PalenQ

I looked the other day into a Krakow to Budapest night train and could find none - I knew they existed for a long time - will have to check again as perhaps it does not run regularly at this time of year when I checked.

latebloomer

Thank you PalenQ. I couldn't find that night train either... but unlike you, I don't know what I'm doing. I feel a bit less confused now.

Regarding the Prague-Krakow-Budapest conundrum, I think I need a superpower (or a new boyfriend with a private jet).

kja, I see you're really really rooting for Warsaw. I'd never have thought to visit, but given your enthusiasm, I started poking around and it does sounds like a sweet little gem. (It also seems to be much easier to get to by plane than Krakow.) So yes, I'm going to seriously consider it.

This is what's so fun about being a baby traveler. I start off thinking I know exactly what I'm going to do and end up deviating by a good 50%. (I mean, Poland wasn't even on my radar, but duh, it belongs front and center given my interests.)

Again, thank you both (and Andrew and Aramis) and the many others of who have been so helpful. You've gone above and beyond, and for a complete stranger no less.

This is a wonderful resource. I wish I'd known about it last year when I was stumbling around Munich desperately looking for something good to eat... (A woman cannot live on Nutella alone.) I hope you'll all be here in May and June 2015.

kja

Oh dear, I seem to be proving a font of poor information -- sorry about that! I don't think of Warsaw as "a gem" by any means, although I did find a few things (very few) to commend it. (But at least most of those things have to do with history and are, IMO, interesting.) I have mentioned it several times only because I think it may be much easier to get to than lovely, charming Krakow, and it should be reasonably easy to get from Warsaw to Krakow. Again, many apologies for creating confusion!

latebloomer

Ohhhhh. Got it. But no apologies are necessary.

Andrew

I really loved Poland. But unless you are never planning to visit Europe again, you might put off visiting Krakow til another time, when you can devote more time to the region. There is more to see than just Krakow. In fact, I am thinking of going back and adding some of western Ukraine (e.g. L'Viv, a former Polish city now in Ukraine) as well.

A lot of tourists visit Warsaw because it's the capitol city of Poland, plus they may wind up flying in/out of Warsaw anyway. I managed to skip Warsaw on my trip to Poland because I had heard it was OK but mostly gleaming new and rebuilt, not particularly charming. I still visited two other cities (Gdansk and Wroclaw) that were also bombed out/rebuilt after the war but had more interest in visiting them than Warsaw. Poland (even touristy Krakow) is less "polished" than Western Europe that has been catering to western tourists for decades, and I kind of liked that, even though not all of Poland that I saw was necessarily pretty or charming.

latebloomer

Woo hoo!!! This may not be news to most of you, but it looks like LOT Airlines flies a 1-stop route from Budapest - Krakow and many of the flights have durations of between 3 and 5 hours. Tickets are in the $350 range. Not exactly cheap and of course I'd prefer a direct flight, but this is better than the other options I've seen and would allow me to maintain my (at present) Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Budapest-Krakow-Spain itinerary.
LOT also offers several Prague-Krakow 1 stop options with similar schedules.

Next up: research on LOT Airlines.

Andrew

A quick check of LOT schedules shows that the only connection one with only a three hour travel time gets you into Krakow at 11:40pm. You wouldn't get to a hotel until well after midnight. This wouldn't work for me, not just because of the late arrival but because it would make that last day in Budapest kind of weird - probably check out of my hotel and leave the bags there, then have to head to the airport around dinner time.

A few daytime LOT flights have four hour travel time. But remember: that's 4 hours just for the flights - + time to get to and from each airport (say 30 minutes?), plus extra time to get to the Budapest airport, go through security - what, an hour minimum, right? And some time to wait for your checked bags. So realistically - about six hours?

I'd take the direct bus instead that has about the same travel time. It would arrive at a decent hour, it would save you $300+, and, best of all, fewer hassles and much less stress. I don't have to worry about switching between how many different modes of transport to get from one city to the other, plus fear of lost luggage, fear of weather delays or missed connections, waiting in security lines at the airport, etc. It would only be worth it if it saved me six hours or something.

The buses in Europe really aren't so bad. There are small bathrooms on most buses, and they stop every hour or two for a smoke break for the driver (bus drivers in Europe are required to smoke cigarettes I think), anyway, often at a gas station where you can get a snack and use a real bathroom, stretch your legs, etc.