I am at the early stage of planning a trip for next May. Would like to know how many days at each city I should plan for in order to cover all the main attractions. What's the best way of traveling from one city to another? Which city should we fly into (cheaper fares)? What's your favorite city? Your advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

My trip report for two of these three will be forthcoming. We allowed about half enough for Vienna (we were there two nights) and likewise for Prague (we were three nights) - - and most of all not NEARLY enough for Graz (we were there less than 24 hours. 24 hours is about right for Cesky Krumlov, in my opinion - - not that we didn't like it - - it's just not nearly so important to spend a second night there as additional nights in Graz, Vienna or Prague would be.

And you will find plenty of people who will tell you to allow 3-7 days for Budapest.

While it is not easy to say which airport will be the best value for you (from where?) a year away - - keep in mind that you can fly for a song from London to Graz (we paid 117 € for our family of five, one way, taxes included - - this is NOT per person - - 117 for all five of us!)

Best wishes,

Rex

Hate to throw a clinker into your plans, but unless this is a once in a lifetime trip to the area I'd break it up into 2 trips. This part of Europe is so fascinating, and there is so much more than these 3 big cities. The Danube bend is marvelous. Krakow is very close. There are quite a few places within 3 hours of Prague that are worth several days. Other parts of Austria south of Vienna are beautiful. You will not really be seeing Central Europe if you limit yourself to just these 3 large cities. That said, we spent 4 nights in Vienna which we thought was adequate to see the city. We spent 4 nights in Prague which was fine, but we could maybe have used one more. We have visited Budapest 2 different times for a total of 5 nights. By the way, all of these times were in the cities only, and did not allow for any day trips.

Hi:

We were in Budapest & Vienna for 3 days each this past March, enough time to see the major sights but not enough to see everything nor to fully appreciate what each city had to offer ... timing was an issue so 3 days in each was still much better than never seeing either ...

I found that each city offered similar attractions with Vienna being very 'touristy' while Budapest was more 'natural' (& much cheaper) ... both had excellant transit systems so was easy/inexpensive to get around ...

And we managed to get a better 'deal' going Toronto-Budapest (via Frankfurt) & back Vienna-Toronto (non-stop) with the train from Budapest to Vienna rather than going to Vienna first ...

Z

I think that 10 days is the MINIMUM amount that you should spend for these 3 cities. I would spend 4-3-3, Prague, Vienna, Budapest. Prague is far and away my favorite. You could easily add a day to each city.

IMO it makes sense to see all 3 cities in one trip. You should consider flying between Budapest and Vienna (otherwise a long and boring train ride) and training between Viennna and Prague.

I would not start my trip in Vienna, geographically in the middle. Having said that, I believe there are more international flights into Prague.

We flew into Prague then flew immediately to Budapest. Then worked our way back to Prague for our return trip.

Thanks for all the posts! I am now more leaning toward limiting the trip to Prague, and either Budapest or Vienna. So Budapest or Vienna? We will rent a car in Prague. Is it feasible to drive from Prague to Budapest or Vienna? How long does it take? I do want to visit the countryside surrounding Prague. Some people posted that they think Prague is way better than the other two. If so, I will be open to just visiting Prague and surrounding areas. What you you think?

Hi amyx,

When I did these three cities I spent 4 nights in Budapest with a day trip to Szentendre (only 1/2 hour from Budapest by train; 1.5 hours on the boat), 6 each in Vienna and Prague. While in Prague did a day trip to Karlstein.

If you limit yourself to 2 of the 3 I would chose Prague and Vienna, simply because I liked them the best. I flew into Budapest and took the train to Vienna and then to Prague. I think it's a good idea to see something besides the cities; next trip to this part of the world I plan to do exactly that.

I found Prague to be a bit of a culture shock after Vienna since the people of Vienna were very warm and out going. In Prague we found very few people who spoke English (1996) (the second language is German) and the environment not as joyous as Vienna. Additionally, there was very little tourist information available. Perhaps much of that has changed now but at the time I wished I had seen Prague before Vienna since I found it quite difficult to adapt to the culture change. I saved Prague for the end of the trip since I considered it to be the jewel of the three cities because at that time I kept running into people who had been to Prague and were enthusiastic about how beautiful it is. It certainly was beautiful and I would love to go back again, this time without expectations.

adrienne

Generic answer: you owe it to yourself to check out one or both of these two excellent websites for planning driving trip - - gives you driving distances, time setimates, route planning, etc...

www.viamichelin.com

or

www.mappy.com

More specific answer: we found it took longer than viamichelin.com indicated, to drive from Vienna and Prague last month - - at least an hour longer.

