Travel Plan Questions

Well, keep in mind that the travel distance between each of those cities is going to take up a good portion of the day, which means time that you will not be able to spend sightseeing. You've got five countries in there in a little over three weeks, and that's a lot of travel time.

If it were me, I would probably limit it to three countries that are relatively close together. Leave in Budapest, add Austria and Germany, and omit Prague. Budapest is wonderful and definitely deserves at least 4-5 nights. Vienna and Salzburg are also just as fabulous, and you could easily spend 4 nights in Vienna and 2-3 nights in Salzburg, then head over to Germany to spend time in Munich.

The best thing about limiting it is that you can take a number of day trips from those places, which would be a lot easier than traveling from country to country. Vienna has some wonderful half-day Danube cruises that could take you to Melk and Durnstein and other places outside the city. In Munich, Garmisch-Patenkirchen or Mittenwald would make a good day, or there is also Dachau. You could even head to places like Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Regensburg. Those take a bit more time, but you could even go there for a 1-2 night trip.

When are you planning to travel there?

When is this trip?

How many nights will you be sleeping in Europe? It sounds like probably 24 nights, which means 23 full days. You have quite a list of great destinations there, and "Switzerland" could be anything. I assume you're flying home from Zurich because you do want to see several places in that country, not just lovely Lucerne. (Tell us about your Swiss plans when you have a better idea of where you will go; I am really doubtful a car will be the best transportation choice.) Every time you change cities, you will lose a major chunk of the day.

Four nights in a city is only 3 full days and some random hours, which I think is really short for major capitals. I haven't been to Salzburg recently, but I believe it would be adequate there, and perhaps you could trim one or two nights. Maybe 4 nights works well for Munich; I haven't spent much time there. I think Vienna, Prague and Budapest are fabulous destinations worthy of more time than that. However, I am a 74-year-old solo traveler who likes to do a deep dive into art museums, 20th-century-history museums and sites and architecture--not the sort of sightseeing everyone wants. A family trip is likely to be very different--you won't have so long a sightseeing list, but you also won't move around as fast. You can obviously see a lot of highlights in 3 days and a few hours.

What I'd recommend is that you do some detailed research now on one of Budapest, Vienna and Prague in a good guidebook. Make a list of must-sees and would-like-to-sees. Does it look like you'd be able to accomplish that in less than 4 full days? Don't forget you'll have travel time within the city as well as between cities. That exercise may give you a better idea of whether you'll be OK with the territory you hope to cover on this trip.

Thank you so much for the detailed advice and tips. We're traveling this summer and have 24 full days on the ground and another 1/2 the day we fly in our first day in Budapest. We arrive around noon. We can't change our flights so we must fly out of Zurich. Is it worth including Vienna and Salzburg or should we just stick with Vienna? I considered taking Prague out bc of the travel time, but I've always wanted to visit there. If we take Salzburg out would this give us the additional time we need or should we take both Salzburg and Prague out? We plan on doing more overseas travel so it most likely isn't our only opportunity to see these places. I thought of it more as an overview and we can choose the places we really enjoyed to go back to another time.

I think around this age teens start developing their ‘travel personalities’. For example, my eldest is a ‘marathon style’ traveler: he feels very comfortable quickly moving from one European city to another and spending several weeks traveling. His siblings, as much as they love travel, are rather ‘sprinters’: they start feeling homesick after about 10 days, and prefer no more than 2 or 3 cities at a time, with longer stays in each of them and day trips, a kind of ‘temporary homes’. I would plan based on your children's travel personalities.

In general I think you do have enough time for your trip. You even have enough time for some stops inbetween. Stops like Gyor/Pannonhalma, Szentendre, Melk, Bratislava, Cesky Krumlov … all depends on your interests and the route. For me at least, yes, Prague is worth the time.

1 (arrival),2,3,4 Budapest,
5 (travel),6,7,8 Vienna,
9 (travel),10,11 Prague,
12 (travel),13,14 Salzburg,
15 (travel),16,17,18 Munich
19 (travel),20,21,22 Lucerne
23, 24, 25, 26 you can put these four days where they work best for your interests (26 because I counted that half day at arrival in Budapest – but not sure if you counted the departure day in the 25 days?).

With exact arrival and departure dates suggestions could consider the route and the amount of time based on events and activities, what’s open on which day of the week, etc. For instance, if day 4 is the 19th of August you would be crazy not to spend 2 more days in Budapest. People more Intune with what goes on in the other cities might have other suggestions.

Regarding Mr.É's schedule, I would take one night from Munich and add it to Vienna.

Whatever you do, you need to look at it through the eyes of your children. There are a lot of activities, even in museums, which might interest them.

