Trip help: Prague, Vienna, Budapest
 

Planning trip to these 3 cities in April. Would you recommend renting a car to use from beginning to end of trip for use in cities and traveling from one city to the other? Or, is parking tough so better to use public transportation in city and train from one city to the other? We do like flexibility that car offers, but need to know if it might create problems. Also with 10 days, how best to split between the cities? We love history, culture, good music and food! Thanks for any input.

If you are not interested in what is between the cities, use public transportation. If you rent a car, keep in mind that there are hefty fees for cross-border drop-offs.

travel333; We took a train from Prague [thru Munich] to Vienna and finally Budapest. VERY EASY As I recall, the train ride to Vienna did take 8 hours. From Vienna to Budapest, probably 2 or 3 hours. Consider, what are you going to do with a car? Finding the hotel and parking is not easy. Each city needs at least three days. Hope this helps. Iris

I personally like the train travel (since I can relax in the train and just enjoy the ride). Plus, I am not familiar enough with the area to feel comfortable driving, but that is just me. When we were there last September and booked out hotels in the city center and walked everywhere and it worked out really well. With 10 days, I would definitely spend at least 3 days in each city. Have a good time.

I did all three cities (started in Prague, then to Vienna, then to Budapest) in 2005, by train. Very easy, although I wasn't paying attention to the names of the train stops and got off at the wrong stop in Budapest! (long story short: it worked out OK, I got in only about 20 minutes late - just write down the name of the stops ahead of time where you need to get off, doh!)

I can't imagine wanting to drive in these cities - they all have excellent public transportation. I think if you want to get out to the countryside or to the smaller towns it makes more sense to have a car but not in the cities (and you can get to many of the smaller towns by train as well). In the cities you're just going to be looking at parking hassles, extra costs to park at your hotel and at your destination, etc.

On my trip, I did four nights in Prague, two in Vienna, and three in Budapest. That was about right for me; for some Vienna will be high on their list but not me, I stopped there mostly because it was an easy stop in between Budapest and Prague. I loved Prague and found it enchanting. Vienna I found very pleasant but not exciting (not an opera or museum person). Budapest was a bit big and harder to navigate on foot than Prague but still very interesting.

IMHO cars don't make sense in any large city in europe. They all have good local public transit and trains between cities are fast and efficient.

You can't drive a car around the cities - since there is no place to park them - except expensive garages- in the central tourist areas. So - you would be paying for the car to just sit in a garage for most of the trip.

And don;t think I'm anti-car. We've done MANY road trips in europe - but involving the countryside and small towns (easier to get to anyplace on your own schedule and parking not a problem) not major cities.

I wouldn't drive in Budapest because the drivers are wild...gee, there's not a lane here where I need one? I think I'll just make a lane on the sidewalk! I loved the city, but wouldn't drive there for anything! :-)

We rented a rent to drive from Prague to Krakow and then down to Budapest. We enjoyed the trip very much, but that is because our primary focus was not the cities themselves. We were interested in the countryside and little villages. If your focus is just the three main cities, as everyone else had said, use the train. In particular, the day we arrived in Budapest and dropped off the car was really quite stressfull.

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I meant to add my chocie would be 4 in Prague and 3 in Vienna and Budapest.
That also depends on if you have to get back to Prague after Budapest etc . If you had to get back to Prague I would say 3 days in each and allow the last day for getting back.

I would not drive a car in Budapest unless you are familiar with the city or you drive regularly in a major, big city where you live. The traffic was terrible. We had a driver to get in/out of Budapest to/from our other location in Hungary and were thankful for it. Also, consider parking fees for cars in major cities... can be expensive. We used public transportation and walking all over Budapest - very easy.

We were told to not rent a car....we had very reliable drivers pick us up in Budapest and take us to Vienna...and then another took us to Prague. They were great and very educational, and not expensive

If you have enough ppl in your group, consider booking a driver from Vienna to Budapest, door to door service, it may be convenient. You can search, there are several good ones recommended. We only took the train though.