Central Europe 10 Days

How many nights will you be in Europe? Prague and Krakow deserve three nights and Budapest needs at least four. Forget northern Romania which is an outlier.
Take direct overnight trains from Prague to Krakow, Krakow to Budapest. Check airfare in both directions to see which city is cheaper to fly into, etc.

Thank you Mary! 10 nights in Europe. The night train would save us wasted train days but I’m a little worried after watching a posted video of someone making that trip. I’m 52 and worry I’ll arrive in a new city sleepy and sore with no hotel room. Have you ever done these night trains? Only other option would be to break up those long train rides and stop over for a night at some towns in between. If that’s a good option possibly I could add some nights to the trip or shorten the stays in each one. Thank you!

If you take an overnight train reserve a bed. You can sleep in a couchette where you share a cabin with others and is more affordable than reserving a private sleeping birth. When you reserve a bed, you will be woken by the conductor who will escort you off the train so don’t worry about getting off at the wrong stop.
I’ve done this about 17 times and will continue because this way you kill two birds with one stone. Heck, you have to sleep somewhere.

Only other option would be to break up those long train rides and stop
over for a night at some towns in between.

This works only if you want to see those other towns. Two three-hour train rides are the same as one six-hour ride and you spend a night in a city you didn't really want to see. Not trying to be harsh or critical. Just saying that sometimes when traveling to cities that are far apart and without great connections we just have to "sit on the train" to get to where we want to go.

There are many ways to travel and it’s your trip. However with only 10 nights and 4 far-flung destinations, and some worries about night trains, I might suggest you drop one city and also look at the cheap flights between destinations. Three nights in each in Prague, Krakow, and Budapest is a nice fast overview. But sometimes overviews don’t work for me personally if I am not disciplined and scheduled.

I have not taken night a train in Europe, so I have no personal experience. And the camp here seems to be split about evenly on how people rest. Flights will cut into your time in each city.

There are several fairly recent threads here talking about going between the first three cities on your list. And I know there’s a cheap flight to Bucharest from Budapest. But 3 nights in each of three cities only gives you 2 full days (unless you arrive via a night train). So you would need to add several days to your trip to even make that marginally good. We are all different, but I might suggest that if adding days is possible, do it and spend 4 nights in each of 3 cities. (Depending upon what you do about getting between them).

Edit: And you are on the right track about flying in to one city and out of your final city! Flights, and costs thereof, might also affect your decision.

10 days is not much to see al you have planned.
Prague, Krakow and Budapest you could barely do in 10 days. Your travel time between these cities will take up significant time so you will have less than three days for each, especially considering recovery from jet lag the first day.