Eastern Europe Route

I would either pick the first 3 big cities - Prague, Krakow, Budapest - and expand on those. Or the Croatia and Slovenia destinations and expand from those.

I would add Vienna and perhaps Dresden and Wrocław to the first 3. I'd include enough days to take side trips from each major city.

Of course I say all this without knowing your interests. And because I made multiple 2.5 - 3.5 week trips myself out of the cities in the Rick Steves Eastern Europe itinerary.

I would never follow one of Rick's itineraries, because I think they shortchange every city of size. But I would certainly look at the destinations he favors, and it's probably worth considering his time allocations, in the sense that a place where he suggests spending 3 nights is probably worth more time to the average tourist than a place where he suggests just 1 night.

But help us out here: What do you mean by Rick's itinerary? He has five different tours listed under "Eastern Europe".

You will need to choose just a few countries; you cannot rationally visit all the places that might be called "Eastern Europe" in a month. That would be (aside from several former republics of the USSR): Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria--and I have probably forgotten something.

Last year I spent 5 weeks in Poland, probably over 3 weeks in Hungary and about 3 weeks in Czechia. I've been to most of the others. They are all interesting. So is Ukraine, and so I assume are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Pick a few, ideally contiguous ones so you don't waste a lot of time on transportation. In many cases, there are no super-fast express trains to whisk you between major cities.

What time of year do you anticipate making the trip? What sort of things do you like to see and do on vacation? Do you plan to use public transportation? Do you want or need to keep your expenditures down?

My wife and I just returned from a month long trip to the UK, and my mind has started churning for our next trip (Eastern Europe). But as everyone knows, this covers a wide area and while I wait for the guidebook to arrive, I was hoping to get some ideas of where to go. Poland, Hungary are in my sights as well as Croatia and Slovenia. We've been to Prague so I don't have a really big desire to go back, but would like to hit Vienna. Others suggestions are welcomed. As far as interests go, we are open to everything. We like engaging new experiences, museums, like the old buildings, hiking, scenery etc. I keep hearing that Eastern Europe is beautiful and comparable to the more well know sites in the rest of Europe, and having seen many of those, its time to give this area a try.

I can tell you that--from the perspective of an American/anglophone tourist, the three major tourist destinations in Poland (Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow) have done a magnificent job with their museums. Many (especially the historical ones) are quite new, and even the older ones are now extremely English-friendly. If you have an interest in WWII and Cold War history, you'll find a lot to occupy you in Poland. There are many additional interesting towns/cities, but the country is large and some of those museums can eat a great deal of time. I'm slow in museums because I either don't go at all or want to read every bit of available English-language explanation. So I spent 8 hours at the Solidarity Center and about 20 hours at the WWII Museum, both in Gdansk. Just to give you an idea. There's a similar situation in Warsaw, with POLIN and the Warsaw Rising Museum, though I'd say they are perhaps more 6- to 8-hour places.

As a lover of Art Nouveau architecture, I found Hungary especially intriguing. And the food is both excellent and often just a bit different, because of all the foreign influences over the centuries. Budapest has a lot of interesting sights, but do check the websites of museums you want to visit, because three major ones were close for major renovation or relocation in May 2018, and I'm not sure when they were due to reopen. Note that it can hit 80F very early in May in Budapest (possibly also in Prague)--earlier than one might expect in central Europe.

I don’t know what is included in the RS book. His itineraries tend to be too fast paced for us and too much moving around. We spent over 2 weeks in Poland and it was not enough. I think a month would be about right. We also spent over 2 weeks in Lithuania and Latvia and loved them both. We did not have enough time for Estonia. I think a month in the Baltics would be nice, possibly adding St. Petersburg. With Poland you could easily add Berlin and Dresden. Neither of these trips would connect as easily with Vienna.

You have many options.

If you end up in Vienna, just don’t ever refer to it as Eastern Europe! The term “Eastern Europe” is pretty controversial, especially in many of the places you plan to visit.

Excluding Prague makes Poland an outlier from Vienna & Budapest. So, ether add more in the north or skip Poland and make it all a southern trip:

In the north: add the Baltic capitals & the Elbe River (some of the best of what was East Germany. More than Dresden. The large town near the meeting place of the US Army and Red Army in WWII has over 1,500 Medieval buildings and its so far off the beaten track that I can't recall its name. Look at the itinerary of Viking's Elbe River Cruise for the Elbe itinerary.

In the south: Start in Vienna. Go S to Triest, the major seaport of the Austrian Empire, so its a long established travel corridor (swing over to Graz & the southern Lake District). Then down the Dalmatian Coast. Cross into the Bulgarian Alps to the incomparable Plovdiv (small but amazing). Skip Belgrade & Bucharest. North to Budapest via Pecs. Back to Vienna.