Upcoming Trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest in April / May

Sounds like a fabulous trip. My husband and I travelled to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Munich last summer (with overnights in Cesky Krumlov and Salzburg). We had a wonderful time. Enjoy!

My wife and I did the exact same trip - leaving from Boston, except we had shorter stays in each of the three cities. You are going to have an awesome trip. Fire away with questions!

I am planning somewhat the same route (flying into Prague, overnight in Cesky Krumlov, 7 days in Vienna, 6 days in Budapest, flying home from B) as you can see from my Prague Marathon post.

I have found Rick's books - and this site - great for the "bones" of a trip.

I will be following your posts/questions.

Sharon

Sharon - I was following your trip planning as I did not where in Europe we wanted to go next and when.

I even copied the thread, edited it down to key information of suggestions of a day trip to Cesky Krumlov via shuttle, Melk / Danube, Vienna and Budapest and found it quite informative and emailed it to myself!.

Then we were originally going the "exact dates" you are but then something came up and we had to push it forward a week.

We are the same age (both couples) and use RS / this forum (GREAT advice for researching) in the same manner😊

I received back confirmations this weekend for Pension Suzanna in Vienna, Butterfly B&B in Budapest and Hotel Myln for Cesky Krumlov so the bones are falling into place as you stated!

Gene

Steve - thanks and I will certainly ask questions.

Which airlines and to what city did you fly into as we haven't booked anything yet but looking at several options?

Preliminary we are looking at Swiss Air and direct to Zurich and to Prague, Lufthansa to Munich then Prague.

Gene

In case they might be useful to you, you can find my trip report for Prague here, along with links to my reports on Vienna and Budapest. I haven't gotten around to my reports on the remaining locations (Cesky Krumlov, Salzburg, and Munich), but I hope to soon. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/3-weeks-in-east-central-europe-part-3-prague

BB - one go the BEST trip reports I have EVER read, thank you very much.

I read all reports, Vienna and Budapest and you have set a standard as the RS books comes alive, if I can say with your writing.

I will refer to it often and have "plenty" to research between now and when we leave for our trip.

Thanks again......Gene

Aw, shucks. Well, I had a wonderful trip, and a large part of it was due to the posters here who generously took the time to share their experiences, so I thought I would do the same.

BB, you know I have a rather inexplicable emotional connection to Budapest. You also know how much I enjoyed the review of Budapest. I always get nervous when I read reviews; sort of like seeing your kids report card. Pleaseeeee let them have had a good time........

After visiting Budapest, I don't think your connection is all that inexplicable, James. What a fascinating place and, at the same time, the most livable of all the places I visited on that trip, I think.

I am doing the exact opposite trip in March (Budapest-Vienna-Prague), 16 days. I have chosen hotels/apts in all three but trying to figure out the trips between cities. At first I thought we would just take a train and wondering if I needed to reserve now or maybe just the day before. Then I wondered if I should take a day tour that would stop at interesting places. Then, I thought maybe we should spend a night in Cesky Krumlov on the way to Prague. What did you decide?

Hi,

Having done day trips twice to Budapest in recent years, I see the city worthy of repeat visits depending on your itinerary and what you want to track down. Using a travel guide no doubt helps in trip planning when assembling pertinent and helpful information. I myself use Rough Guide Budapest as the main research piece, and the city is on the itinerary/destination list for the last week this coming May.

Gene - I am sorry I never saw your response and questions:

Steve - thanks and I will certainly ask questions.
Which airlines and to what city did you fly into as we haven't booked anything yet but looking at several options?
Preliminary we are looking at Swiss Air and direct to Zurich and to Prague, Lufthansa to Munich then Prague.
Gene

For what it's worth, we flew Air France through Paris both ways. We had kind of long layovers (about 3-4 hours on both ends). But at that point, Air France was the cheapest for our itinerary. CDG is a pretty boring airport, but it could be worse. I've flown Lufthansa before and found it to be very good. I've never flown Swiss Air, but know others who have and liked it too.

