Germany and Eastern Europe trip

Date of travel and your interests would help to give a meaningful feedback, e.g. about mistakes or not.

So far I can say that you have always the minimum of recommended days for a destination, so rushing through and nothing to explore in really detail.

Are you sure the rail pass is the cheapest way to go vs. buying advanced tickets?

I've not been to Brno (except to rent a car) or Bratislava - but your time in Berlin and Dresden sounds about right to me. I enjoyed the history of Berlin more than its charm, but I'm glad I had four nights there - it's a huge, spread-out city and takes a long time to see everything you want to see. I didn't fall in love with Dresden, but I'm not a museum person, either.

I had fewer nights in Vienna and Budapest than you have. Budapest is big and spread out, too, so four nights will give you more time than I had to get a handle on it.

But...I think your trip plan sounds fine, if you've researched each place and decided on what you want to see in each one.

An alternative if you want to add some smaller towns: rent a car in Prague, drive it to Brno, and stop for a few nights in between in towns like Cesky Krumlov and Telc. It would balance your trip that is otherwise full of big cities with some small town experiences. You would probably have to chop a few nights out of Prague, Vienna, Budapest, etc. to make this feasible. I did a similar road trip, and I found driving in Czech Republic very easy, outside of Prague, anyway.

Mr Dave:

Please look up my six-part Trip Report, which I posted under Rick Steves Trip Reports. I was in Berlin during May 2018. It was a wonderful trip. With the exception of two nights in Dresden, I spent about two weeks in Berlin. Berlin was a very interesting city; Dresden is a wonderful city. You need at least two nights in Dresden. Of course, please allow at least one day trip to Potsdam to see the San Soucci palaces. There is also a lot of WWII history in Potsdam, which I did not have time to look into. Potsdam is only about a 30 or 45-minute train ride from Berlin.

It is great to see that you are including Prague and Vienna, both of which I did not have time to schedule on my trip.

I will leave it up to other travelers to comment on the balance of your itinerary as I do not have the experience or familiarity with the other cities.

Enjoy!

Another example of when the rail pass is not worth the money. Have no idea why ppl praising them that much.

As for the itinerary! What a great one! But you can spend a week in Berlin only and not explore it at all. What is the aim of your travel? To cover as much as you can in 22 days? I'd suggest narrowing your list to like 2-3 cities. Check the similar topic I created here. Me and my GF were planning lots in 2 weeks and now ended up going to Berlin and Paris only haha! I suggest you do the same, otherwise, it will be a train tour and you will not explore much. If I were in your shoes, I would take Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Budapest. My GF been to Bratislava last October, great city but according to her not worth staying more than 1 night. Budapest is a beautiful and royal. Berlin is Berlin, Dresden with its historical center and Gallery is amazing! I been there once and was amazed by all those paintings. That was over 16 years ago but I still remember it as it was yesterday.

It would be helpful to know your dates of travel, then we can suggest festivals or events that might be happening when you are here.

Brno and Bratislava were minor cities in the Austro-Hungarian empire. I would recommend to see them as day trips from Vienna... and IMHO one of them is enough. Add the nights to one of the other stops and see a village, a small town, or a natural sight... something that your trip is currently missing.

Berlin - Dresden 45€
Frankfurt - Berlin 140€

Prebooked saver fares (three months out from today, cf. www.bahn.com):

Berlin - Dresden: from €19.90
Frankfurt - Berlin: from €33.90

I agree with Martin. One day is enough for Bratislava and as a day trip from Vienna. You'll have less moving around that day.

All depends on who you are, what you enjoy, what interests you. Personally Dresden doesnt light my fire, nor does Frankfurt. One night in Bratislava would be enough. Then you might think about doing at least one stop that is really off the grid, just for the experience. Dont know where you are leaving from, but right now its cheaper for me to fly open jaw into Odesa or Kharkiv or Kyiv. and out of Budapest than it is to do a RT to Budapest. The connecting flight to Budapest is $100 to $150. Check places you hadnt considered and explore.

