan

Dear Adrienne

Seems like from Prague to Frankfurt - flight will be a better option? but not sure about the price.

another alternative is perhaps we could stop at Dresden as suggested by BibloBurgler to break the journey before we Frankfurt?


thanks.

kja

I personally am not aware of anything that makes either of your options better than the other, but you might want to check the days on which things that you want to see are open: Some museums, for example, might be closed on Mondays (or open late on Thursday or whatever), and that could affect your plans. Since you have the latitude to work in either direction, opening days would seem worth checking. And I always try to check whether there are local festivals or market days or whatever that might be possible to include with one routing, but not the other.

I think you'll enjoy your decision to add time to Munich.

Enjoy!

Elainetan

hi kja
Thanks for your suggestions.
What do you think of the days allocated to each city??
How easy is to travel between cities/countries via coach? is it cheaper via coach or train is a better option?

thanks again!

kja

> What do you think of the days allocated to each city??

Quite reasonable! As I indicated in my LONG response above (Jan 31, 13 at 2:39am - were we posting at the same time?), I thought there were some tweaks you might consider based on what you said of your interests -- and it sounds like you already made some of those adjustments! I don't think there are any wrong moves in what you have chosen - assuming you do a basic check to ensure that things will be open when you want to see them. It really depends on your interests.

> How easy is to travel between cities/countries via coach? is it cheaper via coach or train is a better option?

I went from Warsaw to Krakow to Budapest (via overnight train) to Vienna to Prague by train (in that order) on one trip. I visited Munich and Salzburg on a different trip and used a train to get between them. As I recall, it was very easy to take these trains, but both journeys were a long time ago, so I really can't speak to today's options or experiences.

Of the MANY guide books I use when planning trips, I have found the Rough Guide to be the one that provides the most consistently useful and accurate information about train and bus connections between likely destinations. And even when on the skimpiest of shoestring budgets, I always found a pair of good guidebooks worth EVERY penny (my "standbys" have always included the Rough Guide and either Fodor's or Frommer's).

bilboburgler

another vote for RG

Elainetan

As Munich will be quite expensive to stay during our visit due to Octoberfest ( most of the cheaper accommodations have been booked out) any good recommendations on the city/town outside Munich but with easy access to Munich that we can put up? Dachau? is it a good place to stay?

thanks.

kja

Have you looked at options through booking.com?
http://www.booking.com/city/de/munic...27WZOgvcbm4UtA

You can set a filter based on distance.