I'm in the beginning stages of trip planning to Eastern Europe this summer and would love feedback whether this might be too ambitious of a schedule.

day 1 - arrive Frankfurt
day 2 - Frankfurt
day 3 - Frankfurt & overnight train to Prague
day 4 - arr. 8 AM Prague
day 5 - Prague
day 6 - morning train to Vienna, arr. 11 AM
day 7 - Vienna & 4 PM train to Budapest, arr. 6:30 PM
day 8 - Budapest
day 9 - depart Budapest

The time in Frankfort is a mandatory family visit, so I'm mostly concerned with the time in the other cities since the train travel will probably take half a day. We love walking to experience a city and aren't big fans of museums. We're much more appreciative of architecture and history. We definitely want to see the highlights of the city but also to experience some different things than the touristy spots, but we do have limited time and will be relying completely upon train transport.

Thanks for the guidance!

I would probably leave the Vienna piece out & extend my stay in Prague & Budapest. This would also allow for a daytrip to Ceske Krumlov or the Czech 'spa' region. Afer all, you'll be in Vienna barely 24 hours, hardly worth the time.

I would skip either Vienna or Budapest and use the time at the one you do choose to get to know it a little better and to do a day trip or two from there. And I too would extend the stay in Prague by another day. Prague has amazing architecture and history. I am partial to Vienna too for that reason though it is entirely different and less part of "Eastern Europe."

I would skip Vienna,it's beautiful but
it's a trip itself. you need 3 days min. so cancel Vienna and add to prague
or Budapest both are something out of this world!! do not cancel Budapest is
very pretty and lots to see.
I would schedule 3 full days in prague
+ 1 to cesky krumlov and 3 full days if poss. in budapest. lots of museums in budapest , palace is very nice and
do not miss the "parlament" or the jewish " synagoge" very important.
Prague the city itself is a museum. I'm going again next July. have a great time any ? e-mail me @ [email protected] bye.

Hi hl,

I agree. Too, much.

Drop either Vienna or Budapest.

For tourist-free Prague you could go to the top of Wenceslas Square, then up over the railway into Vinohrady. When you reach the tram line turn right, and stop at any suitable place for lunch. Or take the metro to Andel and walk south. In 25 minutes you reach a shop for fine glass that sells to Czechs and to few tourists.

If you need briefing on the pickpocket gangs of Prague main station please tell me.

Most of Budapest has no foreign tourists. For example start at Blaha-Luiza ter metro station, walk north up Erzsebet korut to Octagon, turn right and at the next metro station, Vorosmarty utca, visit the Franz Liszt museum. Even if you carry on to the City Park and its museums you will find few tourists. If you come back at night to Erzsebet korut you will find a museum cinema or kinothek, full of Hungarians, with plenty of films in English, subtitled in Hungarian, and you the only foreigner there.

ben.haines@btinternet,com

Thanks for the suggestions! We too felt that it might be too much, but we didn't realize that there might be more support for Budapest than Vienna.

Any other off-the-beaten-path suggestions are appreciated.

These things are always pretty subjective. While I loved Budapest, it's pretty hard for me to justify going to Budapest and cutting out Vienna. If you've never been to either, I'd choose Vienna over Budapest! Sometimes I think we seasoned travelers err on the side of being more exotic. I'd do Vienna and Prague, rather than doing Budapest and Prague. Also the logistics of the two in combination with Frankfurt is a little easier than doing Budapest and cutting out Vienna.

Although... Vienna in the summer probably doesn't have all the great cultural events that it does in the main season (fall - spring). You might schedule a visit during another part of the year, so you can catch symphony/ballet, etc, etc... in their best form, along with the museums, etc. I think you would get a fuller experience. Also, if you stayed 4 or 5 days, you'd get a real taste of life there. Budapest has great culture too, of course, but you might just be going to get acquainted with the actual city, see architecture, do tourist sites, etc. In which case, summer would be fine. Do NOT skip Prague. If I only had 1 trip left in my lifetime (hopefully I still have 1,000!!), I would still go back there, even though I've been there 7 times.

I'm in agreement to cancel Vienna and add to Prague since you're getting a little bit of the Germanic experience in the first stage of your trip. We did Vienna, Budapest and Prague in October and it was rushed in 10 days. There is so much to see in Prague & Budapest that, with your rushed schedule you won't want to take the time to do any side trips. Enjoy.

I will reinforce my recent comment on Cesky Krumlov. On getting there, you will take a train to Ceske Budovice (home of the real original Budweiser). From there, take a taxi the last 10km or so. All the trains that go there (Cesky Krumlov) are commuters that stop often & are over-crowded & will take nearly an hour to get you there. In addition, the train station is on the hill a good walk to the town center. Have the cab take you to the town square, their tourist office is right there & very helpful. If you are in to canoeing or rafting this is also the place to do that as the river runs nearly all the way around Cesky Krumlov.

If you've not been to Frankfurt before, then you should add some sightseeing days there. In the time you have, I think you can only get a feel for two cities.
I'm partial to Budapest, concede that Prague did not suffer the war damage and has its charms, and regard Vienna highly. I could easily spend a week in and around Vienna.
In any of the cities, you do need at least a little museum time. A half-day might do, but you owe it to yourself to see what the citizens of your host country regard as important enough to exhibit -- especially in national history museums.

Rod

Thanks for the input! We certainly will take time to see some museums -- but we overdid this in Venice (we had an enormous list of "must see" museums there) and would rather have spent time in churches or other historical sites in retrospect.

We will definitely add a day to Prague and will look more closely at which city (Vienna or Budapest) would be better to incorporate into the next Europe trip.

SAnParis -- canoeing sounds wonderful! We'll look into that.

The water around Cesky Krumlov is quite shallow but because of the elevation changes there are two 'canals' or 'shutes' that the rafts & canoes must go through. There are even water policemen standing in the river directing traffic so to speak. It is quite fun just to watch groups go down the shutes & swamp at the bottom if they don't know what they are doing.

I do not think you should spend a minute more than need be in Frankfurt, when you have so little time for two or three beautiful old cities. Even Cesky Krumlov should wait for another visit: it is beautiful, but two and a half hours each way from Prague. The trouble with Frankfurt is that the allies bombed it flat in Hitler?s war, so it is now quite an attractive, thoroughly modern, city of tower blocks and new offices.

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