Last minute itinerary opinions - Central Europe
 

Hello, this is rather broad but my husband and I are just 8 days from our 30th anniversary trip to Europe, and I am interested in any opinions/advice you good people may have. I have researched and planned this trip carefully, because who knows if we'll be back, but the last few weeks have been extra stressful here for various reasons, and I don't know what we'll want to do in terms of seeing everything vs just kicking back (we tend to lean to the former, but man we're tired!!). If you are familiar with part/all of this itinerary, please advise on any must sees or great stress relievers! Hubby is interested in all things geeky or tech, while I love nature. Favorite restaurants or fun activities are always welcome as well. Our flights and the cultural tickets mentioned are fixed but all else is still on the planning table:

13 May arrive Amsterdam from US in the morning, spend 1 night (canal cruise and a museum)
14 May in afternoon fly to Prague, 3 nights in Prague. Tix for Figaro 15 May (plus Charles bridge, old town, castle/cathedral, monastery/library, museum or 2)
17 May train or bus to Cesky Krumlov, spend 1 night
18 May train or bus to Salzkammergut, spend 4 nights (possible day trip to Salzburg -this is the one city we've been before, on our honeymoon - as well as Hallstatt, 5 fingers, cable car to salt mine and hike down)
22 May train or bus to Vienna, spend 3 nights. Tix for Swan Lake 22 May (Art history museum, Belvedere, St Charles Church, Demel's sweet shop, maybe Schonbrunn)
25 May fly to Amsterdam, spend the night before flying home

What do you think? Will we be refreshed or frazzled? Should we rent a car in Salzkammergut? We have hotels/B&B's reserved but can make changes up to next week. TIA!

We live in Vienna, and since you're into nature, one of our favorite warm-weather activities is to hike through the vineyards at the edge of the city and finish with lunch and fabulous local wine at a heuriger. The views overlooking Vienna are picturesque, as well.

If Schloss Schönbrunn is a definite, purchase your tickets online in advance to avoid the lengthy queues at the palace. To tour the palace, the gardens and labyrinth, and to walk to the Gloriette, allow about three hours.

Demel's is difficult to secure a table at during the tourist season; I do not believe they take reservations. You will be near Gerstner's (the other royal and imperial confectioner) the evening of the Opera; a reservation there (ask for the balcony table, if possible) would make for a lovely post-ballet coffee.

I hope this is helpful.

In Prague, we enjoyed visiting the Vysehrad area. There is a small but beautiful church and a very pretty cemetery where some famous people are buried. We've been there twice, once in October and once in August, and both times it was relatively quiet and peaceful in Vysehrad. Less crowded.

For Prague museums, we enjoyed the Alphonse Mucha museum and the Communist museum. They are small so not stressful to visit. You can see everything easily. Maybe an hour in each museum, if I remember correctly.

We loved Cesky Krumlov and drove there from Prague for 2 nights. It is beautiful at night, and peaceful, after the day trippers have left.

Since most of your sightseeing doesn't require advance tickets/reservations, you can decide when you are there if you are too tired to run from place to place, and just enjoy walking around and taking in the scenery, architecture, relaxing at cafes, etc. Prague and CK are small and easy to get around. Not stressful.

That arrival day, it will be wasted with jet lag etc. What time are you flying? Security is now so overtaxed that there are long delays. I believe Schiphol counsels everyone to be present at least 3 hours prior. People have missed their flights last week, because of long delays at security.

Instead of Amsterdam, go to Haarlem. Easily reached by bus, quieter, smaller, (cheaper) and with two great museums, the Frans Hals Museum and Teylers

I don't see how you can be talking about how tired out you are at present and then come up with an itinerary that is guaranteed to simply add to that.

The two commonest mistakes that travellers make are packing too much and trying to cover too much in too little time.

Add up your arrival day, departure day and each day you will make a move. Then calculate what percentage of your total time that represents. If it is 1/1/5 as I count it to be and you have a total of 14 days on the ground including your arrival and departure day as I count it, that means you will be moving on 50% of your total days.

In travel as in many things, less is more. The less you move, the more you see and do. Travel days are lost days. You may be able to 'squeeze' in a half day sometimes but a vacation isn't supposed to be about 'squeezing' things in.

People often say something like, 'we want to get as much as possible out of our time.' But they confuse the word 'much' with the word 'many'. The way to get the most out of your time is to spend your time IN places, not in BETWEEN places.

In 2 weeks I would not attempt to visit more than 4 places including the arrival point and departure point. I see no reason to start in Amsterdam, I would fly directly to Prague and then only make a move to Vienna followed by a move to Amsterdam for a few days before flying home. Simple and relaxed.

