Howdy,
I will be going to a work conference in Prague in mid-October 2025. I plan on arriving 3-4 days early and would like to visit one other European city during that time followed by a train/plane ride to Prague for the conference.
I was hoping that you all could weigh in with some ideas. For reference, I have only been to London and Paris in terms of prior European travel.
Thank you in advance!
My choice would be Vienna. Great food, great history, many great sights.
I'd probably choose either Vienna or Krakow.
You didn't say when. What are the options for where your flight to Prague would change because an extended layover might work well. Amsterdam or some place in Germany or maybe even Istanbul?
Vienna and most every place of interest is a 4 hour train ride, so dont rule out a location with a 90-minute discount flight connection as that is also about a 4 hour trip. Or spend it in Prague and do a few days trips or maybe an over night trip to a place like Cesky Krumlov.
But the big deciding factor might be the time of year.
Nuremberg is easy enough to fly into, and half the train time Vienna would be. You could also easily fly into Amsterdam or Copenhagen and then fly to Prague.
If you had more time I would suggest Krakow, but the travel between Krakow and Prague eats up a full day. Vienna is the best alternative. Only 4.5 hours between the two by train and Vienna can fill up 3-4 days easily and it has some great places to visit. Research Vienna and see if it has things that interest you. Enjoy.
Dresden has good flight connections, on Delta/KLM anyway, and is an easy and pretty 2 hour train trip (every 2 hours) away from Prague. For 3-4 nights in Dresden I would book an opera or symphony. Day trips include Leipzig and Luther sites.
We did Dresden, Leipzig, and Prague all in one trip and it was a nice mix. We had a rental car for Dresden, so did a day trip to Leipzig and back so I can't comment on any public transportation between the two. Dresden and Prague though are very easily done via train.
As mentioned Dresden and also Berlin are destinations that are often visited in combination with Prague.
Direct train connection to Prague: https://int.bahn.de/en
And your interests and as mentioned travel date would help to give better advice.
Their travel date is in their post, mid October.
If you don’t have a burning desire for a place, look for something logical in the flight planning. Something that doesn’t require a lot of train time or flight time or added cost. I googled an open jaw Cincinnati to ________________ and then Prague back to Cincinnati and input a few destinations that were within a 4 hour train or 90 minute discount flight from Prague (either way, it’s a little less than 5 hours door to door). Interesting they all came up with the same price and not much difference in travel time.
An example would be (using British Air)
15 March, Cincinnati to Vienna or Berlin or Budapest or probably several other options (changing at LHR)
Three or four days later, take the train to Prague (<5 hours hotel to hotel from Vienna or Berlin) or a discount airline from Budapest (<5 hours hotel to hotel). So one extra ride to reach Prague. Not two extra train trips or two flights.
31 March, Prague to Cincinnati (changing at LHR).
Price $740.00 (lowest fare class for the international tickets) for all three options + maybe $50 for train tickets or discount airline ticket (lowest air fare maybe $100 with all the frills).
Sorry, dont know how I missed the mid-October travel date in the post. So i checked March.
Wouldnt begin to try and tell you where to go, have no idea of your interests. But will say try what I sugges then plug in some cities and see if anything looks promising.
If you haven't considered Munich, I'd add it to your list. I love the place.
If you are going to fly, then nearly anywhere.
If you are going to travel by train to Prague, Berlin (a favorite) and Vienna are roughly four hours away. Dresden is two hours away.
