Hungary, Czech, and Poland

I suggest you go onto Mapquest or GoogleMaps and plot your planned itinerary. I think you'll find your trip to be pretty far north, and Thanksgiving is getting later in the year. Check out the cities in Wikipedia to see the average daily temperatures and rainfall for November.
You'll also find distances to be much farther than you realize. For example, many locations in Poland are east of Prague. It's a long, long way from Frankfort over there. Hungary and Budapest is pretty far south.
Your itinerary just doesn't flow very well.

We took a trip to Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague--all ground travel by train and in a straight line. We found Budapest and Prague to be pretty much alike, but were more comfortable in Budapest--one of our new favorite cities.
And since you're coming out of the Bay Area, check out flying the very inexpensive Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian.com) out of Oakland. You can fly non-stop into London Gatwick and catch a connecting flight to just about anywhere in Europe.

Unless you are looking for some extreme discount, Krakow, Prague and Budapest are one European layover away from the US. I suggest first fly to Krakow, then to Prague (train), then Budapest (flight). Budapest last because only because that's where I enjoy winding down at the end of the trip. As far as the car goes, not knowing more about the trip, in general my opinion is that it more trouble and cost than its worth; especially in winter. You will need a minimum of 11 days from home to home 14 bether .... just my opinion.

How long is your trip? How much time are you planning to spend in Iceland?

Rome2rio.com shows direct flights between Reykjavik and Prague or Budapest, but not Krakow.

Use viamichelin.com to get driving distances and times. If you rent a car, there are likely to be huge drop-off charges for returning it in another country.

The two websites I used above are very good tools to start your planning.

Weather is not the best in your destinations in November. Unless you want to see some countryside (I would rather see countryside in spring, summer or early fall) then I would recommend train instead of car ( big hassle in big cities). Fly open jaw. I would determine where to start and end by airfare and convenient connections.

Thanks everyone for your replies.
The reason we were going to fly into Iceland is because there are no direct flights into Frankfurt! I nean, yes, there are, but they almost doubled in the amount in the last few days. $1500/pp vs $780. WTH!
Iceland is NOT our choice. Frankfurt was from the beginning.
Now, why is everyone so opposed to us driving? We just got back from England a few months ago and drove everywhere, including Scotland. Yea, drove through London. Not pleasant, but not much better than Washington or NY or SF. So, is it because of the cost? The train ride per person, one way from Frankfurt to Prague is 65 pounds. Almost the same to the other countries. There are 3 of us and luggage. I cant see how renting a car would be more expensive. Bus for 7-8 hrs? I dont think so. LOL. While driving, we can stop at our leisure. What is it that I am missing here?
I greatly appreciate all of your input.
Thank you, very much!

I can only speak to trains in Poland - they are very inexpensive compared to Western European trains (plus exchange rate of zloty to dollar buys you a lot). The cost of gas alone would make driving a worse option there unless you're planning on stopping in some little towns. It's not that driving is difficult but some of the roads are not great so you lose out on both cost and time. There is also the Polski Bus which can get you between Krakow and Prague or Budapest. Look at the prices for your dates (very inexpensive, even for 3 people).
http://www.polskibus.com/en/index.htm

You are obviously a good driver if you didn't mind driving on the wrong side of the road. But still - driving in Scotland is a driving on the roads (they are narrow, true) with relatively little traffic. Driving via London is different than driving in London. You stated you want to visit Prague, Budapest and Auschwitz and I can safely assume that probably Krakow, too. It's cheaper to go by train (train in Hungary, C.R. and Poland is cheaper than in western Europe, car rental is about the same) even for three people than rent a car, pay for gas, freeway stickers, parking in big cities, eventual fines, risk of accidents, risk of thievery, etc. Freeway between Prague and Brno (on the way to Budapest) is in disrepair, a lot of lane closures, frequent traffic jams. Going from a big city to a big city you will feel freer without a car than with a car.

I have been to all the places you want to visit. You will enjoy them all.

Not sure why you are fixated on direct flights. What is wrong with a change of flights in Frankfurt? I would not recommend driving from Frankfurt to any of the places you are going. It simply will take a lot of time.

Also, auto rental is great to see places outside of major cites, but all the places you are visiting are large to medium sized cites where having a car will cost you parking fees. You do want to visit Auschwitz, which might be the only reason to rent a car. Perhaps you could rent a car when traveling from Krakow to Prague. Not sure how many days you have, but this looks like a two week vacation to me.

Check out the Gellert Hotel in Budapest. There is a natural spa in the basement of the hotel. The hotel is right on the Danube.

I'm not really sure why you are going to Frankfurt, other than you can fly from Iceland to Frankfurt. The toughest place for you to get in and out of will be Krakow. Solve half that problem by flying direct to Krakow. Now you are faced with a train ride to Prague. Takes about 10 hours but i believe there is a night train that would save you the cost of the hotel that night. I didn't look it up but I bet advance purchase is under USD100 a ticket. Then you will need to get from Prague to Budapest. Czech Air does that for about USD200 and in about 1.5 hours. So, that would be about US900 for the three of you once you reach Krakow.