Plan your trip as you wish, but I think you could spend the whole ten days in the Czech Republic. Or maybe make Vienna (or Graz - - delightful, and Europe's "cultural capital of 2003&quot as a 2-3 day change of pace.

Not "dissing" Budapest or any other destination in Hungary - - haven't been there.

Here's my two cents worth, just having returned from a two week trip visiting those three cities. Spent five nights in Prague (including a half day trip to Kunta Hora), three nights in Budapest and four in Vienna. Could have used at least two more days in Prague and Vienna. Because I didn't want to spend the $150 extra that British Air wanted to fly into Prague and depart from Budapest (the most sense geographically), we trained from Prague to Budapest - a long trip but we broke it up by stopping for a few hours in Bratislava. Then train from Budapest to Vienna and back to Prague. More hours on the train than ideal but I found that flying between the cities was prohibitively expensive. I loved Prague and Vienna. Budapest, in my opinion, has a ways to go to equal them - many still very grimy buildings, lots of graffiti, train and metro stations that are not user-friendly, and inexplicable, unannounced closings of museums or cancellations of events. That said, I do think that Budapest deserves at least three days, and more if you are avid museum-goers.

Here's my two cents worth, just having returned from a two week trip visiting those three cities. Spent five nights in Prague (including a half day trip to Kunta Hora), three nights in Budapest and four in Vienna. Could have used at least two more days in Prague and Vienna. Because I didn't want to spend the $150 extra that British Air wanted to fly into Prague and depart from Budapest (the most sense geographically), we trained from Prague to Budapest - a long trip but we broke it up by stopping for a few hours in Bratislava. Then train from Budapest to Vienna and back to Prague. More hours on the train than ideal but I found that flying between the cities was prohibitively expensive. I loved Prague and Vienna. Budapest, in my opinion, has a ways to go to equal them - many still very many grimy buildings, lots of graffiti, train and metro stations that are not user-friendly, and inexplicable, unannounced closings of museums or cancellations of events. That said, I do think that Budapest deserves at least three days, and more if you are avid museum-goers.

To further confuse you, my take on things. We traveled to these three wonderful cities from May 14 to 28, 2003, spending six nights in Prague (our hands down favorite), three nights in Vienna (our least favorite) and four nights in Budapest. We flew from SFO to Prague and home from Budapest. We took trains from Prague to Vienna and from Vienna to Budapest.

We stayed in Prague the entire time. We had planned on a day trip to Cesky Krumlov, but time did not allow. We loved everything about Prague, the people (we found more English speakers here than in either Vienna or Budapest), the architecture, the food, just the overall atmosphere.

We enjoyed our stay in Vienna and those things we saw and did, but it was much easier to leave there than Prague.

Budapest is wonderful. Our hotel (The Victoria) added greatly to our stay there. The view of the Danube and beautiful Parliament Buildings and chain bridge from our picture window was fabulous. We too took the train to Szentendre, with a stop off in Aquincum to visit Roman ruins and the museum. We took the hydrofoil back to Budapest which made it a nice round trip.

This was one of our best trips to Europe. I've never done a trip report, but may try to put something together this time. Amyx you will love the three cities I'm sure, and any time you are able to spend in each will be well remembered. Have a wonderful time.

If I can help you with details on the trains, or anything else, don't hesitate to e-mail me: [email protected]

Because they were all a part of one empire, they are very similar in the older history. However, Vienna being always in the west, Prague being more inclined to democrary than Budapest after the curtain fell, the recent history makes them very different. I found the comparisons to be most interesting. You need at least 5 days in each city. All 3 have good day trips if you cover ground faster than we did. That being said, Prague is the most romantic with the Charles Bridge at night and the incredible architecture (not bombed in WWII); Budapest is like Scarlett O'Hara, a bit tattered but genteel and determined; Vienna is a joy with culture, food and more familiar feel.