Hi everyone,

I’m travelling to Central Europe in July with my 18-year-old son (coming from Australia). We’ve planned the first half of our trip but still have 13 days to sort out.

We’ll be leaving Krakow and are hoping to visit Prague, Vienna, maybe Bratislava, Budapest and Lake Bled, before flying out of Ljubljana.

Would love any advice on how long to spend in each place, any must-sees, or great stops along the way. We’re both fit, active and enjoy exploring outdoors. It’s our first time in all of these spots, so any tips would be really appreciated.

Thanks so much.
Katie

I'd do most of these stops by train, even Bled could be done that way but you might look at that by car or bus. Rome2rio and seat61.com are valuable tools for this work

Bled is not that big and apart from a castle, island and casino there is just great walking. I'd go for 2 nights tops.
Vienna needs something more like 5 nights, you could do Bratislava from Vienna but I'd move for 2 nights
Austrian wine and little village food stops are worth while.
Budapest maybe 3 nights
Llubljana maybe 1 night

We lived in Vienna and visited Prague and Budapest often. Personally, I would drop Budapest and spend more time in Prague and Vienna. You also should factor in the travel time.

For example:
Day 1. Krakow to Prague by train is 6 hours.
Days 2-5 Prague
Day 6. Prague to Vienna by train is 4.5 hours.
Days 7-10 Vienna, with an easy day trip to Bratislava to tour the main sights
Day 11-13 Vienna to Ljubljana by train is 4 hours. Bled is about an hour away by train.

We visited Budapest in September, and it is now one of my favorite cities. My personal opinion would be not to drop Budapest. We've also been to Krakow, Prague, Lake Bled, and Ljubljana. Haven't been to Bratislava or Vienna yet. So my allocation of nights would be the following:

Budapest - 3 to 4 nights
Prague - 3 to 4 nights
Vienna - Perhaps 4 nights with a daytrip to Bratislava
Ljubljana - 3 nights with a daytrip to Lake Bled

While in Ljubljana we rented a car for a day and drove to Lake Bled. Drove over the mountains going there and saw some spectacular scenery. If you are nervous about driving over the mountains, you don't have to do this. You can take the highway. Or take public transportation. In fact, public transportation might be better because Lake Bled will be extremely crowded in July, and it will be difficult to find parking.

As others have said, you should definitely check Rome to Rio and Seat61, and you need to factor in travel time.

Keeping Budapest in the timeline means you're going to train all around Central Europe and barely see the highlights, which I forgot to mention in my original post. It's not that I don't like Budapest, but on your travel wishlist it is the time-costing outlier. I was in Vienna in 2024 for about 48-ish hours and had a carefully curated itinerary because 1) I had lived there; and 2) knew the ins and outs of public transportation, etc. You will be starting from scratch every 3-4 days, with time lost to travel logistics. Perhaps you could shave a day off your time in Slovenia, but you're still shortchanging either Vienna, Budapest, or Prague.

Redoing my example,

Day 1. Krakow to Prague by train is 6 hours.
Days 2-3 Prague
This gives you 2.5 days in Prague.

Day 4. Prague to Vienna by train is 4.5 hours.
Days 5-6 Vienna
This gives you 2.5 days in Vienna. Skip Bratislava.

Day 7 Budapest to Vienna is 3 hours.
Day 8-9 Budapest
This gives you 2.5 days in Budapest

Day 10 Budapest to Ljubljana is 6-9 hours, depending on whether you train or bus.

Day 11-13 Ljubljana. Bled is about an hour away by train.

fourfortravel makes a lot of good points. Unfortunately, it's never possible to see everything a person wants to see.

KatieCall, what are the most important destinations for you and your son? If you have to eliminate a destination, what would that be? Have you made your airline reservations yet? If not, you could fly home from Budapest instead of Ljubljana (omit Ljubljana) if you really want to see Budapest. But if Ljubljana is more important, then omit Budapest. What, and if, you omit a destination, it all depends on what interests you the most. And how much time you want to spend on trains. Perhaps making a list ranking all the places in order of interest would be helpful for you to decide.

Thank you!

Thank you all for your most helpful responses. I tend to agree that its a big itinerary with a lot of travelling time. My son is desperate to visit all of the places.....being 18 he wants to see everything all at once!! I could appreciate doing things a little slower, but we do have two weeks before that where we are staying put in one place for a week each (we can't change this as we are meeting friends and family). I might look into the possibility of an overnight train which might give us back a day.

FWIW:
We found Vienna sort of .....sterile...unexciting...nice opera house, though.....and great Kunsthistoriche museum
We found Budapest just the opposite....surprisingly interesting...lively

Bratislava seemed proud of its Soviet cement-block architecture

If one is only spending a couple of days each in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, none of this matters. The OP has indicated that they plan to carry out their whirlwind tour outside of advice and suggestions/recommendations. At this point, let the OP do what they want to do.

KatieCall, knowing that you will be staying put for 2 weeks prior (one week in one place and another week in a different place), and knowing that you are coming all the way from Australia, then I say go for it. I can understand wanting to see everything all at once, like your son does. And especially since you might not return to Central Europe in the near future. Obviously, you won't be able to see all the sights at each destination; you will just get a taste; but that's ok. Especially if that's acceptable to you. We all travel differently. And an overnight train will make it even better. Many, many years ago we took an overnight train from Krakow to Prague.

One thing I would recommend since you won't have a lot of time at each destination is to take a walking tour when you arrive. The "free" walking tours (where you pay a tip) are well worth it. We've done several of them over the years, such as in Ljubljana and Budapest.

Although it is rushed, I would allocate like this (in no particular order) :

Prague 3 nights
Budapest 3 nights
Vienna 4 nights,
Ljuljana, 3 nights.

Assuming you have 13 nights, though you said you have 13 days. Not clear how you are counting, and it's always better to think of nights you will spend somewhere.