This will be our fourth trip to Europe, but our first time in Central Europe. We have 15 days, excluding travel days, and my spouse and I plan to travel from the US to Budapest and then home from Munich. No car, we plan on mass transit only.
Initial plan is Budapest 2, Vienna 4, Prague 4, Salzburg 3, and Munich 2.
I would appreciate your comments and suggestions (and no we can't get add more days).
Thank you.
We did a nearly identical itinerary in 2014, except that we had 3 weeks.
We started in Budapest and took the train from there to Vienna. We also took the train from Vienna to Prague. From Prague, we took a shuttle, but that's because we went to Czesky Krumlov overnight on the way, so we took a shuttle from CK to Salzburg, too. Going directly from Prague to Salzburg would be different, I think. We then took the train from Salzburg to Munich and flew home from there.
With your timeline, I would suggest taking a day from Salzburg and adding it to Budapest.
I'm posting some links to my reports from that trip, in case you might find them helpful:
Happy planning!
I’d add one day to Budapest for more time to recover from jet lag…(we found it to be more interesting than Vienna). Since Salzburg is a smaller city I’d add a day from there to Munich. You’ve got some great cities…it looks like a nice plan.
Budapest 3
Vienna 3
Prague 4
Salzburg 2
Munich 3
More time in Budapest
I second moving a day from Vienna to Budapest. Arriving in Budapest from the U.S., you would lose a day to the fog of jet lag. So three full days are sure not too much there! (I just spent 2 weeks…..)
And counting days will sometimes give you a false sense of how much time you have in a location because of what is required to change locations. So I can’t tell if your count is full days or if you are counting nights in each city.
I agree that the time allotted to Budapest seems really inadequate. In truth, I think you've got one too many destinations for the time you have. Full disclosure: I like to spend a lot of time walking around cities, just enjoying the foreign flavor. If you are satisfied with just some highlights, you may be fine. Since you've traveled to Europe before, you probably have a good idea of your preferred pace.
0 Depart the US.
1 arrive Budapest mid afternoon see the area you are staying in (every square inch of Budapest is interesting)
2 Buda & Szentendre
3 Budapest District V (Vaci, Market Hall, Parliament, Basilica)
4 Districts 6 and 7 (Jewish Budapest and Andrassy).
5 Morning train to Vienna
6 Vienna
7 Vienna.
8 Morning train to Salzburg
9 Salzburg.
10 Morning train to Prague
11 Prague
12 Prague (add a day if I a a day too short).
13 Morning train to Munich
14 Munich
15 Munich (cut this if I am a day too long).
16 Home
Thank you all for your suggestions. We will revisit our itinerary and consider moving days around.
More time in Budapest. Less time in Salzburg.
With only 15 days on the ground spending 9 hours on a train to include Prague is too much. We're looking to drop either Budapest or Prague, and change our entry point accordingly. The two cities appear similar from what I've researched thus far, except that Prague may have survived the World War II bombing better than Budapest.
They are both great destinations. The architecture in Prague is older, on average. The tourist load is much, much higher in Prague; this, I believe, is the reason why a lot of experienced travelers seem to prefer Budapest when they're ready to return to places they've already seen. Plan to catch whichever city you cut this year on a future trip. Both are wonderful.
Consider swapping 1 night in Hallstatt for one of nights in Salzburg. I love Vienna but think the city can be enjoyed in less time (ditto for Prague)-- and if so, my curve ball suggestion is add Krakow.
Hmm. I loved both Prague and Budapest, and it's not a 9-hour train ride if it's broken up with Vienna.
Prague IS very busy, but you can zig when others zag and avoid the tour group crushes. (e.g. Go to the bridge, castle and St. Vitus early or late--not midday.) Staying in the castle district makes for a quieter stay with less of a party atmosphere.
Budapest also has its share of stag and hen parties. It IS less well preserved than Prague, but that's part of what makes it interesting.
I think both are worthwhile. If I had to cut out anything from your trip, I'd cut Salzburg, unless you have a particular interest in it.
We visited Central Europe in 2019. When we were planning we felt Budapest, Vienna and Prague were doable in 2+ weeks. We ended up adding Cesky Krumlov. We took the train to Vienna. Then hired CK Shuttle to Cesky Krumlov and Prague.
I've looked at the train schedules on bahn.com. Including Salzburg adds the most train time to your trip. I agree with the others who've said you have one too many destinations for a 15 day trip. So I would drop Salzburg.
Budapest and Prague are similar in geography - both cities occupy both banks of the river, with the central area in the lower part and the castle on the upper bank. Other than that, they aren't really similar at all.
IF you decide to go from Prague to Budapest ... fly. Its cheap and fast.
I've been to them all. I'd drop Prague and spend 2 more days in Budapest and 2 more days in Munich. They're all great cities, however.
From Budapest to Vienna to Salzburg to Munich flows so much better. That train trip up to Prague from Vienna is the slow train from hell--looking like something like the pre-1989 East Germany.
As usual, a number of thoughtful suggestions and I thank you all. We are dropping Prague. We want to stay off of planes as much as possible and also the train "over and back" to Prague is too much for this trip. This past summer we took too many flights, mostly the result of a rendezvous with other family also coming from the US, so this next summer we'll fly international and use mass transit otherwise. We are starting by minimizing travel / packing days.
The estimated train times are: Budapest to Vienna 2hr 26m, Vienna to Salzburg 2hr 30, and Salzburg to Munich 1hr 31m.
Here's our start and we plan several day trips out from these cities. We added Budapest as a starting point, but the other 3 we want to see as our younger daughter visited these during her study-abroad in 2017.
Date City Sleeps Days
June 30 New Orleans 0 0
July 1 Budapest 4 0.5
July 2 Budapest 1
July 3 Budapest 1
July 4 Budapest 1
July 5 Vienna 4 0.5
July 6 Vienna 1
July 7 Vienna 1
July 8 Vienna 1
July 9 Salzburg 4 0.5
July 10 Salzburg 1
July 11 Salzburg 1
July 12 Salzburg 1
July 13 Munich 3 0.75
July 14 Munich 1
July 15 Munich 1
July 16 New Orleans 0
Total 15 13.25
Good Plan.
When you arrive in Budapest go to the taxi Kiosk outside of the Arrivals Hall; it really is the easiest way (maybe 30 euro to town HUF or Credit Card and 30 to 40 minutes usually).
There is a train from Budapest to Vienna every hour (2:41 travel time) and the cost is 14 to 40 euro with a seat reservation: https://jegy.mav.hu/jegy/utasok .
The current booking site only goes through May, so wait two months for July to come up; but wait until 1 or 2 months prior to get the best ticket price; you will have no trouble getting a ticket even the night before.
Keleti Station is a fairly easy station to negotiate and it is on the M2 metro line (and the M4) so easy to reach (or a 6 euro taxi from most of town).
Leave your accommodations 50 to 60 min prior to departure to have time to find your platform and look around the station.
Since you dropped Prauge, maybe think about adding a night or two in Bratislava. It’s a small city so doesn’t need much time. Only about 2.5 hours from Budapest and and hour away from Vienna
We stopped in Bratislava the first time we were in Budapest--on the way to Vienna.
It's a great place to rest up for a couple of days before going into the big city. It's a very nice, high technology river city. In the summer, you can take fast ferries into Vienna.
We took the bus into Vienna--just 39 miles.
Thank you for your time and comments. We plan to take a train from Vienna to Bratislava for a day outing.
