That’s where I’ll be from April 21 - May 1. Draw on own your collective experience and help me build a great vacation.
I’ve already been warned that Bratislava is nothing great, so I’ll allocate a small amount of time to see it (1/2 day en route to Vienna?)
My wife and I did the Prague-Vienna-Budapest triangle shortly after the Berlin Wall came down. Try to stay in the old parts of each town as most of the best sights are in walking distance.
I found Prague to be the most charming and it was dirt cheap then: probably still the best value of the three. Nothing beats having a good Czech pilsner in the Old Town Square.
In Budapest, we stayed in the Buda rather than the Pest section but both sides of the river have much to see.
Vienna is the grandest. The cafes with their great coffee and deserts were the part I enjoyed most.
We did not rent a car: relied solely on trains and buses between the cities.
Enjoy: I would love to go back some day.
Alan
I booked three nights at a lovely AirBnb for a whopping $155, pretty cheap. Taking trains is the whole plan. Lots of my Europe trips have involved a car at some point, but not this time.
Some people love Bratislava! I’m sure. Has to be true statistically anyway.
We took the train from Vienna on a grey March day, so the weather probably didn’t help. I remember the train station being pretty run down. We walked from there to the castle, which is a popular tourist destination. That was nice, we spent some time there walking around, and from that area we could see quite a bit around us. To one side there was lots of very Soviet style buildings, but there was less dreary architecture closer to the castle. We walked around for a bit near many consulates, and then decided to head back to Vienna by train, so we spent about a half day there in total.
I only spent one night in Bratislava but I saw a great concert there. They had a traditional music concert with young choirs, musicians and dancers from all over Slovakia performing. It was awesome. I also went to a wine tasting there - not so much.
Here’s a screen grab from the video I took (back in 2004) -
I agree that Prague was the most charming, although I really wanted to spend more time in Budapest, we only did a day there and went to Kossuth square and the surrounding areas, which was pretty cool. There are lots of bullet holes all over that area, from the Hungarian revolution. I believe it’s on the Pest side. We also went to some museum close by, although I don’t remember now what that was.
My favorite part of Prague was simply walking around everywhere. So much architecture and culture there. I don’t recall exactly where we went, but we just wandered a lot and enjoyed finding good food and bars there. I liked the food more in Prague than in Vienna, it was heartier and had more seasoning. The food in Vienna was pretty similar to German food, we had lots of schnitzel, I thought most of our meals in Vienna were on the blander side.
My husband just loved all the old churches in Vienna. I didn’t join him in all of that, I am more of a homebody on trips and he loves to sightsee. He primarily wandered around both cities and had no trouble finding cool stuff. We stayed in the city centers in both places and found it super walkable and enjoyable.
Preliminarily I’m thinking:
4/21-4/23 Arrive around lunchtime in Budapest, then sightsee for 2.5 days.
4/24 Train to Bratislava, spend a 1/2 day there, then a train into Vienna.
4/25-27 Three days in Vienna, then train to Prague
4/28-30 Three days in Prague
5/1 Go home
I would happily trim a city down to 2 days [Vienna] to do something else [a day in Brno?]. Or Trim all the destinations down to 2 days and add Munich before ending in Prague?
Curious why you’re taking the train and not a boat. It’s the Danube!
Edit: It looks like there’s no regular boat service anymore. Oh well.
It looks like Brno might also be worth a 1/2 day en route from Vienna to Prague. Three days is a long time for me to spend in a city, so either Vienna or Prague (probably Vienna) will likely get trimmed to 2.
4/21 Arrive around lunchtime in Budapest, then sightsee for 2.5 days.
4/24 Train to Bratislava, spend a 1/2 day there, then a train into Vienna for 2 days.
4/27 Train to Brno, spend a 1/2 day there, then a train into Prague for 3 days.
5/1 Go home
I loved Prague and Budapest. Unusual option for Prague is to visit the [Bone Church] (Sedlec Ossuary – The Church of Bones) outside the city.
I also enjoyed the walking tours from https://www.neweuropetours.eu/
I’ve changed my last stop to Berlin, so stops at Brno and Bratislava will be measured in hours rather than 1/2 days. And the other city stays will be shorter, but I’d rather get have 4 cities x 2 days than 3 cities x 3
That’s packing a lot into a short timeframe, particularly when you could easily spend 4-5 days each in Berlin and Vienna. I thought you were going to have a lot of spare time coming up soon? I imagine you’ll be making several trips to Europe over the next few years.
I would be careful with taking the train in Germany as they are going through a lot of remediation work (lots of cancellations and delays that will last a few years). If you have a tight comnection this could be a problem.
Yeah, when I take a vacation I pack a lot in. It doesn’t tend to be a leisurely affair, I can rest on the trains and at night, the rest of the time I am constantly on the move, seeing new things. If I find a city I really like (such as Paris)_I can return and explore in more detail.
My only German train trip will be from Prague to Berlin. From there I will have two days until I leave for home.
Okay the flight was $369 out of pocket (plus $579 in reward miles). Also got 10 nights booked, two in hotels and eight in AirBnB’s for $522 (plus $159 in rewards). Hotel and airfare for under $900 is pretty good although to be fair I probably paid $89 for the Air France credit card plus the opportunity cost of charging those dollars elsewhere.
4/21 Arrive lunchtime in Budapest
4/22 Budapest
4/23 Train to Bratislava, will be a 2-3hr train stop just to tick some new-country boxes*, then on to VIenna.
4/24 Vienna
4/25 Train to Prague at some point, haven’t decided if I will spend any of the day in Brno.
4/26-4/27 Prague
4/28 Train to Berlin
4/29-4/30 Berlin
5/1 Go home
My wife doesn’t like me going, and doesn’t want to come, so I generally limit it to a week and a half or so. After 2 days of any city’s greatest hits I’m usually ready to move on. It’s usually just me so I can spend all day taking in the city and I go on at as furious a pace as my body will allow.
I like your itinerary but I avoid McDonalds at home and abroad!
