Central European Adventure!!! need advice thank you so much

What is your final stop in Germany, and what is your first stop in Finland/Estonia? What time of year is your trip? Are you interested in nature or cities? Beaches or mountains? Art or history? Food?

Ground transportation in some of the areas you list can be more challenging than you may expect. Personally, I don't like to head out to an airport mid-trip, and transiting two airports would be worse, so I'd be looking for a place that is sort of on the way from Germany to Finland or Estonia, or at least one requiring only one mid-trip flight (and not a connection that might eat up the better part of the day and be rather costly). I think the logistics do not favor Slovenia or Croatia.

You may also be inspired by ferry options around the North Sea. From ferry ports such as Sassnitz and Rostock in Germany or Swinoujscie, Poland, you can catch ferries to the south coasts of Denmark or Sweden. To and from Stockholm, Tallinksilja line ferries serve Helsinki, Tallinn, or Riga. Riga and Tallinn can be connected by 5-hour bus ride.

Well, in 3 to 5 days choose just one country you are interested in. You did not mention when you are going like winter, spring, summer, fall. Some countries are better to visit in summer, some in shoulder season and not too many in winter (unless you ski).

There are ferry connections from Helsinki to Rostock and to Travemünde too. There is a ferry connection from Germany to Lithuania, ie, Kiel to Klaipeda (the former Memel, the most northeastern point of East Prussia)

Poland and Germany also have a ferry connection. Count on about 30 hours on the ferry going from Germany to Helsinki, which would not bother me in the least.

You can also prolong this 3-5 day span by taking the night train options in Poland, Czechia, Austria, Budapest, Slovenia. Munich and Budapest are night train hubs, very easy to do.

Really it would be best if the OP gets a big planning map, a general Europe guidebook, and puts down some ideas. RS has a "Best of Europe" book - $30 - may be in the library. You have to bring some ideas to the table to get help from this forum. We are better at critiquing an itinerary than building one from nothing. I enjoy things others do not. What value are my preferences?

Hi,

How much time in total do you have for this trip? If it is 6 weeks or more, that's almost ideal, using all transportation options...ferries, day and night trains, buses, and the discount airline. I would love to cover such an extended area in one trip of a eight to ten week duration; basically you have the core of central and east central Europe, where you can take advantage of the trunk lines traversing the area.

Use the various ferry companies and their routes to do the planning.

You don't say your last city in Germany. At any rate, to optimize your 3-5 days you could fly to Vilnius and spend a couple days there and a couple days in Riga before heading north. From experience we know that one can connect Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn via very good bus service.

Have a good trip.

I agree that it would certainly help to know where exactly you are leaving from and where exactly you are going, and how many days exactly you will have in between. It would be silly to recommend Italy if you are leaving from Hamburg. Or to recommend Amsterdam if you are leaving from Rostock.

3-5 days really isn't a whole lot. What you could do to start off, is enter your departure place in Germany and your arrival place in Finland/Estonia (which of the two?) into Google Maps and get a first idea of what's in between.

I'd look for interesting destinations along those lines. Trying to hop all over Europe or into a completely different part of Europe is going to cost you lots of traveling time, and you won't have any time left to spend vacationing.

I hope those 3-5 days don't include the traveling time you will need for getting from Germany to Finland/Estonia. In that case, you really would not have to worry much about finding additional destinations. An extended stopover somewhere would be more realistic.