Wife and I will spend a week each in this order: Krakow (Sept 22, 2015 for 7 nights), then Prague (Sept 29, for 7 nights) and finally Vienna (Oct 6, for 7 nights). Already have the split-city tickets (USA to Krakow, then Vienna to USA), so we're locked into that order. Now we need to find out what the best ways might be to get from Krakow to Prague, and then from Prague to Vienna.
There seem to be no reasonably-priced one-way, non-stop flights between some of these cities ($600+ per person, times 2), and the one-way, one-stop flights between each two are more money than I'd like to pay ($300-400 per person, times 2, times 2). Train prices are harder to determine, but it seems they take a very long round-about way to go between the cities - 8+ hours each (and we just don't have that much time to waste). That leaves busses and shuttles (private car or small van). Busses also seem to take a round-about way between the cities. Shuttles may be the best trade-off between time and price, but it's hard to tell. Renting a car and driving could be a possibility, but I fear that getting in and out of the cities, when we don't know their layouts, would be a bear.
So you experts out there, any suggestions?