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Got my tour roster for BPV - only 4 more weeks!

After days of stalking the tour portal, I finally got our tour roster and hotel list for our Berlin, Prague and Vienna tour that starts 9/24. Our guide will be Jana Kratka. It finally feels like it is real! This will be our 5th RS tour. I am trying a new system of organization for this trip. I downloaded an app called "Keep" on my phone and it works like sticky notes. I opened a note for the trip and then made a section for each day where I listed ideas of what to see and where to eat. I plotted all these points for each city on a Google map file so I can see where they are and group things close together. I find that I always try to do the things that matter most to me first and work down my wishlist from there, and in so doing make a lot of unnecessary trips across the city. I am curious to see if it works.

For anyone interested (because I live vicariously through hearing about other peoples' trips), here is our itinerary:
9/22: Arrive in Berlin, spend one night pre-tour
9/23-9/25 Berlin on tour (4 nights total Berlin)
9/26 Dresden on tour (1 night)
9/27-9/29 Prague on tour (3 nights)
9/30 Cesky Krumlov on tour (1 night)
10/1-10/3 Vienna on tour (3 nights)
10/4-10/6 Budapest on our own (3 nights)
10/7-10/9 Krakow on our own (3 nights)
10/10-10/13 Lisbon on our own (4 nights)
10/14 fly home

We booked a transfer from Vienna to Budapest, even though it is easy and cheap by train, because we wanted to stop for a couple of hours in Bratislava without worrying about luggage. We will also stop in Gyor on the way. We will arrive in Budapest around 3 and have 1 evening and 2 full days (I know we could stay busy for much longer than that). We also booked a transfer from Budapest to Krakow, because because we thought it might be nice to see some countryside. We will be stopping at Oravsky hrad along the way. We will be in Krakow for one evening and 2 days. We will go on a half day trip to Auschwitz on one morning. Then we fly to Lisbon. We will go to Sintra on one day leaving us one evening and 2 full days for Lisbon.

I know we could spend much longer in any of these destinations, but we kind of like seeing the highlights of many different places and then deciding where to come back to (although, if I'm honest, the more we travel the longer our wishlist gets, so we don't return to many places yet!) Hope everyone is enjoying planning for their next adventure!

Posted by
3183 posts

Have a wonderful trip and please do a trip report when you return!
We just got back from our month long trip to 3 countries, I have 2 trip reports posted and going to try to finish the last one today!
Our first RS tour is 2019! Can’t wait!

Posted by
2461 posts

Tamara,
I took this tour in June 2015 and Jana was our guide, you will really like her! Say hello from Judy of Atlanta for me. This is a fantastic tour and I often think about the things we saw and did. Fond memories.
I have a Notes feature on my iPhone but it appears the Keep app is coordinated with Google maps. Might check it out.
Thanks!

Posted by
610 posts

Diveloonie: I loved your trip reports, cant wait to read the one about Ireland! We are taking my mom there in May so it will be nice for research. Norway is also high on our list, sounded like your time was beautiful. I believe I saw that the tour you chose was Greece? We went on that one in April and it was our favorite so far - just wonderful! You are going to love it!

Judy - sorry, I didn't mean to mislead, the Keep app doesn't connect to Google maps, I just used my notes to plot points on the map separately so I could see what was what. I am so glad you liked Jana! I looked her up and she seems very friendly. I can't wait!

Posted by
1473 posts

Hi Tamara,
I got my tour hotel info this week too! Best of Italy Sept 21.
Can you post more details on the transfers you booked? One of these days I will schedule Prague-Budapest tour. I want to visit one or two villages in Slovakia (husband's grandfather and grandmother) and I don't know if I want to try making my way by bus.
Thanks and have a great trip.

Posted by
12 posts

Hi Tamara! We are on this same tour as well, and also our 5th RS tour! We arrive in Berlin morning of 21st. We’ve added an extra day in Vienna after the tour and then (on our own) we go to Copenhagen for 4 days and then to Amsterdam and return home on Oct. 14th.
Budapest & Krakow are wonderful (Best of Eastern Europe-2014), and Lisbon is great! We went to Lisbon & Porto on our own after the Spain tour last year, loved it!

Shana

Posted by
610 posts

vandrabrud - I booked my transfers with Daytrip (Mydaytrip.com). I haven't used them yet, so I cant give a review. It looks like they mostly go between larger cities, but you may be able to contact them for a specialized itinerary, I'm not sure. Also, there is a poster named James on the forum who is a Budapest expert and would probably be able to give you some more tips - he shared some ideas with me when I was considering doing a more rural route through Slovakia. It sounded great, but unfortunately didn't work out this time.

Shana - looking forward to meeting you! Your stops after the tour sound great! We were in Vienna 3 years ago on the Germany, Austria and Switzerland tour, but otherwise all these destinations are new to us, so I'm really looking forward to it! Glad to hear glowing reviews about Budapest, Krakow and Lisbon. See you very soon!