This is a follow up post from http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nd-austria.cfm The website for train schedules mentioned there really helped me narrow it down to a couple of itineraries. Some help with these more specific itineraries would be very appreciated.

These itineraries are crafted to get us to the major cities on our trip, but we would also like to spend some nights in smaller towns, even if they could technically be done as day trips from the cities.

Option 1

Fly into Prague and take train or shuttle to Cesky Krumlov
Cesky Kumlov (2 nights, 1 day)

Train to Prague
Prague (2 nights, 2 days + day trip to Kutna Hora) Do we also have time for a trip to Konopiste?)
Train to Vienna (There is a sleeper train that takes 6hr45min or many trains throughout the day that take 4hr45min. Any suggestions?)
Vienna (3 nights, 3 days)

Train to Durnstein
Wachau Region (2 nights (Which town in the Wachau region would you recommend for lodging?), 1.5 days)
Sites we are interested in seeing in the Wachau region include Melk, Kems, Klosterneuburg (should this be a half a day trip from Vienna),Maria Taferl, and Schallaburg. Does this list seem about right? Is this too many towns? Are we missing must sees? Should be rent a car or is train, bus, boat combo the way to go?

I could use some advice on the last leg of the trip. I would like to see some of the small towns in the Salzkammergut region and then fly out of Salzburg. Is this too rushed?

Train (or should it be some combination of train and car) to Salzkammergut region (Should we allow half a day for travel?)
Do we want a car to get around the Salzkammergut region?
Hallstatt and St. Wolfgang are the towns at the top of my list. Do we have time for others? Which town would you stay in as a base?
(I just saw there was a mudslide in Hallstatt in June. Any idea of recovery time? It is not mentioned on their website http://www.hallstatt.net Should we take it off our list?)
2 nights, 2 days

Train or Car to Salzburg (we would not keep the car once arriving in the city)
2 nights, 1 day

Fly out of Salzburg


Option 2

Fly into and visit Prague then Cesky Krumlov. Then heading in the direction of Linz and working our way east on the Danube by train (or car if needed) and finishing in Vienna (with a day trip to Bratislava if we have extra time). I'm not sure what other towns to see between Cesky Krumlov and the Wachau region with this itinerary.

Thanks for reading my long post and replying if you have any thoughts!

I don't know why you would fly into Prague and go directly to Cesky Krumlov, only to return to Prague and then go to Vienna. Geographically, it would make sense to stay in Prague when you arrive, and go to C. Krumlov on the way to Austria. In fact, you could do the Wachau region on the way to Vienna. That way you aren't constantly backtracking or retracing your steps. I imagine it would save you time and money to go Prague - Cesky Krumlov - Wachau - Vienna - Salzburg.

Thanks for the suggestion @Woyzeck. You have a good point that geographically C. Krumlov is closer to Vienna than Prague. But from my research the fasted way to get from C. Krumlov to Vienna is to take the 2 trains back to Prague and then get on the high speed train to Vienna. So either way there is backtracking.

The itinerary you propose also has backtracking on the final leg from Vienna to Salzburg (and I guess Hallstatt before that), since we will have just been in the Wachau region.

Do you know of a better way to get from C. Krumlov to Vienna?

Take the Lobo shuttle from C. Krumlov to Vienna. I think there are other shuttles available also but don't know their names.

Rent a car for the lake region.

Agree, stay in Prague first, then CK. Another shuttle to Vienna is www.shuttlebus.cz

No backtracking.

We hired a car on leaving Vienna to see the sights you mentioned.

Lots of good advice here. I recommend staying three nights in Prague. It is a beautiful and fascinating city.

You might check out www.mike-chauffeur.cz/ website. We have used the service a couple of times and were very pleased. He has been recommended by others on the forum and also Rick Steves.

While staying in St. Wolfgang we took a day trip to Hallstatt. We travel by train and it does not go to St. Wolfgang but there is a very convenient bus right outside the rail station in Bad Ischl for a short scenic ride to SW. Then to go to Hallstatt we went back to BI to train to Hallstatt and on the way back also spent some time in BI. You will definitely want to visit these places on your trip if possible.

Thanks for all the suggestions! It sounds like we might be over ambitious trying to fit in all the sites above. We decided to save Salzburg and the lakes region for our next trip, which we are sad about, but don't want to be too rushed.

The new addition to the itinerary is that we will have 2 nights and 2 or 3 days to spend between Cesky Kumlov and the Wachau region (Melk, Durnstein, etc.) and would like both nights to be at the same place.
Is Linz worth visiting or using as a base? Both St. Florian and Kremsmunster sounded interesting in the area but not sure if they are good locations for lodging. Any other highlights in the area you would point out?

Here is the itinerary we are thinking about now.

Fly into Prague
Prague (4 nights, 3 days + 1 day trip)

Train to Cesky Kumlov
Cesky Kumlov (2 nights, 1 day)

Train or shuttle towards Linz
Where to stay?? (2 days, 2 nights) Should be rent a car for this portion?

Train or car to Durnstein
Wachau region (2 nights, 2 days)
Sites we are interested in seeing in the Wachau region include Melk, Kems, Klosterneuburg (should this be a half a day trip from Vienna?),Maria Taferl, and Schallaburg. Has anyone stayed in this region and used public transportation?

Train to Vienna
Vienna (3 days, 3 nights)

Has anyone used www.shuttlebus.cz? I'd like to book it from Cesky Kumlov to Vienna. This is the first time I've seen it. We had a private driver booked, but the shuttlebus is so much cheaper.