Start and end in Prague in 20 days

With 20 days, you can go pretty much anywhere. There are cheap flights (or at least not super expensive flights) from Prague to cities all over Europe.

If you want to stay local? Then your options are pretty obvious: Germany, Austria, Poland. You could do something like I did a few years ago: Poland by train (Gdansk, Torun, Wroclaw, and Krakow; you could add Warsaw which most people would but I didn't) and then a sweep through Czech Republic (train to Olomouc, bus to Brno, rent a car and drive through Moravia and Southern Bohemia and back up to Prague, stopping in towns like Telc, Jindrichuv Hradec, Trebon, and of course Cesky Krumlov.

How much of the Czech Republic have you seen? If only Prague, then I would allocate extra time there. Also, Poland is a huge country right next door. You could easily spend time there as well.

We have never been to the Czech Republic or Poland, so I like the idea of seeing more of those areas. We would also like to head to Vienna, perhaps as far as Salzburg. What if we did the suggested itinerary from Prague up through Poland, back to Czech Republic, then down to Vienna? Is it better to rent a car, or take a train?

If you want to see major cities (and not so much small towns or out-of-the-way rural areas), then there's no need to rent a car. Trains and buses will do the trick (e.g. there is very inexpensive bus service from Prague to Wrocław via Flix bus).

Is there any way you could see Vienna in between Budapest and Prague, instead of having to backtrack?

There are some options. One is simply to rent a car in Prague at the start and drive the whole way - then you can go wherever you want. I like trains, so I tend to avoid driving in Europe unless I need to. Poland's train system is adequate, even if their trains aren't as nice as those in Western European countries, and it worked fine for me to get from Gdansk down to Krakow and back over to Czech Republic.

You can certainly train from Prague over to Poland to start but it will take more time and then you need to come back. (You can't fly OUT of Poland at the end - have to fly out of Prague?) There are more flight options now than when I visited Poland. I know you can fly between Prague and Krakow now. Maybe to Gdansk or Warsaw? You could fly there to start and work your way by train back to Czech Republic if you wanted to. Then you could rent a car in say Brno like I did and head down to Vienna and Salzburg, then return the car back up in Prague at the end, with stops along the way.

The thing you want to avoid is renting the car in one country and returning in another or you might incur a huge one-way drop fee. You may still incur some one-way fee within say Czech Republic to/from different cities but generally nothing like the fee you'd pay between countries. I didn't pay a one-way fee to rent in Brno return in Prague.

You could alternately do this without renting a car: train or fly from Prague to Warsaw. Train to Gdansk. Train back to Wroclaw (consider stops in Torun and Poznan). Train to Krakow. Train back to Olomouc, Czech Republic. Train to Vienna, Salazburg, and then back to Prague. I haven't mapped it out to see the optimal route. I'd plot your key cities (sounds like Salzburg and Vienna plus some of Poland) on a Google Map and go from there. Use www.bahn.com to get European train schedules and connections - also the Rome2Rio website.

I don't know about Andrew, but I did Poland mostly by train, using buses for smaller towns. I spent five weeks there and left a bunch of interesting places untouched, so it depends on where you want to go and the depth of your interest. I am a junkie when it comes to WW II and Cold War sights, so I spent more time in each city than a typical tourist would.

I agree with acraven above. We spent 15 days in Poland this past summer and missed more than we saw. It is a beautiful country with lovely people, and easy to get around. We used the trains. As a bonus it is also very inexpensive. The WWII museums are very well done.

Unfortunately, there isn't the option to see Vienna between Budapest and Prague. And our tickets are already purchased to fly our of Prague, so we will most likely have a bit of backtracking. I'm thinking trains and buses are the best route. I'll play with the suggestions for routes and see what I can come up with. You are all so very helpful!!

I should have mentioned that I went to a lot of the same places in Poland as Andrew and enjoyed them. Many of his Czech towns were on my I-wanna-go-there list but got cut in the end because I spent so much time in Poland. I did get to both Olomouc and Brno, and I liked them a lot.

Okay, here is a rough draft itinerary.
Fly/train from Prague to Warsaw. 3 nights
Train to Gdansk. 2 nights
Train to Torun. 1 night..OR a day trip from Warsaw?
Train to Wroclaw. 2 nights
Train to Krakow. 3 nights
Train to Olomouc. 1 night
Train/bus to Brnu. 2 nights
Train to Vienna. 3 nights
Shuttle to Cesky Krumlov. 2 nights
Back to Prague. 1 night

Does this look doable?
I still need to research to best way to get between each town.

