Central Europe Itinerary Questions

Every time you move destination, you will lose between half and a full day of sight seeing. Discount the day that you move on - you may get a few hours that day, but write the day off. You have 2 full days in most places followed by a day of travel. That’s not a balance that I would want. The places you are visiting are all worthy of 4 full days.

Some of your arrival times are late at night - by the time you get out of the airport and into the city centre, it will be very late, particularly your London leg. It could be 1-2am by the time you are out of the airport and 2-3am in central London.

What are you planning on doing with your luggage the day of your early arrivals?

It’s hard to do, but halve the number of destinations.

I agree with Jennifer. Every time you move you lose at least a half day since you need to check out of your hotel, get to the station, travel from one city to another, get to your hotel, check in. This is time consuming and energy sapping.

To answer your question, no, you do not have enough days in each city to not feel so rushed. One example: You arrive in Cesky Krumlov at 6:45pm on Aug 28 and you leave on Aug 29 in time to arrive in Prague at 12pm. Checking Rome2rio we see that it takes between 2 and 3.5 hours travel time depending on your transportation. If taking public transportation you also need time to get to the station which might mean leaving your hotel by 8:30 - 9:00 am. Exactly how many hours will you have to get "a good feel for the city and culture"? You can apply this analysis to each of your travel days to get a good idea of how much time you will actually have in that city.

I know the feeling of wanting to go everywhere and it's really hard to give up some locations to be able to actually experience the others but your schedule may leave you so tired that you won't enjoy your trip. On the other hand, many people love seeing the highlights only and moving on to another city. But if you want to get a feel for the city and culture your current plan may not do that.

I love my trips when I travel from city to city, getting a taste of each. I did a trip last fall that is similar to yours, minus Zdiar and London. I had more time in each city than you've got planned, 3.5 - 4 full days in Krakow, Vienna and Budapest and 1.5 in Cesky Krumlov, which I used as my mid-trip break for laundry and relaxation. In each city, I felt like I had enough time to see my list of highlights and at least an extra day to wander and discover more.

If you are very selective in the structured things you pick in each city, I think you could still take some time to just wander and experience each place. But you'd have to be very selective. Otherwise you'd find yourself rushing from attraction to attraction, and you wouldn't have the time to slow down and enjoy the experience.

Since Central Europe is what you're most interested in, I would give up some (or even all) of the London time and allocate that back to Central Europe. As you've apparently discovered through your choice in flights, it's so easy to fly into/out of London on your way to many other places, you can easily visit London on future trips.

During my "sampler" trip last year, I discovered which cities I loved and which countries I want to explore more. I'm planning multiple trips back to the region, including one I've booked for this fall to revisit some of the countries and take day trips that I didn't take last time from the cities. If you're thinking you'll revisit the region, then I think your "sampler" itinerary (perhaps minus some days in London) is a great way to discover what you love!

Another option is to take the overnight train from Krakow to Prague. Night trains are not for everyone. (I hear gasps of horror from those who don't sleep well on trains and will strongly advise against them. I totally get that.) I loved my overnight train! I count it as one of the most enjoyable experiences of my Central Europe "sampler" trip. And I had no trouble sleeping. (I grew up sleeping in motor homes as we banged along on our family vacations.)

I knew when I booked my trip to allocate at least 1/2 a day to each destination change. I admittedly had not taken into proper consideration (for my own goals) the travel time from Krakow to Prague. I see you have an exact arrival time, so you do know the length of the journey.

Still, if you want to "buy back" one sightseeing day, the overnight train can do that. Without looking up the exact details, the train left Krakow after 10pm and arrived in Prague early morning. I took my luggage to my hotel to hold until checkin and off I went to catch the morning bus tour of Prague. By the time that was over and I had lunch, I was able to check in to my hotel.

You'll find the details of the sleeper train here and I'm happy to answer any other questions:
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Krakow.htm#Krakow_to_Prague

If you think you won't sleep well on a train, and don't want to risk your next day of sightseeing, then stick with the plan you have for a daytime train.

I would suggest keeping in mind the night train option, assuming you have no problems with that way of traveling. I certainly don't and have taken night trains on every trip in the past 10 years.

You'll find that the capitals and major cities in central and east central Europe are well served by night trains, eg, Munich to

Budapest, Vienna to Munich, Vienna to Prague, Berlin to Vienna, Berlin to Budapest, Vienna to Krakow, Krakow to Prague, Vienna to

Gdansk, Cologne to Warsaw, Vienna to Hamburg, Frankfurt to Budapest via Vienna, Munich to Zagreb, and there is more.

Fred, I think the OP has a night train on the route. Sorry, but it's way too rushed for me. I'd cut it down to 3 stops. For me that would be Prague, Krakow, Budapest. But I do love Eastern Europe, so I think you chose well.

@ James...Thanks, I know you did an intentional slip there by labeling the area "Eastern Europe" when geographically it's more accurate to say "east-central Europe."

I'm glad in that region night trains are definitely a viable option of traveling when looking at central and east-central Europe as a totality...Austria, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Slovenia, and to see the night train net undertaken by OeBB and EN ...Budapest is a night train hub !

Fred, I used Eastern Europe as a noun, not an adjective. Much like Middle East (east of what?).

Didnt know that about Bpest and night trains, thanks.

Of course, almost all the geographical calculations for the centre of the European Continent are east of Berlin, mostly in Poland, but don't let that get in the way of those nouns and adjectives! lol ;)

@ James...Language-wise when it comes to the Middle East (forget the politics and all that for a moment), American English labels that area different from how it is labeled in French and German. We call it the "Middle East"

In the German language, the term " im Nah-Osten " is used, (literally, in the Near East).

In French it's called, " le Proche-Orient." (Near East) You see this term in French newspapers. Interesting when you dissect language.

Far to much travel. I tried to do some quick calculations but could be half the daylight hours in planes?

Looking at your itinerary you've picked some great places to visit. Interesting that we are doing a similar itinerary starting in late August for about the same amount of time. That said we decided to eliminate Poland and save it for a future trip. We want to visit Poland on it's own. Our itinerary is set like this: Budapest 5 nights>Vienna 5 nights>Cesky Krumlov 2 nights>Prague 6 nights. We then fly to Amsterdam for 5 nights. We plan to do day trips along the way.

Hi everyone, thank you for your thoughtful replies! After much thought, I decided to take Krakow out of my intinerary and distribute the days among the other cities in the hopes that I’ll be back again soon to see Poland. I would take out London but I’ve already have my domestic flight booked and it’s too expensive to change.
Anyway; I think this will be a nice introduction and I’ll be able to dig deeper into what peaked my interest in my next trip :)

I'm going to dissent from the consensus. Generally, the preference is 2-3 nights in a location. OP has scheduled 2-3 nights in each location. I think that this is a decent itinerary. But pulling one city out is probably a sensible idea.

Add a day to Budapest and arrive in Cesky Krumlov no later than 1pm