Cheapest Transport for this itinerary, spring 2012

ya i might have to fly into munich or vienna instead of salzburg... and the Krakow thing was just an idea i had to make the trip out of the way to Spis Hrad more "on the way" I really want to see that, and i'll definitely consider making space for another day in Krakow... maybe leaving from my friend's house in Eschwege a day sooner or a day off of prague like you said.

April 8: EASTER. Ok I need a lot of help here, Italy during easter. Is it worth the extra expense and crowds? Should I be in Rome for easter? Seeing all the crowds at the vatican and the pope would be cool, and I'm christian but not catholic so the pope is more just celebrity value for me (no offense intended). However, I am on a budget and if the prices go crazy high for easter it might be better to celebrate elsewhere. Please Help :) April 9: Florence April 10: Travel to Rome April 11:Rome April 12: Rome April 13: Rome April 14: Fly to Istanbul April 15 : Istanbul April 16:Istanbul April 17: Istanbul April 18: Istanbul April 19: Undecided, want to see either Ephesus or Cappadocia (this is travel day) April 20: Explore Ephesus/Cappadocia April 21:Explore Ephesus/Cappadocia April 22: Get to Schladming, Austria cheapest way possible.

Sorry for the long post, I'd like to keep my budget as close to $3000 as possible and specific between city/within city transportation advice would be a huge help. Thanks a lot!

This is just me, but... I wouldn't travel all the way from Prague to Krakow just to spend one night. Unless you can cut something else out/down and spend more time in Krakow, I think that particular travel expense (both in time and money) is not worthwhile. To that end, it looks like you have 3 full days in Prague, and unless you had day trips planned the maybe consider taking a day from Prague for Krakow, and/or take a day off of the Florence portion.

Right now RyanAir is showing the only destination from Salzburg is London-Stansted and there are no flights on Mar 16, 2012.

Air Berlin flies Salzburg to Frankfurt, but you have to go via Berlin. I'd take the train - lots of options.

I would look into training from Salzburg back to Bacharach. Flights would probably be a hassle as you probably won't know how long it will take to drop your bags off and get back to the airport. Unless there is a direct flight with the times you want. I would also look at getting rid of Krakow/Slovakia. There is a night train from Prague to Budapest and this would allow you more time in Budapest, which I think you need. It will also save you transportation costs. I think your budget might be a little tight if the $3000 includes flights within Europe. It looks like you have at least 4 flights, which can add up quickly, especially when you consider transportation to the airport and baggage fees for the budget airlines. Without flights it is 70 euro a day, which I'm sure is fine. 20 euro for hostel, 5 euro city transportation, 15-20 euro food (very budget), 10-15 euro site seeing are what I consider pretty minimum costs per day. Also need to include costs for alcohol if you want any, souvenirs, and plane/train transportation.

Ok I guess I can cut krakow/slovakia if it's too much hastle, I just found out about spis hrad the other day and was really interested in that

Hi Isaac, Here's the thing: you don't need to cut something out because a few people on a travel board say so. If a place is high on your list of priorities to see, then I'd look to find a way to keep it in your itinerary. But you may have to sacrifice a day or two somewhere else or a lower-priority location just to make it worthwhile, especially since you are operating on such a limited budget. If you had all the money in the world and wanted to travel from Prague to Krakow for one night, then go for it (I still wouldn't, though, as Krakow deserves more time than that, especially considering all the hours it'll take you to get to/from the city). BUT, you don't have all the money in the world, and going from Prague to Krakow to Slovakia to Budapest is going to take a big bite out of your budget, all for a detour of 24 hours. That is one of the biggest reasons I'd advise against it, unless you cut something else out to give you more time in the area. With a budget of $3000 (which is only about 2100 euro at today's rate), you are going to have to plan very, very carefully. I would suggest starting a spreadsheet and figuring out how much each leg will cost transportation-wise. It might be a bit eye-opening to see how costly it is every time you move locations. Sure, the itinerary looks great on paper, but the reality might dictate otherwise. Once you subtract your estimated transportation costs, you'll see what is left over for lodging, food, drinks, and entertainment. For the Prague/Krakow/Budapest legs, as I'd mentioned on another post of yours, you'll want to check out Orangeways and Student Agency bus companies. They won't be as comfortable (or possibly as timely) as trains between the cities, but it'll likely be cheaper. (continued...)

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that your time in Italy looks great, but our experience has been that Italy was a lot more expensive than Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary (particularly lodging- and food-wise). I haven't been to Turkey, so I have no idea where that lines up financially. I mention this so you can keep this in mind when allocating funds. Sure, you can eat on a serious budget in Italy, but for about the same money as a panini from a street vendor in Rome you can get a plate of hot steaming goodness in Budapest. So for your budget's sake, you may want to consider dropping a couple days from Italy and devoting them to Krakow and Budapest, or even plan on an overnight in Slovakia, where you'll get more bang for your buck. Sorry for this long-winded post, but I'd love to see your trip succeed. But I'd hate to see you do all this planning and get over there only to find you've run out of money by day 20. That's why extensive research for each leg will be crucial, because if you go over-budget on paper from home you can toggle things around or drop lower-priority locations altogether. To that end, use the country-specific train websites (i.e. Trenitalia for Italy, IDOS.com for Czech Republic, etc) and forums like TripAdvisor.com to get an idea of transit costs. I wish you luck!

