Help With East/Central Europe Trip!
 

Hello!

I am looking to fly to East/Central Europe in early January: approx the 2nd to the 11th. So I essentially have 7-8 days to explore in my destination. My primary interests are historical sights, architecture, and nightlife. Cold doesnt bother me at all and I actually enjoy travelling during winter. Some of the cities I have brainstormed are

-Gdansk/Sopot
-Warsaw or Wroclaw
-Budapest
-Riga
-Tallinn
-Brno
-Pecs
-Brasov/Sibiu/Sighisoara
-Zagreb

I have been to Vienna and Prague previously and while I had a great amount of fun I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of tourists (even during the "off" season) and as a result found the experience a bit less authentic.

I would greatly appreciate any recommendations this sub is able to offer! And please feel free to suggest places that I have not listed.

Thank You!

Pick just two of these places and fly into one and out of the other and use them as bases and have them so close together than you can just do a few hour train trip between them.

Trains are great now even in most of those countries - well not high-speed or as modern as western Europe but better and better. For lots on trains check www.seat61.com; www.bahn.de/en for European train schedules; www.trainline.eu for booking own trips; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com- the best all around train site on web today - great with tips on booking own trains.

You may have no problem with the cold but some country's systems may have. I'd stick to

-Budapest (good spas)
-Riga (fine)
-Tallinn (fine)
-Brasov/Sibiu/Sighisoara (dodgy due to weather)
-Zagreb (great)

Hey,

Your trip seems to be very a short adventure. Winter time in Brasov/Sibiu/Sighisoara is not easy to travel by car, train or no matter what. I live in Romania and we have some heavy snow during December some years it's not easy to get on the road and the policy closes the roads because of the weather report. This doesn't mean that you can not have great luck and get there when snow didn't arrive. There are easy winters also, but it is best to take a close look at the weather report.

My best wishes to you.
Schedule

Hello!

Early January is a very quiet time(everyone is still recovering from New Year) so there shouldn't be too many tourists, but normally Riga, Tallinn and Budapest has similar amount of tourists to Prague and Vienna even in the off season.

With 7-8 days you should select 2 or max. 3 cities which are close to each other(or have good transport links).

Gdansk-Warsaw - Wroclaw

Brno - Budapest - Pécs

Budapest - Sibiu - Brasov

Riga - Tallinn