April Trip to Prague and ?

Love Prague…..we took a WW2 bunkers tour and it was amazing……guide took us to a bunker underground in Prague that was prepared for families in case of a nuclear attack……we thought it was a wonderful tour. We also walked across the Charles River bridge and toured the castle and shopped the glass shops all of the way to the top of the hill. We also toured the Jewish cemetery….AMAZING…..and enjoyed a Gershwin concert one night at the Jewish synagogue……very inexpensive. Prague has found out it is a desirable destination and it’s prices have now caught up with the rest of Europe. On this same trip we visited Budapest…..and loved it. We spent a morning at the thermal baths and got a very good but inexpensive massage there……ride the funicular on the other side of the Danube and enjoy the views across the river of the Parliament building. I thought the tour of it was well worth it. Take a night hour-long boat ride to get some amazing pics of Budapest at night…..and eat at the delicious Italian restaurant down the river from parliament……SO GOOD. I also thought the Jewish memorial along the river, various shoes belonging to people the Nazis murdered and threw into the river, was humbling……Budapest has not caught up with the European prices yet and you will find it very inexpensive.

Average April temps in Prague are 57/44 degrees and only 1.5 inches of rain over 6 days. Prague to Budapest takes 7 hours by train The train tickets on the Czech national train website www.cd.cz can be as little as €15 -€20. Both domestic and international Czech train tickets are deeply discounted when bought up to four months in advance. You also could stop in the city of Olomouc , 2.5 hours by fast Regiojet train (€7 if bought in advance) from Prague, and overnight there before continuing by Regiojet train to Budapest in 5 hours.
Trains from Budapest to Vienna can take as little as 2.5 hours. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia , can be visited on the way. Fast Railjet trains run between Vienna and Prague in 4 hours. For a quick overview, train schedules and fares can be viewed on the website www.TheTrainline.com before buying tix on the Czech website.

Depends on how much time you have. Prague (3 nights on top of your three for the meeting), then Vienna for 3 nights, then Budapest for at least 4 nights is a good trip.

Here is where I am sort of a unique opinion. Unless you have time for a night or two someplace between Prague and Vienna (Cesky Krumlov comes to mind) I would say skip the train and fly from Prague to Budapest and then train up to Vienna. Saves 3 or 4 hours of travel time door to door and the flights are cheap.

Less time? Prague then fly to Budapest and go home from there. Why Budapest instead of Vienna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nd9DuDGCz0&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Yes, a Prague-Vienna-Budapest trip is pretty easy to do - that's what I did the first time I visited Prague. The train worked well for me, so I would see no reason at all to have to drive in those big cities unless you want to stop somewhere else on the way. (You may also need to worry about a one-way drop off fee for a car picked up in Czech Republic and dropped in Hungary.) I have driven through part of Czech Republic. There are some cute small towns in southern Bohemia and Moravia. You could rent a car when leaving Prague and spend a few days in some of the small towns like Cesky Krumlov, and Telc (driving is easy outside the cities) and drop the car in say Brno, CZ, and catch a train from there on to Vienna.

If you have more time and are ambitious and want to do something more related to the alps, you can get almost anywhere in Europe by train pretty easily. So no need to limit yourself to Vienna and Budapest if exploring those cities doesn't excite you.

Andrew reminded me of another concept, Budapest is a Hub for Wizz Air, so for $75 all sorts of option open up, most in under 1.5 hours.

OH, don't mess with a car, just not worth the cost and hassle ... my opinion at least

Yeah, a car doesn't make sense if you just want to go Vienna and/or Budapest. But it's easy to drive at least in rural Czech Republic as I did, to tour the smaller towns like I suggested.

Thank you to all who responded. I don't have any idea as to why I threw Budapest in the there. I have never been to that part of Europe. I think I was just hoping to spark some advice from all of you well-seasoned travelers. Thank you for chiming in. I'm not the best at preliminary research and find asking others to be better than any research I can do independently. The idea of driving to small Czech towns also sounds quite nice. I would rent a car for that, but I don't like mountain and city driving. To those who suggested Vienna - that sounds like a good possibility! For those with experience in Austria, would Vienna be your top pick? Also, any must-dos (or don'ts) in Vienna? As always, thank you for your generous help!

BTW……we flew into Prague, rented our car at the end of that stay, drove to Cesky Krumlov, Salzburg, Halstatt, Vienna and then Budapest….turned our car in in Budapest and flew home……

ALpine, how much time do you have? What are your interests? You could spend weeks touring all over these countries. If have a week vs. a month, that would change the suggestions I think.

I haven't been to much of Austria. I first visited Vienna on that first trip from Prague to Vienna to Budapest by train, and Vienna was my least favorite of the three. I visited Salzburg and Graz on a subsequent trip. Salzburg was really lovely, more than I expected. But a lot of people love Vienna too.

If you have ten days after your meeting, you could do a pretty quick visit to Vienna and Budapest, with a few days to explore each. Vienna and Salzburg (may be easier to fly out of Munich from there). Or you could spend a few days driving in Czech Republic as I suggested and train on to Vienna and fly out of there. It really depends what your interests are, how ambitious you are, and how much time you have.