Now go price a rental car per day from Frankfurt plus parking in Prague and Budapest and Krakow (I would budget USD40/day close to the center) plus gas (I am guessing USD250 for your nearly 1500km trip), plus tolls (maybe only USD50), plus the cost of the speeding ticket (USD200), plus the cost of fine for not having the right vignette (USD200), plus the charge to drop it off in a country other than the one you picked it up in (wild guess USD500 - or save all but the added gas cost to drive it back to Frankfurt which adds about 7 hours to the driving) ............ and I bet you are closer to USD2000 in 11 days. Figure a minimum of 20 hours of driving including stops to eat.

Either way works but I would fly open jaw to Krakow and then out of Budapest back home.

Wow. So much info. The reason we were thinking of going to Frankfurt first was because a few days ago I found direct flights. And that's what I'd like...Yes, reading all of the replies, I can see that driving from one country to another might be a bit pricey and hard. We would have used the public transport while in Prague or Budapest or any other cities. But I thought that driving from one country to another would be nice so we could stop on our way and see other places. However, maybe something like this should be done during the warmer days and when we have more day to spare. We only have 10 days.
Thank you everyone. We have lots to think about.

Elina

lina7277; the concept of driving and see the places in-between is excellent. But for that, and with only 10 days its tough. If you had 13+ days you could:

1 depart
2 arrive Budapest
3 Budapest
4 Budapest
5 rent a car and drive up into the High Tatras of Slovakia. I can give you some places to visit and places to stay.

6 Spend the day on a long sight seeing trip to Krakow
7 Krakow
8 Krakow
9 Krakow to Kosice
10Kosice to Budapest
11 Budapest
12 Budapest
13 Budapest
14 home

But with 10 days I would be inclined to pick Budapest and either Vienna or Prague. Its Christmas Market time and all three cities have great markets. I give the edge to Vienna and Budapest.

1. Arrive Vienna 2 Vienna 3 Vienna 4 Vienna to Gyor and the Archabbey at Pannonhalma 5 Gyor to Budapest 6 Budapest 7 Budapest 8 Budapest 9 Budapest 10 Budapest home

Remember it will be dark by 5:30 but these cities have beautiful lights; especially Budapest and the fun goes on till late.

Thanks James E. However, Prague and Budapeat are a must! LOL. Im taking mom on a surprise trip and she has been talking about both of these forever. We've been to Vienna during our immigration (from the former Soviet Union), and lived there for 2 months, so Vienna is not a must. However, it kind of looks like a passing point, so we were gonna visit, since my husband has never been...

Last summer we drove your itinerary with the exception of Poland. We started in Prague and drove down to Budapest...then on to Vienna, Bavaria and back up to Prague. The only reason we drove is that my husband has some ankle problems and we weren't able to navigate train stations and luggage.
Honestly, you should take the train. Prague and Budapest are NOT fun to drive or park in. There are tons of one-way streets in both cities, nothing is in straight lines, and parking can be very difficult. Even with a good GPS there is a lot of road work that can be unpredictable and not indicated on the maps. The motorway in between these cities is not very interesting and anywhere you might want to stop will be on a train route. With only 10 days you'll be glad you took the train.
Three other issues to consider...you'll have to get vignettes at each border to allow you to drive on the motorways in the Czech Republic, Slovakia (you'll pass through on the way to Budapest), and Hungary. They aren't difficult to get but it adds to your cost and the time to stop and buy them.
There is a significant amount of truck traffic on the motorways between these cities and this can cause amazing traffic problems, especially around the Hungarian border.
If you pick up the car in one country and drop it off in another there are significant charges (usually in the hundreds of dollars) for doing this.

Thanks, Anita, very much! Wow. Everyone on here has been amazing and very helpful.

Okay then, SCHEME A
for 10 days with Prague and Budapest:
1 Depart
2 Arrive Prague
3 Prague
4 Prague
5 Prague
6 7:20 Flight to Budapest. Arrives at 8:45 and costs about $100
7 Budapest
8 Budapest
9 Budapest
10 return home

SCHEME B
trying to cram in Krakow
1. Depart
2. Arrive Krakow
3. Krakow
4. Krakow night train to Prague (I think there is one. check me - if there isn't, this doesn't work)
5. Prague
6. Prague
7. Fly to Budapest (7:20 am flight)
8. Budapest
9 Budapest
10. Return home

Hi,

What you could do in the way of direct flights is to fly from SFO via LAX to Berlin. I go for direct flights to Europe too but don't count transferring at LAX as a transfer. It's still Calif. From Berlin you can take the day or night train to Budapest, which also en route stops in Prague. I don't suggest driving. From SFO there are direct flights to Frankfurt and Munich, aside from going to Berlin by Air Berlin, which has a ticket counter at SFO.