3 Cities/Areas in 3 weeks?

How aboutr Salzburg?

You're right about Vienna, of course.

To me it matters how much time you're planning to fill. Are you thinking a week each in Prague and Budapest, leaving 5 days or so to fill? I might be inclined to try 2 or even 3 smaller and/or less touristy places for a change of pace.

These ideas would add varying amounts of transportation time.

There are some smaller towns south of Prague that are reported to be very attractive (including Telc), but I haven't been to that area yet. Plus there's Cesky Krumlov. Olomouc in eastern Czechia is interesting, and Brno--though not small--doesn't get a lot of foreign tourists.

Graz in southeastern Austria is very pretty and has some worthwhile museums/sights. There were some other tourists about, but not all that many, and it still felt laid-back.

Bratislava is the place everyone seems to go in Slovakia. To me it was worth 2 or 3 days, but I do a lot of wandering around, staring at building exteriors. What Bratislava lacks is a good museum covering 20th-century history. The one in Kosice is good, but that's a long way east.

In western Hungary I enjoyed Sopron and especially Gyor. Gyor has not only the nearby Pannonhalma Abbey but also quite a lot of small museums (many art-related) scattered around its very pretty historic center. If you're willing to overshoot Budapest, there are some very good, architecturally interesting secondary cities accessible by train. Kecskemet and Szeged are on one rail line; Pecs, on another. Pecs is the home of the Zsolnay company that created weatherproof ceramics used on building exteriors. There are a couple of good museums of decorative arts, showing collections of Zsolnay objects.

Dresden isn't all that far north of Prague but would require doubling back as you head to Budapest.

TY Lin...Hadn't thought of Salzburg. I had been there for 3 nights on the same trip to Germany/Austria bk in '19. Again, there is always more to see. It was a beautiful city even though it had rained for the duration.

acraven, I was leaning towards a week in each place, which would include travel days. I haven't looked into Bratislava, and I see it is very close. I have a cousin who lives in Budapest and would plan to spend a day with him. I like the thinking with the smaller outlying towns. Graz for example. I will ask my cousin for some ideas on Hungary as he has been living there for 30 years.

Do you want to do three city stays or do you want to spend three weeks traveling with Prague and Budapest in the route?

Prague: For you to spend a week in Prague you need to plan day trips. At least 3 of them. I like to use Viator to find ideas.
Vienna: If you spent 4 days in Vienna already, 3+ more might not be a bad idea. No idea what you saw the first time and what interests you though, so again, look at day trips. Melk for instance.
Bratislava: Yawn.
Budapest: 4 to 8 days with day trips

Other ideas? If it were not for the train requirement I would say:

• Fly Wizzair to Brasov Romania and use that as a starting point for a week tour ending in Bucharest for the flight home. About an hour flight for about $50
• Start by flying into Dubrovnik, stay 3 nights then cross into Montenegro for a weeklong tour. Fly from Podgorica to Budapest. About an hour flight for about $50

Mr E, TY for the feedback. I was thinking more towards 3 cities with day trips. I had stayed in Bologna for 2 weeks with alternating day trips, for the most part. This gave me a chance to feel more settled and had a day or two to do some outside towns. That worked out well. So maybe Prague, Vienna, and Budapest or vice versa depending on air factors.

From Prague Dresden and Berlin (both Germany) are easy and fast reachable by direct train connections (journey planner).

Dresden is a nearly perfectly walk-able town which offers interesting top sights and a marvelous landscape with Saxon Switzerland. Berlin and close Potsdam offer many walks, especially Berlin is known for a manifold offering of self-organized and / or guided walking tours (examples), also through Berlin's underground.

Logistically, I would suggest going back to Vienna , besides you barely scratched the surface, a ton of sites to visit and explore, all depends on your level of interest.

How far are you willing to deviate by train in choosing a 3rd city? No problem for me deviating, backtracking, etc, if I am desperate enough to see a place. You have some good suggestions above for Germany .

I suggest one more place, not that far from Dresden....Leipzig, again it's up to your interest.

Like Dresden also a singular place in German cultural history, also in military history too . There took place at Leipzig that final undisguised defeat of Napoleon in Germany at the hands of 4 Allied armies, a decisive event in the general history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars but also part of a civil war among Germans.

Okay then. Get a apartment in each Prague, Vienna and Budapest for a week each. Plenty of day and overnight trips out of each. Once you dates nailed down then you can fine tune all of the day trips. For the Budapest portion of the trip you might look at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/updated-budapest-events-for-january-june-2026 for a list of what is going on in Budapest in September. There might be something you want to plan around. Do the same research for the others. Its always horrible when you miss something great by one day.

I would be inclined to spend a night or two in Cesky Krumlov betweek Vienna and Prague (take the time from Prague) and a night or two in Gyor between Vienna and Budapest (take half the time from each).

Ty Mark, Fred, and Mr. E,

Love the suggestions. Def gets me thinking outside of my bubble.

Oh, you want to get outside of your bubble.

Okay, you fly from the US to Tirana, Albania and you spend a week working the southern coast. In about 10 years everyone will be raving about the Albanian Riveria and you can say, “went there, did that before it was an in thing”. I can hook you up with a guide. Then you take Wizzair for less than $100 and about 90 minutes to Budapest for a week, then train to Prague for a week.

Too radical? Okay, the same idea works with Montenegro instead of Albania, and you know they are up with the times because they use the Euro … hmmm … wait, they didn’t ask, they just did it. Anyway, you fly into maybe Dubrovnik and out of Podgorica to Budapest on Wizzair.

I am suggesting this direction, south to north, because the earlier in September the warmer the water. But the first half of September … great.

@ gritz....You're welcome.

Re: the bubble....I call that taxing my imagination in order to see what I can come up with. In the Czech Rep you have lots of places to check out , numerous small towns, depending on the level of your interest

If you do end up selecting Prague, have the time (it's almost always that factor), and want to check something quite esoteric re: history, then I would suggest the Czech Army and Military Museum. It's quite extensive, if you want to see ordinance. The Czechs in the inter-war years were big armaments producers since they had in Bohemia the city of Pilsen (Plzen).

Wait!! I have a great out of your bubble trip.

Fly to Prague for a short week. Then the RegioJet Night Train to Przemyśl where you transfer to a Ukrainian Railways train for the final leg to Lviv. What an adventure! After a week in and around Lviv (i can give you a list of the good stuff and there is a lot) there is a night train to Budapest (I did it last year there is a trip report on the forum). September is a great time for the region.