kelvin_sse

I am currently planning for a winter trip to Europe for around 10-12 days on early February 2014. Current plan is Paris (3 night) -> Vienna (3 night) -> Salzburg (2 night) -> hallstatt (1 night) and maybe include a day trip to nearby Bratislava when in Vienna before returning to Paris by flight. Alternatively I was also considering dropping Salzburg and Hallstat and replace it with Prague.

I am wondering if the plan is too hectic and is covering too much cities with the limited time. I just visited Budapest couple of weeks back and I am very interested to visit Vienna to see how it compare against Budapest since both are capital city under the Habsburg empire.

Have done a little research and it seems to be bitterly cold in Vienna in February, I had visited some Transylvania cities in Romania in February this year, so maybe I can expect pretty much the same weather I guess.

Is my plan feasible or even doable? It is better to drop Prague and concentrate on
Salzburg and Hallstat? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

Jean

I'm sure your plan is doable, but it seems hectic to me. Two days Paris and 2 days Vienna (perhaps 1 of those days to/from Bratislava) means very selective sightseeing and not much time to explore your Habsburg curiosity.

I'm not understanding the logistics. Will you fly Paris-Vienna and train to Salzburg/Hallstat from there? Where will you fly back to Paris from?

Whatever the final plan, consider flying into your farthest destination and working your way west, or vice versa, to avoid having to backtrack.

Prague will be colder than Vienna. IMO, only you can decide between Salzburg/Hallstat and Prague.

nytraveler

Prague and Vienna are both on the central european plain and you can expect true winter weather very possibly with snow. Salzburg is immediately adjacent to the mountains and Hallstat in them - and colder weather and snow are pretty much a given. Paris may be slightly warmer - but snow is still possible.

IMHO you are trying to stuff an awful lot into a limited amount of time - and I would try to cut back on the number of destinations.

michelhuebeli

Why go back to Paris just to board a plane? Book your flight to take you to Paris and to fly home from Vienna or Prague- it usually doesn't cost more to do this "open-jaw" kind of ticket (when you book it it's called MultiCity with most airlines). If is does cost a bit more, you still save a lot of time and money.

The days will be very short so you don't get to see much of a city in a few days. Give Paris an extra couple of days, especially since the sleep deprivation commonly known as "jet lag" will make your first day a blur you won't remember later on.

Then pick only other one, Vienna or Prague. The concert and opera season will be in full swing in both cities if classical music is your thing.

Salzburg in winter makes little sense unless you're fully into skiing - the whole expensive bit with equipment and clothing and what-not.

Snow or at least dark clouds and wet/cold unpleasant days are very likely, it's that kind of a season, so bring the heavy winter coat and the gloves and good shoes, so you don't have to take refuge indoors at all times. It's fine to get to know a city in bad weather if you're equipped, but it's lousy if you're not.

kelvin_sse

My plan is to fly from Paris to Vienna then take a train to Salzburg and then return to Vienna bofore leaving for Paris via flight. I know it seems to be a lot of backtracking but the main reason I am not opting for a 'open jaw' ticket is because the flight from Asia to Vienna is very expensive,usually it will cost 20-30% extra compare to a return flight to Paris or Frankfurt.

Winter is the usually the only time I am able to take long holidays, hence I have got no choice but to bear with the short daylight and cold weather. I always think Salzburg looks amazing in the winter and it is the best time for a visit even though I'm not going there for skiing. If Salzburg is not a good option in the winter maybe I will opt for Prague,my worries is just that Prague will be extremely cold but the plus point is Prague looks amazing in the winter.

I would have prefer to go to Southern Spain or maybe Greece but my parents prefer to go to Paris instead despite it is winter time, hence Paris and Austria seems to be my choice at the moment.

fourfortravel

kelvin, I live in Vienna. February here is cold and not without snow, and the gray skies become dark as early as 15:00 on some days. Prague will be cold and dark, as well. I would pick one city or the other and just come truly prepared for the weather.

centraleurope

Have you ever been to Paris?

nytraveler

Neither Prague nor Vienna will be as cold and snowy as Salzburg - since the latter is immediately adjacent to the mountains.

Don;t know about airfares from Asia but have you looked at open jaw (multi-destination) versus two one-way tickets.

You can still do/se a lot in any of these places - just not in all of them - and be sure you are dressed for the weather.

kelvin_sse

I have never been to Paris before and the main reason I am flying in Paris is because the air ticket is the cheapest. Open jaw entering Paris and exiting via Vienna is expensive as any flight leaving from Vienna to Asia is expensive.

Getting dark as early as 15:00 seems to be a bad time to travel to Vienna but my options so far are limited to Austria or Czech Republic or I can opt to visit the Bavarian region (but I guess it is pretty cold there as well). I'm not entirely sure if there is much things to do in Slazburg as I'm not going there for skiing, if it not worthwhile to go there during winter I will probably drop it in favour of Prague.

Croatia is out for me as it is too time consuming to travel from Paris to Split. Would love to visit Amsterdam but I am pretty sure winter is not the time to visit Amsterdam.

Jean

"... but my options so far are limited to Austria or Czech Republic or I can opt to visit the Bavarian region..."

You don't have to explain if you don't want to, but I do wonder why you couldn't just go south by plane or overnight train to somewhere like Rome or Madrid.

centraleurope

Given you have not been to Paris, I would suggest you sprend all your time there. It is a fantastic city in all seasons...

centraleurope

oh, and btw, I love Amsterdam in the winter - the brown cafes, the best tomato soup I ever tasted, fantastic museums... I think Amsterdam could be a perfect partner to Paris.

kelvin_sse

I have been to Rome and Barcelona and Madrid couple of years back during the winter months and my parents are not keen to revisit the places that we have visited before. They are more keen to visit big cities with places for shopping, as much as I like to explore Seville and Granada it just won't work out.

I would prefer to save Amsterdam for spring as my friends and I are planning a visit during the late April or early May to Amsterdam. Staying in Paris for more than 4-5 days will probably be boring for my Mom as she is usually more interested in shopping rather than visiting musuems or watching any concerts or opera.

centraleurope

Oh man... A shopper, Kelvin_see.. You are on your own. I love museums, but I hate to shop.

I'm sure one of our shopping fodorites will have a great idea.