December trip to Europe help

blume,

I wasn't sure at first what the two letter abbreviations were for, so it took me a short time to decipher your question. Your title would have been less confusing without them.

I haven't taken a detailed look at the travel times between each of the locations you mentioned, but my initial impression is that your proposed Itinerary is too ambitious for the time frame you have, travel by car and especially at that time of the year.

A few thoughts that occurred to me.....

• You'll need an International Driver's Permit for some of the countries you'll be driving to.
• Some car rental firms may not allow their vehicles to be driven into some countries (ie: Slovenia, Czech Republic?).
• At that time of year you'll have to contend with winter driving conditions. The car will absolutely need to have snow tires and you'll have to slow down. Do you have experience with winter driving conditions (trust me, that's not something to be taken lightly)?

I'm sure the others will have lots of comments to offer.

If you drive into Slovenia you'll need to buy a vignette for the windshield. I believe Austria has one, too.

You'll actually have only 12 full, non-jetlagged days in Europe (Dec 19 - 30 inclusive); I don't consider that a 2-week trip. You're going to lose about half a day for each hotel change; that's 2-1/2 days gone, so you're now down to only about 9-1/2 days of sightseeing time, spread over 4 cities plus a Christmas market in Munich. It's a lot of destinations, especially for that time of year, when the days will be short and you may run into weather not conducive to sightseeing. And that's before you start thinking about side-trips.

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I'd argue that it's not prudent. Especially try to include one destination north of the Munich-Salzburg-Vienna path and one to the south. I'd be wildly frustrated not to have enough time at each stop. Much depends on what you want to do in those cities. Have you dug through guide books and made lists of sightseeing targets?

I like Ljubljana a lot, but I think either it or Prague needs to eliminated. I haven't checked driving times. I suggest using ViaMichelin.com for that purpose.

Thank you for the informative replies. I am already taking Czech Republic off the list since Ljubiana is an important stop for my husband. I’m now considering adding flying in and out of Budapest , then Ljubiana, Christmas in Salzburg, Vienna and back to Budapest. Does this seem more reasonable?

Also giving up the car idea and I will look into public transportation. I forgot about the short days. The longest trip seems to be from Budapest to Ljubiana at around 5 hours.

Thanks again for any input.

I like that you're eliminating Munich since you didn't really want to visit it on this trip (except for taking advantage of the Christmas market). It's too bad you have to do a round-trip rather than an open-jaw (multi-city) flight, but I know it's tricky getting to and from those cities.

Ljubljana is charming but has, I would say, fewer major sights than Prague, so that will help when it comes time to divvy up your days--unless your husband has special interests that need to be accommodated there. I'd plan more time in Budapest and Vienna than in Ljubljana, and perhaps less still in Salzburg. But, again, it depends on your personal focus.

Although I've traveled through that area, I haven't done any of the same travel legs you are planning and don't have a good sense of travel times. The easiest website I've found for checking schedules is Deutsche Bahn.com. You'll need to look elsewhere for fares and to buy tickets. The Seat61 website will point you in the right direction.

Yeah, B-P -> Ljub -> Salz -> Wien -> B-P on trains seems more doable. B-P is 3-4 days, although at this time of year, not sure what is open. Ljub is 2-3, Salz 2-3, Wien 4-5.

Be best if you lay out your itinerary on a day-to-day basis.

OF the places you first mentioned, Prague is far and away the top choice. Not driving is the right thing to do. You would greatly reduce ground travel time and have more time for sight seeing if you drop Salzburg & Budapest. Then you will have an efficient route by train or bus MUC-Chesky-Prague-Vienna- Ljubljana (or back to MUC for return). skipping Munich is always a good bet

Using a multi-destination search function you may find that flying into one major city and home from another will be competitively priced. Count in the expense of returning to your arrival city, and especially the time expended, to go back to Munich. But the calculation can only be made with a multi-destination search.