Just Daydreaming, Humor Me? :)

If this is daydreaming, go ahead and miss your flight home! No need to call your boss; he thinks you deserved a 3-month sabbatical and gave it paid! ; )

Prague, Vienna,Budapest, Krakow draw a line through them in that order and it makes a smile. Obviously a good omen

Just start at one end and end at the other, and 'smile' about your journey

Make it as long a trip as you can get away with, they're all great cities to visit. And don't fly home from Prague, fly from Vienna to save time. Most likely Frankfurt will be the European hub anyway, and Lufthansa the carrier. Also, I haven't taken the train between Budapest and Vienna but I think there's good service, maybe faster than flying and certainly more enjoyable. There used to be a hydrofoil on the Danube between Budapest and Vienna, I don't know if it still runs and I didn't use it, but might be another choice. Google could help with this, or another poster with better knowledge.

EDIT: Joe has a better idea, draw a line, fly into one end and home from the other. Still via Frankfurt most likely.

Yes, it works. Everyone has their preferences but I would do, at a minimum ....

Prague 3N, fly to Krakow 2N, fly to Budapest 4N, train to Vienna 3N and fly home ... or train back to Prague changing arrival to 2N and departure to 2N

For me 3 nights is way too short in every one of those cities. If Krakow is a must, I'd postpone one of the others until a later trip. Or even better, postpone two of them.

I'm with acraven. You need more than 12N for this trip. I looked back over your posting history. It seems you've only taken one trip abroad and that was to Andalucia, where you went to relatively minor towns for mostly 2N-ers. Now you are planning to visit 4 major cities spread in a much larger geographical area. In each city you'll have a different language, a different currency, different signage, transportation systems (you're likely to need trams/metro/bus to get around in at least some of them) and more. That's a lot more to contend with than visiting one area of a single country.

Take a look at train schedules on bahn.com. Due to Covid, there aren't nearly as many trains running as "usual". A year or two ago a new train was added that went directly from Krakow to Budapest and took about 5 hours I think. Unless that comes back, your options would be an overnight train (with stops every hour or two) or a flight. You'll want to spend your first and last nights in Prague if you can't fly open-jaw. You'll use a good part of a day for the flights to/from Krakow. It's a 4 hours train ride from Vienna to Prague . . . In other words, it's going to take a lot longer to get from place to place than your previous trip.

Take a look at what there is to see and do in each city and make a list of top priorities. If you want to just get a feel for the historic center of each and visit 1 or 2 sights, 2 full days is enough. But if you want to see anything outside the center - and there's plenty of that in each location - you'll need more time.

Continue to daydream . . . with a splash of realism :-)

Does your dream include taking United directly from Newark to Prague? Then first find a way from Denver to Newark.

If your dream includes reaching those 4 cities, flying roundtrip between DIA and Europe, then taking United or partner airline Lufthansa means reaching Germany first. Then flying to Prague. Czech it out.

While most of these wouldn’t take your United vouchers, but since you’d be having to make connecting flights anyway, look at flights to Europe from Denver on British Airways (into London Heathrow), Norwegian (into London Gatwick), and Icelandic (into Reykjavik, then to Prague from there, on either Icelandair or possibly Lufthansa - would they honor your United voucher?

May your daydream become a reality!

Could you just fly directly into krakow? I know it won’t be direct, but it will save you a lot of time in the long run. Otherwise, I think maybe I would skip one city for the length of time (I just think even with the Ryan air flight you would waste a whole day getting to and from airports, transportation, etc).

So krakow -3 nights
Fly Ryan air to Prague (there might be a sleeper train option - I don’t recall)
Prague -3 nights
Train to Vienna 3 nights
Budapest 3 nights.

Even if you can get a couple extra days that would help. I’d first add a night to Budapest.

Having only done Prague and Vienna I'd say they both need 4 nights. We had 4 in Prague and I still missed out on a few things. We had 5 in Vienna and I found that was perfect for us to see what we wanted to see without rushing around - we could've done it in 4N, but it would've been a lot more harried.

As others have said, with 12 nights, you'd prob be best to stick to 3 places, unless you don't mind rushing around.

Recheck your vouchers -- they may be good for longer than you think. All of the ones issued during the initial lockdown have been extended for an additional year. Mine magically changed with no notice and now expire in 2022.

