Draft itinerary for Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Krakow, Warsaw, Budapest, Bucharest

If I were going to Bucharest/Brasov, I would pick one and stay all 3 nights, which is 2 full days and perhaps a part of 2 other days.

If you allocated your 2 full days to Bucharest, you might visit Parliament and (say) the National Village Museum. If you are fast travelers, you might add another museum in each afternoon, say Cotroceni or the Ceaucescu House.

If you allocated your 2 full days to Brasov, you might visit Peles one day and the Bear Sanctuary the next, spending evenings in Brasov itself.

If you were to divide 3 nights between them, you might plan:

Day 1 Bucharest: National Village Museum (am) and Parliament (pm, if you can get a ticket which you must call the day prior to book)
Day 2 Bucharest in the am, perhaps visit another museum or taking a morning food or walking tour
- afternoon train to Brasov
Day 3 Brasov - train to Sinaia to visit Peles castle; evening in Brasov
Day 4 onward to your next destination

I personally wouldn't want to limit my sightseeing according to that 3 day split-city plan. But with the pace of the rest of your schedule, perhaps you would prefer it.

Krakow then Warsaw seems like a bit of a backtrack.

I would consider 1 less night in Warsaw and 1 more in Tallinn.

Have you taken a stab at the transit times and how they affect the amount of
time you have in each city? For instance, I don't see trains from Budapest to
Bucharest and the bus times are between 16 and 20 hours. Sounds like a
flight to me. A 6 or 7 hour train basically wipes out a day, and renders a
night in any of the cities as a no-touring day.

What you have isn’t impossible, but my opinion is longer trip or one fewer stops (Warsaw). But first before you do that figure out the methods and time to get between the stops.

Your travel times between stops are going to be 5 to 10 hours so those days are gone. Krakow to Budapest would be a good trip if you spent one night in the Slovakian High Tatras. October might be beautiful there.

So, my two cents, and where ever I say “bus” if you can swing it, a private transfer with stops so you see more than just cities.

Tallinn – 3
bus
Riga – 3
bus
Vilnius – 3
Bus and/or train
Krakow – 4
bus
Tatras – 1
bus
Budapest – 4
fly (Wizzair is non-stop to Brasov for about $36 and up)
Brasov – 1
bus or train
Bucharest – 2

From my perspective, your proposed itinerary is right at the minimum number of nights I'd want. All those 3-night stops? I spent at least 8 nights in those cities except for Krakow, which may have been 6 nights.

If you are primarily absorb-the-atmosphere travelers, Warsaw (and Bucharest) may have less to entrance you than the other cities. Warsaw was massively damaged during the war, and most of the rebuilt structures do not mimic historic architecture. However, if you're interested in 20th-century history, Warsaw can occupy you for a very long time, plus it has art museums. Ceasescu knocked down a great deal of Bucharest's historic architecture. There are some museums, but surely nowhere near as many as in Warsaw.

I have no reason to suggest less time in Vilnius than in Tallinn and Riga, though I realize Vilnius is probably still less popular for weekend getaways. The three Baltic capitals are quite different, visually, though the countries have a lot of historical commonalities if you look just at the 20th century. Tallinn has a large medieval core; Riga is known for Art Nouveau architecture; Vilnius is Baroque.

In sum, I definitely wouldn't try to squeeze in another destination by trimming the ones on the preliminary itinerary; I'd be more inclined to postpone Bucharest/Brasov in order to add a bit of time to some of the other places. As already pointed out, this isn't a part of Europe where you'll find super-express trains to whisk you from one stop to the next; you're going to lose a fair amount of time for traveling from destination to destination.

Another thought: When you go to Belgrade next year, you might want to continue north to the university town of Novi Sad, which is rich in Art Nouveau architecture, and possibly even on to Subotica, another place with Art Nouveau architecture. Once you're in Subotica, you're practically in Hungary, and the path to Budapest takes you through or very near the interesting secondary cities of Szeged and Kecskemet.

I would fly from Budapest to Bucharest. We visited Romania and Budapest in September, and we flew from Bucharest to Budapest. It's a short flight, less than 2 hours. We flew via Tarom Romanian Airlines.

What to do with Bucharest/Brasov is a tough one. Normally I would recommend spending all 3 nights in one place. However, if you think this is your only trip to Romania, then I can understand wanting to see both cities. If you have only one day in Bucharest, I would spend it just walking and wandering around and admiring the architecture. Take a slow walk down Victorei Boulevard all the way to Old Town, where there is more beautiful architecture. Visit the Stavropolous monastery. Have dinner at Caru Cu Bere. Or visit one museum in the morning, and then spend the rest of the day exploring and walking. We enjoyed Bucharest a lot.

Brasov is wonderful, too. Another daytrip from there is Bran Castle, if you are interested in Dracula lore. But there is more to Bran Castle than Dracula. This was the former home of Queen Marie and Princess Ileana.

If you do visit Peles Castle, make sure you purchase tickets a couple of days in advance if you will be visiting on a weekend. Weekends were very busy in September, and we missed our chance because I didn't purchase tickets in advance. I don't know if October weekends are just as busy but why take a chance.

The reasons I suggested flying to Brasov from Budapest:

• Cheaper flight
• Eliminates the back tracking a daytrip from Bucharest would entail
• More time sightseeing and Peles castle is a must
• Puts you in Bucharest at the end and the Bucharest airport is better connected for your trip home.

Thank-you all so much for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.

For context - we are from Australia, in our early 60s, and have really only been traveling internationally since 2018. Son lives in Amsterdam, so we visit him for a weekend each year, and then have 3 weeks to travel to another destination, or region. We are still working full time, so cannot take a longer trip. As you would appreciate, it’s a long way, and expensive (especially as the exchange rate is bad at the moment), so we try to see as many places as we can, knowing that we most likely won’t ever be back to the same region/country, because there are too many other amazing places to see! If course, we would LOVE to spend way more time in every city and town we’ve been to. SO…hence the fine line between cramming too much in, but making the most of our time. Regarding travel times, we love the trains, and see it as an opportunity to at least see some of the countryside we are in, rather than just fly from city to city. The train travel is part of our journey, not just a means to an end!
@shoeflyer - I have roughly looked at the transit times, and they seem doable in comparison to other trips we have done. I haven’t gone into it properly yet, but anything longer than 5 hours we would look at a night train if possible, and we will most likely fly from Budapest to Romania. We try to catch the earliest train we can so that we are at our destination by lunchtime or early afternoon at the latest. Thanks for the advice re Warsaw/Krakow, we’ll look into it.
@Mr E @kmkwoo @CWsocial - thank-you for your thoughts on Brasov/Bucharest, this is exactly the type of ‘intel’ we are looking for! We will consider it all.
@acraven - this is great information for us, greatly appreciate it, and will keep in mind.

Jane go to Viator and look at the packages out of Brasov. Not saying use one, but the pictures will be a good way to convince you. These are tough tours out of Bucharest. They take the full day and keep you moving and you do good to see Bran and Peles Castles and Brasov for a few hours. Another reason I suggested a night in Brasov, it just gives you more time. From Brasov you can find package tours for the sights and because of the location you can see more. Easily Peles Castle, Bran Castle, Rasnov Castle, and the Sinaia Monastery then hire a transfer to Bucharest or take the train (transfer so you can stop along the way. I know a guide if you want. She's not too expensvie.

We have been to all the places that you listed.
Basically, I concur with your plan, except for a couple of suggestions:
1) Consider 2 nights in Gdansk.
2) In Romania, spend more time in Transylvania, it is magic. Bucharest is good, but plan more time in Transsylvania.