50th Birthday Trip - Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Vienna

Frankly, they are all worth more than 2-3 days, and moving from place to place will chew up a good bit of time.

Krakow is a bit tougher to reach than the others, so I'd especially want to have enough time there to see what I was interested in, figuring I might not get back there again. If you want to go to Auschwitz, you can figure that it will take practically a full day. The Schindler factory can consume about half a day. Then there's the salt mine and the city itself. And Krakow is the smallest of the four by a considerable margin.

How you divvy up your time should be driven by what interests you in each city.

October is a transitional period, weather-wise, and I think you'll be experiencing autumn in all of those cities. A quick check of the summary weather stats on each city's Wikipedia page indicates that the average high temperatures in Krakow and Prague average 4 or 5 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler than in Budapest and Vienna. For all of the cities October average highs are about 10 degrees cooler than September average highs, but October is historically drier.

Preferring warm weather, I'd try to visit Krakow and Prague early in the trip. I don't know whether that makes sense logistically, though.

If you mean your birthday falls in October, how about starting the trip in September and ending it in October? (Yes, I'm all about the warmth.)

Chris:
All of the great cities of Europe are worthy of 4 days minimum. And these are all great cities.
Your itinerary would be best if you'd leave off one city--unless you have another few days.
Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Krakow would be my preferred order of visit. We took the train from Budapest to Bratislava, a bus 39 miles into Vienna and the train from Vienna to Prague.
All are great cities to spend a birthday in.

If you need great places to stay, please PM me for Vienna and Budapest.

Thanks acraven and David!
I added Krakow on last, but maybe I should wait on it for a future trip?

I agree that you need four or more days for each city, especially Vienna and Prague, AND there are day trips from those two that are really worthwhile, so you could allot even more time to those. Maybe your idea of Krakow for another trip is wise.

I'd definitely vote for postponing Krakow. It's a great place, but only one of many great places in Poland (and L'viv, Ukraine, is not terribly far away). The other cities can sure use the extra time.

Just from my personal experience, as wonderful as these cities are, you can see and do a lot in 2 or 3 full days in some of them. More time in each would be wonderful but sometimes you just have to use what you have. A lot depends on whether or not you think you will return at another time.

I did these four cities as part of a longer trip. 3 nights (2-1/2 days) in Prague, then 3 nights also in Krakow, then 4 nights in Vienna, then 6 nights in Budapest, for a total of 16 nights. Vienna and Budapest were my main interests but I wanted to at least get to and see a bit of Prague and Krakow. If you have 13 or 14 nights I think you can get a good sampling of all 4 of these cities. I personally think Vienna and Budapest need at least 4-5 nights each, but that's just my opinion, others will definitely disagree.

The main problem when you only have 2-3 days in a city is that you cannot take any day trips to nearby places without giving up time in the cities themselves; but day trips are not always necessary if what you really want is to experience the cities. I went to Krakow mainly to get to Auschwitz and that takes a whole day so I had to sacrifice time in the city which was disappointing because it turned out that I loved Krakow and now I want to return for more time.

If you do give up one of the cities in order to spend more time in the remaining, I would suggest leaving Budapest for another trip. It really does deserve more than a couple of days to really get the flavor.

Definitely fly into one city and out of another (multi-city itinerary) to save time and purchase train tickets well ahead of time to save money. I did all my traveling by train and I found the connections between these cities quite easy to navigate.

I would say start in Budapest and end in Vienna. Krakow is my favorite of these cities and if I had to drop one it would be Vienna, so then you could do Budapest to Prague. How many days do you have? That might help with deciding how many cities and days each gets.

The significant other and I (late 50s) are planning to travel Lviv--Tarnow-Cracow-Eger-Budapest-Vienna-Halstatt-Salzburg-Lake Como-Milan in May 2019. Staying 4 or 5 nights in each large city, and two in the rest, basically. So I will be interested in your trip report.

