Hello, this will be my first time in Europe. I got a one way ticket into Berlin, and have three weeks. I fly in at the end or April, and was going to fly back middle of may. I was planning on getting a flight home from whatever city I ended in. I was hoping to see as much of Central Europe as I can. The cities I've looked into, including Berlin, are; Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Krakow. Any tips on ways to get in between cities, time frames, and must sees would be greatly appreciated! As well as cities i did not mention. Thank you
Posted by
2398 posts
Lots of air between now and then. Best pick up a few travel guides get a feel for all that there is then maybe spiral back around with some specific questions . Good reading !
Curious, where are you flying into Berlin from?
Posted by
Miami
264 posts
Krakow is a bit away from the other cities. Fly into Berlin and the go to Dresden, Prague, Vienna and Budapest and fly back from Budapest. You can take trains or buses from those cities to the next city and the travel time should be about 3 or 4 hours. Use Omio to check travel times.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8158 posts
I completely agree with Marco. Krakow is east of Dresden and that's where you'd make the detour. We absolutely loved Dresden which was perhaps the most beautiful city in Europe before the end of WWII. We also love the other cities on your itinerary other than Berlin.
Posted by
11170 posts
My favorite places on your list are Berlin and Krakow.
In Berlin we had guide well versed in the history of WWII and the Communist Era which was extremely helpful for us as those are the areas we wanted to explore. The city has interesting architecture that replaced the bombed buildings from WWII.
Krakow is a beautiful city that escaped being bombed in WWII. The central plaza is large and welcoming. and we enjoyed staying a few blocks from it. The Polish people were always interested in talking to us, friendly. We stayed at Amber Design Hotel and recommend it, a short walk from the main square where we spent a lot of time. There is an area underground the main square that you can visit.
We took a day trip to Auschwitz arranged by our hotel. Sobering but we wanted to visit it.
Posted by
Irving
2967 posts
This is a good itinerary. There are direct trains from:
Berlin to Prague (4h 15m)
Prague to Vienna (4h 15m)
Vienna to Bratislava (1h) that also makes a good day trip from Vienna.
Vienna to Budapest (2h 45m)
Bratislava to Budapest (2h 30m)
Budapest to Krakow on the overnight train (10h 45m) and reserve a bed.
Fly home from Krakow. This is a tight itinerary and I don’t recommend adding to it unless you take something off.
Posted by
Los Angeles
693 posts
A fairly standard stopover between Prague and Vienna is Cesky Krumlov, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and would be a nice small town change of pace in contrast to the major cities on your itinerary. When we visited several years ago we used CK Shuttle for transportation, but it appears that now there are also direct trains, per this recent post:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/czech/travel-from-prague-to-cesky-krumlov
Here is the RS description:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/cobbled-charms-of-cesky-krumlov
We found Berlin to be absolutely amazing, and I would suggest spending an inordinate number of your available days there.
You can look at the itineraries of the Rick Steves tours offered in that region to get ideas for other possible side trips.
Edited to add: As this is for a first trip to Europe, Berlin may be a bit challenging, so try to pick up at least a few basic German phrases, become familiar with basic menu terms, etc. Prague may feel much more "foreign," while you may find Vienna the easiest to navigate - at least that was our experience, although not our first trip to Europe.
For Prague, check out LivingPrague.com.