Eastern europe-prague, austria,budapest any tour group to join?
 

Will like to visit eastern europe , (Prague, Austria, Hungary) Other than Trafalgar, Insight,
Are there any tour companies to join? Visit will be end of December 2014. Help appreciated, thanks in advance.

Just to clarify - the area you are talking about is CENTRAL europe (despite what tour groups may say). Eastern europe is Russia and the Ukraine. (These countries were central europe for a thousand years before the 50 years behind the iron curtain - except for Austria, which was never under Soviet dominion. And they are back connected to western europe with a veangance.) When you walk down the streets you encounter every standard US/EU chain store - as well as branches of many of the upscale designed boutiques as well.

If you google I'm sure you may find other tours - but frankly these are areas with very well-developed tourist infrastructures and it's no more difficult to travel independently there than in western europe

Thank you

Please consider a river cruise. Both Vantage and Grand Circle have websites which are easy to navigate and fully descriptive.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I took a well-guided trip on the Rhine and Danube with Vantage. One of the advantages of a river cruise, we found, is that one only has to unpack once.

Are you fully committed to traveling with a tour company? Many of us have found it very easy to visit these places independently.

Maybe you can show how, thank you, it will be our first time.

Fly into Prague and out of Budapest (referred to as multi-city or open jaw flights). Saves time and sometimes money so you don't have to back track to inbound airport.

Check hotel reviews on tripadvisor.com and booking.com for hotels in your price range. Book the hotels through booking.com or directly on the hotels' websites. Do choose centrally located hotels near the tourist attractions.

Use Prague Airport Shuttle from the airport to your hotel. http://praguetransport.com/
Take the local bus to Terezin concentration camp as a day trip.

Take the Student Agency bus from Prague to Cesky Krumlov and spend at least one night. Make sure to get tickets to the baroque theater tour at the castle in addition to the regular castle tour.

Take the Lobo Shuttle from C. Krumlov to your Vienna hotel.
Take the combo train/boat trip to Melk Abbey.

Take the train to Budapest. Cab to your htotel.
Take a day trip to Eger.
Cab to Budapest airport to fly home.

You can fill in the sites to see at each location by purchasing some guide books or surfing the net.

Have a great trip!

Thank you joan, how about salzburg?

Start by looking through a good guide book or two (check your local bookstore and/or library) and read the trip reports and planning threads on this board -- you'll learn a lot! BTW, I would strongly urge you to get at least one guidebook -- you'll learn answers to things you didn't know to ask.

Lobo Shuttle also goes from C. Krumlov to Salzburg. http://www.shuttlelobo.cz/3/en/shutt...cesky-krumlov/

There are also other C. Krumlov shuttle companies. Just google Cesky Krumlov shuttle.

Then, drive (under 2 hours) or take train (3 1/2 hours) to Melk. Then, drive or take train or boat/train combo to Vienna.

If renting a car, use Kemwel.com or Autoeurope.com, sister companies who offer the best rates and are brokers. Many, many, people here on Fodors use them.

You have been very helpful joan, i appreciate it. Can you sort of suggest an iterenary for us?
Have 10 days only. Point of interest will be Prague, vienna, salzburg and maybe budapest.
Port of entry maybe munich, franfurt or london.
Thanks a million!

With only 10 days, I would not recommend trying to visit all 4 of these locations, especially if you are not flying into one and out of another. You may be able to fit 3 of them into this time frame. Planning an actual itinerary would depend on your specific interests -- something none of us can guess. Good luck!

Sorry, Mike. I am not a travel agent. You need to get some guidebooks and decide what you want to see in each location. 10 days isn't a lot so I don't envision you"re getting to everything on your wish list. Does that include your travel days? if so, then you only have roughly 8 days.

10 whole travel days madam. Thank you.

Glad that I was able to be of some help.

If only 3 locations what will it be?