We are planning to start our trip in July 20017 in Majorca and then flying to Budapest, traveling to Vienna with a tour of the Wachau Valley, then on to Prague. Or we could do Prague to Budapest. My question is what is the best means of transportation between those cities and is there a preferred order? We will go to Zurich and then fly home from there. Any thoughts about trains, shuttle services, or flights between those cities would be greatly appreciated!
The best transportation is train. The best order of these cities is Prague, Vienna, Budapest or Budapest, Vienna, Prague.
The best transportation is a private driver and a Mercedes Van. Second best is train, except if you want to visit Cesky Krumlov between Vienna and Prague, then think of Bean or CK Shuttle from Vienna, CK and Prague. Also think about stopping in Gyor and visiting the Archabbey at Pannonhalma.
The direction of travel I would suspect would be dictated by the connections at each end. And with out looking up the flights I am going to guess will be Budapest to Prague.
Thank you for your suggestions!
Start in Prague and take the overnight sleeper train (23:58 - 08:40) to Budapest. It's comfortable, you sleep through an otherwise long train journey, and it saves you a night in a hotel. Then take the train to Vienna from Budapest. It is only 2hrs 40 mins. It is the most time efficient way of doing it.
That's on my plan in late May, taking the night train (tentatively) from Vienna to Prague for a day trip.