gbs

Author: gbs
Date: 07/14/2006, 06:55 pm
We will be going to Central Europe for about 3 weeks in September. We've put together a tentative itinerary and would love input and suggestions. We will be travelling by train, might rent a car for a few days in each country if it seems doable.
We will be landing in Budapest on the 5th and flying out of Warsaw on the 26th.
Budapest 4 nights (getting in late)
Vienna 3 nights
Prague 3 nights
Cesky Krumlav 2 nights
Overnight train to Krakow from Prague or Cesky Krumlav 1 night
Krakow 3 nights
Warsaw 2 nights
This is 19 nights - we have 21 nights there.
Any ideas or better suggestions? Thanks so much.




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Author: Craigellachie
Date: 07/14/2006, 07:38 pm
gbs,
You'll get a better response if you include "Central Europe", or some of your planned destinatons, in your title.
I haven't been to any of these places though most of them are on my "must visit" list. It's a heavy itinerary with a lot of travel, but if you're OK with that it looks terrific. I've a friend who knows the Czech Republic quite well - he should do, he married one of them. When he comes back from his hols (guess where?) I'll see if he has any tips.



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Author: WallyKringen
Date: 07/15/2006, 03:14 am
Overall it looks fine, but I'm not clear on your Cesky Krumlov caper. Going there twice? It's a natural to go there between Vienna and Prague, and on the way there will be Linz (check it out!) and there could/should be nearby Passau (check it out!) - it's slow going around there because you're not on major lines, but still...

You might spend an extra night doing just that, then go on to Prague, and from Prague go on to Krakow if you must. Three nights? Really?

I would rather allocate more nights to Vienna and explore the city and the environs more - lots and lots to see and do, even the one-hour train ride to Bratislava (inexpensive lunch!), the Neusiedler See, Melk, track down Haydn (www.haydn-zentrum.at), see the Hundertwasserhaus, and on and on.

Take another look at a good, detailed map, read a couple of guidebooks and don't overlook smaller cities - many have lots to offer.

WK



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Author: gbs
Date: 07/15/2006, 12:39 pm
Is there a way to edit this post to change the title to Central Europe? The only guide book I have right now is Rick Steve's Central Europe, which doens't really include a lot of the smaller cities. We usually rent a car and visit mostly small places, but it seems outlandishly expensive to rent in one country and drop off in another so we thought we would go by train this time. We have never done that, so we're not sure how to deal with tickets when getting on and off all the time. Any ideas on that? Thanks for any help.



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Author: amaclise
Date: 07/15/2006, 02:57 pm
You can't change the post's title but you can start a new one and cut and paste your original post into the new one.



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Author: cambe
Date: 07/15/2006, 03:35 pm
Hi gbs,

I am doing a similar itinerary next week.

Looking at your itinerary I would suggest you go to Cesky Krumlav from Vienna and then go on to Prague.

The direct train from Prague to Krakow is a night train and arrives at 05.50am.

I had thought about doing this but it is too early for me so I am taking the day train from Prague to Olomouc, stay there for 1 night and then take the train (with one change) to Krakow the next day.

Olomouc is getting good reviews with few tourists presently and it is in Movaria which would be in contrast to Baveria. Some people say it is like Prague before the tourists started coming!

As you have 2 extra days you could hire a car here abd see the countyside or go to Zakopane in Poland as a day trip.

Please do look at the train timetables on http://www.bahn.de
I found this site very very helpful,

Helen




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Author: cambe
Date: 07/15/2006, 03:38 pm
That should be go to Zakapane from Krakow as a day trip or overnight trip.



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Author: gbs
Date: 07/15/2006, 05:14 pm
Thanks for all the input so far. Cambe, can you let me know how your trip goes? I'd appreciate any hints, positive or negative! Thanks



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GSteed

Great trip..consider renting a car and driving from Budapest to Warszawa. The roads are good and there are multiple roadside motels. You can park the car at a motel and bus into a city. Get out the maps...

gbs

We would like to drive, but have found the rental cost to rent in one country and drop off in another to be really, really expensive. Any ideas to cut these costs?

PeterB

Most of the cities you plan to visit are large and many have old towns either closed to traffic or with great public transportation ... Krakow / Warsaw is great example of that - for your specific trip I would not rent a car - since most of the time it will be sitting in a parking lot or you trying to find parking... you may want to rent in just one country where you would like to see bit outside of the large cities ... which would then fill in rest of the unscheduled days... Other suggestions of what to see is maybe some time in Zakopane which is near Krakow also maybe just 1 night in Warsaw vs 2 ...

gbs

Thanks for your help. I planned on 2 nights in Warsaw since we are flying home from there in the a.m. - so we won't really be spending that much time there.

gbs

According to Wally's response, 3 nights is too much for Krakow - does anyone else have an opinion on this? what about day trips to surrounding regions if this is too much....or a stop over between Krakow and Warsaw. Any advice appreciated on any of my itinerary. Thanks so much

PeterB

3 night is not much for Krakow ... I would allocate an extra night for Krakow - esspecailly since you can do few day trips from Krakow if you try hard and find yourself seeing all what you wanted and need to go on... Wally is kind of right on making sure and don't overlook the small cities ... kind of because to really do this right you really would need a car rental so your time is not wasted - so maybe for additional days pick a country and rent a car - to just drive around a bit a see the real country I Austria maybe include Salzburg - and maybe even cross to Germany for a bit - very nice areas around those parts - rental maybe a good idea in Austria ...

cmenoni

We found it easier to rent our car in Budapest than Vienna. Mucho restrictions or forbidden to drive into Poland?? I belive we're renting from Budget and there is no problem.

