Eastern Europe

My first choice would be May, then October, then April. I like it warm and less chance of rain and I like both spring flowers and fall colors so that would eliminate April for me. In general I'm not put off by crowds so I don't have to travel way out of season - if indeed there still is such a thing. My favorite months for travel have always been May/June or Sep/Oct.

Depends which part of those months. Late May is certainly better than early may, and early October better than late October.

By the way, I'm pretty sure all of those countries would prefer (and expect) to be referred to as "central Europe" not "eastern Europe". One might quibble over Poland, but the others really have never been very "eastern". And it's pretty clear that Poland wants to be associated with central Europe these days, not eastern Europe.

Definitely May rather than April. I'm not so certain about the decision between May and October.

I have been to Europe in October only once recently, in 2015. I was in Montenegro and then Croatia, departing on October 12. It was obvious that fall was moving in. It was getting cooler (only a problem on October 11, which was wet and raw in Zagreb), and I was getting rained on fairly often. That's really not enough experience to make a fair comparison between May and October, but I didn't like the trend I was seeing.

One absolutely guaranteed advantage of May over October is that the days are a lot longer. It's wonderful to be able to sightsee outdoors into the evening. By October (even by September), it's getting dark noticeably earlier. In the future I plan to return home no later than September, because I need daylight/sunlight for energy.

If you go to the Wikipedia page of each of the cities you plan to visit, I think you'll find a handy, very colorful historical-weather chart. I prefer day-by-day stats when I'm deciding whether a particular month is going to be OK for me (I hate cold weather as well as short days), but those summary charts are very good for making comparisons. You can see whether May or October has more rain, or more rainy days. You can compare the average high temps and the average low temps. And you can figure out the best order for seeing the countries from a weather perspective.

I did that research myself prior to a central Europe trip earlier this year. The research indicated that Budapest warms up earlier than most of the surrounding areas in the spring and can be pretty uncomfortable by mid-summer; it's also fairly humid. I opted to start my trip in Budapest on May 1, which happened to work well for me on this occasion, because Budapest was extremely warm the first week of May. For Poland it may matter a lot where you are going. Gdansk tends to be cooler than Warsaw, and Warsaw tends to be cooler than Krakow and Wroclaw. If I had total freedom, I'd gamble on Poland being the coolist country and place it last.

Another factor is the type of trip you're planning. Will you be mostly indoors (museums, historical sights), or are you more about wandering the streets, hiking in the countryside, etc.?

Another vote for May, it is the best time to visit these countries weather-wise. It already starts getting windy/chilly in Poland by late September.

Also very important Poland, Czechia, Austria, and Hungary are all politically, culturally and geographically considered Central Europe. It is considered a bit offensive to refer to people from these countries as "Eastern Europeans".

Here is a useful map outlining the area: Central Europe Map

Also here is an interesting article highlighting the historical intricacies of this corner of Europe you will be visiting, for a bit of context: Why Czechs don't speak German

P.S. Personally, I think Rick is a bit behind-the-times in calling his tour "Best of Eastern Europe". I mean Vienna is more east than Prague

Hi,

I would vote for May too. My recent trips to Austria, Czech, Hungary have all taken place in May, only in Poland was I there in July. Great ..you're going to what used to be most of Austria-Hungary, ie east-central Europe

@ Carlos...interesting article but you know as well I that the article doesn't stand up to historical scrutiny. There are a number of "what about" one could ask, say what about the concept of "Austro-slavism?" What about the role of the Czech thinker , F Palacky?" There is more.

Anyway, the Czechs I encountered on my day trips in 2016 and 2017, all in the service industry, in Brno, Prague, and Slavkov spoke either English or German. I noticed too that those who spoke English to me couldn't speak German, and vice versa. Only one of them knew I was from here, I mean I told him so, made no difference, he still continued in German. Still, the lingua franca is English but for those who don't speak it, they have German at their disposal.

@Fred your are right the article's title is a little misleading, as the article is more about "why Czechs speak Czech" rather than "why Czechs don't speak German". What I found interesting was the story of how the Czech language was saved from the intensive Germanisation of the 17-18th centuries. A more accurate title would be "How the Czech language was saved" or something along those lines.

