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Central Europe Initial Itinerary

Posted by (Columbus, Ohio, United States) on

I am in the early stages of planning a trip for late May/early June of 2024 and was hoping to get some guidance on my initial itinerary.

Just a bit of background info: My husband and I are in our early 40s and love exploring new places. We enjoy walking around beautiful towns, people-watching at cafes, and admiring the history and architecture all around us, We are not big museum people and like to avoid large tour groups if at all possible. We are not in the best of shape, but can definitely suffer through to get beautiful views! My husband is into photography and we both enjoy good beer or wine - or even mediocre ones really ;)

Here is my initial rough itinerary outline:
- Arrive in Prague from the US
- Prague - 4 nights
- Český Krumlov - 1 night
- Vienna - 3 nights
- Budapest - 5 nights
- Krakow (including Auschwitz) - 3 nights
- From Krakow, we will be going to the Katowice airport to fly into Pula for the last leg of our trip.

In addition to any general feedback, I was hoping to get answers to a few questions:

  1. We normally rent a car on our trips, but for this trip we were planning on using a combo of public transportation and private drivers. Is that what would work best?

  2. For the Budapest to Krakow portion, should we look at hiring a driver for the trip? I know it's expensive, but I thought this might allow us to stop at a few sights along the way. Or would the night train be a better use of our time?

  3. Does the time allocated for each location make sense? We are not much into classical music or opera if that makes any difference. I know that ideally we would have more time at each stop, but unfortunately, we can not extend the trip "even one day" (or so my husband has repeatedly told me).

  4. Do airline schedules stay fairly consistent from year to year? Right now I'm using the 2023 flight schedule for Ryan Air which shows that there's a direct flight from Katowice to Pula 2 days a week. I've kind of built this itinerary around the current schedule, is that a mistake?!?

Thank you for any and all feedback!

Posted by
4184 posts

Hi, here are my answers to your queries:

  1. A combo of bus/train/ and flights would work best, do not need for a private driver since you are visiting big cities with good transportation links

  2. Honestly I would just fly from Budapest to Krakow, there a plenty of low cost flights out of Budapest. Driving is good if you have multiple days to make stops along the way.

  3. So far you have only two full days in Krakow, and one will be devoted to Auschwitz. I would take 1 night from Budapest and add it to Krakow, especially if you are visiting Auschwitz, most people need some extra time to decompress and process. Krakow is a beautiful city.

  4. I wouldn't 100% count on it, could change until June of 2024, but Croatia is a popular destination for local Poles, so there will always be a demand for Katowice to Pula, especially in the summer.

Posted by
7991 posts

With just one night in Český Krumlov, I hope you’re getting the better part of two days there.

Enjoy!

Posted by
5513 posts

Something about the order of your trip is off to me. It feels like you’re unnecessarily going in circles. I think you are going to want to fly to Krakow as it is really out of your way from any of your other cities. Also look at the Bean Shuttle or CK Shuttle for getting to/from Cesky Krumlov.

The Pula part - I hope you are planning to have a car because Pula is the least charming place on the Istrian peninsula.

  1. A private driver would be insane.
  2. Fly
  3. Make a list of what you want to do in each city and then decide.
  4. Maybe. You should remain flexible.
Posted by
7052 posts

  1. Maybe

  2. That would be expensive. Some kind of train + bus option would be my first choice if you want to make stops along the way. And probably spend a night somewhere too.

  3. Very subjective question, but it looks reasonable. As mentioned above you could add a night in Brno on the way to Poland and reduce Budapest to 4 nights.

  4. No. Especially with low cost airlines, their schedule can't be trusted to stay consistent.

Posted by
8322 posts

Pretty good plan. We have been to those places and they are all good.
Warning, Auschwitz is a shock, we had nightmares for days after we visited.

Posted by
20466 posts

Very good plan and I think the right number of nights. The only thing I might consider is taking a night from Prague and giving it to Krakow if you drive. (Not a huge Prague fan).

Arrive in Prague from the US
- Prague - 4 nights then morning CK or Bean shuttle to Cesky Krumlov.
- Český Krumlov - 1 night then mid-afternoon CK or Bean Shuttle to Vienna.
- Vienna - 3 nights then train to Budapest.
- Budapest - 5 nights then night train to Krakow (there use to be non-stop flights, but I couldn't find one this time... if you can, that's a better choice). But since you are not adverse to paying for a driver, that is a spectacularly scenic trip by car ... I know a driver if you are interested, but not cheap.

- Krakow (including Auschwitz) - 3 nights
- From Krakow, we will be going to the Katowice

Posted by
27 posts

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and feedback!

For the Budapest to Krakow trip, I haven't been able to find any direct flights, but I will definitely keep looking in case that changes over the next year.

I will also look into how to try to add to our time in Krakow as I agree that it would be nice to have another day to explore the town!

Thanks again!

Posted by
8337 posts

We normally rent a car on our trips, but for this trip we were planning on using a combo of public transportation and private drivers. There are a number of transportation companies operating out of Cesky Krumlov that can pick you up in Prague and take you anywhere in the region you wish to go--as far as Budapest. And they're fairly priced--relatively..

For the Budapest to Krakow portion, should we look at hiring a driver for the trip? I know it's expensive, but I thought this might allow us to stop at a few sights along the way. Or would the night train be a better use of our time?
It's 245 miles from Budapest to Krakow, and the roads are pretty tough. You'd do better to fly cheap on RyanAir--a budget European air carrier.
Does the time allocated for each location make sense? You're going to great European cities that are worthy of 4 days each. I'd suggest 4 days each in Vienna and Budapest. Budapest alone has over 200 museums.

Do airline schedules stay fairly consistent from year to year? Hard to tell about schedule changes. Airlines work in mysterious ways.

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