Is 10 days too long for just Vienna and Budapest
 

I booked a 10 day trip into Vienna and out of Budapest, but now I'm concerned that 5 days in each city might be too much. We are avid classical music fan so there will be no shortage of concerts, but I don't want to get bored. Should I try to add another city?

Hello TravelerDC

We spent 2 weeks in Vienna last year . . . and still didn't see all that was on offer!

We didn't use a car at all - the metro/tram/bus system is excellent, so even if you want to get out of the immediate city itself you should be able to do this easily.

If you click on my screen name, you should be able to find my report on this trip.

Happy travels, Di

This is of course to what each person wants to see and do - just the usual main sights or every museum, etc.

Budapest to me has less to do and see than Vienna - for what i want to see but perhaps not you.

But Vienna also has some great day trips - Budapest may too but i'm not so familiar with them.

From Vienna i recently took the one hour train ride to Bratislava, Slovakia - a nice town for a day and very different than Austria - being the old Eastern Europe.

But a great day trip from Vienna goes to Melk, to see the Uber famous Abbey there, then hop boats along the gorgeous Wachau Valley - cute wine towns, etc. to explore - end up in Krems and take a different rail route back to Vienna. Tremendous day trip IMO

If you want to spend less than 5 days in each then consider do a triangle with Prague-Vienna-Budapest

I've only been to Vienna so I'll comment on that only. You are going to get responses from both sides of the spectrum. Somehow, Vienna is the kind of city that either people LOVE it (Me and DH), or people who don't care for it at all.

You said you like classical music, but how about art museums? Vienna is a treasure trove for musuems, and I would happily spend a week there just to see the museums! but if art museum bores you, then 5 days may be too much.

What time of year will you be going? If it's during nice weather months, just heading to Schonbrunn Palace will be a full day.

If your only interest is classical music, you may get bored. But then, anywhere would be boring.
Other interests would create bounteous opportunities for divertisement.

hi traveler,

we spent 3 days in budapest and there was loads we didn't do. ok, some of it was because there aren't many river trips between Xmas and New Year but you can always spend a day in the thermal baths if you run out of inspiration.

as for Vienna, it's high on my must do list, precisely because there's lods to do.

regards, ann

I too often complain about posters being vague about their likes/dislikes, but then I go and do that very thing! We are in our late 30's and are avid photographers and while we enjoy some museums, we aren't museum crazy. I love the cafe culture, classical music, good food ... could go on and on. Some favorite cities are Rome, Florence, Paris, Vancouver, San Francisco, New York, so a mix of things, really. Thanks for your thoughts on this - I often get nervous thinking I should try to pack more into the trip, so I wondered if I should try scaling each city back to 3 days and including Prague in the mix, but I don't want to be racing about too much.

Thanks again for your advice.

I have only spent 3 days in Vienna, but felt I could have used lots more time for all sorts of things. Budapest I had five days and took a couple of day trips by train. Wished I had more days. I too enjoy photography and loved all the opportunities for architecture, details, people, etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to keep to your plan. Have a grand trip!

if you love music, i doubt you will be bored in budapest, nor vienna.
two of my favorite cities, for opera, ballet, recitals and concerts and museums.

there is so much to do and see and each city has several nice day trips you could do.

lucky you!

I think your plan is great. Both cities are wonderful. I would take the travel time from Vienna to Budapest or vice versa out of the days allocated to Budapest, just because I think there is more to see and do in Vienna and the surroundng area.

My last trip included Prague but we were fortunate to have 13 full days for the three cities--still not quite enough.

bookmarking

I really can't say for Vienna, but if you do a daytrip or 2 to the Melk Abbey or Bratslavia, there is probably at least 3 days worth of sightseeing there.
We spent 4 days in Budapest and didn't get to do everything we wanted to do. You could easily spend 5 days there without doing even 1 daytrip, IMHO! I don't know what it was about Budapest, but I left my heart there. Is that a song? It's a vibrant city with great museums, especially the TERROR Museum, which chronicles the Nazi and Communist reign of Budapest. We easily spent half a day there, and had not planned on it. The thermal baths are another place we knew about, but had no plan to go to and again had so much fun, we spent an afternoon. There are great restaurants that all seem to have classical violinists playing and really stunning architecture, and hanging out on the banks of the Danube was really fun also. 10 days seems nice. Have a great time.

I enjoyed both Vienna and Budapest enough to go back to both, for six nights each, so I think you should have no problem filling five days for a first visit. My TR for the second visits is at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35096856

I've done three cities in 10 days and ended up feeling that my main activity was going to airports or rail stations, so I don't do that any more. Five nights (or 4 in a pinch) per city is just right for plenty of relaxation time.

If I were to book 10 days with your interests in mind, I'd spend 3 in Vienna (Kunsthistoriche, Treasury, palace, grinsing), 5 in Budapest (Liszt Terr for cafe culture), skip Bratislava, maybe go to Eisenstadt Austria for palace and Liszt's home.