help with an itinerary Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria with or without Berlin

The things you are interested in doing in Warsaw will take quite a few days. You are giving yourself only one full day and a few hours in the city when you allocate just 2 nights to it. A train from Berlin to Warsaw will take nearly 6 hours, to which you have to add the travel time between hotels and train stations and hotel check-out/check-in procedures. Berlin and Warsaw are large cities, so you should not assume the local travel time is negligible unless you've already found hotels near the right train stations. Therefore, you'll have limited time for sightseeing in Warsaw on the day you arrive. Specifically addressing the time you might spend on the Warsaw-based activities:

• The Treblinka trip means a train to the nearest station (Malkinia, not Treblinka) and a taxi from there. You'll need to get the taxi driver's phone number so you can summon him back to the Visitor Center at Treblinka when you're ready to leave.

• POLIN is quite large. I don't remember how much time I spent there; it may have been close to 8 hours. It took more than one visit for me to see it all.

• The Warsaw Rising Museum is also very time-consuming. It was definitely about 8 hours.

I'm slow in museums because I read everything there is to read in English. The Poles have done a magnificent job of making their museums English-accessible.

The sights you've mentioned indicate a considerable interest in WWII. If that interest extends to the Cold War period (as mine does), you will find 3 nights in Berlin (2 non-jetlagged days) dreadfully short. In addition, Warsaw has some interesting Cold War-related sights.

You need to explore travel times between your cities to get a good picture of how much time you'll need to spend on trains (or buses). There are going to be some long days. A quick look at the schedule on the Deutsche Bahn website (easy to use but sometimes not comprehensive) suggests that you'd do better on Itinerary 1 to travel Krakow-Olomouc-Brno rather than Krakow-Brno with a day-trip to Olomouc. The trip form Brno to Olomouc is 2 hours each way, and the travel time from Krakow is fairly similar to the two cities.

It appears that a day-trip from Brno to Telc and Trebic would involve 6 hours on trains. I don't know whether the travel time could be shortened by using some buses as well, but that looks like a dicey combination to me. It would certainly be a long day. Don't ignore Brno itself; it has a large, handsome historic district.

The Seat61 website can help you with detailed information on the train system in each country. For buses you can either Google something like bus Telc to Trebic or try your luck on Rome2Rio.com. With Rome2Rio it's critical to understand that the fares, travel times and frequencies absolutely cannot be trusted. You have to keep drilling down through the website to find the name of the bus company offering service and go to its website for accurate schedule information.

You're planning to visit a bunch of very interesting places. Keep in mind that most of them have a lot of very worthwhile sights, and if you plan X nights in a city that gives you only X-1 days plus whatever hours you can scrounge on your arrival day.

Berlin - Brandenburg Gate, East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall), DDR Museum and the Holocaust Memorial.
Good areas to stay in are the Historic Mitte, Museumsinsel, Scheunenviertel (where I stayed last time and loved it) and Friedirichshain.
What I love about Berlin is exploring its neighborhoods so you might want to stay longer. I used Lonely Planet’s Berlin guide.
Never been to Warsaw that was heavily bombed during WWII.
Krakow - been there twice and slept across the street from Wawel (VAH-veil) Castle my first visit and the Jewish Quarter the second. It’s a quick easy walk between the two neighborhoods. Get lost in the old town and explore the university and castle grounds. The Jewish quarter is another gem to hang and eat in. Do take RSs self-guided walking tour of the old town, it’s walls are pretty magnificent.
Auschwitz and Birkenau are not to be missed.
Budapest - sleep on the Buda side at Bellevue B&B. I recommend taking a taxi to get there, but the location is spectacular.
Start your morning at Szechenyl (SAY-chehn-yee) Baths so you can take photos of the old men playing chess from the water. From there, walk the leafy (depending on when you go) Andrassy ut (AWN-drah-shee oot) boulevard to the Jewish Quarter and check out the ruined bars. Also good area to eat.
Take RSs Leopold and Buda self-guided walking tours. Eat a langos too before leaving town. It’s street food that you can also get at the Great Market Hall.
Do take a night taxi and ask your driver to take you past Budapest’s landmarks.
Vienna - if you ever visit an opera do it here. You can purchase a standing room ticket for 3EUR 1h 20m before a performance. You may want to listen to the music before buying it though. You can also leave at intermission.
You also want to visit the Hofburg Imperial Apartments, Hofburg Treasury, St. Stephan’s Cathedral located in the Ringstrasse followed by a meal consisting of miniature beers and open-faced sandwiches at Buffet Trzesniewski that’s located there too. Look for the people standing in line.
Another day visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Schonbrunn Palace and have dinner at a wine garden.
I would also take a 1h train to Bratislava for the day and follow RSs self-guided walk and have a drink at the Sky Bar over looking it’s quaint old town. If you can go to the top of the UFO building on the river, you might get a bird’s eye view of the many communist skyscrapers that gives you a glimpse of what communism looked like.

It all depends on what you are interested in. This trip sounds like holocaust. If I am wrong, and its more about the Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, then you need to spend more time in Budapest as I think it has the most robust living Jewish community + holocaust history. After all the camps its sort of important to see survival.

I have never been to Krakow (that I regret), Brno or Warsaw so I cant really speak first hand to them. If holocaust is sort of high on your list then you have too much time in Vienna, not enough in Budapest and swap Berlin for Prague (3 nights).

The Budapest Deportation Ghetto is still there, most of the original buildings are still there. There are maps to the Yellow Star Houses and places like the Glass House still exist. The Synagogues are open again and on my last trip to service I had the humbling experience of coffee with a camp survivor who was more positive about life than I was. A little later in history was the Revolution of 1956. The building across the street from me has two windows on the third floor with bullet holes all around them. I assume '56, but it was a Yellow Star house so maybe the damage is older. The hotel where Schindler stayed when he came to warn the Jews of Budapest is still in business and a pretty amazing place.

