my wife and i are considering our first river cruise for october 2017 - nurenberg to budapest. we tend to be very independent travelers - rent a car and wander a country for 3-4 weeks spending most of the time in rural areas with a day trip into major cities have done this often - turkey, italy (3 times) and plan to do spain/portugal in may 2017. an option with the cruise is that for $100 we can stay for up to 30 days and then fly back home. have never been to eastern europe and not sure how to do it - our usual method (get a car in budapest then wander) or use the train and visit larger cities like bucherest, prague, ect. thank in advance for your suggestions.

Train.

why train? to where? thanks

If your desire is to visit major cities throughout Central and Eastern Europe, doing so by train makes more sense than trying to find a rental car agency that will allow you to move a car throughout multiple countries. If you want to wander around one country for up to 30 days (perhaps Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, or even CZ), taking the train to a major destination in that country and then renting a car is a better option.

What destinations will you visit with the cruise, and what other destinations pique your interest? Knowing that may help with travel suggestions.

Happy Planning!

What is the question--are you just looking for suggestions of destinations? I think you will find that it is just like planning a trip anywhere else. What has interested you so far? I am assuming you will depart from Budapest?
If you like wine, I just spotted an article about Slovakia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/tr...ttom-well&_r=0

A 30 day loop through the former Yugoslavia would be fantastic.

We rented a car to drive from Prague to Krakow. The only "difficulty" in doing this is paying the charge for driving the car one-way. That's a hefty fee.

Other than that, it was easy.

Whether you drive or take the train will depend on what you want to see. We wanted to see the countryside and stop in some small towns. We like the freedom that a car gives to do that. We could stop at out-of-the-way castles and other sites along the way.

First figure out what you'd like to see and where you want to go. Then figure out the best way to get there for your travel style.

I'm in the process of writing a trip report that covers our cruise from the Black Sea to Budapest and our travels before and after the cruise. We generally travel by car, but this year we spent two weeks in Bulgaria and decided that I did not want to struggle with Cyrillic while driving a car (not all road signs are in both alphabets). So we traveled by train and bus. From Budapest we went to Pécs and really liked the town. We have previously traveled east from Budapest to Romania, and thus covered other areas of Hungary. The description of that trip can be found in my trip report: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ate-errors.cfm

The last replies to that thread are my corrections of the picture postings which now include those taken this May and June.

For cities mainly take the train - cars are useless in cities and if you drive straight thru city to city the scenery will be so-so on main roads.

But you like to wander and car for that amount of time seems better to your style.

but if trains check out the European East Railpass valid in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Rep and Poland - first class on trains IME is nicer than an oft crowded 2nd class-for lots on planning a train trip in this area: www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (check their online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of itineraries by train which can of course also be done by car; www.seat61.com - the nitty-gritty on discounted tickets and specials available. But if taking several longer trains check out that European East Railpass.