Central Europe Itinerary - Sanity Check
 

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are planning a trip to central Europe from Sept 21 - Oct 06 and would just like a sanity check to see if this is realistic. We mostly like to explore a city while also using it as a home base to day trip to outer lying smaller towns. We will be limited to public transport only and will not be renting a car.

Itinerary below;

Sept 21: Depart to Split, Croatia
Sept 22 - 26: Split Croatia
Sept 26: Depart Split, 1hr 50min Direct flight to Bucharest, Romania.

Sept 26 - 30: Bucharest, Romania
Sept 30: Depart Bucharest, 1hr 45min Direct flight to Budapest.

Sept 30 - Oct 03: Budapest, Hungary
Oct 03: Depart Budapest, 6hr 40min train ride to Prague, Czech Republic.

Oct 03 - 06: Prague, Czech Republic
Oct 06: Depart Prague to home.

Please let me know your thoughts!

Assuming that you won't have much time to see anything on the days you travel, I think you have:
Split -- 3 o4 4 days, depending on whether your flight is overnight
Bucharest: 3 days
Budapest: 2 days
Prague: 2 days

That's do-able, but I think it's overly ambitious. You would have so little time in any of these fascinating places!

To get a more realistic idea if it is too rushed or not, it helps if you don't count the same day in two different places. Sure a flight might only be 1:50 -- but with packing, checking out getting to the airport an hour or two early, then transport and checking in at the next destination -- even a short flight will eat a BIG part of the day.

What you are planning is:

Sept 22 - 25: Split Croatia. 3 full days plus a jet lagged few hours your arrival day/
Sept 26 - 29: Bucharest, Romania. 3.5 days
Sept 30 - Oct 02: Budapest, Hungary 2.5 days
Oct 03: Depart Budapest, 6hr 40min train ride to Prague - essentially eats up most of the day.
Oct 04 - 05: Prague, Czech Republic. 2 days
Oct 06: Depart Prague to home.

I would hate all those flights!

You will be skipping past so many wonderful places without seeing them and not experiencing any place well. I would prefer to choose places closer together but it’s not my holiday.

I didn't go to Bucharest, although I drove right past it. I am wondering what draws you to it.....

BTW, have you been to Krakow? Vienna?

I think you have 14 days not impacted by arriving/departing flights. The transfers would make serious dents in 3 of those days, so you would have 11 full days for sightseeing in 4 places. My preference would be no more than 3 places in that number of days.

I'm allergic to airports, so I would hate all of those flights. Too much risk of delay/cancellation in an itinerary that definitely needs everything to go exactly to plan.

Again, just me, but I'd reverse the order and go from north to south.

Be aware as you arrive in each city that you'll be spending in four different currencies, so don't get more cash than absolutely necessary

Have you made all of your airline reservations and hotel reservations? The reason I ask is that I do agree with all the other posters. Too much traveling and not enough time to spend in each city, sightsee, and just enjoy the place. Also, I am a person who actually enjoys flying but you have way too many flights for what is basically a 2-week trip, in addition to a very long train trip.

The other thing I notice is that this is a very city-centric trip. You aren't getting out and enjoying the countryside and smaller villages. In Croatia, you could visit Plitvice Lakes NP or spend a day in Hvar or on Korcula. In Czech Republic, you could also visit smaller places such as Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary or Telc.

There is only one nonstop I know from Split to Bucharest, on Croatian airlines but I believe it only operates on Wednesdays and Fridays. What airline are you looking at?

I don't think it's a very sane plan, to be honest. Why not just enjoy the area around Split longer? Save Bucharest (and beautiful Romania, there is a lot to see) for another trip. I'd even save Budapest for another day. There is also a direct flight from Split to Prague (Croatia Airlines, Saturdays and Mondays.) Split your time between those two if you really want to see more than one country.

Everyone has their own definition of sane, but with two weeks I think this would be.. saner.

Just an update - I realize everyone in this thread is 100% correct and I have no idea what I was thinking! When I travel I usually spend our time (~2 weeks) in a single country and spend enough time there to get a sense of a countries culture. I was being way too overly ambitious with the planning of this trip. Thank you to everyone who replied!

Hi Karen, no we have not booked flights or hotels yet as we are still in the planning phase of the trip (which is quickly approaching). I am going to take yours and rialtogrl advice and look at splitting the trip between Split and Prague, as that seems much more realistic. Thank you for the help!


Hi rialtogrl, this is exactly the advice I was looking for and really appreciate your response. I think we're going to do what you suggest and look into splitting our time between Split and Prague. I think Romania can be a trip on its own, along with Hungary.

How many days do you recommend for Prague and the surrounding area?

"How many days do you recommend for Prague and the surrounding area?"

Rather than ask how many days, you should be thinking about what things you would want to see/do iin Split and Prague and how much time that would require. I'm a 'slow' traveler, and other people seem to "need" less time in most places than I do. Your initial post made it sound like you're a speedy traveler, but then you quickly dropped half of the itinerary so it's hard to know whether you need more or less time in Split vs. Prague. This is something you need to figure out on your own... perhaps partly based on direct flight availability and timing.

I would devote 4 nights to Prague itself.

We spent 4 nights in Split, and that included a daytrip to Hvar and 3/4 of a day in Trogir. From Split, you could also visit Sibenik and Krka NP if those interest you. We spent 1 night at Plitvice Lakes NP. We drove from Split and visited the Upper Lakes in the afternoon, and then we visited the Lower Lakes the next morning.

I agree with shelemm about 4 nights in Prague. And then a couple extra nights for places such as Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary (spa town in the mountains) and/or Telc. Do you have guidebooks so you can read about these places to see what interests you the most? FWIW, we have friends who combined Croatia with Czech Republic so I think this combination makes sense.

I can’t comment on the Czech Republic but I’d work with those non-stop flight dates. You’ve got Saturdays and Mondays to work with. If you fly on Monday September 30 you get eight full days in the Split area which is a nice amount of time (can even throw in a couple of nights on an island) and five days in the Czech Republic. I’m sure that’s not enough there, if you leave two days before, you have less time in Split. So maybe sit down and figure out what you really want to see in both places.

I did not check any low cost airlines, maybe some random one does other non stops.