Looking for trip reports for Berlin, Prague, Vienna that starts on 5/29/22!

Thanks!

We will miss you as our trip is August 21st to September 1st. We are going to Berlin 3 nights ahead and staying in Vienna an extra 3 nights. Other than booking hotels, I haven't planned much. I've been reading trip reports so, that I can pick things that we won't see in Berlin. Are you doing a pre or post stay?

This was our second RS tour and around 10 years ago. We loved Berlin. Museum island was incredible. We spent a full day in the German history museum and could have used more time.
We took the train to Potsdam to see Sans Souci. It was ok but they had a crafts fair there that was great. And there was a protest scheduled and counter-protest expected. Wow! Those German police don’t mess around. Public transportation was shut down (we walked) As far as we could tell, the protests never happened. But it was memorable to see their planning.
Other tour members loved the zoo.
We loved this whole tour. Our post tour we went to Salzburg, a brief stop at Oktoberfest, then a few days in the Mosel Valley. The whole trip was great.

We are taking the tour that starts on June 19, but we are actually arriving in Berlin on June 16 and will take a day trip or two prior to the "official" tour (we're thinking Potsdam and/or Wittenberg, if we're up for it--if not, bum around Berlin!). Then, after the tour ends in Vienna, we are taking the train to Budapest and spending a few days there, since we'll already be "in the neighborhood." Then a sleeper train back to Berlin, one night in the hotel at the airport to get our testing squared away, and back home. We originally booked this tour in 2020--to say that we're excited would be the understatement of the year.

Will do! I have to bring my iPad for occasional work check-ins, so I will try to update here as well! (I consciously avoid social media like Facebook, etc., but I am so happy to be doing this trip that I'd like to share!)

I'm curious about the May 8 Berlin, Prague & Vienna tour this year. Did the tour actually stay at the Hotel Mailberger Hof in Vienna? We were originally booked on that tour and were unable to contact that hotel regarding extending our stay. Several people told me they were able to add nights to their stay but one of the canceled their reservation. We tried to get RSE to intervene on our behalf and they were unable to do so as well. We decided to cancel the tour for other reasons. The hotel had been closed for quite some time for renovations so I'm wondering how it all worked out for the tour members.

@SilasMarner

I was wondering if that trip went. I never saw it on the Covid weekly reports so, I assumed it never happened. I looked at the reported dated May 13 and May 20. It is not listed as one of the tours that went. So, I was curious if the May 29 tour happened. Doesn't look like they are listing the trips any more on the Covid report so, hard to tell which ones were canceled. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/on-the-road-reports

Can you cancel last minute? Do they give you refund or credit? Or did your trip insurance cover it.

P.S. Our Vienna Hotel is Hotel K & K Maria Theresia

disneyfreak67, we canceled our BPV reservations just in time to get our deposits returned. I really disliked my dealings or lack thereof with that Vienna hotel nor was I very impressed by the RS response. I'm not sure I'd want to repeat that experience! I wouldn't be surprised if most all of the potential tour members backed out after attempting to add to their stay. We were doing a back-to-back tour with Holland/Belgium but decided to postpone the Holland/Belgium trip until next spring so that we catch the Vermeer retrospective. I didn't particularly want to fly for just one tour. We might decide to do that independently as we definitely have more interest in art than nearly every other tour participant.

@silasMarner

I went back and looked at my emails. We originally had Hotel MailbergerHof as our Vienna hotel. I wasn't impressed with the reviews, and I was planning on not staying there after the tour. Then, on Feb 8th Rick Steves emailed us let us know about the hotel change to K&K Hotel Maria Theresia. The reviews for that hotel were much better so, I extended our stay with that hotel.

I wonder if any of the May trips went.

@AquarianLibriarian. Hope you have a great trip. Would love to hear your thoughts when you get back. I'll check out some of the things you mentioned.

@Patty I think, I'll look into Salzburg that might be fun to do one day in Vienna.

disneyfreak67, I'm glad to learn that your Vienna hotel was changed to K&K Hotel Maria Theresia. We had to cancel our BPV tour just before Feb. 8 so I'm sure our hotel for the May 8 tour would have been changed if we hadn't cancelled. You're probably correct that the May 8 tour may never have happened anyway! The hotels changes to those 2 early tours were difficult to keep up with and several of them were surprised to learn they were involved in any RS tour group bookings. I hope it all stabilizes for you!

disneyfreak67, it appears that the May 8 tour actually happened - there are some reviews posted here (click the reviews tab): https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eastern-europe/berlin-prague-vienna#tour-dates
No one mentioned the hotel they used in Vienna.