To say each of these cities needs 4 nights minimum (and preferably more) is to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Of course it would be better to have more time. And yes, you can postpone one or two of these cities for a future trip. But if there's one thing this pandemic should be teaching us, it's to take advantage of the time we have now to do what we can do now.

If you want to visit all four of these cities and only have 12 nights, by all means do it. No doubt you will love all four (and probably will wish you had more time). And maybe one day you'll have time to go back to one or more of these cities.

If you can get more time, great! But if you only have 12 nights and have your heart set on all four, then listen to your heart.

We did Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Vienna and Budapest spring of 2019.......it was a wonderful trip. We flew into Prague, rented a car there and turned it back in when we drove into Budapest. Having the car made Halstatt (delightful) and Cesky Krumlov (charming) possible. We also drove through Melk on our way to Vienna and enjoyed seeing the beautiful river vineyards on the Wachau Valley into Vienna. Prague has so much to see.....it was our second time there and we took a couple of WW2 tours that were excellent. It’s a great walking city, easy to get around. We personally love Salzburg and just wanted a couple of days back there........I was surprised at how big Vienna was.....so much to see that we took a bus tour first to get our bearings. I would suggest a night there to see the local symphony perform. I had been told that Budapest was known as the Paris of Eastern Europe......and I agree. We loved walking its streets as we do in Paris and taking a river cruise at night past parliament. We were gone May 14- 29. You will have a wonderful trip!

I totally agree with Lane. Yes, it would be nice to have longer in each city, but my motto is "something is better than nothing". Most of my trips to Europe involve staying in a city for three and occasionally for four nights. Sometimes, I'll add another town for two nights. It may not work for most people, but it works for me.

Thank you, All, for the great comments. I keep trying to convince him to leave Krakow off this time, and make that a larger Poland-only trip. But he is insistent. And not sure why, since he says he does not even want to see Auschwitz, so I would have to go by myself. :(

Chani, you are correct - this would be my first time doing a multi-country trip, and I am a bit intimidated figuring out how to get to each place. The trains in Spain were so easy and just a piece of cake to get around!

I love the idea of an open-jaw plan, but always thought we could not afford it, and that roundtrip was just more affordable. But now that $1500 is already paid for, maybe it is more possible. I'm looking at United flights (just picked some dates in March) and see an option from Denver to Krakow, through Paris but only 1 hour 5 minute layover. That sounds short to me. And then back from Prague to Denver, through Munich, but only 1 hour 20 minutes layover. Assuming we do carry-on only, which we did before, I wonder if those would work?

I appreciate the idea to check with United on the expiration of these vouchers. I am skeptical travel will be advisable as soon as March or April 2021. ::sigh:: Guess I'll keep dreaming! :)

And looking at Seat61.com, although we can take a train from Krakow to Budapest, I've heard from most people that those overnight trains are pretty tough and you don't get much sleep. So I think flight would be best, although the last place I want to go during the middle of my vacation is back to the airport! :) Then we would do trains from Budapest to Vienna, and then Vienna to Prague.

I'm going to push for four nights each city. I just had my mid-year review last week and my boss said I was doing a really good job. Now's the time to ask for time off! LOL

I've been to all 4 cities--and since returned to Budapest 4 more times--and would say each is definitely worth at least 4 nights. Maybe Krakow could do 3, but I found it a beautiful & pleasantly busy town to explore and spent 4 full days there, will definitely return.

Your current plan of 3 nights per city, already requires two weeks off from work. If you leave late Friday afternoon, take 2 weeks vacation, and come back on a Sunday, that is 16 days.

Yes, yes. I would need to ask for three whole weeks, because I want at least one night before at home to pack and prepare, and two nights back home after to recover and regroup (go the grocery store, etc.). How sad is it that asking for three weeks of vacation in the U.S. is like so much! So....1 night prep at home, 1 night to get to Krakow, 4 nights each city = 16 nights...18 nights...2 nights back home to regroup. Yep, might as well call it 3 weeks. Whoa.

This daydream is becoming a reality for me! Although I'm still not sure we'll be able to travel by March/April 2021 with Covid. IDK.

We took a train from Budapest to Krakow, very easy. At the Austrian border, officials boarded the train, gave us tourist information for Vienna after stamping our passports. Very official!
Of the four cities you plan to visit, Krakow was our favorite. So walkable, historic and pretty.
Friendly locals eager to speak English.

