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Ready to book 2 Week Trip

Hi All. My hubby and I have just 2 weeks this trip and we are starting out in Budapest. Before I book the FF tickets I wanted to see if anyone had any feedback that would cause us to tweak our itinerary. We are going in mid June as follows: Budapest 4 nights (or 5 if Vienna is just 1 night) Eger 1 night Bratislava 1 night Vienna 1 or 2 nights Cesky Krumlov 2 nights (been to Prague before) Salzburg 1 night (or allocate tiime elsewhere)
Munich 3 nights We have been to Munich before briefly but I was sick and we were short on time to see much so want to end our trip there this time. We also visited Salzburg in 1997 as well as Vienna briefly so not sure if we need to stop there this time or allocate those nights somewhere else. Vienna is mainly just a passthrough for Cesky Krumlov but we could easily spend time there too -just don't want to have too many 1 night stops. Any thoughts on our itinerary would be welcome. Thanks.

Posted by
18 posts

Of where you are traveling we have to Budapest (Love it and your time there would be good to see all the highlights) If you are looking for a room, I suggest Belvue B & B - lovely rooms and a nice walk to major attractions. The hostess is lovely and extremely helpful in finding nice local eatries and with directions about town. http://www.bellevuebudapest.com/index.php?lang=en&faz=2&kt=Bellevue_Air-Conditioned_Rooms We found it extremely inexpensive to rent a car with a driver to take us to nearby Eger. We had a lovely day in the country. Instead of Vienna we opted for Melk which is a very short train ride away. In contrast to Budapest it is a very small town in the shadows of the Abbey which is breathtaking http://www.stiftmelk.at/englisch/pages_melk/tourismusEN.html and our hotel http://www.post-melk.at/ offered bicycles to ride around town/along the river trail. Salzberg itself is beautiful but not as impressive as Budapest or Melk, part of the problem may have been that one night wasn't enough to see enough to be impressed. Enjoy your adventure!

Posted by
54 posts

Hi Teri - thanks for your reply. When you hired the driver to take you to Eger, did it take the same time as the train each way (2 to 2.5 hrs)? How long were you in Eger and did you feel you had enough time there? We just did not want to take such a long train round trip in one day and thought spending a night there made more sense. How did you find your driver and do you remember what the driver charged?
Thanks for all of your recommendations and mentioning Melk; I will look into that as an alternative. Please also feel free to send me a PM.

Posted by
334 posts

We took the train to Eger, which was easy - and stayed overnight (I think just one night). Eger is a small town, easy to see in one day. If I recall correctly, the train station is on the edge on town, so a bit of a walk. We stayed at a little B&B just below the castle. With a car/driver maybe one day would work (early a.m. to late p.m.), but it's worth an overnight. Just a thought - you might want to go to Eger 1st, then your nights in Budepest - that way you don't have so many 1 nights in a row. I would affirm Melk as an alternative if you've seen Vienna - two nights would be good if you want to do a cycling day with boat trip return along the Danube, otherwise one night is enough - it's a small place. Back to Vienna, though. If you've only stopped in Vienna briefly, it's definitely worth more time.
Some of this depends on your mode of travel - are you renting a car?

Posted by
54 posts

My husband wants to keep Budapest as the hub and just go early to Eger one day and stay as late as the train will allow us and I know we can hire a driver if that makes more sense. We figured taking a train from Eger to Bratislava does not make much sense so instead we will go to Eger in between our time in Budapest and then leave for Bratislava from Budapest to keep travel times shorter. I am fairly sure we will stay in Melk now 2 nights which will hopefully give us enough time to travel to and from there and still get the bike ride/boat/walking time in (whatever the weather allows).
We are not going to stay overnight in Vienna as my husband is not that interested unless I can talk him into it. I also figured that we would head straight for Munich at the end of the trip and leave Salzburg for a day trip if we want. Thanks Karen for your input - every posting and PM I get helps to narrow things down. We did alot of 1 night stays last trip (in Provence/Riviera) so it will be nice not hotel hopping too much this trip.