4 countries in 20 days

Marie,
Just to begin, you say you will be gone 20 days. Day one is arrival day, or are you counting your US departure as day 1? Either way, your arrival day in Europe is usually taken up with arrival details (immigration e.g.) and getting settled in. Departure day is gone from travel as well, so 17 or 18 days to actually enjoy the locations? Travel between locations will take 1/2 to 1 whole day, depending on distance, train options, checking out and checking in to lodgings, etc. 4 locations mean 3 days spent moving. You now have about 14-15 days to see things in your locations. My suggestion is to stick with no more than 3 places, preferably 2. Perhaps investigating the moving times between places is a good idea, before deciding on where to go. See what are the things most important to you.

I have to do things like this to get a sense of time.

Given that counting the weekends at each end, 3 weeks is 23 days, I would plan the trip for 23 days and then I suspect this works fine.

1. Depart US
2. Arrive Budapest at 2pm
3. See Budapest
4. See Budapest
5. See Budapest (sort of the minimum but its “okay”)
6. Morning train to Gyor (1.25hrs) / See Gyor and Archabbey / late train to Vienna (1.25hrs). Thought you might enjoy some of the smaller stops along the way.
   
7. Vienna
8. See Vienna
9. See Vienna
10. See Vienna (I would recommend one more night)
11. Morning Bean or CK Shuttle to Cesky Krumlov (3.5 hours) ww.ckshuttle.cz/ and https://www.beanshuttle.com/. The option as you point out is Graz instead of Cesky Krumlov. I have never been to Graz but its on my radar because it looks beautiful. Both are good choices. Graz is a 2.5-hour train ride from Vienna.
12. Day in either Cesky Krumlov or Graz.
13. Late Bean or CK Shuttle from Cesky Krumlov to Salzburg (2.75 hours). Or if you do Graz, then it’s about 4 hours on the train to Salzburg.
    
14. End of my usefulness. Now you have 8 days for the Dolomites, Lake Garda and then to fly out of either Venice or Bologna. I would have bet against it when I read your description, but it does appear to be a nice holiday.
    

I know of several reputable tours from France at various price points going to the Lakes in October. I don’t think these agencies and organizations would send guides and visitors if shops and restaurants were shut for the season. In France, shutdowns begin after November 1st, as a comparison.

Your plan is doable, but requires more travel than necessary.
Why not focus on one area like central Europe? You could add Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Munich. Passau and
Regensburg.

geovagriffith, sometimes you gotta travel to see what interests you. Actually its all pretty much in a straight line and the opportunity exists to spend a fair amount of time at each stop. Besides, I like the OPs list a lot better than Bratislava, Prague and Munich. Of course it being September I would take a chance with Hallstatt along the way. And while I did mention train times, I would sure look at DayTrip.com and see if any of their stops along the routes made the extra cost seem worth it.

Which central Europe do you recommend?
This one https://wikitravel.org/upload/shared//thumb/5/5a/Central_Europe_Regions.png/600px-Central_Europe_Regions.png
or this one https://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/cf_images/20000708/ceu580.gif
or this one https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/casestudy/media/nic01_ceuromap.jpg
This one is very interesting and would keep the OP in central Europe https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Grossgliederung_Europas-en.svg

Do you think this is too much travelling?

Marie,

The short answer is MAYBE. However, it all depends on why you selected these locations. You can see all these locations in 20 days. The major question is, what do YOU want to do in each of these locations and how long do you think it will take you to see all you want to see in each location.

Some people like the smorgasbord approach to traveling for 20 days and sample as much as they can. Others like to concentrate deeply into each location they are in and only recommend a few places in 20 days. Neither is right or wrong...just different. I have done both and enjoyed both.

Ask yourself, what do I want to see in each location? How much time will this take? How long will it take to get from one location to the next? When you answer those questions, you will have determined if your itinerary is best for you.

Enjoy.

