review/comments for 8 day Itinerary Prague ,Vienna Venice Rome

Have you bought your tickets yet? To say it's fast paced is an understatement. Don’t expect to do much on arrival day after a night of no sleep.
Prague and Venice deserves a minimum of three nights, Vienna five nights and Rome four nights if you include a day at Vatican City.
Sight-seeing and train travel on the same day is time consuming when you factor in going back to the hotel and collecting your bags and going to the train station. It’s easier to spend a day getting to your destination and settling in takes longer than you think.

since you asked -- I think the idea is ridiculous.
-- parts of two days in Prague, one when you are jet lagged after an overnight flight
-- one day in Vienna
-- one day plus a couple of hours in Venice
-- one day plus a couple of hours in Rome

Each one of these cities deserves at least two full days (not days broken up by travel). Even people who like fast-paced travel have limited hours in a day.

You haven't factored in the time to pack and unpack and to get to and from the train station/airport. For example, you say that you have from 9am to 4 pm in Prague, but your train leaves at 4:16. So you really don't have seven hours for sightseeing.

Too much movement and too many big cities. With 7 nights I would pick two places reasonably close together. For example: fly into/out of Rome, train to Orvieto for the first 2 or 3 nights, train back to Rome for 4 or 5 nights. J

I see from your history that you've taken other trips to Europe with your kids and you know how fast you like to travel. I hope you've read the Rick Steves pages (e.g., https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/czech-republic/prague) on this site on what are the key things to see in each of your chosen cities. There are some wow sites!!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful trip!

Happy travels!

I have booked the flight NY to Prague on 11/21 and Rome to NY on 11/29. Everything else is not booked yet.
I have been to these cities many times, however my friend and her 2 boys have not. We plan to pack carry ons, and plan to Uber around and show them these 4 big cities with the intention to go back and spend more time there next year at a more comfortable pace. As I love to make this a great trip please send me your ideas . Thank you

In Vienna, there is a small museum the RS tour I went on visited called the third man museum. What was compelling was the tour by the owner (who also served as the Rick Steves local guide). He discussed how the Orson Welles movie led him on a journey of discovery of the history of post WW II Vienna. If you can go to his museum with him there for a tour, it will be a highlight.

Good luck!

The speed, i dont care. That's a personal thing. The statement that you've been to them many times followed by give me ideas of what to see and do, that all 3 are "big", and you plan to use Uber to see them leaves me without words that you woukd find helpful. I think you have it under control. Have a blast and best of luck to you.

You are kidding, aren’t you?
Even the “Amazing Race” wouldn’t expect their single contestants to keep to that pace. And you have four in the race.

I would stick to 3 cities.

Or expect to eliminate more than half of each city.

Which half you eliminate is the conundrum.

When I was at university in the '70s, I had a roommate that traveled by train and bus from Istanbul to London. Yes, across commie Europe. I think, on average, he spent 16 hours in the major cities, and half of that was sleeping. Since then, he has traveled the world for pleasure and business a hundred times. But if you want to watch his face light up and hear stories for hours, ask him about that first trip. I learned from listening to him that there was no such thing as a travel expert. This works for some people and while I might suggest what I would fo and why, there is no way I would be condescending of people that do other than what I enjoy.

I suspect your roommate was traveling by himself— not with three others. And certainly in the 1970’s he was not traveling in today’s world of security checks at airports and attractions.

This thread is confusing. On one hand, the op and family are experienced travelers who have been to these places in the past, are all adults, and are 'fast-paced'. Tickets are booked, itinerary worked out. As someone pointed out, it seems that they have things under control. What else is there but to say good luck and have fun! On the other hand, multiple responders are using language like 'ridiculous' and 'amazing race'. What is anyone getting out of this? Please enlighten me.

Date Location Key Highlights
Nov 21 (Fri) ✈️ NYC Overnight flight to Prague
Nov 22 (Sat) Prague Old Town, Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge
Nov 23 (Sun) Prague Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral
Nov 24 (Mon) Vienna Historic Center, St. Peter’s Concert
Nov 25 (Tue) Vienna Schönbrunn Palace, Library, Opera
Nov 26 (Wed) Venice Piazza San Marco, Basilica, canals
Nov 27 (Thu) Rome Trevi Fountain, Pantheon
Nov 28 (Fri) Rome Colosseum, Vatican, Palatine Hill
Nov 29 (Sat) ✈️ Rome → NYC

I don't know how recently you were in these cities. The Colosseum and the Vatican Museums both need to be prebooked. If by "Vatican" you mean St. Peter's instead of the museums (which are mobbed and take hours to see), you should get entry tickets with audio guide online in advance to avoid the disconcertingly long security line faced by those without entry times. I don't know how early you'll need to buy those online tickets/entries for a late-November visit, but I don't think it's safe to wait until you're on the trip to do so.

I think both the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain require either a ticket or entry payment, but it's possible that's only the case during the busier months of the year.

I'm resisting the temptation to comment on the pace of this itinerary.

uber, as it exists in the USA, does not exist in Italy

Joe32F. And if Uber did exist as something like in the US, and if you tried using it in any of those cities (those cities with roads and roads open to cars) it would take you longer to see what he has time for in the city than doing it on foot.

My suggestion would be stay in and walk Prague Old Town, but go inside nothing, stay in and walk inside the Vienna Ringstrasse but go inside nothing, stay near the Pantheon in Rome and walk what you can reach, but go inside nothing. Venice ... I haven't bern there in 30 years.

Thanks for the clarification. Have you travelled with your friend and two boys before? Traveling at record speed with four people isn’t easy. There are a lot of personalities involved and traveling from one place to another is a pain. I suggest cutting out Vienna and flying from Prague to Venice.
Vienna is a good city to include when going to Budapest and Bratislava. I highly suggest your friends visit Vienna on another trip. As Rick says “assume you will return.”
There are nonstop flights from Prague to Venice on Ryanair for less than $50.