Central Europe itenarary and planning help
 

Hello Fellow Travelers,

We are looking to spend around 12 days in central Europe and wanted to get some input. My wife and I are around 40 and will be travelling with our 2 beautiful kids (6 and 9). As part of our summer trip to visit the grand parents we have already booked our tickets for first week of June with a 15 day stop over in Turkey (Flying Turkish Airlines). The initial plan was to visit Turkey and Greece (may add Italy) but now that we realized that it will be Ramadan in Turkey and also looking at the geo-political situation my wife wants to change the gears and instead use it as a launching pad to visit central Europe. Taking a quick glance, I have come up the following itinerary:

Fly from Istanbul to Prague, (2-3 days)
Would it be possible to see Cesky Krumlov when going from Prague to Vienna?
Go visit Vienna (2-3) days - Would love to see Hallstatt if possible
Take a day trip to Bratislava from Vienna or on-route to Budapest
Go to Budapest (2-3 days)
Go back to Istanbul for onward journey

I have seen most of Western Europe but never been to eastern part. Need suggestion about transportation, logging and feasibility of the overall trip. I love the Europe rail system but open to renting a car since it helps seeing the country side, luggage and might even be cheaper with 4 travelers?

PS: While the kids are young, they have traveled a bit in USA and are eager to see Europe for the first time :)

I understand the reluctance to spend much time in Turkey, but why are you nixing Greece as well? No Ramadan or security issues there.

I think you are trying to do too much. You need to lay this out on a blank calendar page, night by night, showing transport time. You can use rome2rio for an initial take on transport, sounds like you already know how to check train schedules. Prague, Vienna and Budapest each rate a minimum of three days/four nights.

I think that Prague, Vienna and Budapest can be enjoyably done in 10 full days, with the two left for traveling.

I suggest you rent a car (with navigation in English) for greater flexibility since cost of four on the trains may not be much less.


On the other hand you may reconsider Istanbul and even Cappadocia which the kids will love.

Unless you must have alcoholic beverages out in the open or spend your visit in one of the few Islamist neighborhoods, Ramadan is just another month in Istanbul.

All restaurants will be open. Street food vendors will be about and food courts at the malls will be busy.

Museums, cinemas, places for entertainment have no special hours or fare during ramadan either.

Thanks for quick feedback. We will have a total of 15 days so we do plan to spend 2.5 days in Istanbul and rest in Central Europe.... I really wanted to do Cappadocia but geographically speaking it is too far and would require separate flights so we are going to leave for next trip (same for Greece). Looks like one way car rentals are super expen$ive so that might not work... will keep looking. Hopefully others can chime in a little more

If you are spending most of your time in cities, a car would be an expensive nuisance. Look into trains.

Do the 15 days include travel to/from Istanbul? I take it it is too late to change and fly out of a different city?