What to Do With a Week

It's smart of you to consider your future travel opportunities as you decide what to do on your upcoming one-week trip. Any of the destinations you mentioned would be good for a week, but most are surrounded by other interesting destinations, so I'd have trouble thinking, "OK", I'm through with Turkey, eastern Germany, etc." after just one week. When I make my next trip to Turkey, it will be to see multiple cities, not just Istanbul, and I found many wonderful cities when I visited eastern Germany last year. (Just picking up on two of your isolated cities.) But I'm retired, so my perspective is different.

Since you can begin to get into cooler and wetter weather around the end of September, you might take a look at the historical day-by-day weather for your target period in the cities you are considering; that information is available on wunderground.com. I'd be especially concerned about St. Petersburg, Berlin and Budapest, in that order. Again, I'm hyper-sensitive to cold, wet weather, but I know from experience that you aren't guaranteed of warm weather in St. Petersburg even in August.

Here are some notable places you haven't visited.

1) Bavaria, of course going to Munich during the Oktoberfest is not a good idea (that is late Sept early Oct).

2) Portugal is a wonderful country and not as expensive as northern Europe. Lisbon and Porto, with some places in between.
3) Copehagen and sights in Denmark.
4) Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Belfast and more.
5) Greece, Athens for a couple of nights and a couple of Greek Islands like Santorini, Mykonos, Corfu, Rhodes, Actually, if you can find a cruise that would be a good option.

Avraven,

Weather does matter. But it matters differently depending on what there is to see. Possible bad weather in Venice where I mostly want to see the city itself matters more to me than it does in Berlin where I mostly want to see the interiors of museums. I understand hating cold weather, but what I really hate is temperatures over 95 . Cold, especially dry cold, or cold with atmospheric clouds can be beautiful. Grey cold not so much. I don't like heat, but humid heat is not only uncomfortable but reduces the looks of the world.

Where is it the prettiest (not necessarily the most comfortable) in early October? Where is it okay to just be a bad weather museum troll?

,

I could easily spend the whole week in either Berlin or Budapest. I've spent 5 days (Berlin) and 6 days (Budapest) already and would happily go back to either. They both have lots to do for a week, many great restaurants, several good day trip options, good outdoor places to hang out. Berlin could easily take a week just to visit the museums.

Sep/Oct weather should be nice in both - could be spectacular, could be cool and damp - but likely warm days, cool nights. It's a great time to visit either for festivals in and around the cities and countryside.

That's an excellent point which I should have made myself, given that I spent 6 days in Berlin last summer, pretty much all of it indoors at the museums and WW II / Cold War sites. Berlin is an excellent place to be when the weather's bad, though it is spread out, so (unless you are willing to pay for taxis) you will inevitably do some walking to and from S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations. The weather wouldn't be bad at the time you're proposing, just possibly cool and wet.

My memories of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) are hazy because of the passage of years. The Hermitage can certainly suck up a lot of time, and it's not the only museum. But it's a beautiful city (in a way that central Berlin--to me--is not), so I'd expect to do quite a lot of outdoor exploration. You'll want to check into the cost of the visa and hotels. I suspect it may be harder to find moderately priced lodgings there. Berlin is quite inexpensive in that regard.

I'd bet on Istanbul being milder, and Barcelona should be as well. Barcelona has a lot of indoor tourist sites between the museums and the modernista buildings that you can actually enter. I did spend a lot of time walking around, looking at building exteriors, but that's basically my approach to travel in any city. I think Barcelona would be pretty workable even if you were unlucky with the weather, as long as you pre-purchased tickets to the busiest sights so you didn't have to queue up outdoors.

Bologna (though not necessarily the day-trip destinations) is particularly good for bad-weather days because so many of the streets in the large historic district are arcaded.

One thing about day-trips is that if you go to a rather small town and end up needing to take a bus rather than the train, there's a possibility you'll be exposed to the weather while waiting for the return bus. Often there's some sort of bus shelter, but not always. I always feel like the folks renting cars have a bit of an advantage when you're talking about off-season travel. But you're not traveling off-season, and you're not going to run into anything severe, just possibly some days of dreary weather if you're unlucky.

Barcelona and Madrid are easy to connect by direct train in 2.5 hours (tickets cheapest when booked about 3 months ahead). Last time that I was there in October, it felt about 80 degrees F most of the time.

