1 months travel

If you hunt around in the posts you might get the perception that I am sort of biased towards one country or another. September is ideal for Eastern Europe.
But you asked, so I would get Round Trip tickets to Budapest. Then I would rent an apartment for.. well like this:

1 leave the US
2 arrive Bpest check into a rented apartment (generally a 3 night minimum)
3 see 1/3 of Pest (general)
a. Evening ideas
i. opera
ii. operetta
iii. classical concert
iv. dang good food of every varity and outstanding prices
v. cruise the danube
vi. pub crawl
vii. mature visit to the pubs
viii. World Famous Ruin Pubs
4 see 1/3 of Pest
5 morning train to Pecs http://visit-hungary.com/site/upload/2009/12/Pecs.JPG
6 see Pecs (I will get you the hotel later, name escapes me now)
7 day trip out to a vineyard
8 morning train to Bpest and back to your apartment
9 see last 1/3 of Pest (general)
10 see Buda
11 train to Eger http://myworldmybook.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dsc_0171.jpg
12 See Eger
13 Day trip to the vineyards of the region and the ancient wine cellars. http://travelguidehungary.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/winecellar2.jpg
14 Train to Kosice, Slovakia http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Slovakia_Kosice_21.jpg
15 See Kosice
16 Train to Poprad in the High Tatras (I know some great hotels a little further up in the mountains, your budget?) http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/107334/web-development-agency-1-jpg.jpg
17 Castles, mountains and vistas of the High Tatras
18 Castles, mountains and vistas of the High Tatras http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Slovakia_Oravsky_Podzamok.jpg
19 Train to Bratislava
20 See Bratislava
21 Train to Vienna
22 See Vienna
23 See Vienna
24 Day trip to Melk for the abbey
25 Train to Gyor where you stay in a converted Baroque Monastery http://uni.sze.hu/images/stories/gyor_kepek/varoshaza%202010%20ny%C3%A1r.JPG
26 See Gyor and the Archabbey at Pannonhalma http://www.east-centricarch.eu/eca/wp-content/gallery/pannonhalma/00_balazs-katai-large.jpg
27 Train to Budapest and back to your apartment
28 Budapest in Depth. Got a subject?
a. Holocaust
b. Art Museums
c. Train Museums – hey, time it correctly and you can take a day trip on a steam locomotive
d. Jewish culture
e. World War II
f. Cold War (Drive a Russian Tank – hey my wife loved it)
g. Architecture, Secessionist, Art Nuevo, Art Deco, late Baroque
h. Wine? Wine is always a good in depth study.
29 More Budapest in Depth
30 Head home.

There, all done. Go buy your tickets.

EDIT: Seriously though, if not this schedule, one like this that mixes up a little country with some city and a few diverse places with having to make long overland runs is the sort of thing I enjoy. You could base it out of Budapest like this shows or you could choose another city. Other options include going to Romania or Croatia or Poland but each of those has some long land routes. Most of what I threw out is 3 to 4 hours pre train ride leaving most of the time to do actual sight seeing.

sonnydaniels90 ,

What you have listed is what i would probably do. I like to pick one city in each country and see what i can in that city and then move onto the next country/city combination.

I do that to see more of a variety of places. I dont plan my vacations helter skelter but at a pace i like and i also plan to come back and venture outside of that city when i return.

If i were to do stay in one country for a month i would do some homework to determine if there is one months worth of things to do/see and go from there.

If this is your first trip and whatever way you choose to do, you will end up figuring out if you like it or not. To me, its just something you have to find out for yourself. If you're lucky enough to travel again the following year, you can try traveling the other way and see how that floats your boat. There isn't any one right or wrong way to travel, its up to you figure out how you like to do it. all we can do is to give our experience and recommendations.

happy trails.

Instead of thinking just of countries, start thinking of which places you want to see in each country, and the connections between them. For instance, Prague, Vienna and Budapest represent three countries, but connect well on a two week trip. But connections from Croatia to many other places are poor; research carefully to avoid problems.

Ray's right, there's no single answer to your question. You will see what you see on this trip and you will miss what you don't see, and you will have to return to see anything else. That's just the reality of travel, and it is hard to make these decisions (we've all made them, so we know what you're going through).

Start by asking yourself, what draws you to Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary? If it's just a few places, you can add other destinations. If you have a long wish list in each country, or if you want more relaxing and less moving around, you'll want to limit yourself to those three. Again, no right or wrong answer. There is no way to know how you will feel about a place until you actually go there - which makes it difficult to plan.

Unless you have an unlimited budget, you may let cost be the deciding factor. Is it cheaper to fly to or from one of your possible destinations? Remember that domestic train tickets are usually cheaper and much more flexible than international ones, so if flexibility is key for you, then staying in fewer countries will work better.

If you are seeing several countries, you want to fly open jaws, into one city and out of another (for example, Chicago to Budapest and Dubrovnik to Chicago). To find these flights, use the "multi city" option on Kayak or the airline web sites. Don't book two one-way flight tickets - that's much more expensive.

I like Harold's advice. On my first trip to this region, after departing Vienna, I spent about one month (without reservations) in Slovakia, Czech Rep, Poland, and Hungary. The route was similar to Rick's Eastern Europe tour route but with a few more stops in each country, and not making it as far as Slovenia and Croatia (which I have enjoyed on other trips). Most overnight stops merit 2-3 days. Stopping to see a small town for a half-day en-route to your next stop can help to avoid 1-night stands.