Yes - also very interesting is that one can still find enclaves of the German speaking minority in western Czechia and Poland. For example in Poland, in the Opole and Silesian Voivodeships of the south along with the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of the north, there is still bilingual labeling in German and Polish on the town halls of smaller villages and towns.

I believe around 100,000-150,000 ethnic Germans still live in the Opole and Silesian Voivodeships alone according to the 2011 census. Some estimates have the total ethnic German community of Poland at around 350,000, due to the prevalence of multi-ethnic identities and previous concealment of German ethnicity during the communist period.

@ Carlos...I believe your statistics are accurate on those still living in Poland. On my 2nd trip to Europe in 1973, I talked to a couple of women near Osnabrück (I think the two were sisters) who had survived as adult expellees, these Heimatsvertriebenen, from Neiße (an der Neiße), talked to them at length, almost the entire afternoon, about their experiences. They ended up in the British Zone around Osnabrück. Their experiences correspond to maps showing where Heimatsvertriebenen from Silesia ended up.

On my experiences in Czechia in 2016 and 2017, it just shows who you happen to encounter from a linguistic perspective. Those speaking German in the service industry I had asked if they spoke English first. Obviously not. That's why they spoke German. I speak what they are more comfortable with, if it matters at all. Keep in mind this was not in Prague but in Moravia.

(Consolidating from other threads...)

Posted by James E:
My favorite time of year in Eastern Europe is October. Actually about 15 September to about 15 October. Second choice would be 10 May to 21 May. But I tend to do Hungary and further south. See what they tell you in the Poland and Czech forum cause it tends to be a bit cooler there.

Posted by christa:
I have been to all 4 countries—stayed in Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Prague, Vienna and Budapest—and had great weather in mid to late May. End of April was a mixed bag but more cold & rainy than I like. Crowds weren’t awful, depends what cities you visit and what you plan to do, and I don’t compare prices—May is my preferred time to go so that’s that.

Posted by Liketotravel:
October is really a great time to travel to CENTRAL EUROPE, none of those countries like being referred to as Eastern!
But yea, I like to go in October because its no longer hot and also most of the major tourist action has diminished.
In fact im in Budapest right now for 9 weeks, but also going to make some week long trips Gdansk, Krakow & Lisbon.
The weather has been terrific and around 70 degrees everyday, but then again I don't mind the cold, just not the rain.

Posted by JC:
My choice would be May followed by October. October will be feeling cool in Poland. I was in Warsaw mid October last year and it was overcast and chilly for the most part however in Prague last week it was still shorts and t-shirt weather.

Posted by Fred:
Of the countries you list, most frequently I have been to all minus Poland in the second half of May. In Czechia, Hungary, and Austria the second half of May can be warm to hot. On hotel rooms in Austria the cheapest month if the particular hotel offers the lowest rates at all is in August. I've been told this at two different hotels in Vienna by its staff

Posted by Agnes:
I'm from Poland and would pick May for your Poland travels. April can be quite cold, same with October (especially latter half of October). Although prices and crowds rise with nice weather, Poland is not expensive in general. If you go to Warsaw, they have Chopin concerts starting in May in Lazienki Park - it's a lovely experience.

On the "transfer" of Upper Silesia to Poland after WW1...that's a sad story too, both sides killing each for the coal and the other natural resources. That's what I saw in the Katowice train station box cars in 2001, hard to believe you're in the province capital. Keep in mind the plebiscite in 1921 went 60 to 40 for Germany on who was to get Upper Silesia.

I suggest reading "Bitter Fate" by R. Watt; it is covered by Norman Davis too in his 2nd volume.

The "Landesmuseum Oberschlesien" in Ratingen near Düsseldorf (take the S-Bahn from Düsseldorf Hbf in the direction of Essen) shows that area, one perspective but still has to be considered. I saw in 2007.

Not surprising at all on the linguistic skill of your relatives in the Katowice area.

Well Meredith, as I am going at the end of this month to 3 of those 4 countries, I will have to get back to you on this one. Going from October 26-November 5. Yes it isn't ideal that the temps look like they will be around 30-50's and the sun sets around 4:30 pm everyday. But those factors obviously weren't enough of a deterrent from me planning this trip. I could be wrong, but I will let you know.

