Krakow/Budapest,Best way to spend 6days
 

We will be in Amsterdam in mid March and would like to visit Krakow and Budapest for a total of 6 days.Any advice on best means of transportaion to and between cities would be helpful.
I did check out whichbudget.com .Can we buy one way tix? Also train between the two cities seems rather long.8-10hrs.
Does either city deserve longer visit than the other?
We would like to visit Auschvitz,that will take a day. Any itinerary suggestions,including favorite sites, hotels,restaurants,guides appreciated?
Thanks,
Cathie

You don't say where you will leave from so it isn't clear to me whether the 6 days includes the travel time to the destinations and return to Amster. or is available time for sightseeing. Assuming it is the former, I would pick one or the other. As I posted recently on another thread, you can easily spend a day looking through Krakow's Old Town, another visiting Wawel Castle and the Jewish Quarter and a third visiting Auschwitz/Birkenau (you could probably spend a full day there, as you commented) and half a day at Wieliczka Salt Mines. Other options from Krakow are daytrips south to Zakopane in the Tatra Mts. or (something we did not do) north to Czestochowa.

You could also go to Budapest and find similar opportunities and daytrips there.

Six days is probably too much for either city alone but not so if you include daytrip possibilities. Six days IMHO is definitely not enough to do both cities.

For your other questions, I would suggest reviewing prior posts on this board where there is a lot of good information that was helpful to us in planning our trip.

Thanks for the input. I've checked other threads on these cities and thought we could do both. We will be traveling part of 2 days from-to Amsterdam.How about flying into Krakow,Visiting 2 1/2 days,fly or train to Budapest visiting 2 1/2 days flying back to AMS?
Cathie

My only comment would be to check flight connections between Krakow and Budapest. My guess is that you will have to connect through Vienna or some other larger city. The flight times will not be very long so if the connections are O.K., then sure, do it. They are each great cities.

I don't know if you like it, but you have an excellent low budget airline called Sky Europe and this airlines flies from Amsterdam into Krakow and from Budapest into Amsterdam. I think this airline is the cheapest and best option for you. I flew with them a couple times and they are reliable and very cheap.Take a look on www.skyeurope.com You could take a train from Krakow to Budapest. You have an excellent night train which goes direct to Budapest. I don't know the rates. The train takes about 10 hours so quite long. Malev Hungarian Airlines offers direct flights from Krakow to Budapest, for rates you should check www.malev.com and also LOT Polish airlines offers direct flights, check their rates on www.lot.com

If you need hotel suggestions for both Budapest and/or Krakow, ask me because I'm a frequent traveller to both cities.

Thanks all,
The night train between Krakow and Budapest is appealing. Can we make a reservation for a first class compartment? Is the ticket price the same on line as at the station. I recall reading somewhere that there are more economical ways to book. Also with Skyeurope, is it best to book from here-we haven't done e-ticketing abroad.Is it the same?We don't want to take too many chances being on a rather tight schedule.
Appreciate the help!
Cathie

In March ,I am flying Malev Air from Krakow to Budapest non stop in 50 minutes for $151.00. Made booking through Malev Air in N.Y.

I'm not sure if you can reserve this train traject online, but I advice you to book the train just as soon as you get there. Availibility shouldn't be a problem, especially not when you're travelling first class, which I'm quite sure is available on this traject.

As for the flights, you can book from abroad. That isn't a problem. You just get an eticket number, and it works the same as everywhere.

Hope this helps you