If you are interested I can give you a some ideas on the subject in Budapest.

A few movies
Perlasca (amazon prime - excellent)
The Crossroads of Angel Sanz Briz (amazon prime - "interesting" at best)
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh (amazon prime - good)
Walking With The Enemy (amazon prime - loosely based on true story, good)
Son of Saul (Netflix - excellent about a Hungarian, but not set in Hungary)
1945 (amazon prime - moving)
Fateless (a Hungarian film, not sure you can find it in the US - moving)
Those Who Remained (a Hungarian film, not sure you can find it in the US - moving)
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (amazon prime)

But to be honest, I prefer looking forward. For that
http://talesoftelekiter.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNrCo8c4B8A

Looks like you will have so little time I would want to stay in Pest, and if you want to continue the theme I can suggest some locations in the old ghetto district. If you were to define a point that is equal distant to most everything to see, that point would be Deak Ferenc ter (square). On one side of the square is District V, while it has the river and some great architecture it is tourist central. On the other side of the square are Districts 6 and 7 (the Jewish District). Buda is 30 minutes from 90% of the tourism. Andrassy ut is beautiful, puts Paris' Champs-Élysées to shame; but it doesnt go to the Jewish District. With just 3 nights the bathhouse is a stretch. But some really love it. Think about the one at the Gellert. Much more beautiful and the hotel I mentioned that Schindler stayed (so did a lot of bad Nazi dudes).

The best hotel in Budapest? I have no idea, I have only stayed in four and there are hundreds.....

Some happy videos
https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ai7Zk-szxfTJhYQSqwym1kn1ePPBJw (this one I did with a cell phone)

These are better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFcB-rvKPbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxmDYe2dFuM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Hfmp-z7AE

After more than 600 days sightseeing in EU, I have yet to get to Poland (on my Bucket List), but after spending multiple days in the other cites on your list, I would rate them on scale of 1-10 as Prague 10, Vienna 10 Berlin -5.

MaryPat takes a lot of time trying to be helpful. One of the forums really special people. You mentioned Warsaw being rebuilt after the bombing, but you neglected to mention more so for Berlin. These are cities you visit for today, as all of yesterday that you may see is but a reconstruction. Very sad, but a good lesson to remember.

To show how different we all are
Prague 7
Vienna 4
Budapest 9
Ever wonder why people dont all live in one US State or City? Same answer. That's the hard part about choosing. It's why the OP has a good trip planned, a bit of this and a bit of that, overall most people would love such a trip.

Hi James, yes I am aware that Berlin was flattened during the war, but with the help of US dollars it recovered faster than Warsaw. After the Wall came down, bulldozers were everywhere. My first visit was in ‘03 and I knew I had to go back because it was in a heavy transition period. Well I did in ‘17 and I didn’t recognize it.
I’ve never been to Warsaw, just Krakow and Poznan. I know that Warsaw is on its way back and hopefully I will see it someday along with Gdańsk. I think Warsaw would make a great stop from Lviv.

Oh, I know it must be beautiful and someday that will draw me. I love history, especially history I can touch. I'm bad that way, and Berlin is all new. Just not my interest. But it is a world class city and if I woke up one morning and found myself in Berlin, I know I would enjoy it. I just love seeing the little traces left behind by the past and there are so many great places for that; but they are disappearing fast and people rebuild and renovate.

My "home" has a fallout (bomb) shelter in the basement; it was a package deal so I am its proud owner. I was amazed when I saw it. First a heavy steel door, then a small room, then another heavy steel door leading into about 700 square feet of basement. I mentioned it to an acquaintance I had met in town and he said there was one in every apartment block. I asked why? This wasn't WWII, this was newer. Her responded, for when the Americans bomb us of course. Turns out they were doing duck and cover drills in Budapest when I was doing them in Houston. Of course. Its rational. Why hadn't it ever occurred to me? It changed my understanding of a lot of things. A few years after I bought it I took the tour of the Hospital in the Rock. When entering there is a steel door identical to mine, a small room, and another steel door. Why? Turns out, as the guide explained to me, the small room is were they were going to wash the radioactive dust off you. About as futile as hiding under a school desk when you see a flash.

Okay, you found me at the opera, so now see if you can find me in the first video. A hint, I was behind the camera filming. So how could I be in the video? Only one way and if you are quick, very quick, you can figure it out.

Hi James, either I’m not quick or I’m not looking at the right video.

Gotta be real quick. When the trams pass each other I am reflected in the window of the other tram. Only noticed it myself a few months ago (the video is about 2 years old).

So, where are you going next?

I just noticed, you are in Irving!! Hi neighbor! (sort of)

Thank you MaryPat, acraven and James E, for your input you have given me lots to research and consider.
To answer a question asked this trip did not start out this way but has morphed into a trip with a focus on life for the Jews during World War ll and the Holocaust but I do agree that it would also be good to see how Jews are surviving.
James E. thank you for all the movie/video info. I am not an amazon Prime member so won't have access to most of them but I did have the opportunity to see "Those Who Remained" and meet the director at a film festival. I will try to watch all of the youtube videos and any of the films I can find.
Again thank you -

Another stop that impressed me was Mauthausen which you’ll learn about at Auschwitz, it’s the most powerful of the concentration camps. Auschwitz was a death camp.
When you get home from this trip, have a dinner party and tell your friends all about it. It will be embedded in their minds forever.

Try and find the Oprah show on religion in Budapest (i linked the trailer above. they use to have the whole show on the internet but i cant find it. Maybe on Oprah's website.) If you have any interest, let me know and I have some secrets.