I loved all of these cities, but if I had to choose only 2, I preferred Prague and Krakow. But that's just me! People have very different interests and preferences.

arlene4; You can do the exact itinerary you suggested by tour. As independent travelers, we have done six tours, but twenty six others to Europe, driving on our own. This tour we took in the early 90's is an independant tour, with a choice of hotels, breakfast, half city tour, train tickets and air fare within Europe. The other days you are on your own. A consideration for your trip is, do you intend to return. If not this tour might fit your needs of visiting these four cities. While we visited a few different cities for 12 nights, three nights in four cities, at the time it was perfect for us. www.tradescotours.com You can also visit this site for downloads of these cities. www.inyourpocket.com Richard

P.S. I'm with 'kja'. We have been to Praguge three times, Krakow twice and trying to plan a quick three night trip next year to Krakow. We loved Budapest, but do not have a need to return. As 'kla' said, different interests, ALL valid

thanks again-Has anyone stayed at Marriott courtyard in Flora(Lucemburska Street 46)?

Adrienne, did your time in Moravia include a trip to Moravsky Krumlov to see the Mucha Slav Epic paintings? We are going to be there August 17 and I am trying to find out if the paintings will be there too, or if they are back in Prague in the continuing saga of which city they should wind up in.

Also did you go to any of the wineries in the Mikulov area? Any in particular that you would recommend? Would love to get more recommendations on that area. Thanks.

Serious divergence of opinions here. Having visited all of these places last year, imho Budapest was by far the best! Krakow was a great place to visit but can't imagine spending more than 2 full days there. Prague was nice too but again Budapest was the absolute highlight!

But to each his own I suppose.

arlene4, to get back to your own question - friends have stayed in the Marriott Courtyard Flora (ie NOT the one out at the airport!) and like it. It's a Marriott, so you know what you're getting there, backs on to a cemetery (but it's quite pretty - odd to say but it's known for its art nouveau monuments/stones), but for my preference it's too far from things I want to see/visit in terms of walking. Whilst there's nothing wrong with the Prague Metro (validate your ticket!), I prefer to walk in Prague as you discover more, even if you just follow your nose. Would you consider the Ibis Old Town as an alternative hotel? There are plenty of other hotels right in the Old Town Square, but this is a 5min walk away ie good location, standard Ibis and might even have a better price (check web specials) than the Marriott.

Arlene - unless you're staying at the Marriott using points, and need to economize, I would agree to stay in Prague 1 (central city). I stayed in Prague 6 and the tram into town wasn't bad but would have preferred to stay more central if my budget had allowed it.

Julie - I'm still kicking myself that I completely forgot about those paintings. I hadn't known about them until I watched the video at the Mucha museum in Prague and never added them to my itinerary.

There is a poster who did go to see them and reported back. I thought she had posted on my TR but I guess I posted on her thread and can't remember her screen name. Do a search and you'll find the thread where she mentioned them. Although that was last fall (if I remember correctly) so they may have moved but I doubt it.

People in the CR did tell me to go to wineries but never mentioned any in particular and I didn't see any signs for wineries so I didn't visit any. I enjoy drinking wine but visiting a winery is not high on my list so I didn't do this.

I would not miss seeing Telc; it was a wonderful small town with the best town square I've seen yet. Another poster, kwoo, also went to Telc and gave it thumbs up too. Click on my name to read my TR from last year.

Here are my photos if you want to see what Telc looks like.

http://modigliani.shutterfly.com/cze...kowfrankfurtpa

arlene4,
I've skimmed over the posts so may have missed something. Are you planning on going to Telc? I agree with Adrienne that you should not miss Telc. It is small but so pretty and quiet & peaceful that it was one of our highlights of our trip. The main square is one of the prettiest I've ever seen. We did go to a winery that the owner of our pension in Prague recommended. It is located in Znojomo & we had a tour of the wine cellar. The owner is very friendly. It took us about one hour (maybe 1.5 hours) from Telc to get there. We stayed overnight one night in Telc, so had time to visit the winery in Znojomo, tour the castle in Telc, walk around, eat, etc. There are 2 ponds on either side of the main square that just lovely & so peaceful & picturesque.
If you click on my name, you can read my trip report. Unfortunately, I don't know how to create a link to my TR like some posters do.

I also love Krakow. I would definitely condense your trip to one or two countries. We like seeing the main cities AND the smaller cities/towns. In 2003 we spent 10 days in Prague & Krakow, in addition to staying in a castle in Poland near Ukraine (Krasicyn Castle). In 2009 we spent about 12 days in the Czech Republic only: Prague, Telc, Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary & Kutna Hora.

We trained from Prague to Krakow & back & didn't think the train was bad, like a previous poster thought. We felt safe; it was crowded, though. It was my first time traveling by train so I have nothing else to compare it to.

Julie,
just realized you are the poster who inquired about wineries in Moravia. We did visit a winery in Znojomo in 2009. The owner of our pension in Prague recommended it to us. I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but you can click on my name to read my trip report. I think I go into more detail about the winery & its name. Hope this helps.

Trains on the mainlines in those countries are quite good - but sideline trains that few tourists would take can be third worldish IME - but the trains between OP's towns are up to0 snuff and as always my experience on decades of riding trains in Europe in general makes highly recommend first class, especially in Eastern Europe as the difference between classes here is greater IME than in western Europe. And if doing those by train look into the European East Railpass good on trains in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Austria. Great sites for lots of great info on Eastern European trains and passes check out these fab IMO sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

and between those cities there are overnight trains so you save a night's hotel cost and arrive in the next city in the morning - saving daylight travel time and IMO the scenery in these countries in between those cities is rather ho-hum unless deteriorating detritus of heavy industry extant from commie days excites you.

Thanks to everyone that replied. We want to do CK and Telc. Would like to add wine tours too. Will probably hire a driver for transportation. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks Arlene

Here's who I used for transport within Prague. Others on this board have used Mike and he gets good reports every time.

http://mike-chauffeur.cz/