DeeW

I agree that three days is not too long for Krakow. The castle and the old city centre will occupy one day.Worthwhile day trips that will take two additional days include the salt mine and Auschwitz. There are bus trips leaving from various hotels to Auschwitz but if you do have a rental car I think it would be preferable to drive so that you can determine how much time you wish to spend. We took the bus once and it was fine but my husband had another opportunity to visit Auschwitz and drove that time and said that he really beneftied from having additonal time to view the exhibits and to wander at his own pace. Sobering; not "enjoyable"; but very worthwhile. Personally, I thought that a couple of hours were enough for Zakopane.

twoflower

Looking to fill an extra night or two? Between Vienna & Budapest is Bratislava. Might be worth a stop.

Christina

I've been to most these areas and think your itinerary is pretty good. I definitely wouldn't spend only 3 nights in Prague but 2 in Cesky Krumlov. There isn't that much to see in CK, it's very small. However, if you just need a break and to do nothing for a couple days, that would be fine.

I think there was some confusion on the mention of going to CK twice and I can tell you meant you'd go to Krakow either from Prague or from CK. Well, you wouldn't go all the way down there and then back to Prague in order to go to Krakow, which isn't even up near Prague, in particular. YOu are doing some backtracking around due to the Krakow trip.

I've been to Olomouc and it's a nice town for a day or so, but is definitely not comparative to Prague IMO. There are plenty of tourists there, I thought -- just not many Americans, I guess. It is a good place to stop before the train to Krakow, though, that's how I was there.

I love Krakow, it's worth more than 3 nights IMO, so I sure think 3 is the minimum.

Because you have a couple extra days, you could add on Olomouc for a day on the way to Krakow, that's one choice. The train to Krakow is from Olomouc, then change at Prerov, and then all the way to Krakow. It's not too bad that way.

I just spent a cople days in Wroclaw, Poland, which is several hours north of Krakow and really enjoyed it a lot. It's not a small town, but is about the size of Olomouc which is a good size for me -- big enough to have things to do and see, but not too big. I definitely would recommend that you could add on a day or two there as another alternative. You can get a train from Wroclaw to Warsaw just as well as from Krakow.

Another possibility is spend an extra day or so down in Moravia in Ceske Budejovice, I liked that town, also.

MaureenB

I tend to want to stay in places at least three nights, so I'd suggest taking the extra two days and adding one extra night to Vienna, Prague, or Krakow-- just because they sound like they are larger and have a lot to see. We had 5 nights in Vienna in late May, which was perfect for us. One day-trip that's nice from Vienna is a train/boat excursion up the Danube into wine country above Vienna, if they still offer them in September. You can stop in Melk and see an extravagant hilltop monastery there.
We didn't take day-trips from Prague when we spent 3 nights there, because we wanted to explore Prague fully. We would have preferred one more night in Prague.
Haven't been to Krakow, but it's on our list.

gbs

OK, here is a revised edition of our itinerary:
Budapest: 4 nights
Eger: 1 night
Vienna: 4 nights
Cesky Krumlov: 2 nights
Prague: 4 nights
Night train to Krakow 1 night
Krakow: 3 nights
Warsaw: 2 nights

How does this look? Is Prague to Krakow the only reasonable night train?
Any other suggestions or opinions?
Thank you all for your input. We really appreciate it.

PeterB

Still may want to drop a night in Warsaw and maybe do a stop over in Wroclaw or spend an extra night in Krakow ... as for trains you have more options but you may need to check via Katowice which is a main train hub next to Krakow ... although your night train is a direct sleeper from Praha to Krakow ... so maybe your best bet ... for more connections check
http://rozklad.pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/en
and
http://www.intercity.pl/scripts/trai..._id=99&typ=all

gbs

Is there anyone who can check out my "final" itinerary and give advice on train travel between each city. Is the trip between Prague and Krakow the only one where we should consider an overnite train? I'm having trouble figuring out the train schedules. I've looked at the sites suggested and just can't seem understand it. The schedules don't seem to jibe with what I need, or I can't get prices, figure out how to find what I need, etc. How do I know which I station in each town I should be leaving from and arriving into? We've always travelled by car. I would like to figure out the train stuff a little before I go so I am not overwhelmed. Any suggestions on this and my itinerary? thank you all so much.

gbs

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