Ukraine and South Eastern Europe Mid June to Mid July 2011

Your question is extremely vague. What do you want help with? Is it places to visit, highlights, how to allocate days, what? What do you mean by S/Central Europe? Give us an idea of countries/cities/locales you may be interested in. Then we may be better positioned to help you.

yes I was vague, sorry. Our Idea is to fly into Central Europe and train east into Ukraine and then somehow get over into Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. We've been in Turkey so Istanbul isn't a must on this trip. What we are looking for is ideas about where to go, where to stay, where to eat, cultural attractions... Let's start with.. interesting ways to get into the Ukraine from the west. Our general notion would be to get out east and then travel westerly back toward an airport probably Munich since we can get affordable LAX <>Munich flights. Our financial issues are that we have to travel the 1-2 star route with as many hostels as possible, that said we are fairly confident that we can have a great time on that budget. We like trains, boats, ferries, and buses and short jump internal flights, are willing to travel train by night. What we are looking for are suggestions that we can pin to our wall map of Eastern Europe as well plot our possible routes. Does this focus the request for info a bit more?

Ok - I have a better idea now. If starting in the west and given your preference for "backdoor style" travel, 2 options that come to mind are: 1) Start in Warsaw, Poland from where you can cross into Lviv which is definitely worth seeing in Ukraine. OR
2) Start in Budapest, travel east to Kosice in Slovakia and then cross to Uzhgorod in Ukraine and then train to Lviv. Not sure how long you planned for this trip - if you have time, then the 2nd option may be doable. We did this about 2 years ago, though we started in Bosnia, before going through Serbia and then getting to Budapest. Once in Ukraine, prices are really cheap esp for the trains though be forewarned that the distances are vast and hence you will have a lot of very long train journeys. From Lviv you can take an overnight train to Kyiv. From there another long train to Chernivtsi and then figure out how to get across the border into Romania (you will need to go to the lonely planet's thorntree forum to get all the details on the border crossings and the transportation options). Once in Romania, you can travel easily to the various tourists sites, then onto Bulgaria. If your heart is set on Serbia you will need to backtrack to get there. Hope this helps you get started.

We're doing the same type of trip, early June 2011. Found it best for our budgets to fly to London (from Atlanta) stay a few days taking Rick's audio Itunes walks, then fly on one of the European low cost airlines -Wizz Air - to Krakow, stay in one of the top rated hostels in Europe - Mama's hostel Krakow, then train to Lviv - The train from Krakow to Lviv departs at 2230 and gets into Lviv at 0600, although it's just a five hour drive... Saves a night accommodation by sleeping on the train. As we have only planned in our heads and internet so far, we'll be sure to get back to let you know how the sleeping by rail goes. Argghhh or not sleeping I might say. Our son is teaching English in Ukraine for two years, so he'll be our guide in Lviv, then down to Vinnytsia and his home away from home - Nemyriv, where there is a Vodka factory and don't know what else. Then we're up to Kiev.
My son says there are many beautiful spots on the Crimean coast, but travel in Ukraine is similar to driving in Texas, you can go for a days and not get out of the country/state! He says hostels and trains are not always reliable in time, but comfortable and safe. Mt

I did some of this in reverse. I started in Crimea (flew in from Istanbul), night train to Odessa, bus to Moldova, car back into Ukraine, bus to Kolomiya (great B&B - On the Corner), train to Lviv (loved Lviv), train (day) to Krakow, bus to Zakopane, bus into Slovakia.

Great Ideas. Keep us posted PLEASE! our budget caused us to commit to a three week mini-adventure in North West Costa Rica this summer and we are saving for next year in Ukraine and Southern Europe. We love this Travelers Helpline!