Our first trip to Europe together (we had each been previously) was to Prague. Spent 10 days in February. So, there was snow on the ground, but still plenty to see and do. That was great. We particularly enjoyed the police museum, which had an incredibly eclectic mix of exhibits, everything from criminal mementos to depictions of how they were planning to repel the American invaders to a room full of luminescent, psychedelic eyes, all of which seemingly had no relationship to one another. It was located in an old monastery next to the old, semi decrepit University Church. Have no idea if its still up and running today. Been back about 8 or 10 times since.

Your original plan would be:

Fly to Krakow from the US, then LOT has non-stop service for about $100 to Budspest, then train to Vienna, then train to Prague and fly home from there.

I would want 3 nights in Krakow, 5 in Budapest, 3 in Vienna and 3 in Prague as a minimum.

Way overly generalizing a 50 year old will enjoy Budapest the most Vienna second and Prague third. Krakow is a wild card.

If it were me, with the time I think you have, I would start in Prague and finish in Budapest as Budapest is the most beautiful and most laid back and that's a good way to end s trip. Hey! I can have my opinion. That would all be by train.

If Prague or Vienna dont speak to you dont be afraid to check out early and be flexible. How often do you get to do this? Enjoy and experiment a bit.

Oh, for the party: Rézkakas Bistro in Budapest. Excellent Hungarian food and wine accompained by the best Gypsy band in a beautiful setting. Then wine outside at Kadarka Wine Bar till closing; followed by a 100 foot walk to you own sexy diggs..... WAIT! that was my 50th! NVM.

Early to mid October is a great time in Budapest, my favorite actually.

I'm finally back to planning this trip and here's where I'm currently at:

10/4 fly to Prague
10/5 morning - land in Prague
10/6 Prague
10/7 Prague, late train to Vienna
10/8 Vienna, or early train to Vienna
10/9 Vienna
10/10 Vienna (and birthday!)
10/11 train in morning to Budapest
10/12 Budapest
10/13 Budapest
10/14 Fly Home

Will probably train between each. Unless better suggestions?
Maybe overnight train Prague to Vienna to save on hotel cost and not spend precious day hours on the train?
Can also fly home 10/15 and add another day.
Can also shift these dates so birthday is in Budapest instead, not sure which to celebrate in
I read there was a day long sightseeing bus from Prague to Vienna, and it stops at some of the interesting sights en route (including Kutna Hora and Brno). For that, I'd add a day and come back on 10/15.
Have miles to get me and hubby there and back, as well as hotel points I can redeem for hotels in one or two cities (yay!)
Are any of these more expensive that it'd be better to use hotel points at vs. paying?

Thank you scythian!

I've booked our flights, sightseeing bus from Prague to Vienna, and hotel with points in Prague.
Still need to book train from Vienna to Budapest, and places to stay in Vienna and Budapest.
Looking at side trip to Szentendre, as miles required an additional day stay.

Final dates:
Wed 10/2 depart US
Thur 10/3 arrive Prague in morning
Fri 10/4 Prague
Sat 10/5 Prague
Sun 10/6 sightseeing bus from Prague to Vienna, depart Prague at 9am and arrive Vienna at 7pm
Mon 10/7 Vienna
Tues 10/8 Vienna
Wed 10/9 Vienna, p.m. train to Budapest
Thur 10/10 Budapest (birthday)
Fri 10/11 Budapest
Sat 10/12 side trip to Szentendre
Sun 10/13 Budapest
Mon 10/14 fly home

Lots of discussion on the Budapest forum for places to stay.

Hi,

You can easily include all 4 cities in your travel plans. For the 50th I certainly would, all 4 cities are easily accessible by train, day or night.

Which one should deserve more time? Depends on your interest and priorities. If you want to give more time, then my choices are Budapest and Vienna.

In 2001 we spent 4 nights in Krakow, that was the plan. When I was there, I realised that 4 nights didn't do it, ie, insufficient time. We should have planned for 5 or 6 nights in Krakow.