You are doing on average 3 nights a stop (i am guessing) that's more than RS does on a lot of his tours. Research it a lot and see where you end up. Might be fewer stops, who knows. But in general it's a logical straight line across a segment of Europe and everything is interesting.

Hi Marie,

While it is always nice to have extra time, I think a few days in each place can be enjoyable. Personally, I look at fast paced travel like that as a sampler plate. You get to experience different cities or countries, and then can decide if you would like to return to any of them for a deeper dive on a subsequent visit. That being said, I almost always wish I had an extra day or two in the vast majority of destinations that I've visited.

Marie, with the time you have if you are open to new ideas, I offer this. Sorry, a long list again, but it’s the only way I can visualize time.

Prague 3 nights
Cesky Krumlov 2 nights
Vienna 4 nights
Budapest 5 nights
Graz 2 nights
Salzburg 3 nights
Munich 2 nights (a good airport is the main reason)
Okay, its 24 days. Cut a day from Budapest and a day from Cesky Krumlov and a day from Salzburg if you must.

You could do this in reverse. Check the airfares.

• Day 1 depart the US
• 2 arrive Prague. Okay not on you list but like I said a new idea. Lovely old town interesting castle quarter and facilitates some of your other stops using trains. If you don’t mind a bit pricy, the Hotel Ventana was one of the nicer hotels I have stayed at on travels. The location is dang near perfect too.
• 3 in Prague
• 4 in Prague. The area of primary interest is sort of small so this should be enough time.
• 5 train to Cesky Krumlov. It will take about 2.5 hours. I think you will want the 9am train as the earlier you get there the better. CK can be a bit crowded. But September / October should be better. I stayed at the Hotel Dvořák which was pretty nice and had a great view of the Castle. There is one room with a balcony if you can snag it.
• 6 in Cesky K. Why two nights? One you are arriving about noon on the first day, so that’s pretty limited. Second, the city is best in the morning and early evening. And there is a lot to see and do there.
• 7 Morning take CK or Bean Shuttle to Vienna. I have stayed at a few hotels in Vienna and I don’t really have a favorite. Talk to Emily in the Vienna forum. She is good. I would anticipate door to door 3.5 to 4 hours in the van, but it’s a nice trip. Alternatively you could use DayTrip.com and make a few stops along the way. Base cost is about $250 throw in stops in Melk and Durnstein and its about $325 and worth it at that. Doing that its an all day adventure.
• 8 Vienna: Talk to Emily for your stay here.
• 9 Vienna
• 10 Vienna
• 12 the morning train to Gyor. Have lunch and go over to Pannonhalma to see the archabbey, then continue on the train to Budapest. Takes about 2.5 hours on the train and about a 30 min trip each way to the archabbey. Welcome to Budapest, now you are in G-d’s country. LOL. We can talk about hotels. I guess my favorite place to send people to right now is the Up Hotel. Horrible name great looking hotel in a pretty special location: https://uphotelbudapest.com/en/ If you are on a budget then its Medosz Hotel https://medoshotel.hu/ Absolutely nothing wrong with it.
• 13 Budapest
• 14 Budapest
• 15 Budapest
• 16 Budapest ……. WAIT why so much time in Budapest. Because it’s the size of Chicago. It takes time to see it all. The areas of interest are about 6 times greater than in Vienna or Prague. Even 6 full days is not too much. But four is okay.
• 17 train to Graz. You asked about Graz earlier and while I have never been there, its been on my radar for years. Looks beautiful. It’s a solid 5 hours on a train but its supposedly some pretty nice scenery along the way. DayTrip.com is another option but they want over $300 for some reason.
• 18 Graz
• 19 train to Salzburg ….. About 4 hours. Last trip I stayed at the Elefant Hotel. Strange name, pretty nice hotel. Good location.
• 20 Salzburg
• 21 Salzburg
• 22 Salzburg to Munich
• 23 Munich
• 24 Head home.

https://www.mavrailtours.hu/hu/programs/show/286

Here is your train, Budapest to Graz ......