Need help with ideas for stopover location
 

Our family of five (2 adults and 3 children ages 10-15) are visiting Czech Republic and Hungary next July. This will be our shortest European vacation yet at only 9 nights. I'm struggling with it because I want to see too much :-) I'm really hoping to get a little help making a one day decision. Our plan so far:

Prague - 3nights
Cesky Krumlov - 1 night
private driver from CK to Budapest
Budapest - 5 nights (daytrip to Danube Bend and possibly Balaton Lake area)

My problem is the day driving to Budapest. We can make one or several stops. I'm thinking that besides the drive, we'll have about 5 hours to play with along the way. I had planned Bratislava stop for lunch and explore town. Then I looked a bit further. In an ideal world we would stop at Trebon, Telc, Lednice, Bratislava, and Gyor... but I know that's way too much and we wouldn't have time do it all. Bratislava would be visiting a different country and we could try the potato dumpling dish. Trebon, Telc and/or Lednice would give us a view of less touristy Czech Republic.... Where would you stop along the way? (definitely open to other locations too)

We don't want to stop in Austria. We plan to visit in future for a longer period of time (which is another thing because we could technically visit Bratislava in future I guess when we visit Vienna, Saltzberg, etc in a few years time)

I'd love insight and thoughts. :-)

Yep Bratislava is the obvious one though I like Gyor as well. Fertod is a bit of a dump (one fine palace and the edge of a lake).

Just got back from Budapest last week. Spent 6 nights after arriving from Bratislava at 7pm. spent my first day on the Buda side, the next day the Pest side. Then I went to do the Danube Bend. I to wanted to do everything and do every city and scheduled it all out. For the Danube Bend cities, I would definitely skip Szendentre--cute town, same souvenirs. Visegrad--get the walk through town by the church to walk to the ruins, walking the path by the city gate is narrow, dark and lonely. There's an old royal palace archaeological site that is extremely well done and actually was rather wonderful, so highly recommend hitting that. Ezstergrom was the first Hungarian capital and worth it. Also took a trip to Eger but that's when you might go to the Lake. Then a last day in Budapest hitting everything I missed on my first 2 days.

You must hit the great hall market at Liberty Bridge. If you just want to see it go early, if you want lunch or dinner, go early although I'm not sure the crowds ever go away. And of course, a Bath.

I got a Budapest Card for 24 hours starting at 11am my first day. I zipped around using all the transportation I could and needed to do, able to work in a 2pm Pest walking tour and a 10am Buda walking tour and go to the Lukas Baths. I really got my monies worth. Remember a recommendation from another fodorite, only secure forints from a bank ATM, not just from any ATM.

Prague at night is beautiful as you can stand on the Bridge and swivel 360 degrees and see fabulous sites all lit up, Budapest is the same when you cross the Chain Bridge-spectacular!

Hey!
I'd rather advise you to stop at Visegrád for a lunch with a spectacular view from the restaurant of Hotel Silvanus! https://twitter.com/hotel_silvanus
Then you should cross the river Danube from Sturovo to Esztergom and stop on the way to Budapest! :)
It's worth to try this way as the nature is beautiful there!!