I had the impression that flights had already been booked

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

Dog eared, I totally get your point. Unfortunately we are already locked into flying in and out of Amsterdam because of a fabulous airfare deal. I agree skipping Amsterdam would have made for a smoother trip but we can't change that now. I had not anticipated some of the home fires that would spring up to tax our energy right before leaving for this trip (heavy work loads, ill relative etc). Do you think skipping Chesky Krumlov would help slow the rush down a bit? I suppose we could cancel our hotel there and find an extra days lodging in prague. Easier train connections from Prague to salzkammergut too I believe?

So I'm thinking of skipping Chesky Krumlov, adding that day to Vienna, and renting a car in Salzburg to make our time in Salzkammergut more flexible and then returning the car in Vienna. Does anyone have experience with car rental in Salzburg?

Carol:

Have picked up and returned rental cars near the train station twice (Avis and EuRopcar.) Easy in and out of the city. You should have no issues.

Do you have any specific issues?

H

Hi,

This itinerary might be too much if you are already stressed out; but do you think that the excitement of being in Europe will reenergize you? Personally, I love it even with awkward landing in Amsterdam. I am going to be in Vienna in September and your itinerary just reminded me to buy tickets to the ballet. Thank you.

Where are you staying in the Salzkammergut? We were in St Gilgen for 3 nights in 2013. We had an amazing time, hiking, buying fresh chanterelles at the market, swimming, visiting Nannerl Mozart's museum. There was even a playground for my daughter just in front of the lake.
We used public transport to St Gilgen, a bus from Salzburg.

I think that the most challenging connection that you have is from Cesky Krumlov to the Salzkammergut if you are not renting a car.

A sure way to reduce stress when traveling is to know in details the connection of point A to point B and not to figure it out on the spot. Hiring a private transport (a shuttle) is also an option to reduce stress if your finances permits it. You are leaving in 8 days and you don't know yet of you should take the train or the bus or rent a car at certain points of your itinerary. That to me is stressful, not the amount of destinations.

In terms of transport, I like the train. I love the view out of the window, I love not stressing about figuring out where to go turn by turn. We get a picnic or buy from the restaurant car; we talk, read, a write our travel journals.

I totally understand what you are saying Carolmom, when you write, "Unfortunately we are already locked into flying in and out of Amsterdam because of a fabulous airfare deal."

However, I never understand how anyone can consider something a 'fabulous airfare deal' if it isn't actually a good fit for their needs/plan.

If it suited my plans best to fly to Prague and depart from Amsterdam, then no deal to Amsterdam return would be a 'fabulous airfare deal' to me. It would be a poor compromise based solely on THINKING it would save me money. I say thinking it would because unless you add on all the additional costs incurred by going that route, you aren't comparing apples to apples. You have the airfare from Amsterdam to Prague to add just for starters.

I think what often happens is people book a 'fabulous airfare deal' first and then start looking at where they want to go. That to me is always 'back asswards'.

As I get older, flight convenience becomes more important to me. I will no longer book a flight with any stops for example if I can avoid it. I don't care if a direct flight cost more (as long as I can afford it). I care if instead of a 7 hour direct flight I am looking at a 14 hour (with stop/s) flight time. If I have to pay an extra $200 for a direct flight, it's worth it.

I care about legroom and will book a seat or flight that gives me more on A even if B is cheaper.

I care about arrival/departure times. I won't book a flight that has me having to get up at 4 or 5am in order to get to the airport on time.

I suppose what I am saying is there are rarely any 'fabulous airfare deals'. Most of them cost you in other ways. I prefer to pay costs in money, not convenience.

I am planning another trip, and in coming on this site I realized that I never replied to the last 3 posts or reported back about our trip. Everyone's advice was so helpful. We followed most of it. Couldn't change our tickets, but we are happy we saw a bit of Amsterdam. It was very different from our other destinations, and we loved the Rijskmuseum. We enjoyed the Vysehrad very much - and all of Prague. We cut out CK (another trip??), stayed in St. Gilgen, skipped Saltzburg. We skipped renting a car, using trains as much as possible. Good decisions all.
Toujours Voyager, you were right about the excitement of the trip giving us energy. We didn't do as much as originally planned, but we did a LOT and it was thrilling.
I just wanted to come back on and give you all a big thank you!!

thanks for coming back and you may consider writing a Trip Report or mini one so more folks could benefit from your experiences. and yes trains are great for those places.

So happy to hear that you enjoyed Vysehrad - one of my favorite areas of Prague!