Central Europe Itinerary - Advice Appreciated
 

I'm from the US and planning a trip for October for about 20 days. I've traveled to Europe before (Italy, Switzerland, Spain, England) but this will be my first solo trip. Cities I'm hoping to visit are prague, vienna, salzburg, budapest, ljubijana, bled, and split

Here's my current (and rough) itinerary :

• Arrive in Prague, Czech Republic
  • 3 nights in Prague
• Train to Budapest, Hungary
  • 3 nights in Budapest
• Train to Vienna, Austria
  • 3 nights in Vienna
  • 1 night in Salzburg
• Train to Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2 nights in Ljublijana
  • 2 nights in Bled
• Train to Zagreb, Croatia (transfer)
• Flight to Split, Croatia
  • 4 nights in Split
• Depart from Split

Any opinions/advice is very much appreciated! I'm worried this might be a classic case of squeezing into too much in a short time. Things to note:

• Not exactly sure in what order I should visit each city. I'm leaning towards:
  • Prague -> Budapest -> Vienna -> Salzburg -> Bled -> Zagreb -> Split
• I'm open to renting a car in Split so that I can have a couple days trips to islands, or Dubrovnik.
• If I do drop a country from my trip, it would be Hungary, Slovenia, or Croatia.
• I would really love a mix of night life and nature
• Any opinion on starting from south to north instead?

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond :)

Since one of your 2 top interests is nature, I would spend more time in fewer locations instead of hopping from country to country, or city to city. Slow your pace way down and enjoy being where you are….

A good place to start your planning would be yo make a list of the natural areas in several places and go from there.

The natural park areas of northern Czech republic are easy to get to and quite enjoyable. Ditto for the mountains near Salzburg, for starters.

If I'm following correctly, you'd have only 2 days in Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. (I'm assuming you'll "lose" a day each time you change locations.) If so, then your plan seems terribly rushed to me -- there's so much to see in each of these cities! And as J62 notes, you don't seem to have planned for time in nature, even though you say it's a priority.

If you keep Split in your itinerary, you wouldn't need a car for Dubrovnik (you can take a bus) or to go to one or more of the islands. But you might want a car to go to the magnificent Plitvice Lakes. You can get to them with public transportation, but a car makes it easier. Or you can go by public transportation to the stunning Krka waterfalls.

Your itinerary is very busy, I'd visit fewer places. Out of the 3 countries you mention, I'd drop Hungary but I have seen very little there. Slovenia has some wonderful scenery and Croatia has a lovely coastline. Rovinj is nice if that fits with your plan.

I also wouldn't travel to Salzburg for one night. You could cross that off but it's your trip and you might have Salzburg as a 'must-see'.

I agree with you that it's nice to include a combination of cities and nature. One small suggestion is that if you do go to Slovenia, you can skip a separate trip to Bled and instead go on a one day tour from Ljubjlana. We did this two years ago - stayed 3 nights in Ljubjlana and on one of our two days we booked a "Get your guide" small group trip that had 4 stops including about 3 hours at Lake Bled Day trip to lake Bled
In case the link doesn't work, it was through Tripadvisor and the tour company was Roundabout Travel. We saw a medieval town, Lake Bohinj, which was gorgeous, Lake Bled, and then Vintgar Gorge. It was a super trip for a nature experience, and we accomplished a lot in one day. Still it didn't feel rushed. It was really helpful to be with a guide to drive us, since there was a bit of traffic around Bled. I am usually an independent traveler and don't do organized tours, but this was well worth it and now I would definitely consider this type of thing if the opportunity is there.

Bus from Split to Trogir or Dubrovnik is easy.
Taking passenger ferry boats to the island is faster and more fun.
Leave the car driving/parking/security/ fueling/insurance/police/navigating to other people.