ucsun

after much debate, i think i'll bypass going back to italy and will try something different. prague, vienna, budapest 12 days w/ a day or 2 in london before coming home.

i think from lax we'll fly into and out of london and use a cheap euro airline to get out and back to london. i'm thinking that training is probably the best bet between the cities. what's the best order to see the cities in? and how many days should i plan for each city? i was thinking prague 5 days, vienna 3 days, and budapest 4 days. comments are welcome.

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello ucsun,

Are you still planning to go in May, as you indicated in your other threads?

Suggest Budapest, Vienna, Prague (just the usual logic of travelling south to north in the spring). Also, the train journey from Budapest to Prague is the longest (7+ hours), so it's best to do shorter legs by train.

Suggest 3 full days in Budapest, then afternoon train to Vienna on 4th day. For example, I don't know if this one goes every day, but there appears to be one that departs Budapest at 15:50 and arrives in Vienna at 18:40 (with no change of trains).

Suggest 3 full days in Vienna.

Suggest taking 4+ hour train ride from Vienna to Prague on one of the days that you would have allocated to Prague. That will leave you with 4 full days in Prague, plus whatever is left of the day on which you travel from Vienna to Prague (depending on what time you choose to depart).

There is heaps to see in Prague, but its historical centre is smaller than those of Budapest and Vienna.

My two cents' worth.

ucsun

judy thanks, and yes i'm still going the last 2 weeks of may. i actually talked to my best friend and he's almost on board w/ this itinerary. he just isn't sure there will be enough to see or do. i keep trying to reassure him that we'll have as much fun as our other trips. i'm close...we're like brothers and bicker like so.

i guess london, rome, and paris all have the wow sites you've always dreamed of seeing. if it were up to my friend he'd just be as happy going back to london, paris, rome, but there's more to europe than 3 cities...time to go take some sense into my "brother from another mother".

Michael

Vienna deserves more time than Budapest. And if you get tired of the city after two days, you can always take a day trip to Melk or hike in the surrounding hills.

tedgale

Well I think Budapest deserves more time -- more of my time, anyway -- than Vienna. Which tends to show this is all a matter of one's preferences.

So: What are your interests?

tedgale

Or I should say "your interests and those of your best friend", since you have said you do not always have identical views (though it sounds as though you cherish the friendship, regardless)

ucsun

to be honest tedgale, i'm the type of traveler that goes to a city to enjoy the people, observer the culture, and taste the food. the sites are great and the museums interesting, but artifacts are artifacts. but i've gone into museums only to tell my friends that i wanted to leave because the "real" city was outside and the antiquities would be there for another 1000 years. that's not to say that i don't like museums, but i also don't want to be indoors the whole time either...been to the louvre two years in a row in fact.

ucsun

woops, sorry missed your last post. yeah, my friend and i are high school fiends...16 or 17 years...can't even remember anymore. and we have similar travel tastes. so that makes it easy for us to travel together. we always make the best of our trips even more so now that we live on opposite coasts of the US...it's a chance for us to hang out.

tedgale

Budapest is a great city for hanging out, especially in good weather: along the Danube (on the Korso -- sp??), on Margaret's island, up in the old town around the castle in Buda, in Varosliget park.

Lots of museums, if the weather turns nasty: two grand art museums in Heroes' Square plus many others.

Good restaurant and cafe scene too -- not just Gundel's and Gerbeaud. My favourite is Kavehaz Central, for a meal or a drink and sometimes live music -- it's near the Danube's Erzebet (Elizabeth) bridge.

Actually, if you want to hang out with your friend maybe one of the most singular things about Budapest is the presence of 12 natural hot springs within the city limits. The baths are a place for socializing, getting yourself thoroughly worked over and otherwise relaxing.

Gellert is the most famous but try the (once) opulent late 19th C Szechenyi baths in Varosliget park -- surely one of the most beautiful public buildings in B'pest. The outdoor pool is so hot you can swim all winter long.

Almost all the baths are mixed, though I assume the "clothing optional" parts are segregated. And they are open all day long.

A real Budapest experience.

ucsun

tedgale, that was perfect...exactly what i was looking for. thanks a lot...any prague/vienna insight??

eurotraveller

All of these are fabulous cities and worth a few days. How much time you spend in one as opposed to another is definitely a personal preference, as another poster said.

In Vienna I would highly suggest heading out to the country to visit at least one heurigen (wine restaurant). it is a wonderful experience! Next time I visit Vienna I will stay in this area for a few days.

Vienna is a great city to wander around in and visit different bars and cafes. Lots of ambience and great people watching.

In Budapest I highly recommend visiting the House of Hungarian Wine. You pay an entance fee and then walk down into a huge wine cellar and sample or pour a glass from any open bottle. There must be at least 100 bottles open at any given time.

Do you sense a theme here?

I usually don't embark on the "tour" type of traveling but we enjoyed the few hour bus tour in Budapest. We were then able to get our bearings and wander the city aimlessly admiring the architecture.

I was surprised at how clean Budapest was! It seems that there were street and sidewalk sweepers everywhere you turned.

I almost had my wallet snatched right out of my purse. I had opened up my purse to get something out of it and the guy grabbed my wallet. Had I not grabbed his arm and screamed bloody murder I would have kissed my wallet goodbye! I travel quite extensively so I am ultra aware of my surroundings so I was surprised that this happened to me. I will just say that you can never be too careful.

It has been many years since I was in Prague but it is beautiful and magical.

Have a wonderful trip!

ucsun

eurotraveller, thanks for the "wine restaurant" info...sounds pretty good. and i guess there's pickpockets at every tourist destination. but lucky you have quick reflexes.

Carta_Pisana

if you're into architecture - the Seccession Pavillion (the Golden Cabbage) in Vienna has some great books on Wagner architecture in the city. Budapest has been restoring a lot of its secession architecture over the past 5 years - the Museum of Applied Arts has a great collection of fin de seciele And Prague is a jewel - be sure to take a tour of the Municipal House (and have dinner in Francouzska). Also, be sure to go to Letna Park for a panoramic view over the Vltava and the historic center of Prague.

http://www.obecni-dum.cz

ucsun

Carta_Pisana,
Municipal House looks really good...i won't miss it. thanks.

i just realized i need to do some reading on these cities/countries as my past education really hasn't covered eastern europe much...public schooling at its finest. heck, i kept thinking people in hungary must be either really fat or insatiable...