This company offers a 12-day "hosted" tour of Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest and Prague. They will pick me up and get me to and from hotel/airport/train station etc., and provide a 1/2 day tour of each city. Has anyone any experience with them or know someone has travelled with them? Thanks.

With that type of package the only real issue is the hotels. I would find out all you can about what they offer - including the exact location - and especially how often they substitute for the ones shown in the brochure.

This is the real risk - a packager's definition of "similar" is rarely the same as anyone else's.

Thanks for the good suggestion. I will speak to them tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, I've been reading this site endlessly and have convinced my husband that we will do perfectly well on our own, especially since we will be carted back and forth from airport/hotel/train.

In addition to the main sites in the cities I plan to visit, I'm also hoping to visit Terezin, using Wittman Tours. Telc, Szentendre, Durnstein, Melk and Cesky Krumlov all sound interesting and it seems that everyone visits, but for that reason I wonder if they are strictly for tourists, which of course, I will be, but are there other interesting cities,less well known but equally interesting and representative of these historic areas? Honestly though, I don't care how hokey a Sound of Music tour is, I want one of those.

Is Gundel (restaurant in Budapest) worth a visit? And what is a Heurigen dinner that the tour books talk about? Likewise, a Csarda dinner that I am told is most enjoyable?

Thanks in advance for all answers and suggestions. K2

Visite main city of wine in the Czech Republic - Mikulov. Itīs on the border CZ - Austria convenient to Viena (50 miles). There is unique Viticultural Exhibition in the Chateau. The display also includes a remarkable vat from 1643 in the Chateau cellar. When we tell you that a craftsman and his three assistants worked on it for 38 weeks to finish it, you will not be surprised by its noteworthy capacity - 101,400 litres. Very seductive is chance to explore viticulture and wine in small wine-cellars of mikulover wine-growers, taste local wines, listen and see cymbalo. The cellar of Mrs. Solarikk is very unusual. It is located in a cave. If you are interested about history you can visite Jewish Monuments in Mikulov. (large cemetery, synagogue. The synagogue is used by the Mikulov Regional Museum an exhibit on the history of Mikulov's Jewish quarter.)

From Viena you can go to Bratislava and Budapest by boat. More information www.mikulov.cz

This old posting caught my eye as I am interested in a Rhapsody Tour of Vienna/Salzburg/Budapest/Prague for fall of 2005. Did k2ok take this tour eventually? Curious to know and if so their opinions. Rhapsody Tours is not answering my emails or my travel agent's.