Kris

I am planning on traveling to Prague, Budapest and Vienna in September. I am planning on spending 3 days in each place and take the train city to city. Were should I start the tour? Any recommendations or suggestions on places to see? Is this enough time in each city? Should I do Vienna or Salzburg? Any thoughts would be great.

Julie

Your trip is kind of the Venice, Florence, Rome itinerary of eastern Europe. It should provide you interesting similarities and contrasts. I think it would make a terrific trip. Since you're going in the fall, I'd go Prague, Vienna, Budapest to take advantage of the minimal differences in climate, i.e. travel north to south to get as much warm weather in each place as possible. I'd do Vienna rather than Salzburg to keep the symmetry of the capitol cities of each of the three countries. When you return it will be very interesting to get your impressions and see which you liked best and least among them. We have been to all three but at different times. It would be very interesting to do them in succession. I would stick with 3 days in each just to keep things "even." I envy you your trip. Enjoy.

Barry

Hi Kris -<BR><BR>We just did the same trip ... returned on 3/19/02...<BR><BR>The order to do them in depends on where you are flying into. We did the whole trip by rail (Eurail SaverPass 1st Class) and that in my opinion is the most effective means of inter-city travel. Just pack light, we had one roll around airline overhead size bag and one shoulder bag each for 14 days. We met a couple of late 20's early 30's girls from our part of the country who had 2 HUGE bags each and they struggled with them on and off every train. You need to be able to handle whatever you take by yourself, up and down 4 steps up into the train, and then into the overhead bag storage area above your seat.<BR><BR>We did 4 nights in Salzburg, 3 nights in Vienna, 3 nights in Budapest and 2 nights in Prague.... that wasn't enough time anywhere! We could have easily added 2 more days in each city and still been "on the move" constantly! We had the "city cards" for each city for unlimited public transportation and free or discounted admission into museums and attractions. For example, the "Salzburg Card" cost us $24 (actually euros) and we got over $250 in value from it! The public transportation in each of those cities is excellent!<BR><BR>I'd do Salzburg... it is much easier to do in that short a time period...<BR><BR>Salzburg – We stayed at the Renaissance (Marriott), and it is an excellent location traveling by train… just a short block from the Banhoff and all it’s public transport links. The hotel was great and the breakfast was wonderful. Just make sure to ask for a room on the backside away from the noisy traffic. If you see things in this order (and they are all close together in "Old Town") I think they will make more sense. First the Cathedral and Cathedral Museum, then the Monastery of St. Peter and it's graveyard and catacombs, then the Residenz (of the Prince Archbishops), then Mozart's birthplace and first home.... you will get a good understanding of the flow of the history of the area. From there wander up and down Getreidegasse. You CAN do all that the first day if you push, and it will make things "fall into place" for you Make sure you have some half euro coins in your pocket, there are "info phones" in some of the sites that will give you a good short history of the site. From there just hit the Fodor's guide books and look at some of the other posts on these cities. One thing I will add is that the Nature Museum there is wonderful... but has nothing to do with Salzburg! MAKE SURE you have at least one meal at Stiftskeller St. Peter… it is fabulous!<BR><BR>I don't want one post to get too long so I'll come back with notes on the other cities in another post.... or you can feel free to e-mail me,,,<BR><BR>Barry<BR>

Linda

Either do Prague, Vienna, Budapest or the reverse to keep the train time down. I would do Vienna definitely. Try nethotels.com for good hotels/pensions in all price ranges. The travel card is good because you don't have to worry about having your ticket punched each time you get on the metro or bus. If you stay close in enough in Prague, you shouldn't need the subway. It is not planned well and you can walk to the place quicker than changing trains. In Vienna, the U-Bahn is great, also good in Budapest. I don't think 3 days are long enough for anything but to whet your appetite to return. You can see the major sites but there is so much more. All 3 were in the same empire so similar but, because of their history (east v west), have interesting differences. Budapest is the best bargain. See the Opera/Symphony in all 3 cities. Vienna's hall is great, Prague's has been redone recently and Budapest's is in progress. You will enjoy them all.

jan

This is a great trip -- we did it about a year ago (with a car). We started in Budapest and ended in Prague. Make sure you line up your accomodations before you go -- it really gets busy, especially in Prague. We enjoyed walking and visiting the museums in each city. Three days is a good start!

Sue

We did the same trip for New Years 2000. We took a night train from Budapest to Prague and had a sleeping compartment. It saves time as that part of the trip is about 8-9 hours. Can't remember exactly. I think we left Budapest at around 10pm and got into Prague at around 6:30 or 7:00 am.