Those were just my highly biased minimums for each city. There are 4 unassigned days to plug where ever something interests you.

In Budapest for the kids

LIGHT ART MUSEUM (pretty spectacular) https://lam.xyz/
CINEMA MYSTICA https://cinemamystica.net/
BUDAPEST PUPPET THEATER https://budapestbabszinhaz.hu/
CSOPA SCIENCE CENTER https://www.csopa.hu/en/home/
TROPICARIUM (has a glass tunnel throught the tank) https://tropicarium.hu/
BALLOON RIDE (affordable great views on a teathered baloon) https://balloonfly.hu/en/home
PALATINUS BATH (bath house for kids and parents) https://en.palatinusstrand.hu/
CHILDREN’S RAILWAY (a full size functioning rail system run by kids) https://gyermekvasut.hu/en/
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM https://www.nhmus.hu/
BUDAPEST ZOO https://zoobudapest.com/en/
FERRIS WHEEL (great views of Buda Castle and Andrassy ut) https://oriaskerek.com/en/
RAILWAY MUSEUM (a favorite, play on the steam engines, ride the turntable, crank the hand car) https://vasuttortenetipark.hu/en/
HOSPITAL IN THE ROCK (a hospital and bomb shelter built in the caves under Buda) https://www.sziklakorhaz.eu/en
HOUSE OF HOUDINI https://www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com/
HERITAGE TRANSPORTATION (cars and stuff) https://bkk.hu/en/travel-information/specialand-
heritage-transport-services/heritage-
BOBPÁLYA BUDAPEST https://bobpalya.hu/
THE BUDA LABYRINTH (caves under Buda) https://labirintus.eu/
BOATING ON CITY PARK LAKE (row and peddal boats) https://csonakazoto.hu/en/en_home/
KÜRTŐSKALÁCS (got to try one) https://maps.app.goo.gl/9zj4WQEqvoX4QpwX8
E-SCOOTER TOURS https://emaginetours.com/
TUK TUK TOUR https://budapesttuktuk.com/en/
ZUGLIGET CABLE CHAIR (great views) https://www.bkv.hu/hu/content/
zugligeti_libego
BEAR FARM (I love this but its a bit out of town) https://medveotthon.hu/
AEROPARK MUSEUM (climb around on old planes) https://aeropark.hu/en/museum/

Thank you everyone for all the tips! I love the idea of deciding what to do in each area and basing our time on that. Also, I really appreciate the detailed kid activities for Budapest from Mr. E. I have quite a bit of research left to do. Thank you to all!

I'm an American mom who lives in Vienna for 18 years and has raised two kids here (both currently teens). Yes, the time is doable, but I have some thoughts. First, you are too city-heavy. Austria is at its best in the countryside and mountains. My kids absolutely love getting out of the city. For example, visit Riegersburg and the Zotter Chocolate Factory (the best attraction in the entire country, trust me) by staying in Loipersdorf. Stay a few days in the Wolfgangsee area (so much to see there) at a farm (https://www.farmholidays.com/en) or stay in Schladming/Dachstein. These are iconic Austrian locations. To me, Vienna can be a boring city for teens - lots of museums and grandeur, but depends on your interests. Salzburg is much more fun but the areas I have suggested are even more fun. I suggest skipping Germany altogether.

This is what I would do (and to steal from Mr. E):

1 (arrival),2,3,4 Budapest,
5 (travel),6,7,8 Vienna,
9 (travel),10,11 Prague,
12 (travel),13,14 Salzburg,
15 (travel),16,17,18 Wolfgangsee Farm Stay or Loipersdorf/Riegersburg area
19 (travel),20,21, 22, 23, 24 Switzerland

I like Emily's idea, but I think the OP has two more days......

Hi Emily, wondering if there's any way to see reviews on the farm stays? We're actually looking into staying at a farm near Lucerne for 5 nights (our entire time there) but I'm very concerned about having to drive a car mostly because of managing parking in the area (have heard there can be a lot of traffic in summer and parking is a mess as well as expensive) and also being farther from some excursions. It's in an area near Pilatus and they've said about 30-40 minutes from Lucerne. Rally great reviews but also worried about groceries although they sell quite a few products to guests from their farm. We'll be arriving on a Sunday and I was told no groceries open other than maybe we can grab things at the Zurich train station. It all seems very complicated but maybe not in reality. What are your thoughts on that? I know this is branching from the area we did discussed but same topic of a farm stay. Also, we have been considering skipping Munich but I'm a little concerned bc our oldest was very excited about the BMW museum and our youngest about a castle tour/alpine coaster day trip one day.