Are you flying in and out of Prague? I would strongly recommend flying into Prague or Budapest, and then home from the other city. There is no sense in backtracking to fly in and out of the same city. It will cost you lots of valuable time.

Sorry for not answering or posting as I'm living thru the Snowmaggedon 2015 about 30 miles south of Boston for the last several weeks!!

In spite of it, I managed to book our flights over & back with Lufthansa:

Boston to Munich to Prague, then coming back Budapest to Frankfurt to Boston.

We went for the non stop & shortest flying time from & to Boston as we felt it was worth the getting to our great trip faster.

All our lodging is also booked and now confirmed for Prague for 5 nights, Cesky Krumlov for 1 night, Vienna for 5 nights, Budapest for 6 nights.

We are booked & confirmed for Bean Shuttle, party 4 sharing the ride to Cesky Krumlov and then taking a private vehicle to Vienna. Thanks to Emily for her advice to book early.

We will buy our train tickets from Vienna to Budapest either just before leaving the States or upon our arrival in Vienna when we know more about our trip.

Now to get ready for Saturday's blizzard (as much as we can) which is expected to dump another 1 to 2 feet on top of the 6 feet already down 😊

Gene

Gene,
I live in Atlanta now but was previously in Boston and your snow is unbelievable so you deserve a nice vacation. I am planning a solo trip to BudaPest and possibly Prague on April 1st but I like to home base in one city but from reading these posts, I might fly into Prague and out of BudaPest or just stay in BudaPest.

I found the Katona Apartments in the Center of BudaPest for under 50euros per night but if you have other places you booked and shuttles/transport via trains, that would be most helpful for me to finalize my plans. I am doing this adventure solo so a good base plan is essential since I am bad with directions.

Think about the spring in Boston when it eventually arrives, I spend a week at Martha's Vineyard, up island and then I magically forget about the winters!

Kathy

Here is a suggestion I read on another site and I think its a good one for any place you are going to visit. When ever you think you have found a great place to stay, plug the address into Google Maps and check the walking time to the top 10 things you want to see. Then check it again using trams (if the town has trams). The decide if your "central" accommodation is really all that "central" from a tourist point of view. Sometimes the results are surprising.

Kathy - thanks and we first have to "survive" until spring 😊

BTW, my son & his family lived in Atlanta and now are in Decatur, Ga for about 15 years and we try to get there a couple of times a year for a visit, see them and grandchildren and enjoy Atlanta very much.

We are traveling with my wife's sister & her husband and for Budapest we opted for a small B&B that the RS Budapest book recommended and several folks liked (Butterfly Home) and has 5 rooms. We read where the owners were very helpful on what to see etc and we also like to mix up our lodging. We are staying in small hotels in Prague Old Town (Hotel Hastal), and Vienna, central location (Pension Suzanne), both about 25 rooms or less.

We considered apartments as we have stayed in them several times while in Italy and liked the experience but decided to forego them on this trip.

Robin - we opted to stay for a night in Cesky Krumlov on the way from Prague to Vienna after reading about it, seeing some photos and videos and we booked the Hotel Mylan. We normally would take a train or a bus but since there will be 4 of us, opted for the Bean shuttle.

James - excellent suggestion and we did that on our trip to Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels last year. We used RS book to list the places we wanted to see, museums, RS walks etc. With all of our lodging having free WiFi, we use the free city maps & iPhone to plan what we wanted to see each morning for 15 to 30 minutes and map our walking & use of the public transportation system. That way we didn't stand on the street corner "looking at our RS book" to to figure where we were.

Do as much here ahead of time to enjoy seeing there while traveling is my motto!

Gene

Retiredgene I think you missed my point, but go have a blast.

James - agreed, what you suggested would help one better understand the location of their lodging as to what you wanted to see and to make a informed decision.

I should have said I did a variation on what you recommended as we had already decided on the places we wanted to stay in each city.

Gene