Need help planning European Trip

Its not too many necessarily, but have you figured out how to get between the various points?

Rome to Florence is by train, and that's half a day before its all said and done. Florence to Venice is another half day on a train by the time you do to and from the station, etc. Easy Jet (and I think others) flies nonstop to Budapest in about an hour for under $100. The train would be crazy compared to flying.

Now it gets interesting. Budapest to Krakow? A full day on a bus. Unless you are doing something special, ever hour in transit is a an hour lost. Then after Krakow you will loose yet another day getting to Prague. What you have is this

1 depart the US
2 arrive Rome
3 Rome
4 Rome
5 Rome
6 Rome to Florence
7 Florence
8 Florence
9 Florence to Venice
10 Venice
11 Budapest
12 Budapest
13 Budapest
14 Budapest to Krakow
15 Krakow
16 Krakow
17 Krakow
18 Krakow to Prague
19 Prague
20 Prague
21 Prague to Munich
22 Muncih
23 Munich
24 Munich
25 Return home.

Okay, you have a couple fo days to give.

How much time is half a day exactly? 6 hours?

Also I have a really cheap ryanair ticket booked from Venice to Budapest. Budapest to Krakow would be a night train but everything else is train or bus, and probably bus because the trains are looking kind of expensive for Munich and Prague.

Take a look at the night train details on the Deutsche Bahn website. There's one departure that involves no changes (good), but it makes 15 intermediate stops, 10 of them after midnight (not so good). Saving one night in a hotel wouldn't be worth it to me, because I'd be dead on my feet the first day in Krakow.

Allowing just one night in Venice means only a few hours there. You probably wouldn't have time to get beyond the most tourist-thronged streets, which would be a shame.

As for the time required to change cities:

• The packing step can be quick.
  
• Hotel check out can be quick or a bit slow if others are leaving at the same time. I often settle my bill the night before so I don't risk a delay when I'm heading to the train or bus station.
• Getting to the train or bus station: that varies a lot, depending on the location of your hotel. Budget hotels are sometimes a bit obscurely located. I've often had a walk of a mile or more (close to half an hour pulling a suitcase). Some of your cities are quite large and might involve taking public transportation to the bus/train station; those schedules are unpredictable so require padding. In Venice you may need to take a vaporetto to the train station.
• Time at the departure station needn't be long if you've already bought your ticket (if not, good luck to you in Italy, especially), but you do need to find your platform, and some of the stations are huge. I'd want 15 minutes at even a small station, more at a large one. Total of the above: Minimum of 45 minutes with an ideally-located hotel (which will be unusual). Maximum of maybe 90 minutes. Oh, you're flying that leg? Add at least two hours; maybe more, depending on how far out the airport is.

At the other end you need to find your way out of the train/bus station and figure out where you are in the city (which way is north? which direction takes you toward your hotel?), get to your hotel, complete the check-in process, drop your bags in your room, ask the desk staff how to get to your first stop, and get there. My first stop is always the local tourist office so I can pick up a city map, check on the opening hours of sights I know I plan to visit, and find out whether there's something special going on that I'd like to see. Time required varies with the proximity of your hotel to the train/bus station and to your first sightseeing stop.

I figure at least an hour lost on the arrival end of the trip. If you're flying, add perhaps 45 minutes extra, even if the airport is quite close to the city.

So I assume I'll lose 2 hours plus the transportation time if I change hotels via bus or trains, much more if flying. This is why we typically say that any change of city costs at least half a day. Also, it's difficult to quantify how much time you lose by constantly being in a new city and not immediately knowing where the closest market/store/subway station is.

Thanks. Ill definitely factor these things in and adjust my trip accordingly!

Hi,

For Budapest to Krakow there is the night train option, likewise Krakow to Prague. I would do at least leg one leg by night train. There is also the train from Prague to Munich, not only the bus. Stay near the train station, which is usually what I do, depending on the city but mostly )

In Munich and Krakow are two very good to excellent hostels a few mins walk (2 to 5 mins) from the main station. I stayed at the Munich one some years back.

With 26 nights I would do it like this maybe.

Rome (4)
Florence (3)
Venice (3)
Budapest (4)
Night train (1)
Krakow (4)
Night train (1)
Prague (3)
Munich (3)

john,

That's a somewhat "busy" Itinerary and while it may be feasible, it will be somewhat tiring. In planning your time, you might try working on the basis of "nights" in each location rather than "days".

"Also I have a really cheap ryanair ticket booked from Venice to Budapest."

Your flight may not be as cheap as expected, as RyanAir is famous for nickel & diming passengers with extra fees. Are you going to be checking a bag? Be sure to read their Terms & Conditions carefully so that you don't get any surprises. One other point to note is that I believe RyanAir uses Treviso and not the main Venice airport, so you'll need to plan your transportation time accordingly.

Is there any possibility you could add some extra time to Venice? Two nights will provide one full day of touring.

That $30 ticket on Ryanair will cost you a whopping $68 if you want a prereserved seat and 1 piece of checked luggage. Still a deal.

Also note that Ryan flies to Budapest only from Treviso airport which is about 1 hour by train and bus from Venice S Lucia, although not too bad compared to the time to get to Marco Polo on public transport. Flights are only Wed, Fri, Sun.

Beats the heck out of the train. Budapest has turned into sort of a hotspot for discount airlines. Its amazing how many points in Europe can be reached out of Budapest for well under $100. I suspect the cost to the airport in Venice will be close to the cost of the plane ticket :)