Ideas to maximise stay in Europe
 

Hi Friends,
A conference I had planned to attend in Venice has been cancelled.
I will arrive in Venice on 11 Sept and depart from Vienna on 20 Sept.
Any ideas on a route that will take me to some beautiful places to see? I prefer exploring East Europe.
thank you!

I think you mean central europe unless you are headed to Russia and Ukraine.

Are you looking for cities, natural beauty or a mix? What specific interests do you have? History, architecture, palaces, hiking mountains. lakes and water falls?

Have you been to any of these places before and what did you enjoy the most?

How will you travel - train or car? What kinds of budget do you have?

You have only 8.5 days on the ground, and if you leave 2.5 days In Venice and 2 days in Vienna that leaves only 3 more days - so staying in more than one other place is going to mean spending a LOT of time in travel and very little seeing/doing things.

I was going to suggest a train ride between Venice and Vienna via Verona and Innsbruck which would give you a good view of some Dolomite scenery. However, it would take up a day and I somehow get the sense, perhaps incorrectly that things for you might be a bit more insistent.

As nytraveler said, it would be important to know how many days you plan to stay in Venice and Vienna. And how many days you actually have for any route in between.

One way to start could be by ferry to Slovenia or Croatia.
http://www.venezialines.com/

After a day or so in one of the coastal towns, you could travel to Vienna via Ljubljana, Maribor and Graz.

But I'm not sure if I wanted to do it with only three days to play with.

As Dukey says, the trip Venice to Vienna via Innsbruck is spectacular, whether by train or auto. Lots of neat things to see along the Danube.

Austria, Czech Republic and perhaps a little of Hungary would give you a good taste of Central Europe.

<<As Dukey says, the trip Venice to Vienna via Innsbruck is spectacular, whether by train or auto. Lots of neat things to see along the Danube.

Austria, Czech Republic and perhaps a little of Hungary would give you a good taste of Central Europe.>>

Uh, you have to prioritize. You have nine days (actually less) and can't really explore Venice, Innsbruck, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna in that small amount of time.

If going to cities take the train as cars are useless in large cities like Vienna and public transport so so good - trains are also faster than driving usually but driving gives you the opportunity to stop off in nice smaller towns or go thru rural areas - that said with Venice to see and perhaps Vienna there is not much time left.

For lots of good info on trains check www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com -check the latter's free online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of itinerary possibilities by rail or road in that area.

If visits of Venice and Vienna are included in the 11 days, I'd just spend the middle 3-4 days in Slovenia, it's the closest "Eastern" European country to your arrival and departure points and makes the most sense from a logistical perspective. That, or the Austrian Alps.

If you won't be spending time in Venice and Vienna, then your options widen considerably.

Prague is a short enough bus or train ride from Vienna and of course is a shining star of "Eastern Europe" though it's really Central Europe.

Bratislava is small so a day or so there would be nice - I did it as a day trip from Vienna - about an hour by train and loved the day and to me that was fine but would have rather stayed overnight in retrospect.

I did not mean Bratislava was small -it is a fairly large capital city - but the city center - the historic core -is compact.