Some day, James, I hope you come to Frankfurt so I can show you what you have been missing. Have you even been here?
Rick certainly does not do this city justice in his book nor in his videos. He ignores huge, important chunks of history that took place here. The same way he ignores Mainz or even Heidelberg. Yet makes up stuff about Rothenburg that everyone wants so badly to believe.

Depending on the interests of Mr. Foster, he could visit several medieval churches including one that dates as far back as 850 as well as the church were the Holy Roman Emperors were elected and then later on crowned, lots of fabulous Farmers markets, a neighborhood with over 400 half-timbered buildings, the birthplace of German Democracy as well as Goethe, and Anne Frank, it was the center of Jewish culture for centuries as well as sadly having the first Jewish Ghetto, site of the Berlin Airlift and 2 currency introductions, the DM and the Euro. Only Berlin has more museums, if that is of interest.

So, should one skip one of the most historic and oldest cities in Germany? It certainly predates Rothenburg and Munich.

Thank you to all for the reply's so far, very insightful, thank you I will look into the 7 day month pass. Also, would if I was not going to get a pass like some suggested, would I be able to get these tickets in short notice or buy them all now would be better?
I will also look into some of your travel plan recommendations.

Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest are the main places I would like to see, with the others mostly points of interest along the way. My dates of travel would be June 15 on, ending around July 8 or 9, I can add a day or two if needed. I will consider possibly fewer nights in Brno and Bratislava if I can arrange to sight-see nearby villages easy enough

My first time in Frankfurt was in early Aug 1973, since I was flying back from FRA after a 5 week trip, didn't stay there but went to Goethe's House as the first place to visit. After that it was the St Paul's Church.

Hi,

I would drop Bratislava as you are pressed for time.

If you're into the history, ie, deeply, while in Brno, take the train out to Slavkov, I did that in 2016 and again in 2017 to see the chateau, "Schloss Austerlitz" where Napoleon stayed and where a rather comprehensive, balanced historical exhibit on Napoleon and the battle in 1805 are featured. Explanations are written only in Czech.

From the train station in Brno, it's ca 30 mins into the Zentrum, the chateau is just before that...a lovely place.

If you want to push it on the time, from Slavkov (very doable) you could take the train to Olomouc, known in 1805 and until 1945 as Olmütz, which was the Russian military HQ before the battle.

It was also in Olmütz (the Schloss) where Lafayette was imprisoned as a military prisoner in spite of his American citizenship and diplomatic efforts undertaken by the US government to secure his release...all to no avail and rejected by the Austrians, who held him for 5 years.

Dave, we too are planning a similar length trip timewise with some geographic overlap. Good luck with the planning and keeping things balanced without going for trying to see too much. I know the temptation is there.

Ms. Jo, no offense intended. To be honest, only to chang planes. But everytime i have a route that requires a change of planes i look it up to see if i can use the opportunity to see something new. What I found on Frankfurt spoke to me less than so many other places on my bucket list that it just hasn't been a priority to stay. But, you know, I've been wrong a lot about such things. So maybe I should take you up on the offer. I've read your posts here, and you are the sort whose judgment i appreciate .... even when we disagree ;-) ...

Hi thank thank you all again, not quite sure about the suggestions of a day trip to Brno and Bratislava from Vienna, at least for me. Maybe it is best for some but for me I'd rather spend that time in a perhaps smaller 'boring' city than 2 or 3 hours at a time sitting in a train round trip. Not that those places are boring but perhaps a bit off the regular tourist stops, which is a bit why I would like to see them as well

rob in cal what is your approximate travel plan? Perhaps we will cross paths indeed along the way. Always interesting to see other travel plans. It's a hard balance to see enough and to take your time, that's why I have at least 2 nights in all my destinations.

If you want to see something smaller without any additional travel time, consider a stop in Gyor. It's on the track from Vienna to Budapest, and almost exactly half way. Interesting old center and a great Archabbey & Winery with a 1000 year history about 30 minutes away by taxi.

Dave, for us its looking like a circular trip along the lines of Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Salzburg, Munich, and making our way back toward Berlin with stops along the way like Regensburg, Bamberg, Erfurt. We will be late August into middle of September.