Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest

That's pretty close to what my wife and I did last year. We did Berlin-Prague-Budapest-Munich in 16 days. It worked out fine for us. Prague and Budapest were on the Rick Steves 10 day tour. We added Berlin on the beginning on our own and Munich on the end on our own. We used Rick Steve's books to travel around the cities, and to find a quick 2-3 hour tour given in each city on the first day to get us oriented. Then, went on our own.

If you haven't, I would consider the EurRail Pass. It made the trains really easy. I installed a DB Navigator App and Rail Planner App on my Iphone to help keep the train schedules close by. Berlin Subway App for the metro system in Berlin as well. When we entered a city, we went directly over to the Information Booths/Office and placed a reservation for 2 seats on the train leaving 4 days later (for us, that was Berlin to Prague, and Budapest to Munich, and then Munich to Frankfurt for the flight home). That ensured 2 seats together.

It depends how you are getting to Berlin and how you are leaving Budapest. We took the train between the last three cities on your list. Tickets in that part of Europe are not as expensive as in western Europe so buy 1st class if you can. The trains are comfortable, and first class has a staff member serving coffee.

The part of our trip that included this area was from Budapest to Krakow to Prague to Vienna. Buy your tickets at the station. Our Prague section included three days in Plzen, so from Prague to Plzen, back to Prague and off to Austria. I don't know if you can spare the days in Plzen but it would be worth it if you could. The famous Plzen-Urqual brewery is there.

Hi,

Just a transportation option for you to decide on: you can do Berlin-Budapest (taking the extremes) by flying or night train, same with Berlin to Vienna by night train if you want to get in another day. No, not too ambitious if you plan exactly and resist the temptation of being distracted.

The itinerary doesn't sound too crazy. 4 nights at each of the four cities is enough to see the main sights and get a feel for the cities.

About transport:

• Berlin-Prague: train, bus, or even car-sharing (www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de) can be done - I tried all, all convenient
• Prague-Vienna: train, bus - bus is my preferred option, it's just 4 hours (www.studentagency.cz, www.eurolines.cz)
• Vienna-Budapest: bus or driving are the best, I think.

For different modes of transport, you can also check out www.rome2rio.com

Four nights in each destination is very do-able. You won't exhaust the options of any city, but can fit many highlights in each. These train routes don't require reservations if you're buying full-fare tickets as you go (about $220 per person in 2nd class). If you want a little more time in one city, for instance, you can travel to the next one later in the day. Vienna-Budapest has the most schedule flexibility, with direct trains departing hourly.

This is a very doable itinerary...none of these cities are too far apart from each other so you will lose less than half a day of travel between each if you time your departures correctly. I think this sounds like a great trip!

I'll just add that each of these cities is VERY different from the other three, so you will have a tremendous variety in your trip. Prague, Vienna, and Budapest are often spoken of as triplets, but I always say they are apples, oranges, and bananas - and, to stretch the metaphor, Berlin is pomegranates. Be sure to approach each place on its own terms and try not to have preconceptions about it based on the others, to avoid disappointment. For example, my sister loved Prague and thought Budapest would be similar; she then spent her time in Budapest resenting it for not being like Prague, and was not able to appreciate it for itself.

This is very similar to the Rick Steves tour--Berlin, Prague and Vienna which is done in less than 10 days. I think it's 12 days. And that trip while by bus included a stop in Dresden for one night, a stop in Český Krumlov for one night and a stop in Melk on the way to Vienna. It never felt rushed. You should have a great time.

Pam

My only suggestion would be to add a night to Berlin and drop it from Vienna and possibly drop another night from Vienna and add it to Budapest. Berlin has more to see and you're likely to have jetlag.