Thanks a lot for the advice and encouragement Angela :D I've been thinking, since I've been to Italy before (although only the north), and it is kind of out of the way, and it will be pretty expensive with possible extra expenses for Easter, so maybe I will cut Italy for this budget trip and spend more time in cheaper countries like Poland, CR, Slovakia, and hungary at some cool attractions I just learned about. I really like castles and my family history (my family is originally Prussian) and there are plenty of castles and possible personal value sites in those areas. I can still keep the trip to turkey because it is supposed to be cheap too and the amount of time I will spend there justifies the cost of the flight, also allowing me to maybe fly round trip instead of from Rome to Istanbul to munich. Also... I've been doing a day to day calendar working out costs of attractions/hostels using lonely planet guides/Rick steves and hostelworld, but as for transportation, I havnt done that yet because I wanted to get some feedback on this itinerary. This has been a great help so far everyone, thanks! Any ideas for where to spend time in cheaper central/eastern countries? I took 5 years of german including AP and an exchange if that will influence anything. I love to travel and I'm sure I will come to Europe again, so right now a second trip to Italy probably just isn't right for a budget trip.

Not knowing where you have been in the past, but trying to think from a college guy's point of view, these are a few places in Central/eastern Europe I'd consider. Berlin Munich- possible daytrips to Dachau, Neuschwanstein, Nuremberg Prauge- possibl daytrips to Terezin, Karlstejn Castle, Kutna Hora Cesky Krumlov Krakow with daytrip to Auschwitz Warsaw
Budapest All of those, except maybe Cesky Krumlov, have pretty good train connections to the rest on the list. You could consider Austria with your German knowledge, but I'm not sure you'd be interested. Hallstatt, Salzburg, and Vienna are a few good cities there.

It's kind of a Catch-22 with the itinerary, you want to put it together and then check on transportation, but the cost of transportation might determine where you go! :) I think it's wise to drop Italy, as it's a more expensive country and, as you said, it's out of the way for this trip. As for possible locations, it's been a few years but I remember that Berlin seemed fairly reasonable in terms of costs. I've only been to Krakow in Poland (but want to get back to the country for a more extensive visit), and have read that the rest of the country is pretty reasonable from a tourist perspective. Likewise, the Czech Republic and Hungary are, too. I think you'd be on the right track financially if you concentrated a lot of your time in these countries. For castles, I mentioned the Karlstejn Castle the other day to someone else as a day trip from Prague. Additionally, check out the town of Brno, Czech Republic (they have a castle and it's pretty cheap there, although the lodging rates can go up if there is a convention in town). In general, I've found that even though the biggies in these countries (Prague, Budapest, etc.) are inexpensive compared to western Europe, the countryside is even less expensive. A lot of good info/ideas can be found at these websites: http://www.czechtourism.com/Homepage.aspx http://www.hungary.com/ http://www.poland.travel/en-us For getting to/from Istanbul, you may want to start pricing flights from different cities you might visit. You may find it is cheaper and more direct to go from, say, Prague, so you could build it in based on that. Here is one website that can help you determine which budget airlines fly certain routes: www.whichbudget.com Ok, carry on, keep planning... :)

OK I guess I should provide some more personal info, I've been to the UK, France, Germany (only central+Munich), Italy (only the north), and Russia (Moscow and Siberia). Also I'm a practicing Christian, so I'm not looking for the stereotypical college parties, I'm here for the actual travel value and cultural experience. (I'm not like crazy strict, like I'll have a beer in Germany or wine with a meal in Italy, but I want to avoid drunken college parties) Now I'm going to remake the itinerary with this new info and Italy dropped with plans for transport and then make a second draft post asking for more critique on that. Feel free to keep posting info/advice on this one in the meantime :D

Since you obviously have access to the internet it is possible for you to research this yourself rather than expecting someone to do it for you. Many of us find that doing the research and the planning is one of the fun parts of travelling.

For what it's worth, I never got the impression Isaac was asking (or expecting) this board to plan his trip for him; rather it seems that he has put many ideas together from his own research and is asking for opinions. Planning a trip of this scope is difficult and his itinerary will go (and has gone) through several iterations, tweaks, and refinement. For many (including myself), this is part of the process: start out with the big picture/ideas, then research, put it on paper, solicit opinions from travel boards such as this one, and continue tweaking it until you get an end product you feel confident with. It would be different if Isaac had posted by saying he "wants to visit Germany, some central European countries, maybe Italy, and has a budget of $3000, where should he go?" But he didn't. He put together an itinerary in this post and asked for advice/suggestions/recommendations. If people like Isaac can't come to this board looking for input such as he has, then I'm not sure why this board would exist in the first place.