I've been to Western Europe and found that English was spoken in all the major cities. My next trip is going to be to Eastern Europe. The list of countries I want to visit isn't complete, but we are thinking Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, and Hungary. What I'm wondering is in the major cities in these countries is English spoken at most tourist attractions and restaurants? If not, which language should I learn the basics of so we can get by?

I can speak to the parts of Germany I've been to. The people that deal with tourists speak English. In addition so do many younger people.

Having met Austrians outside of Austria I'd say the same thing. To be honest I sort of think you'd be safe with English almost anywhere if you're hitting tourist sites.

But learning the local language basics won't hurt. German for Germany. etc.

Aa mentioned above, English is widely spoken but of course, not by everyone you meet. I have always found translator apps to be very helpful.

Austrian German is very different to German German, and German is not easy to learn.
Same with Swiss German. I have watched Germans speaking to both Austrians and Swiss and struggling to understand them. They get by of course but don't assume it is all the same just because it is labelled German.
English is less common is the old East Germany in my experience but I haven't been for a while so I expect it has improved now.
Most people just get by with English and sign language (and translator apps nowadays).

Yes, English is widely spoken in the major cities of the countries you listed.

Also, to be more technically accurate, Germany is Western Europe; Austria, Czech Republic and Poland are more commonly considered Central Europe, while the Soviet bloc countries are more Eastern Europe.

as above
English is spoken is the tourist cities of the countries mentioned, Czech and Hungary will have the least English but if you find people under 30 then normally no problem

You will find that hello, good morning, can you help me and thank you is the least you can do in the local language

Czech Republic, Poland and East Germany were all Soviet bloc countries back in the day, but were always Central Europe before 1945. Those countries just got relegated to eastern Europe because they were behind the Iron Curtain. Since the fall of Communism the name Central Europe has made a comeback, in fact those countries made quite an effort to be recognised as such. I think Milan Kundera (? memory failure) might have written something on this re-naming, quite a long time ago now, but as it's been a long time since Communism fell (1989-1990), this is hardly surprising.

English is OK to get by (young people, the educated); German also works in some places. When we visited the former eastern states of Germany a few years ago, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in particular (and I have been to the east many times), even though we have German, we were told that the second language people had in those parts was unsurprisingly Russian, in some areas over English.

Lavandula

English is widely spoken in tourist areas in all countries mentioned bei the OP.
BTW: the geographical center of Europe ist somewhere between south-eastern Lithuania and the Ukranian Carpathes (different places due to the definition of Europe: with or without Cyprus, Canaries, Azores, Iceland, Svalbard........)

It's a fact that people of Northern Germany don't understand Swiss or Austrian dialects and that people from Southern Italy never can understand the dialects of Lombardy or Piedmont. etc, etc......
But that's of no importance for tourists

Thank you for all your replies. It sounds like I won't have a problem communicating for the most part. My trip isn't for another year, so I am going to spend time learning the basic phrases for each of the countries I want to visit. .

Thank you for all your replies. It sounds like I won't have a problem communicating for the most part. My trip isn't for another year, so I am going to spend time learning the basic phrases for each of the countries I want to visit. .

While English is the second language in many areas it isn't always.

The second language often reflects the local tourist flows. There are parts of Europe with large German flows and the second language is German. In other towns it'll be French. In other parts Italian.

At times this is pretty extreme. I remember walking into a shop in Spain and all the labels were in German. Not Spanish. The funny part is the shop staff couldn't read German either.

I've been to all rhe countries you've listed and didn't have a language problem with my speaking only English. It's true English might not widely known but in most countries now, Englis is being taught as a second language as my tour guides have told me. I do know a few words in each local country but not enough to hold a conversation. I only had a problem in Lithuania in a train station trying to buy tickets but I just went to the next teller who helped me.

I didn’t know Germany and Austria were in Eastern Europe. This is news to this long time traveler and Europe expert