Hey everyone, I'm finalizing my trip for this July to central Europe and I'm a little stuck on the days I allocated to Bratislava and Prague. I feel pretty good about my other destinations but included it so you'll know how many days I have to work with. I'm thinking about taking a night from Bratislava and adding it to Prague, but I'm curious what other travelers think? I know this is highly subjective, but I'm just worried four nights in Prague isn't enough. And really its also just four days in Prague because the last day in Prague we leave back for the USA. I'm also worried only spending one night in Bratislava isn't worth the time to go out there. I would welcome any suggestions/thoughts! Thank you!
Posted by
New York, NY
1586 posts
Hi Rachel,
Bratislava and Vienna are closed by. It takes 1 hour by train to get to Bratislava central station from Vienna central station. No need to spend more money by staying 2 days in Bratislava and have to check in hotel and check out. Do a day trip from Vienna to Bratislava. You can allocate those 2 days you plan to use on Bratislava to Prague to see more of that wonderful city, then you will be able to do day trips to towns like Cesky Krumlov from Prague. While in Vienna, you might consider taking a Danube river cruise and do day trips to Melk, and Salzburg. Last but not least, Budapest is a great city but 5 nights is too long, 4 nights is more reasonable The new itinerary would shape up like this:
4 nights Budapest - 7 nights Vienna (Day Trips: Bratislava, Melk, Salzburg or a Danube cruise) - 6 Nights Prague (Day Trips: Cesky Krumlov, Kutna Hora).
Bon voyage
Posted by
New York, NY
1586 posts
Also Rachel here is a link to help with planning your activities in Vienna
Posted by
Washington DC
28073 posts
I disagree thst five nights is too long for Budapest. Four nights is quite short if it's the first stop of the trip since arrival day is pretty useless. Planned side-trips do need to be taken into consideration, though.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
I appreciate the replies! Thank you! And yes the last poster is correct, I am flying into Budapest from the states so that's why I have 5 nights allocated, I'm pretty useless the first day. But I'm leaning towards taking a day from Bratislava and adding it to Prague. Since I'll only have full three days in Prague not adding travel days. Sounds like this might be a good idea? I don't have any side trips planned for any of the destinations. At some point I plan to come back to Austria and do Salzburg.
Posted by
Prague, Czech Republic
356 posts
As suggested by an earlier poster, I would drop the nights from Bratislava and add them to Prague instead. Bratislava is an interesting day trip from Vienna, and you can get there in less than an hour. There is a tour company there called Authentic Slovakia tours, who offer a great Post-Socialist City Tour, where they pick you in a 1970s Communist-issue Skoda and bring you around the "other" Bratislava. Bratislava is one of the ugliest cities in Europe, and their tour embraces it for all of its weird and wonderful misshapenness. (You'll see lots of beautiful buildings in Prague, Budapest and Vienna, so you may as well see something different in Bratislava).
Don't even consider going to Cesky Krumlov as a day trip from Prague - it's three hours each way, and then when you get there it is full of other day-trippers (2 million of them). The town has been destroyed by mass tourism. If you'd like a day trip from Prague, try Kutna Hora, Konopiste, Tabor or Podebrady instead.
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
I agree with Marcus. Cesky Krumlov is a bad choice for a day trip from Prague.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you so much for the replies! I think I've decided I'll stay the night in Bratislava, but leave early on the train for Prague and add the extra night to Prague. I'll look into that tour as well, saw that mentioned on the Slovakia forum and sounds super interesting!