Re : Visiting 3 cities
 

We like to visit Budapest, Vienna and Pragues from London. I am not sure what is the best sequence of cities, and most economical and practical transportation, we should take.
Here are my questions :

1. First we would like to take the Eurostar from London, St. Pancras station to Paris. How do we get to St Pancras station from Heathrow airport? Could we store 2 big suitcases at the St. Pancras station or somewhere close to that station? How much will it cost us to store 2 suitcases from June 30th to July 4th?

2.After staying in London for 4 days where we already reserved a hotel close to Victoria station, we would like to visit Budapest, Vienna and Prague. What is the most logical sequence we should follow? Should we start by flying from London to Budapest a
and return to London from Prague or Vienna?
Here is a suggested itinerary :

Store our big suitcases at the airport where we Fly from London to Budapest, stay 2 nights
Take the train from Budapest to Vienna or Prague, stay 2 nights
Take the train from Vienna or from Prague, stay 2 nights
Fly back to London from Prague or from Vienna, pick up our suitcases and then go to Heathrow airport to fly back home.

any advice on transportation, hotels, sequence of c ities would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Coco2012

If flying and keeping costs down you need to discover the cheepo airlines and the wonders of Stanstead airport.

Look at the skyscanner's website to find out about all the flights. www.skyscanner.net/

Find whichever hotel you will be staying with the longest in London and drop them an email asking if you could leave luggage. There may be a fee but it will cheaper and safer than in storage at the airport. Due to modern security there are very few long term lockers in the UK.

coco - I'm confused.

where does Paris fit into your schedule? day trip? part of the trip proper?

why are you coming back to London after Paris?

why you coming back to London after your trip?

Fly to Central Europe, take the train between the three cities and fly back.

http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

You don;t hve enough time to see all 3 cities. With your schedule you will have only 1 day to visit each city - the other days will be spend trekking all over hell and gone. If it were me I would pick one of the cities and actually see somethng of it - with perhaps a day trip to an outlying castle or ???

And are you stuck flying in and out of London? You can save a day by not having to return there. Are your tickets bought or do you still have the option of open jaw flights?

just to clarify. We are flying from North America to Heathrow airport. Then, we are taking the train to Paris for 4 days with Eurostar. Our Paris train ticket and accommodation is taken care of.

We are returning to London for business for 4 days from July 4th to 8th and are staying in a reserved hotel close to Victoria Station.

We have 6 - 7 days from July 8th to July 14 to visit Budapest, Vienna and Pragues, about 1 day and half in each. We will need of course to fly back to London and from London Heathrow airport we are flying back to North America.

Can we visit these 3 cities in 6 - 7 days just to get some flavor? if so what is the sequence of cities should we opt for? If not, which two cities should we select?

Any hotels to recommend in these cities?

<i>We are flying from North America to Heathrow airport. Then, we are taking the train to Paris for 4 days with Eurostar.</i>

DON'T unless you want to waste most of a day of your trip just getting from Heathrow to Paris.

The sensible thing to do is to book a flight into Paris in the first place. It avoids the need to go through UK immigration (have you read the stories of 3-4 hours processing time recently), you'll have to collect your luggage, you have to pass through customs, you'll have to spend an hour just travelling from Heathrow to St Pancras, you'll need to allow time for Things Going Wrong. Every time you get stuck for any reason you'll worry that you won't make the train. Even before the recent hoo hah you needed to allow 4 hours between landing and train departure, these days I would't want to bet on catching anything except a cold from queuing in draughty corridors

You avoid every one of the above if you book TO Paris - even if you want to return from London (it's called a multicity ticket). You could be in Paris and sipping coffee before you'd even reach St Pancras.

If you've booked tickets then see if you can add a flight to your tickets.

If you can't then change your plans to spend a day in London before going to Paris - then instead of returning to London get a flight FROM Paris to one of the other places. Then fly back to London from the other place for the last couple of days.

alanRow is right of course- flying into London just to leave again is crackers. but if you're already locked into this, [which it looks as if you are] the best way to get to St. Pancras from Heathrow is to get the tube into Paddington and to change onto the Hammersmith and City line which is 5 stops from King's Cross st. Pancras.

here are the details of the left luggage offices: http://www.left-baggage.co.uk/locations.php

[it strikes me that Paddington would be the most convenient place to leave it, though you could leave it at St. Pancras which would be more convenient for when you come back - alternatively, depending on how much time you've got between your flight landing and your eurostar train, you could possibly ask your hotel near Victoria to store it for you].

After your stay in London, you're right that you only have 6 days - that's 5 nights - and were it me, i'd just go to Vienna for the whole time. loads to do, lots of nice day trips, possibly an overnight to Salzburg.

alternatively come to Cornwall and relax!

