Hi all,

These forums are not only entertaining, but offer very helpful advice. I posted some questions before my last trip to Europe and received some very helpful tips.

This year we want to go again. We will be staying in Prague again because we had a blast last year when we were there. From there, we want to hit some central European cities before continuing down to Rome (hopefully by plane).

My question is this: what central European cities would you all recommend for two 25 year old males? We are not so much interested in crafts, markets, art museums, and the like as we are about simply walking around and exploring the cities. At night we like to enjoy the nightlife by having a few beers and meeting some of our European counterparts.

The cities we initially were looking at were Krakow, Budapest, and Ljubljana.

Any advice as to which of these (or other) cities would be best for us??

Thanks in advance!!!

We loved budapest - very busy with nice pedestrian areas. Found the people overall to be open and friendly - although apparently there are a lot of pickpockets/scams in the area of the train station (we did not see any). Lots of good restaurants and cafes; English widely spoken - although perhaps not quite as widely as in prague.

I hope it isn't a bad form to mention here, but perhaps you would have more suggestions from www.Lonelyplanet.com site, as Thorntree has more posters within your age-ranges.

Budapest does seem to have a lot going on. Great town.

I'm just posting to add a warning about a scam that specifically targets young guys. Check out the address I'll copy below. Read the part about women inviting guys to bars and then the guy getting a huge bill and a gorilla walking him to an ATM. Budapest never struck me as a rough place, but this little scam sounds like it could come up. (If nothing else, see if they'll let you pick the bar)

http://www.budapesthotels.com/touristguide/dangers.asp

There is a strong argument on the board here, as to what countries are part of Eastern Europe and which are still Central Europe.

Thus, I don't know if my suggestion qualifies, but the aforementioned debate bores me anyway. So:

Try the Latvian capital of Riga!
A city of 900.000 inhabitants, one of the biggest around the Baltic Sea.
It offers a very nice Old Town section bordered by a vast Art Deco district with countless wonderfully restored buildings.
There are great restaurants of a large variety, good pubs and bars and good nightlife options, too.
It is more expensive than the Czech Republic, though.
Visit http://www.inyourpocket.com for more info.

Have fun
hsv

thanks all for your replies!

very good suggestions here that we are looking in to.

maciek,

however helpful your posts are or may be, they are evidently subject to commercial interests, if not your own, those of thirds that are supposed to benefit from them.

Please be aware that advertising is prohibited on this forum - and for good reason as otherwise the unbiased character and reliability of the views processed here would be severely challenged. For proof, please see the "Rules" section on the top left side: "[...] no advertising or commercial promotion are also requested. "

I and I am sure, most other posters here, too, would appreciate if you would stop that practice of advertising immediately.

Regards
hsv

hsv... And as you know equally, fodors asks that you write to them, as I have done, about these infractions. I confess that I, too, have complained about such violations here on the forum, instead of writing to them, in the past.

In this case, since "maciek" provided an e-mail address, I sent a copy of my e-mail to fodors. Of course, similar correspondence to fodors from others might reinforce the message. There have been over two dozen of these postings today by maciek, almost all to posts that are weeks or months old.

Best wishes,

Rex

rex,

thanks for clarifying the "proper" procedure.

I prefer however, to address people directly before I get authorities involved.

You may well be critical of such procedure, but then again, we all handle things differently.
I do appreciate, though, that you, too, were inconvenienced by those posts, which now have been deleted, I notice.
I will credit this entirely to your measures taken and do express my gratitude.

Regards
hsv

Budapest would be great for you. It is a fabulous city full of history and beautiful women! Just read the caveat below...though that scam has been going on for such a long time there!

Ljubljana is also very nice though so much smaller. It is very international and most younger people speak English very well. There are also some very fun bars. If you want some time away from the city, go canyoning in the Soca River Valley. It is a huge adrenalin rush and the area is simply gorgeous.

There are also cheap flights from Klagenfurt and Trieste.
Cheers,
Jan