I'm considering a trip from the US to Poland. I would fly into Warsaw and train to Krakow where I'd like to visit Auschwitz. Afterwards to Prague and Slovakia by train and ending in Vienna. How long by train is the trip between Warsaw and Krakow and Krakow to Prague? Is this realistic for 11-12 days? And is the route
too circuitous? Never been there before, is this a decent plan and will the time be well spent? Are there better destinations to consider? Thanks for any advice.

For information about the time it takes to go from place to place -- and how to do it -- see rome2rio.com.

It depends on what you want to see and do, but I'd find Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, and Vienna too much for 11 or 12 days, even if those days don't count your travel days. As a starting point, think of, say, 2 days (which means 3 nights) for Warsaw, 4 or 5 days (so 5 or 6 nights) for Krakow (to include your dat at Auschwitz / Birkenau), 3 or 4 days (so 4 or 5 nights) for Prague, and 5 or 6 days (so 6 or 7 nights) for Vienna. BUT only you can decide what you want to visit and at what pace.

Here's what I recommend: Get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, check their opening/closing times on the internet, and mark them on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting lost/oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together.

There's all well worth seeing, IMO, so no bad decisions, just some difficult ones.

Our train between Warsaw and Krakow took two hours and twenty minutes. We did Warsaw, Krakow and Prague in nine nights, one of them on an overnight train between Krakow and Prague. Great trip, which actually started in Scotland.

We’ll go back to Warsaw. It was much more interesting than I thought it would be.

"Is this realistic for 11-12 days?"

No. You have given yourself 12 days to explore 4 cities spread across three countries and 1 country, Slovakia, by itself. Since it is Poland you want to visit, why not use all of your time there? Consider flying into Warsaw and out of Krakow, or vice versa, to avoid back tracking.

Warsaw to Krakow is only a few hours by train. People do various routes for Krakow to Prague, that isn't a short hop away. The quickest train route is about 7 hrs.

I don't think it is realistic for 11-12 days, either, I would drop either Prague or Vienna, you can't do both.

For all European train schedules go to www.bahn.de/en - German Railways online pan-European schedule site - easy to use. Book your own trains online - www.seat61.com gives adroit advice on doing that - can score discounts often by booking (in stone) weeks early. There is also the European East Railpass that could be a great deal as you can just hop on any train anytime (some may require reservations first though- easily done at stations)- good deal vs full-fare fully flexible tickets especially in first class which I always recommend especially for those with too much baggage! BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com also great info on Central European trains.

There may be a night train between Krakow (or nearby Katowice) and Prague.