Hi, I’m planning on flying into Krakow, Poland and finishing my trip in Prague.
I’m thinking of the itinerary below,
Use each city as a base camp and do tours.
3 nights - Krakow
Train to Budapest
2 nights in Budapest
Train to Vienna
2 nights in Vienna
Train to Prague
3 nights in Prague
Eliminate at least one stop and its a great tour. Also check flights Krakow to Budapest.
Are you taking into account the travel time? You wrote "base camp and do tours" - do you mean city walking tours or day trips outside the city?
Frankly, you are trying to visit too many places with too little time. You'll spend way too much time in transit.
Krakow is the outlier. Budapest/Vienna/Prague are connected by train. Getting to any of them by train will use nearly a whole day. It takes significantly less time to fly, but it will still use a good part of a day. The travel time includes getting to/from the hotel/train station, so figure on adding at least an hour to the train time. What you are left with is at best several hours on the arrival day, so 2N gives you one full day in the city, 3N only gives you 2 full days.
Consider that you'll need some orientation time in each city- each country uses a different currency and a different language.
Personally I would do Krakow, Budapest, Prague and do it all on flights. But just my taste.
Krakow is a little difficult to get to without flying. Budapest to Vienna to Prague has a straight train run between them.
I just don't know if this is the best time to go to Poland or Hungary with the flood of refugees.
We'd suggest Vienna, Prague and Dresden/Berlin, however. We were recently in Dresden and absolutely loved the place.
I’ve always traveled spending 2/3 nights in each city. I like the idea of doing flights where it makes sense. I read on TripAdvisor that refugee situation won’t impact tourists visiting countries bordering Ukraine? I’m not planning on visiting till the middle of July.
David, that was a fair assumption.
I was in Budapest for 3 weeks (got back a week ago) and tourism is down a bit compared to prior years (I have some tourism interests in town so I track it to some degree).
I worked with a couple of Ukrainian families while I was there and we did a bit of walking around town together; no one recognized them as refugees as they are so culturally similar in appearance that unless you listen to languages you would never know they were from Ukraine.
The metro is an honor system with spot checks and Ukrainians get to use their passport as a metro pass so there is a chance you might see one being flashed (but I never did).
Some of the refugees are doing some tourism activities but not to a huge extent and with tourism otherwise low the impact of the refugees on any support infrastructure that a tourist is liable to come into contact with is pretty much zero.
More refugees could come, but there is a lot of room in the system to absorb them.
Hi,
Re: train connections between these cities you've picked, they are all night train connections, should you be interested in that option.
Budapest is the best in that regard since it is a night train hub in east central Europe....very convenient. I always take one or two night train rides every trip, stretches out your travel days.
You need a minimum of four nights in Budapest and five in Vienna if you take a day trip to Bratislava. Both are cities you need to savor to appreciate its existence. If you go to Bratislava you may want to spend the night since it would make a good overnight stop between the two.
You need a minimum of five nights in Budapest and four in Vienna if you take a day trip to Bratislava. Both are cities you need to savor to appreciate its existence.
If you go to Bratislava (1:15 on the train) you may want to spend the night since but it will only add about an hour to the travel time between Vienna and Budapest (3:45 Vienna to Bratislava to Budapest vs 2:30 Vienna to Budapest),
James provided excellent advice.
I actually did an almost identical trip to your plan early in my travel days and I really regretted not allowing more time in each place. I felt like I spent half my vacation on trains and settling into new accommodations.
Is Krakow very important to you? If not, skipping it and distributing it's time to the other 3 would make a lot of sense and allow you to see more of those wonderful, rich cities.
Believe me - I understand the impulse to want to see it all!
Yes, want to visit Krakow/Auschwitz’s. I’m now tweaking my route based on RS book suggested Eastern Europe itinerary without last part, Croatia. Fly into Krakow/out of Budapest. Flying from Krakow to Prague. I understand the concerns with cramming too much in but this is more of a personal preference. Same pace/travel for every place that I visit.
Hey, if it works for you, all the better. No right and no wrong it this. Let me know if I can help with the Budapest leg
I tweaked my itinerary. International flights booked so I have my total days confirmed.
10 nights
Yes, I understand that some don’t agree with my pace but I’ve traveled the world over 25yrs like this and it works for me.
Do I need to book any trains in advance, do it the day before? Day of departure.
I cut out Vienna even though I will travel through the city on the way to Budapest.
2 nights Krakow, including Auschwitzs tour.
Fly to Prague
3 nights in Prague
Train to Cesky Krumlov
2 nights in Cresky Krumlov
Train to Budapest
3 nights in Budapest
Book the trains in advance on line for substantial discounts Book the day of, for flexibility. Look at CK Shuttle or Bean Shuttle for your Cesky K. connections.
@ James,
I like the idea of the shuttle from CK to Vienna. From Prague, which transportation is more comfortable.
Train or shuttle? I prefer the flexibility over price so I will book the day before/day of travel.
Yes, I agree that traveling all the way to Poland to--effectively--see very little besides Auschwitz seems misguided. Krakow is a lovely city.
For Auschwitz you'll need to take a bus. Public buses make the trip fairly often. You definitely should buy your Auschwitz admission ticket ahead of time. At the time of my visit in 2018, advance tickets were sold out for the next 8 days. Going without a ticket means waiting in a very long ticket line at the camp/memorial. The line stretches across an open area with no shade or protection from the weather. And there's no telling for what time (if at all) you'd be able to get a ticket if you just showed up.
Auschwitz tickets are time-specific, so you must make sure you get there on time. I was a bit concerned that the bus might sell out (don't know whether it ever does), so I walked over to the Krakow bus station (beyond the train station) and bought my ticket the day before. There may be a way to do that online, but I want to be sure I knew how to find the bus station; the location is a bit odd.
The public bus was fine. There's no real advantage to signing up for a commercial tour unless you will get useful commentary on the way to and from the camp--or unless you find no tickets available for your date from the official website. All tours inside the camp are conducted by camp personnel, no matter whose bus you arrive on.
One other thing: Poland is a comparatively inexpensive destination, but you will pay tourist-site prices for anything you purchase (water, soda, etc.) at the camp.
We took CK shuttle from CK to Linz and caught the train from there to Budapest. Also our hotel arranged for one of their employees to drive us to and from the camps and bought our tickets for us for a very reasonable price
*From Prague, which transportation is more comfortable.
I took CK Shuttle from CK to Vienna and it was a pleasant way to see the countryside. And it was on time and the reservation professionally managed.
But for comfort....I much prefer the train because you can move around. The shuttle I rode in was a minivan. I was in the middle seat next to the driver. It was like the middle seat of an airplane, but more cramped. Any other seat would have been better. If the train were an option, I would take it. From Prague to CK, we were routed part of the way on a bus... which was still more comfortable than the shuttle.
Thanks for mentioning the potential (dis)comfort issue on the shuttle to/from Cesky Krumlov. I don't believe that has come up before, and it's good to know.
Honestly I didn't use the shuttle, I hired a car. Probably true about sitting in a van. But its no worse then me driving to Houston. Also consider the departure times, and travel times But compare the travel times and the arrival and departure times and the ease of pickup and drop off points.
