Prague

If you've never been there, Munich is a great place to visit, and only 6 hours away by train (5 hrs by bus to Nürnberg and train to Munich).

I did the Berlin, Prague and Vienna tour and some of my tour mates went on to Budapest afterwards. So, you've got the logical extensions! I would ask what you're interested in seeing? Are fascinated by WWII and 20th century German history? Then Berlin should top your list. As a bonus there are some great art museums too and Postdam an easy day trip on the S-Bahn! If you're interested in Music and history, then Vienna might be a good choice, particularly, if you're traveling in the fall when the concert season has started. I'll leave Budapest to those who have visited there. ; ) BTW our tour also included a night in Dresden and ?eský Krumlov. The latter is not reachable by train, but Dresden is and is well worth visiting. Pam

Berlin is an easy jump from there, as is Dresden. As others have posted, it depends on what you want to see/do. If you give us an idea of what you like to do when you travel, we can be more specific.

In addition to knowing your travel interests, I'm also curious to know that you mean by "very short time." In my opinion, Berlin or Budapest are places you would want to consider if you had at least 3-4 days, while Vienna or Dresden could be fit in if you had 2 days, I suppose. Another idea would be to stay in the Czech Republic to get a better feel of the country (outside Prague) and visit other towns. For instance, Brno is the second largest city, is easy to get to from Prague, and is relatively un-touristed but we found it to be a great town. Lots of options, but, as others have indicated, it would be helpful to have a bit more information so we could make suggestions based on your interests.

Dresden may be a 2 day city, but Vienna is certainly not. Definitely requires more days than that.

When I visited Prague 2.5 years ago, it was part of a Vienna-Budapest-Prague-Rothenburg ob der tauber circuit. We spent 3-4-4-2 nights in each and found the number of nights appropriate to see the everything we wanted to see without exhaustion or traveler's burnout. So if by a very short time, you mean 3-4 days, go for one of the above cities you mention. but if not, maybe stay in the Czech Republic and see other cities the country has to offer.