You're wasting time travelling from London to Paris and back. If you can change your tickets, fly straight to Paris. If not as already suggested, fly from Paris to either Budapest, Vienna or Prague and then fly to London for the last part of your trip.

You do not have enough time to visit all three cities in just 6 or 7 days. You'll be spending most of your time travelling between the cities and you will not be able to enjoy any of the cities in such a short time.

Thanks a lot for all the feedback. We heard a lot of nice things about eurostar from London to Paris La Gare du Nord.
Unfortunately, our train tickets from St. Pancras to Paris have already been purchased.

Now we need to worry about leaving our luggage at the St. Pancras station or try the hotel, although I am not sure if we have time to drop the luggage at the hotel, take the victoria train to st. Pancras. We allowed ourselves 4 hours from the time we land at the Heathrow to get to the St. International Station.
From July 8th early in the morning to July 14th (6 nights), we would like to visit from London at least two cities. It's a question of which ones. We need to be back in London Heathrow airport on July 14th and our flight back home is at 6 p.m.

hi again, coco.

in 4 hours you ought to be able to get from LHR to St. Pancras via paddington and victoria - say 30 mins Heahtrow to paddington, another 30 mins on the district and circle from paddington to Victoria, 15 mins to drop off the luggage, and then 15 from Victoria to king's Cross/St. Pancras on the victoria line.

however, I think I'd be inclined just to go to St. Pancras, drop off the luggage, and then get quietly plastered in the champagne bar!

if it HAS to be 2 cities i would choose Vienna and Prague.

Hi again.

Sorry about being a pest. If we just chose 2 cities, such as Prague and Vienna for 6 night,which city has the most to see so we can determine number of days in each city.

Since the train from Prague to Vienna is almost 5 hours (unless there exist speed trains), wouldn't it make more sense to rent a car for the four of us and drive from Prague to Vienna or vice versa, it's 333 km. and we could visit the surroundings of the city.

Then we will fly back to London.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi

It's me again. Assuming that we choose Prague and Vienna, what should we visit in Prague and in Vienna in the 2 - 3 days in each city and it's surrounding. I understand that outside Vienna is also very beautiful.

Any good secure, well located hotels to recommend in both cities?

thanks,

Coco

I think you are cutting it very close to think you can LAND and then be ready to board the train to Paris in 4 hours. It can easily take 2 hours to de-plane and go through passport control. Then it is at least an hour on the tube to get to central London. And you need to be at the train at least a half hour before departure, you can't just show up two minutes before it's scheduled to depart. Also, the time a plane is scheduled to land and the time it actually gets to the gate and the doors open, etc can be quite a while. I do not think you have time to go to your hotel to drop luggage even if they were willing to hold it for you. And if you plan to leave it at the train station be aware that there are sometime long lines to do that. I suggest you figure a way to pack light enough to take your luggage with you to Paris.

Re the three other cities - I totally agree you should pick ONE. They are all big cites, quite a distance apart. It will take the better part of a day to arrive in each and find your hotel giving you essentially no time to see anything. Renting a car usually doesn't work because of drop fees if you rent in one country and drop it in another. Sorry to be so negative but your plan really does not work. You could have a nice few days in any one of those cities, with a day trip to some surrounding small town. If you feel six days will be too much in any one of those cities (I have spent about that time in each of them and feel it's a good amount of time) then you could go for say four days and spend the extra couple days in London.

Also, trying to fly back to London from any of those cities on the same day you need to catch a flight out of London (even at 6 pm) is 'dangerous'. Unless you can afford to miss your flight. Have you checked flight schedules from London to Vienna, Prague and Budapest? I would start there and see which ones work best for you and pick the city based on that.

"<i>We heard a lot of nice things about eurostar from London to Paris La Gare du Nord.</i>"

You heard right - but that is when you are traveling from <u>central London</u>, NOT from Heathrow. Heathrow is on the far opposite side of London.

"<i>We allowed ourselves 4 hours from the time we land at the Heathrow to get to the St. International Station.</i>"

Have you factored in the advance check-in requirement at St Pancras? If I were you - I'd seriously consider 'eating' the Eurostar tickets (there is a VERY good chance you won't make it in time anyway) and book an onward flight straight from LHR to CDG. 4 hours is the absolute <i>minimum</i> I'd ever consider for the LHR/St Pancras connection and this summer it could take much longer. You could still be at LHR when you are supposed to checkin at St Pancras.

OR - you could be very lucky and breeze through the formalities and transfer and have time to spare, but the odds are not good.

Thanks for all the advice. This is quite confusing. Right now, we our Paris Train ticket already bought. We just have to hope that the plane will land on time and clearing customs would go smoothly. Depending on the time we have, we may just either store our suitcase at St. Pancras Station and take it with us to Paris and bring it back to London.

