I did the same tour in April 2013 and was most pleased by Budapest. It's not very touristy this time of the year (can't speak for high season) and I highly recommend the free (tip-based) walking tour. The food is also cheap and very good. We stayed four days but I would have stayed at least five.

Vienna was nice as well, lots to see but there are certainly more tourist traps. I would spend at least four days in each; it depends on what you want to see. I went for the architecture, museum quarter, and classical music, and was not disappointed. I would've stayed four days here (I only stayed 3).

- Prague's Old Town is beautiful but there is little to see beyond the touristy places, and there are some seedy areas in between. Worth seeing but not for more than three days. However, a friend of mine visited a week before me and went bungee jumping -- I might have liked that. The company website is bungee.cz

-Krakow is also beautiful and I found the locals quite welcoming, although this might be part of the tourism machine. Many inexpensive places to eat. Auschwitz is of course a must-see, if a bit heavy.

thanks crazy ferret lady!

Auschwitz is of course a must-see, if a bit heavy.>

some folks revolt at the idea of visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau (nothing anti-Semitic) and I don't blame them - not a must see but IMO a should see - a sobering testimony to horrors that a civilized country (Germany) inflicted on folks they deemed inferior not that long ago - folks who survived the camp still being alive.

Birkenau is the more horrifying as here you see the track platforms where folks were emptied out of stuffed cattle cars and sent right to the adjacent gas chambers or work camps. That one place to me was the most graphic of sites in both camps, about two miles apart but usually called by the collective name Auschwitz. That said there remains relatively little in Birkenau but Auschwitz is much more intact and many more museum buildings, etc.

Bookmarking

12 days - the original plan was to do Vienna, Prague and Budapest - but then my husband and I thought we might want to skip one of those and sub in Krakow/Auschwitz -- but still have to flesh that out!>

Well about the only way Krakow could be included without takin gup too much time is to take overnight trains to it from Prague and from it to Budapest - otherwise save flying it is a long all day bus or train poke - but get a private compartment on those trains, assuming they are available, and go in style - bring wine or whatever food you want aboard and relax - wake up in Krakow or Budapest - the sites I referred to way up above in an earlier post will tell you all about overnight trains and what to expect - you do have to put up inevitably with some noise - wheels going over tracks, station PA announcements, people trekking by in the corridor, etc. so if a light sleeper you may want to eschew the overnight train idea. Otherwise same time, even over flying and the cost of a night in a hotel.