Portugal is compact and has limited transport connections to Spain, so it makes a good stand-alone destination. It's basically an "outlier," unless you fly from any other country (www.skyscanner.com).

Budapest could easily keep you entertained for a week--I love it so much I'm heading back for my 3rd visit in 3 years next April. Lots of museums and easy to use metro, stunning scenery and atmosphere, great food and friendly people, plus several nearby towns for easy day trips by train. I have visited in late August and late May so far. I like a few facebook pages that are always showing current photos and it looks even more spectacular in early autumn, I think late Sept-early Oct would be perfect times to visit, still good weather for being outdoors.

Hi,

If the time frame is the end of Sept/early Oct, I would have absolutely no problems spending a week in Vienna, Berlin, or Budapest, if London and Paris are not among the choices. This last trip end of May/June of this year I reserved nine consecutive nights at the hotel in Vienna and ten consecutive nights in Berlin at the Pension, still too short, another night or two would have been better. I stay for the cultural and historical interests, including that of day trips. Lots of possibilities accessible by train, even more if you're motorised.

Well naturally if you have been to the Hungary forum, you would know Budapest would be my first choice. Especially in late September to mid October. I think that's the all around perfect time to visit. As a matter of fact you will find me there around that time.

But since you express an interest to do more than just once city, why not do something a little out of the box. Go to Google Flights and put the cities you are considering into their search engine. But, for the destination just put EUROPE. Then filter with non-stop and set a maximum price of $150. Open the map feature and you can see all the possibilities.

At this point there are two methods. Either fly open jaw into one city, see for a few days and do the cheap flight on to your primary city (or reverse order) or set up a base in the major city and make a two or three day bonsai trip to some place you otherwise would never have considered. There are just so many place an hour flights away from every place. We do this all the time and are doing two more in 2017 along with one just long stay in Budapest. For instance your choices from Budapest include: Kiev (love Kiev), Bucharest and a couple of smaller cities in Romania, Paris, Prague, Riga, Edinburg, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Belgrade, Rome, Bologna, etc, etc (prices can vary a lot by date and season).

To build on Kaeleku's post below; Budapest to Istanbul is about 2 hours non-stop and as cheap as $59. Don't have a glass ball so cant speak to safety. I tend to blindly follow the recommendations of the State Department. Besides, been there, not terribly impressed, don't plan to return in the foreseeable future.

But Kaeleku does have a good point on seeing things while you can. That's why we've been focusing on Eastern Europe. The parts the tourists haven't found in great numbers still represent something very unique. In some period time all that will be gone as Eastern Europe becomes more western. Then there are the current attempts to change the borders in Eastern Europe. Parts of the Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have already been swallowed up and the Baltic states are next on the radar.

From your "wish list" . . . . St. Petersburg with Moscow would fill a week nicely and Aeroflot usually has good airfares. Istanbul is easy with Turkish Air and there's plenty to see in the city and short, cheap flights to Izmir (Ephesus) and Cappadocia. Berlin with a day trip to Potsdam would fill a week for me (wonderful museums, and so many of them) but consider a night or two in Dresden. Barcelona is worth a week and there are several excellent day trip options. Madrid, not so much. The art museums are among the best in the world, but the city pales in comparison with the others. Toledo is a possible day trip - but much better as an overnight. Andalucia is wonderful but it deserves more than a couple days and is too far from Madrid for day trips. I'd be very happy spending a week Budapest and there are a couple day trips to small towns, or spend a couple nights in another nearby city, like Pecs. If you think you'll be in Italy in 2018, then I wouldn't consider it for next year.

On that whole Istanbul question: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/turkey/u-s-consulate-istanbul-orders-family-members-to-depart

Krakow (since it's a geographic outlier for most folks) with side trips to Auschwitz, Wieliczka Salt Mine, and Zakopane mountains. All easy side trips. I would stay in Zakopane for a few days, especially if you like to hike and want to get a sense of the traditional Polish mountain culture/traditions.

Most large cities have so many blockbuster sites, museums, attractions, etc. that it's hard to stay just a week (I spent over two weeks just in Istanbul and could spend even more; same in Berlin). Krakow is comfortably "mid-size" and compact and would would make a perfect, non-rushed week trip. Three full days tops is all that's needed for the city/old town proper, and the rest of the time can be devoted to side trips.

(As a caveat, I've been to Krakow several times so I would pick Barcelona or Seville (or Amsterdam) for myself. Since Spain is so big, knocking out at least a part of it would be good)