I am fortunate that my work has a pretty flexible time-off policy. It's not exactly "unlimited," but since I hardly take any time off, I think I might be able to pull off 3 weeks. He works in a restaurant, so really, I think they can get by without him for 3 weeks. :)

Krakow is a lovely city with quite a lot to see right in town (including the Schindler Factory), in addition to Auschwitz. Be aware that Auschwitz will take most of a day. I did it by public bus, booking my entry ticket to the camp/memorial online in advance. That was totally necessary during the summer of 2018, when the advance tickets were sold out for 8 days straight; I don't know what the situation would be like in early spring. There are also bus tours from Krakow if you'd rather pay more for the simplicity. The actual tour of the camp will be the same in either case, because all the tours are conducted by camp personnel.

The Schindler Factory in Krakow also sells out, though I think not usually so far in advance.

In Budapest, tickets for the English tour of the Parliament are hard to get and probably require advance planning year round; the admission fee is high. I ran into quite a ticket line at the House of Terror, so I'd check into buying that ticket online the day before. English tours of the (Art Nouveau) Lizst Ferenc Academy are infrequent and worth checking into early in your stay if you're interested in that.

I believe the only thing I booked a day or two ahead in Prague was an English tour of the (also Art Nouveau and even more gorgeous) Obecni Dum (Municipal House). If you like photographing interiors, pay the modest photography fee; I was sorry I hadn't done that.

Be sure to price out a multi-city transatlantic ticket rather than two separate one-ways.

Central Europe can be rather chilly in March; the average high in Krakow is in the mid-40s F. With luck the airline will extend the validity period of your voucher.

I’m an eternal optimist and maybe that’s why I have never had a bad trip or a bad day on a trip.

So, the average high temp in Krakow in March is 47F, by the end of March that will be closer to 52F. So, it might not get warmer than 37F or it might hit 60F while you are there; who knows? Better bring a sweater, but it is a good clue to make it your last stop and not the first. Every day increases your odds of removing one layer. Add about 6F to those numbers for Budapest. Some of my most memorable days in Budapest were in March. But yes, the wind can come whipping down the Danube and it can be “brisk”; but the sky can also be the most beautiful blue in March.

The Hungarian Parliament tours do sell well, but if you plan your trip it should be possible to get tickets. Keep an eye on this site and when they begin selling tickets for your date, buy them: https://www.jegymester.hu/eng/Production/480000/Parlamenti-latogatas#anchor_list About USD20

House of Terror (Terror Háza Múzeum), I don’t think they sell tickets on line. It opens daily except Monday at 10am. I have gotten there about 9:30 and been at the front of the line getting in. But by 9:35 the line really begins to build. About USD10

Liszt Ferenc Academy. https://youtu.be/Op6CdQUUnm4?t=272 Rare a tourist does this, a really great secret. Not sure I like it being promoted. The tours are at 13:30 daily (don’t count on Monday). https://zeneakademia.hu/services/guided-tours-113048 No advance tickets. Show up at 1pm. About USD 10. Its also a fantastic venue for music: https://zeneakademia.hu/all-programs

Schindler Factory tickets are available here: https://bilety.mhk.pl/rezerwacja/termin.html?idg=0&idw=1&miesiac=2020-09-01

For Auschwitz, the website recommends booking at least a month in advance. I’m lazy, I would do a little research on TripAdvisor and the like to find a guide/tour from Krakow.

Like Suki we have been to all 4 cities, except for Krakow, more then once. Krakow is our favorite, spent 6 nights there and could have stayed longer. We did Prague-Vienna-Budapest Combo going by train, 3 nights each city (2002) then did Prague-Cesky Krumlov-Vienna-Bratislava-Budapest combo (2014) going by czshuttle private car prague to Cesky with a stop in Kutna Hora-same driver to vienna-hydrofoilo to Bratislava for one night-bus to Budapest, total 15 days. Anyway, it is so much easier to figure out transportation options now, between this forum and just googling questions. I usually Google first, read, make notes, then search Rick’s books, then the forum for the different bus companies, driving companies, etc. for reviews. I make determinations about how many nights based on day of the week (Monday is a good travel day, many sights closed), sights to see, interest in history/culture, cost of the hotel, etc. for each stop. 3 weeks should be more then enough for all four cities. Definately fly open jaw, only way to go with multi city trip. Just thinking about those two trips definately makes me smile - I’m gonna go pull out my scrapbooks and journal and relive them until i feel ready to plan for next year.