trying to avoid many plane connections

I accept the correction. I have always heard it both ways from the pilots landing the plane no less. But, while i know that its very, very conservative, i enjoy the trip more if i dont have to worry about making connections. With the exception of JFK and Chucky D the wait in the airport isnt bad. We just duck into one of the clubs. Oh, by the way, some of the clubs have showers. Nothng better than landing in Amsterdam, cleaning up, changing clothes and then after a short connection flight feeling great and ready to go sight seeing. Sheila; happy it was some help

My personal opinion is to connect in Frankfurt(even though it's my least favorite EU connection point), but make sure you have a 3 hr window between arrival there and connecting to your next flight to get through immigration. The rule of thumb I use for travel within Europe is if bus or train is less than 4 hrs from point A to point B then I take that instead of airplane. Otherwise I fly. I'm in Prague quite a bit and it takes no more than 2 hrs by air to the farthest parts of Europe direct. Travel between Krakow, Budapest, and Prague can all be done either by bus or train. Example for intercontinental: Berlin to/fr Prague I do the train, Paris to/fr Prague I fly, Budepest or Vienna to/fr Prague I do the bus. The only rule breaker is if I'm coming or going from USA - then I always connect via plane to my final destination. My logic is that I've already schlepped over from SFO 10 hrs not counting the extra 3 1/2 hrs before the flight getting to the airport/checking bag if I have one/security check. So that's already 14 1/2 hrs from CA traveling with most likely very little sleep. Then there's getting through EU immigration once you land. Frankfurt can take 1 1/2 - 2 hrs to get through it. Why would I then put myself through the extra pain of trying to catch a train with luggage in tow for another 3 - 4 hrs of train travel before I even get to my final destination-which means I'll be in my 20-22 hr of travel before checking in to my hotel?

Sheila, My wife and I travel to Central Europe several times a year. I wish there were easier ways. We travel from Texas so out planning isn't a whole lot different than yours. In the past there were non-stop flights to Budapest out of JFK, but those are no more. But you may be able to find non-stops to Vienna or Prague from JFK or possibly LaGuardia or Atlanta or Chicago. Since we always go direct to Budapest, drop our bags and then go off exploring the best advice I can offer is my experiences with some of the airports you are likely to encounter. My top US pick is Atlanta or DFW. Both are easy to navigate and fairly efficient. JFK and LaGuardia are absolutely miserable places and JFK is generally filthy. Once you get to the other side my favorite place to land is Amsterdam. This is about as clean and efficient as an airport can get and there are a lot of good connections through Amsterdam. My second choice is Frankfurt, but I have to admit it's been a few years so I don't know how much has changed. The airport we find ourselves in most often is London Heathrow. For some reason LHR gets a lot of negative comments but we have found it not to be that bad. At all cost stay away from Chucky D in Paris. When we travel to Paris we will go so far as to fly to London and take the Chunnel train to Paris. More exotic places Bucharest and Sofia have more "exotic" airports. It's just the price you have to pay to see these incredibly fascinating countries. But do see them now before they change forever.

Sheila, Now for the rules I live by when booking flights. When I was younger it didn't matter so much. I have been stranded in such interesting places as Cairo and Athens. Now I am older, slower and very conservative in my planning because every day of freedom is important to me and I don't want to lose good ground time due to a missed flight. So on connections in the US I require a minimum of 1.5 hours lay over and on international flights 2.5 hours lay over. This is a big deal for me and it makes it harder to find flights at decent rates. The cheapest flights always have at least one 45 minute lay over; and I just won't do it. Here's my logic on the international flights: 1 hour lost due to late arrival in Europe. Not uncommon. 30 minutes to get the plane to the gate and unload. Remember that arrival times are to the runway not to the gate. 30 minutes to get through security (you are entering England or any Schengen country) and to find the next gate. 30 minute prior to flight time boarding. Now if all goes well then you might end up with an hour or an hour and a half free time on your hands. Go shopping!! Or get a membership with Priority Pass so you can get into a private lounge for free drinks, cheese and crackers. Oh, and I didn't talk about the Budapest and Prague and Vienna airports. I guess the best of the three by a narrow margin is Vienna. The airports at Budapest and Prague are perfectly acceptable and easy to navigate.

Sheila, Finally train travel. Some routes by train make a lot of sense; Vienna to Budapest for instance. Other routes are more subjective such as Prague to Budapest. More subjective since the total time is pretty much the same but the cost is different and what you will be doing during that time is different. Personally I prefer to be active so I fly, but it costs something like 10 times more than sitting on the train for 5 hours. Budapest to Sofia? Naaaa, almost requires the overnight train and I'm just not that brave. I don't know what your budget is but lets say you wanted to go from Budapest to Krakow. You can fly someone like Ryanair for about $150 a ticket or a mainstream airline for about twice that (but you have to change in Warsaw). If there are two of you it's a total of $300 on Ryanair. But you could hire a driver and a nice MB Van for about $500. If there were three or four of you it's a no brainer and the beauty is you get to go sightseeing along the way; and it's a beautiful 5 hour drive complete with castles and mountains and rivers. The same sorts of decisions exist between most any two points. Plane, Train or Automobile. Oh, and there are some pretty decent bus services in some regions as well. So, all in all, not much help. Sorry. Pick some destinations and then let me know and i will try and come up with some specific suggestions. But remember that everyone enjoys something a little different so the best advice is still just personal taste and opinion. You really cant do wrong. What is important is getting out and exploring, learning and having fun; no matter how you get there.

'Remember that arrival times are to the runway not to the gate.' Not so at all. Published arrival and departure times are to and from the gate: 'door time', essentially. Landing and take-off times are used to keep track of airborne time of some aricraft components (wings, flaps, etc). Engines, generators, pumps, and so forth are tracked from engine start to shut down. Flight time (airoborne time) is logged as such by the pilots, but is only a partial factor of their crew day which determines how long they can be at it before they are required to call it quits for everwhat number of hours.

Extremely helpful and detailed information. Thank you. Exactly what i am trying to figure out.

Anddddd....... since i have already broken the rules; go to the various airport websites. Some are pretty helpful. For instance LHR will give you a guide of exactly how long it will take to get between various terminals and step by step instructions on how to do it while the Budapest airport website has great information on how to get into the city and how much it will cost.

There are direct flights from JFK to PRG. There are no direct flights from the US to BUD, nor does KRK. Alternative airports you might consider flying to if you really want to minimize your connections, but that will get you in the general neighborhood. You should be able to take trains from these to at least one of your destinations. :) WAW (Warsaw): Direct flights from ORD and NYC VIE (Vienna): Direct flights from IAD and NYC IST (Istanbul): Direct flights from ORD, IAD, NYC, and LAX
MUC (Munich): Direct flights from ORD, ATL, CLT, IAD, PHL, NYC, BOS, SFO, LAX