The part that is still not resolved is travelling from London to Prague or to Vienna and back to London to one of those 2 cities. The question is which city will require more days as we have a total of 6 nights. Perhaps, we should do London - Prague (flights are cheaper than to Vienna)and stay in Prague 2 nights, take an early train on july 10th to Viennna and stay nights and fly back to London from Vienna on the 14th.

Any activities recommended in Prague? in Vienna?
Any nice hotels with Wifi recommended in Prague? in Vienna?

thanks.
Coco2012

"We just have to hope that the plane will land on time and clearing customs would go smoothly."

Exactly why you need a plan B. There have been recent reports of long lines at LHR for immigration and customs. Train delays are another possibility, earlier this year when I was in London the HEX was not running on a regular schedule and there was one train every hour to Paddington stn. Underground delays are another possibility. For you to be able to get to St Pancras in four hours you need everything to go off without a hitch - that's not impossible but the odds aren't in your favour.

As for Vienna or Prague you need to decide which city appeals more. I would spend longer in Vienna than Prague, but I wouldn't bother going to Prague for just one day - your two night stay is only one full sightseeing day.

"Any activities recommended in Prague? in Vienna?"

Read the destinations guide on this website for information about sights in both cities.

<i>the best way to get to St. Pancras from Heathrow is to get the tube into Paddington and to change onto the Hammersmith and City line which is 5 stops from King's Cross st. Pancras. </i>

My idea of Hell, it's expensive, you might have to do the connection in the middle of the rush hour with thousands of commuters around and it's expensive - did I mention that.

The best way is to take the Tube direct from Heathrow to St Pancras. You then only have to worry about exiting the Tube station. It's not significantly slower than the HEX / Tube combination but it's a several times cheaper.

If you don't want to spend time with the lower orders then book a car service from Heathrow to St Pancras - it'll cost less than 2 sets of HEX plus Tube tickets.

<i>"We allowed ourselves 4 hours from the time we land at the Heathrow to get to the St. International Station."</i>

That's the minimum I'd allow - and that's for an internal flight into Heathrow where immigration isn't a problem.

I have done the Heathrow to St. Pancras and while all factors worked out it still took 3 hrs minimum on a good day. Now with the lines at Heathrow, I doubt I'd be that lucky.

You should take the Picadilly Line from the airport to Kings Cross. Yes it will be rush hour but you will be able to get a seat and space for luggage.

Thanks everyone for your input. After serious consideration, I think the best thing is to fly from London Heathrow with British Airways to Prague, spend 2 nights in Prague, take a train Vienna, stay 4 nights in Vienna and return to London with British Airways which lands at Heathrow from which we fly back home.

A couple questions. Is it worth taking a taxi from the hotel close to Victoria Station to Heathrow Airport if there are 4 of us rather with luggage rather than pay for metro, etc
How long is the ride to LHR and what will it cost?

Any suggestion as what would be the best train to take from Prague to Vienna? Is there a speed train?

Any highly recommended hotels in Prague and Vienna?
Any recommended activities/sight seeing in both cities in the time we have?

Thanks,
Coco2012

actually, coco, it would be easier to get to Gatwick from victoria and you could fly easyjet to Prague from there.

if it has to be LHR, you could get the tube [district and circle] from victoria to Paddington, and the heathrow express from there. but with 4 of you, a cab will probably be cheaper.

in Vienna, the hotel Austria is very nice, central, and not too pricey.

http://www.hotelaustria-wien.at/

never take a taxi to <i>either</i> airport (from Central London that is). For Gatwick use the trains, for Heathrow use a pre-booked car service like justairports.com

<<if it has to be LHR, you could get the tube [district and circle] from victoria to Paddington, and the heathrow express from there. but with 4 of you, a cab will probably be cheaper.>>

Or take the District to Hammersmith and walk across the platform to the Piccadilly to LHR.

Thanks everyone, I just checked justairports.com and the ir car service seem to work only from airports. We will need a cab or other service from hotel to heathrow airport. We could always ask at the hotel. Heathrow will be more convenient if we need to store some luggage for 6 days and return to same airport, since we have to take an international flight back home from there.


We need to figure out the best way to purchase the train ticket. Prices of RailEurope and Czeck Railway tickets.com are considerably different. Rail Europe quotes $ 152 per person and Czeck Railway only $ 53 per person. A lot of people recommend to buy the tickets right there but I am not too confortable with that, there could be big line ups, etc, although there are about 8 trains per day that go from Prague to Vienna.

We also need to find hotels that have free Wi and well centered and good value.

there won't be big queues on every train between Prague and Vienna. you could buy the tickets when you get there, rather than wait for when you are leaving, if you are worried.

