Hello! My wife, daughter (20), and myself will be traveling to Europe in mid-late August. We are in the early activity planning stages but will spend 14 nights total starting in Vienna, then by train to Prague and finishing by train in Munich. We are trying to figure out how many nights to spend in each city. Our full day outings away from each city will include a day trip to Bratislava from Vienna, Kutna Hora from Prague, and two day trips from Munich to Neuschwanstein Castle and Salzburg. Our plan is to spend the last 5 nights in Munich but are trying to figure out how divide the first 9 nights between Vienna and Prague. Looking for any suggestions from those who have experience traveling to any or all of these cities and how much time to allocate each one. Thank you!
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8337 posts
You're talking about visiting three or four really great cities. Prague, Munich and Vienna are all worthy of a 4 day minimum each. Salzburg is a 2 day town. From Vienna to Bratislava is only a 39 mile bus ride, and it's a neat, high tech/high income town to visit.
We do suggest taking one of the Free Walking Tours offered online at all those cities. The tour guides are excellent and they work for tips only. And those cities are compact enough where you can walk'em.
I know a great place to stay in for Vienna if you'll PM me.
Posted by
38 posts
"City and Wine" does a great Vienna tour that visits 3 heuriger and includes a home cooked meal. If you can book some tours with Jason of Living Prague, he is excellent.
Posted by
Hickory, NC USA
498 posts
I would probably do 5 nights in Vienna, 4 in Prague. On our last trip, we actually left Vienna and spent 2 nights in Bratislava, then took the train to Prague from there, but we had already spent a lot of time in Vienna.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1548 posts
These are the cities I like to recommend to people who are visiting this part of Europe for the first time. How long to stay in any of them is going to depend on what you want to see. For example, if you intend to take in an opera at the Opera House in Vienna it's going to have to be when there's one scheduled, and if you can get tickets. I have spent weeks in Vienna and Prague, and Munich was a weekend town for me for years. There's no way you can see everything in any of those places in the time you have, but don't worry about that. Focus on what you "have" to see and then figure out the other stuff.
I'll make one suggestion to start; consider taking the train from Prague to Nuremberg and spending a night there before going down to Munich. Nuremberg is a great city, and like Prague, one of the cities I like to walk even better at night.
Posted by
OP
Sonoma County California
2 posts
Thank you to everyone for their great recommendations. We have decided to spend 5 nights in Vienna with a day trip to Bratislava, 5 nights in Prague with a day trip to Kutna Hora, and 4 nights in Munich with a day trip either Salzburg or Neuschwanstein Castle. I appreciate the feedback!