Warsaw is really far from Prague (by train). Why not break up that 7 hour trip in half and go from Prague to Wrocław first instead of Warsaw? Then you can go from Wrocław to Warsaw after spending a few days in Wrocław. My preference is not to sit on a train all day; I would rather break up train travel of > 5 hours on different days.

[Please ignore if you're planning on flying instead]

I'd probably stop in Warsaw when you transit through there.

Look at the various towns and see what interests you in each. I'm a history buff; Gdansk is loaded with Cold War history (and some WWII stuff nearby), plus there's the amazing Malbork castle nearby - an easy day trip. So I'd probably do three nights in Gdansk. Actually, I didn't stop in Brno at all, other than to pick up the car. (That was probably a mistake in retrospect, but at the time it didn't sound very interesting to me.)

Never mind - misunderstood, I see you are stopping in Warsaw for a few nights to start.

I spent a night in Torun and would recommend it. It's a lovely old town.

Gdansk has two really major museums: the European Solidarity Center and the World War II museum. I was prepared to spend a lot of time in them, but they took even longer than I was expecting. With only one real day in the city, I wouldn't set foot in the WWII Museum; I don't think it would be an effective use of your time. I supposed you could spend a couple of hours in the Solidarity Center (seeing maybe 1/4 of it?) and the rest of the time doing other things. Gdansk is really a beautiful place, so just walking around is fun. (It could be rather cold and wet in March, though.)

Honestly, I'd delete a couple of stops so I had more time in some other places, but I am a slow traveler with a special interest in The Area Formerly Known as Eastern Europe.

Hi Christine,
I can make some recommendations for the Czech Republic based on my 2 trips there. In addition to visiting Prague, I recommend the following. I also want to add that we had a rental car; my husband did all the driving, and it was very easy.

Cesky Krumlov for 2 nights - we arrived in CK late in the day so I am happy we had 2 nights. We arrived late because we stopped at the Chateau Hluboka nad Vltavou, which the owner of our pension recommended. It is gorgeous and was one of the highlights of our trip. I did not see it in any of my guidebooks (this was in 2009), so if it wasn't for the owner, we would not have known about it. It's a 19th century castle straight out of a fairy tale!

We loved CK. It reminds me of Prague, but smaller, and is very crowded during the day with tour buses, but in March it might not be so crowded. That's why it was nice to spend 2 nights there; much quieter after the day trippers leave.

Karlovy Vary - spent 2 nights here. It is a beautiful city set in a great location surrounded by mountains. Architecturally, it looks very different from Prague and CK. (architecture is primarily art nouveau.) The streets go up the mountains and are curvy. KV is known for its mineral springs and spas. You will hear a lot of Russian because many Russians come here for spa treatments. We bought small cups and walked around the city drinking water from the numerous mineral springs. You get the water from faucets. The water is different temperatures and taste different from each spring. We also spent about 3 hours at a spa pampering ourselves. If you want a different experience than you will get elsewhere, I recommend KV.

Great suggestions, all. I'm working on the transportation part to see how smooth I can make it.

I apologize for ending so abruptly; my husband needed the computer for something urgent.

We also spent a night in Telc. It's a small city in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic with a very pretty main square surrounded by pastel colored buildings. Telc's castle is one of our favorites, very lavish, with a gothic section and a Renaissance section. Telc has 2 ponds on either side of it, so it's a peaceful place for walks with reflections of the castle in the ponds. We also visited a wine cellar in Znojmo.

We have been to Poland once. We visited Krakow, which I highly recommend, and spent a night in a castle near the Ukraine border. We were the only guests on Halloween, and no one spoke English, just German and Polish. It was quite an eerie experience since most of the castle was dark. I would love to see more of Poland.

So, I think seeing more of the Czech Republic and visiting Poland would be great additions to your trip! Hope this helps.

Want to add that we took the train from Prague to Krakow on our first trip to Prague. Train travel was very easy. And took the overnight train from Krakow back to Prague. We had to return to Prague because our daughter was with us, and she was studying in Prague at the time. This was in 2003. I think train travel has improved since then in these countries, and is faster so probably no need for an overnight train.

We also had a rental car in Poland for our trip to the castle. Driving in Poland and CR was very easy.