If you go to Wroclaw Poland you can still see buildings where the painted lettering on buildings is peeling to reveal original German lettering underneath....

My experience, in Germany and Austria, is it gets cold sometime in October. You might guess mid-October plus or minus one or two weeks depending on the whether it's a warm or cold year. Once it gets cold, it generally stays cold until Spring. I'd guess April is consistently cold and it likely only warms up later in May, maybe even June in a colder year. I traveled in Burgundy and Alsace in May 2017. It was quite cold in early May but not bad by mid-May.

It wasn't even consistently really warm and sunny on the French Riviera in early May 2017. I arrived on May 1 after an overnight flight, dead to the world. It was a gloriously sunny day, probably in the mid to upper 70sF. The desk staffer at my hotel urged me really firmly to go out and walk around the city. All I really wanted to do was crash. I found the degree of his (polite) insistence a bit puzzling, but as I spent more time in the city (and discussed the weather with him and others) it developed that early May is often very unsettled. That first day turned out to be the best of 14.

But at least in May the days are getting longer.

Hard to really predict I was in all those countries from May 18-June 12 and it was very warm everyday. Average was 86F. No rain.
Next year it could be different.

When ever you end up going, I wish you happy travels. Eastern Europe is my favorite part of Europe. In many places there are still reminits of pre WWII culture but its fading fast, so dont hesitate.

I absolutely agree with James E. The "eastern European" experience today is much better than traditional Europe - less crowded, more unusual. I call it "mitteleuropa" as others have noted. I actually prefer "southeast Europe" - the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzogovenia), Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania. I leave out Kosovo as it is not a real country. We have not visited Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, or Albania, but hope to visit those next summer.

Paul-of-the-Frozen-North,

Its about communicating ideas in terms that are best understood. When I said Eastern Europe I suspect the majority knew what I was talking about without additional information.
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Mittleeuropa in my view has such a foul history its not a term worth resurrecting; and it does not fully encompass the are I was referring to. I dont want people to have to read a dictionary.

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Southeast Europe eliminates a number of states that fall into what I was referring too. Some of the most interesting at that. Since its not a terribly common identifier, you will have to follow it with further explanation (as you did).
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Old Warsaw Pact countries also works to a great degree, but doesn't include all of the states I was referring to so misses my intent.
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Communist Bloc Countries does not give recognition to the Soviet states that gained independence; Ukraine and Belarus for instance.
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Eastern Europe has its faults. It's derived from the Cold War, so folks of my age understand it well. Since history isn't well taught in school any more, maybe its also an antiquated term; but when discussing it with a large number of people it does define my intent with out any explanation.
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Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
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Central & Eastern Europe is probably the most politically correct term right now. In W.C.'s famous Iron Curtain speech he identified "Central and Eastern Europe" as falling behind the curtain. For simplicity sake (and when identifying the enemy simple is always better), Central and Eastern became Eastern Europe in the common lexicon.

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As for Kosovo not being a real country, I think nearly 60% of the UN member states would argue that point.

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Thanks, James E. Language and terms are important, and it was interesting to read your thoughts on these terms.

Just to be clear, I used to be just Paul, but there are a number of "Paul" contributors and I wanted to distinguish myself. I'm the person who started the thread on the "Rick Steves Fascism" program.

Hey Meredith, sorry for just getting back now. But I was in Vienna, Krakow, and Budapest from October 26-November 5. Other than a little rain my first day in Vienna, the weather cooperated really well and exceeded my expectations. It was in the 40-60s throughout. There’s significantly fewer tourists at that time of year, in fact during 9 days I only met 3 other Americans. Of course you could go in the Fall months in 2019 and have bad weather this year. Don’t let the weather play too big a factor in your plans. Those months happened to work best with my life schedule, so I wasn’t going to hold back because the weather isn’t 70s and sunny all day. I just returned from Reykjavík, Edinburgh and Dublin in early February and yes I had to bundle up in layers, but have no regrets at all on going then. I found Iceland and the Scottish Highlands quite charming with the snow all over actually. It also probably helps my case I live in Erie, PA where the weather is in the 30s and below and snowy 5 months out of the year so cold weather doesn’t bother me.