My husband and I are meeting a friend in Berlin in June (probably staying 4 nights or so). I'd like to add something new and a little unusual on to the trip, since I'm not that excited by Western Europe in very high season (Berlin's fine, but I find it a little sterile for my tastes). I've been to Krakow and Prague (loved both, but especially Krakow), and I'm intrigued by the ideas of Budapest and the hiking/natural beauty in Slovenia (Bled and the national park). We love train travel and are experienced travelers and hikers - we prioritize scenery, food, and history. Are Budapest and Slovenia simply too far from Berlin? I'm looking at open-jaw plan tickets and am only getting very expensive options (we're coming from DC). I've been to Vienna and Salzburg and enjoyed them both, but I'd like to go somewhere that's a bigger contrast to Berlin. Any ideas or practical suggestions?
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17253 posts
Slovenia would be a 12+ hour train trip to Bled. You could break it up with a stop somewhere, but that would eat up 2 of your 6 days. Why not fly to Ljubljana?
We will be there ourselves in September, but flying into Munich, and departing from Vienna.
Posted by
Washington DC
27695 posts
I didn't delve into the details, but I see some under-$1000 options in June going into Munich and out of Zagreb. Not quite what you had in mind, I know, but I often see much better deals to Munich than to Berlin from DC. I flew out of Zagreb in 2015 on Croatia Air / United (or maybe a partner--don't remember). The airport's easy to get to and easy to navigate.
There are some 2-1/2 hour rail connections between Zagreb and Ljubljana, though some routings are much longer. There are also buses taking a similar amount of time. Zagreb's a very nice city with a large, pretty historic district and quite a lot of good museums.
Or how about Dresden, Leipzig and the film set that is Görlitz? Or go north to Schwerin and Lubeck?
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Have you though about staying in Germany and going to one of the more rural areas to hike. Thuringia is what came to mind for me. We drove through it years ago on the way back to Stuttgart from Berlin stopping off at Wartburg. The guide on my Rick Steve's Berlin/Prague and Vienna tour was from that area. It has some interesting historical notes, but also looks scenic and has some good hikes. One of my fellow hikers on one of my Scotland walking holidays was from Thuringia. In fact, this website calls it a Hiker's Paradise.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
Cheap flights between Berlin and Budapest on EasyJet and Ryan, about 1-1/2 hours.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15773 posts
I highly recommend Budapest. Vienna's probably the nearest airport for open-jaw tickets and should give you some good options. I think it would be worth taking a late afternoon or early evening train to spend the night there. Or maybe go early and visit Bratislava, if you didn't do that while you were in Vienna. According to rome2rio.com, there's a cheap bus hourly from Bratislava to the Vienna airport.
Posted by
San Francisco
14809 posts
I agree with the above suggestion of stopping in Thuringia, aside from the hiking consideration and possibilities. Thuringia has two of Germany's famous cultural cities...Weimar and Naumburg an der Saale, both well recommenable and worthy of your time. Weimar known as Deutschlands Dichterstadt (city of poets) has the museums/houses of several writers in German lit..Schiller, Goethe, Herder, Hegel, Wieland. I've been Weimar a few times, different (from the western part) and interesting. I have not made it to Naumburg as yet.