Raileurope is an expensive way for non-europeans to buy rail tickets.

as for the airport car service, coco, i can see why you might think that they are just FROM the airport, but if you go to the booking page on the website, there is an option on the "type of journey" for "to the airport" - that's what you want.

http://www.justairports.com/onlinebook.htm

"Thanks everyone, I just checked justairports.com and the ir car service seem to work only from airports."

Where did that come from?

hooameye - i think that the OP misunderstood the website - which could make you think that they only run an one way service if you read it one way.

however if you look a bit further, you do of course find that their cars go both ways.

justairports definitely picked us up from our rooms and took us TO LHR

Coco - you seem very confused about a lot of things - including why you HAVE to visit Vienna and Prague when you don;t even know what is there.]

I can;t begin to figure out why you are taking a train to Paris when you are already in and airport - or how many days you will spend in Paris before leaving for Central Europe.

Have you EVER been to London? Do you have any idea how big it is and how far apart things are?

Hoping that every possible step in such a complicated plan will go perfectly is really wishful thinking. What happens when the first things go wrong (and at least one thing WILL go wrong - it always does) how will you reorganize your trip on the fly?

If I were you I would make a list of each day, putting next to it the place you will start, what you will do that day and where you will sleep. then check the flights and trains to be sure that you can get from one place to another in the time you have available (figuring time getting to the airport or train station and how far in advance you have to be there for security checks.

I think if you do that you will see the problems with your plan.

"Have you EVER been to London? Do you have any idea how big it is and how far apart things are?"

Or, what traffic can be like, even on a good day. Not accounting for the amount of time it takes to get around London in traffic could have dire consequences.

Thank you very much for the clarification about justairport.com . I am looking at all options in terms of transportation, depending on time, we will decide then whether we take a car service for the 4 of us or the tube to the airport, that won't be a problem since we are leaving around 5:30 in the morning to the airport, less trafic.

As for knowing about London and Paris. We have been there many times only stay in the city. This is the first time we are traveling from and to London for business reasons and are visiting Paris before our stay in London and Prague and Vienna after our stay in London. We heard only great things about Eurostar to Paris, quite less inexpensive than taking a plane from Heathrow to Paris not to mention that the earliest plane is leaving at 4:45 p.m. and returns at 5 p.m. on the 4th. We need to be at a business dinner at 6 p.m right next to Victoria Station which is only 4 miles from St. Pancras Station.

As far as Paris visit all is reserved ,and done nothing can be changed.

We only need to find a good value hotel with free WI, well located, preferably a boutique hotel in Prague and Vienna.
Thank you.

Coco2012

did you try the Hotel austria in vienna? [don't know about the wifi, but fits the bill apart from that].

Thank you all for your feedback and great tips.

If we want to see a concert, an opera in Vienna, would your recommend to buy the tickets from North America and should we wait until we get there?

We liked the Hotel Römischer Kaiser in Vienna (not sure about the wifi). Right in the heart of the old town. We stayed there for 3 nights and had a good time walking around the city and seeing some of the museums. We bought tickets when we arrived to a Mozart concert that was filled with tourists but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We stayed at the Metamorphis is Prague and loved the location right near the main square, convenient to everything else, and very friendly staff. IF you are still deciding between number of days I would consider adding a night to Prauge as you really don't have time to see everything and it seemed more spread out to me than Vienna. We hired a private guide for Prague because we seemed to know less about Czech history than our Western Europe knowledge. It was well worth the expense.

here's the website for tickets for the Musikverein:

http://www.musikverein.at/konzerte/k...p?sprache_id=2

and the one for the opera:

https://www.culturall.com/ticket/isto/

and the Volksoper:

http://www.volksoper.at/Content.Node2/home/index.en.php

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time and write me gr eat tips. We have enough to on for now. We will definitely reserve some music concerts prior to our departure.

Coco2012

Dear Coco2012,

I would recommend you something else.
It's interesting nobody take under consideration Budapest, even though its only a 3 hour train ride from Vienna, and I would say it has more to offer then Prague and also the people are really friendly and speak English.
Just a few things:
- State opera house (there are performances every night and guided tours every afternoon)
- Parlament (one of the most beautiful in Europe and it can be visited)
- Castle district on Buda side
- Great Synagouge - the largest funcioning synagouge in Europe
- Margaret island
- Central Market hall
- Andrássy avenue, etc.

Just google them before you make your final decision.

Have you considered buying and studying a guidebook for Vienna and Prague? Everyone has an opinion (myself included), but nobody knows your preferences like yourself! I always do my homework and know exactly where I am going at all times so confusion is kept to a minimum. I don't think that you have done nearly enough research on these places. Best of luck on your journey!