tom barron

Need information on a grand circle trip to eastern europe. 19 days warsaw,krakow,prague and budapest.<BR> Many thanks Tom B

cannotfigure

With all respect, it really would help if you identified what you wanted to know beyond what the unnamed tour operator has told you, as &quot;grand circle&quot; is perhaps not what all would call such a route.

ddottie

Tom, I suppose you are talking about a trip with Grand Circle Travel, an organization which specializes in &quot;mature travelers&quot;. I have never been on the eastern european trip, but have been with them on five others. <BR>While I prefer independent travel, GCT is very good for getting an overview, or going to places that are difficult to negotiate.<BR>Well organized, well described, well priced.<BR>

George Steed

Please consider rerouting...if you stay with existing plan, all you will see is more &quot;tourists&quot; and a collection of made for tourists sites. Try for a real Grand Tour...Perhaps, start in Berlin, then, Szczecin, Gdansk, Malborg, Poznan,Lodz, Czestochowa, Krakow, then some of Slovakia, Trencin and Bratislava, Yes, Praga and Vienna...Finish in Budapest. Intercity busses service these cities. Depots are in the city center...Find out about special age related travel tickets. For instance in some cities travel on local busses is free if you are over 70!<BR>

Ben Haines

I agree warmly with Mr Steed: you can break out of the exercise yard. I see that he is fond of Poland, as I am. Just to widen your choice, I want to say that similarly interesting, beautiful, and cheap places are in Hungary: Sopron with Nagycenk and Fertod St Michael, Debrecen, Veszprem, Szombathely, Pecs, and my favourite, Keszthely.<BR><BR>Again for choice, I throw in the railway systems, which are regular, comfortable, and cheap. Gdansk to Krakow second class by day costs 20 euros, in a sleeper 40 euros. Debrecen to Sopron is 12 euros: you know that a euyro is roughly a dollar<BR><BR>I see that the Grand Circle tour of 19 days costs from 1795 dollars. I am afraid I am no use on transatlantic air fares, but if you spend 395 dollars on those then you are paying 1400 for the tour, or 74 dollars a day. In central Europe that is big money, and will cover trains, taxis, museum fees, meals, and three star city-centre hotels with ease.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to Europe.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

Nick

No disagreements of what has been said for the most part: Been to all 4 places and lived in Warsaw for 3 months. I would drop Warsaw as I think it is one of the world's planning disasters. Remember alot of it was destroyed in the war. They did a good job in rebuilding the old centre and it is pretty, but if you go to Prague and Krakow then you see much larger old centres (especially Prague). The main city park is also nice, but for the rest of it Warsaw is not worth it. Gdansk as mentioned by one person is nice - again rebuilt after war but I think has a lot more character. Bratislava - don't bother. Fine if you are trying to as many capitals as possible but otherwise? Should consider Vienna given the area you are looking at.