December Europe Itinerary, advice or opinions

Just asking the obvious - do you have a visa that will allow you to stay in Europe for more than 90 days?

Yes, I have a Visa that will allow me to stay! :)

I wonder how much of Prague you will get to experience with the Christmas holiday. My experience in Europe is the afternoon of the 24th and all day the 25th there are few, if any, sites open. You can experience the city by walking around but museums, churches, and tours are going to be limited.

Thanks, Laurel! In that case, it may be best to add an extra day, perhaps the 26th and shorten the "undecided place" - maybe visit London or Amsterdam for two days, since I have been there already.

In some "eastern" countries, Dec. 26 is also a holiday with shops and most sights closed. RS lists it as a holiday here.

"eastern"? you mean like Italy? St. Stephen's Day in Italy. St Stephen's feast Day (Il giorno di Santo Stefano) is celebrated as a public holiday across Italy on December 26.

Anyway, Prague is probably good choice for Christmas day. You gotta be someplace, my guess is given the extreme nature of tourism in Prague you stand a very good chance of finding things to do there than you would in many places. My guess is things lock up at noon on the 24th and return to normal (for all intents and purposes) the morning of the 25th. That's pretty much how it is in Budapest at the same time of year.

I think your time allocations for Budapest and Berlin are quite short--just 2 full days and maybe a few hours each. I don't travel to Europe in the winter and you do, so I'm not certain about Budapest in terms of time needed for traditional sightseeing at that time if year. But I've been to Berlin and it is full of excellent, large, time-consuming museums and indoor historical sights.

I'd seriously consider spending all or most of that time in Berlin. If you don't want to postpone Budapest, maybe drop Vienna from this trip.

Hi,

In Germany the 26th of December is also a holiday

Thanks to everyone for your responses! I thought I had kind of taken the holiday season into consideration before, but I'm second guessing it and I think I might add an extra day in Prague. Would you think at another given non-holiday time, that 3.5 days in Prague is too much or too little?

@acraven - I think I will take your advice and remove Vienna and add an extra day in Budapest and two in Berlin! Thanks!

Any opinions on how I should split the time for Poland? Should we aim for equal time in Warsaw and Krakow?

So as it looks: (still open to suggestions/advice - is the amount of time in each place sufficient, or should I increase/decrease time in certain countries?):

Dec 10-14 Budapest
Dec 14-19 Berlin
Dec 19-24 Krakow then Warsaw
Dec 23-27 Prague (dates firm - hotel already booked)
Dec 27-29 Undecided - should I leave it open to decide at the time (I'm just scared of crazy flight/train prices at that time and also hotel/hostel/airbnb prices for last minute decisions)
Dec 29 - Jan 1st Edinburgh for hogmanay (dates firm - hotel already booked)
Jan 1 to 3 - Dublin (dates firm - hotel and flights home booked)

Dec 19-24 Krakow then Warsaw

Dec 23-27 Prague (dates firm - hotel already booked)

Dec 27-29 Undecided - should I leave it open to decide at the time (I'm just scared of crazy flight/train prices at that time and also hotel/hostel/airbnb prices for last minute decisions)

Some overlap here. I think it should say Dec 19-23 for Krakow and Warsaw. Only 2 nights/1 full day each place?

Only 2 nights before you must be in Edinburgh. Why not fly to Edinburgh from Prague and spend a little more time there or nearby? You are moving around so much, 4 nights in one place might feel good. Take time to do your laundry. :-)

I'm a wing-it traveler who tends to make reservations quite late, but i'm with Laurel: Prague to Edinburgh is a lot of ground to cover. I think you'll need a flight to cover the bulk of that distance, and I suspect there's substantual economic risk if you wait to make flight reservations for the holiday period. I'd consider spending those two days within train/bus distance of Edinburgh so there's no risk of missing the festival. Somewhere like Glasgow, York or Durham perhaps? I haven't been to any of those places and have no idea what they'd be like in December.

I spent new year in Edinburgh a couple of years ago. Froze my nobbies off. It's a particularly wet, nasty sort of cold there. There are, or were at the time, discount non-stop from Edinburgh to Budapest.

Hi,

How are you going from Budapest to Berlin? There is the EN night train, it goes through before reaching Berlin, if that is an option for you.

Ops, definitely some overlap!

@ronfer46, as much as I agree, we are on a tight budget for this trip and cannot leave it open because our concern for prices going up. Thanks though, maybe one day in the future when we are able to afford that chance!!

@acraven, thanks! I agree with you both. We are going to rearrange the itinerary a little bit. Perhaps going to either London, Amsterdam or Glasgow in between.

@James E. Yikes! Hopefully being from Toronto and suffering the cold winters has prepared us for our Hogmanay New Years in Edinburgh!! (I will bring extra layers in preparation for the cold!!)

@Fred from Budapest to Berlin we found flights for about $30.00, but the overnight option might be a good idea! I will look into that. My only gripe with the trains is that they don't post the prices or allow you to book this far in advance, and I would be nervous that the flight prices go up by the time that we can book the trains and we realize they are more expensive.. Any experience with this?

@ Briana....You can book with DB (Ger Nat Rail) 92 days out from departure. The prices offered for the night train option are relatively cheap. It's an option if you want to squeeze out another day. My experience? I have not done that route Berlin-Budapest only other night train routes in Germany and between Germany and Austria. This last trip I did two night train rides, had planned on doing three but lazied out on the third one, didn't focus.

Briana we spent our time outside Edinburgh in mid 20's F temperatures standing in a river chasing Graylings. This may have contributed to the nobbies being lost. Fortunately we were in the company of a gentleman that made his own hooch and that helped a bit. Hogmanay is THE big celebration and if there is anything you want to participate in you need to book right now; if it isn't already to late.

Your new schedule has you traveling on Christmas eve and that is "good" but "excellent" would be to travel on Christmas Day (when most things are closed).

If it helps any, the Christmas Markets in Budapest are among the limited group that stays open until New Year adding some flexibility on travel dates. After Christmas the food vendors are closed but all the shopping remains; and its good quality stuff that has to be vetted by some committee before being allowed in the market. The discount non-stop from Edinburgh to Budapest does remain, Ryanair or Jet2 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Yet another option for Christmas celebrations and markets for non-traditional dates is Lviv which is reachable from Poland by train and from a Berlin, Munich and a handful of Polish cities by discount plane. Their Christmas is on 7 January and their markets and celebrations continue from early December until mid January.

Dec 10-15 Berlin
Dec 15-19 Budapest
Dec 19-22 Vienna
Dec 22-26 Prague (add an extra night to your hotel already booked)
Dec 26-29 Krakow
Dec 29 - Jan 1st Edinburgh for hogmanay (dates firm - hotel already booked)
Jan 1 to 3 - Dublin (dates firm - hotel and flights home booked)

••Easyjet has a 2:35pm direct flight from Berlin to Budapest on 15 December.

••Night train service operates from Prague to Krakow.

••Easyjet has an 11:05am direct flight from Krakow to Edinburgh on 29 December.

I think djp_syd has if figured out pretty well. My only comment is that its a bunch for two weeks and requires too much travel time. One long haul (Edinburgh to Central Europe) is something i am good with, but then following that with an two day trains, an overnight train and another flight.... It does work, just not my style....

But i do love all the destinations you have chosen!!!!

@djp_syd Thanks a lot! We really like that outline and I think we might follow through with that itinerary!