Vihan

Hello! I am traveling to Vienna, Budapest and Prague in mid-May 2011. I am VERY confused where to go in each city. Could someone be kind enough and give me a complete list of places I can travel in 8 days? Also, please mention what order should I use.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Those cities really merit at least 3 or 4 days each at a minimum so that's 9 to 12 days not counting travel time. But if you want to do them all in 8 days you'll have to settle for no more than 2 to 2-1/2 days in each. I don't think anyone can give you a complete list of places that you must travel because only you know what you are interested in and what you want to see. I recommend getting some guidebooks fast. Some popular ones are DK Eyewitness Guide, Michelin Green Guide, Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, a book for each city from the Let's Go series, Rough Guide and anything else that might interest you. When you get to each city go to the tourist office and you'll find maps of each city and loads of information on what to see and do.

Here are the links to each of the tourist offices so you have someplace to start your research:

http://www.praguewelcome.cz/en/

http://www.wien.info/en

http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en/

mohun

We second FrenchMystique Tours message. Eight days is really short for the three cities. My wife and I spent four days in Budapest, and five days in each of Prague and Vienna in 2006 (we visited them in that order). Rick Steves Central Europe book was our main resource but we carried around the individual "10 Best" Eyewitness guides for each of the three cities. Those skinny distillations of the handsome but much larger and heaver Eyewitness guides are about 2 to 2-1/2 inches wide, eight inches tall and 1/4 to 5/16 inches thick, and contain useful street address indices and maps to those cities. My capsule impressions: Budapest is still rebuilding in many ways after its Russian occupation; the Terror House is well-worth seeing as is the Central Market. Prague was essentially untouched by WWII (the city is just a bit too far east for much of the Allied bombing), so its architecture seems the stuff of 17th to 19th Century fairy tales. Mucha's Art Noveau of the turn of the 19th/20th Centuries is side-by-side with Prague's sense of its occupation by the Nazis and by the Russians, and the Jewish Quarter is well-worth a tour. Vienna seems in some ways the San Francisco of Europe. Visit the Schonbrunn Palance for sure and, if you've seen and liked The Third Man film, take a ride on the Riesenrad in the Prater Park.

annhig

personally, i would pick two out of the three, and make one of them Prague, which is perhaps the most charming. Vienna is IMHO the most imposing [no mistaking that it was an IMPERIAL capital] and Budapest is half-way between the two, with the added interest of having been both an imperial capital AND a communist one.

but you will seriously short-change yourself if you try to do all three in such a short time.

BigRuss

By "halfway between the two," annhig means between charm and imposing . . . from a physical standpoint, Budapest is the southernmost of the three.

Instead of asking to be spoonfed, go to inyourpocket.com and get the city guides for each of the three (and if there's not one for Vienna, Timeout.com will have suggestions) to determine what you want to see. No one else can tell YOU what interests YOU.

nytraveler

If you need us to give you a minute by minute itinerary perhaps you should hire a guide - so you don;t get lost in each city - or miss anything.

Really - you need to get some guidebooks and do at least a little basic reading.

annhig

thanks, for Big russ, for interpreting my meaning - i suppose that it COULD have been taken to mean that Budapest is literally half-way between the two in distance! i was however assuming that the OP has some intelligence!

Vihan

Hello! Thank you for telling me so much. About the guides, none will be available in Mumbai. I've done a little reading. I plan to skip Budapest and just visit lower Austria and Prague. I also want to know if there are any good cities around Vienna which I can reach in 2 hours max for some sort of day trip. And we are more interested in scenic landscapes and amazing streets rather than viewing exhibits in a museum. Are thereAnd places I should go?

annhig

Baden is a lovely place which isn't very far from Vienna.

Jean

Have you read these destination guides available right here on Fodors?!

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/c...public/prague/

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/austria/vienna/

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/a...enna-environs/

molker

Lower Austria - make a day trip to Stift Melk / Melk Abbey

www.stiftmelk.at

combine this with a danube cruise from Melk

www.ddsg-blue-danube.at

www.brandner.at

ltravel by this bost to Dürnstein or Krems - see the sights

www.duernstein.at

www.krems.at

this after great sights of villagess , vineyards, castle ruins on the river.

then return to Vienna by train.

Krems - Vienna 1 hour

Vienna - Melk about 1 1/2 hours

train info

www.oebb.at

or check the combi ticket offers on the boat sites above.

Train ticket both ways - Abbey admission and boat trip about 48 euro.

P_M

There's a lot of great info on this thread.

French Mystique, I'm really enjoying the link you provided for Prague, thanks.

Miklos_Philips

Sure. Get off the plane (substitute any of the following: bus, car, train, etc.) get out look around take a few pictures that you were there and then get into your mode of transportation and move on to the next city. Great way to ensure you will NOT experience any of the mentioned cities. Have fun!

willowjane

Great links! Thanks

Vihan

Haha Miklos.