We%26#39;re planning on spending 14-16 days between late November to early December in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest but can%26#39;t decide on how many days in each city. We will travel by train. Suggestion? Any other cities or site you can recommend along that route? Also, buying rail tickets at rail stations vs. thru RailEurope.com, we%26#39;re afraid of tickets being sold out when we get to the rail stations.
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Generally speaking RailEurope is a rip off; much cheaper to buy point-to-point tkts. Also, most Poles, Czechs %26amp; others dislike the term: Eastern Europe, do not use it in those countries..just FYI (sensitive issue + e.g. PRG is geographically more West than Vienna...
Berlin - spread out, regarded as fun city...at least 3 days..
Dresden: 3-4, depending on your sightseeing pref.
Prague: 4 days at least; you may wish to see typical Cz towns in the South (Cesky Krumlov, Ceske Budejovice, Jindrichuv Hradec) - better than trains are www.studentagency.cz buses for the first 2)...at least another day, or combine to go South by train, then spend 2-3 days there....
Not much time left, I like Budapest a lot, but probably 2 days is OK.
Thisgives you a rough idea... I am not sure which way (if at all) you would go to Berlin..or fly to some? A lot of cities in a short time, but can be done...
wizzair.com/Default.asp…
cheap arline, check also: www.attitudetravel.com (not the most up-to-date website, but gives some idea of inexpensive flights...It%26#39;s not updated; some airlines e.g.g Skyeurope out of business; still it gives a good list.
http://www.cd.cz/ (cz rail) -google translate or: www.cd.cz/static/eng/onlineservices2.htm with links
www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml (German Rail)
http://www.oebb.at/en/index.jsp (Austrian Rail)
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%26gt;Also, buying rail tickets at rail stations vs. thru RailEurope.com
That%26#39;s a false dichotomy. You don%26#39;t need to pay RailEuropes immensely inflated prices to get the tickets online. Just buy them from the source - the rail authorities - at the %26quot;normal%26quot; prices. i. e. same prices you would pay at the stations.
www.bahn.de
www.idos.cz
www.oebb.at
www.elvira.mav.hu
%26gt;we%26#39;re afraid of tickets being sold out when we get to the rail stations.
With few exceptions, on the routes you plan to use tickets cannot be %26quot;sold out%26quot;. Whether you buy online or 5 min before traveling in the station, simply doesn%26#39;t matter.
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%26quot;Eastern Europe%26quot; was used in %26quot;West%26quot; in the days of the Cold War to refer to countries in the Soviet bloc; geographically the countries you will be travelling to never were very %26quot;eastern%26quot;. definitely Central Europe. Indeed the time zone used through much of Europe (even as far west as peninsular Spain, and France) is referred to as %26quot;Central European Time%26quot; in fact.
Prague is not only west of Vienna; looking at an atlas now I see it is hardly much further east than Naples!!
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We%26#39;re planning on spending 14-16 days between late November to early December in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest but can%26#39;t decide on how many days in each city. We will travel by train. Suggestion? Any other cities or site you can recommend along that route? Also, buying rail tickets at rail stations vs. thru RailEurope.com, we%26#39;re afraid of tickets being sold out when we get to the rail stations.
Well, I would do it like this:
Berlin - four days not including Potsdam (one extra day), Sachsenhausen (one extra day)
Dresden - two days, and an extra one for the way through Saxonian Switzerland/Bastei to Prague
Prague - three days with or without Trezin
Budapest - two-three days
We are here on the 14th day and hardly scratched the surface of these cities. Berlin is much larger than e.g. Prague or Dresden and much much more to see in it, so even those 5-6 days I am suggesting are doing little justice (the same for two days in Budapest or Prague). You can, I guess, do another day in Bratislava, but remember it takes another half a day between these places.
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Not to be a downer but I have to concur with some other posters here: that is a very ambitious itinerary for 2 weeks, and won%26#39;t honestly allow you meaningful time in these six cities plus the travel time between them. This is only a suggestion, albeit based on experience, but I would reevaluate your tourism priorities and see if you can%26#39;t drop 1-2 of those cities on this trip. Now 14-16 days would be great to do (for example) Berlin, Dresden, and Prague in some depth, with perhaps enough time to head to one of the more eastern cities. I honestly don%26#39;t think you will get much out of all six destinations in the time you have.
How much time you spend in a city will in part be determined by your interests in what it has to offer. Personally I feel Berlin requires 4 days anyway, particularly if you want to do a side trip as Lylou suggests (Potsdam, Sachsenhausen). Prague would certainly require 3 though much smaller than Berlin. Budapest and Vienna would be 3-4 day cites as well, with maybe a day in Bratislava. Now that%26#39;s a good 15 days but it does not include travel times, which when added will go way beyond your allotted time.
My suggestion: Drop a city or two from your itinerary and allow yourself to slow down a bit and thoroughly enjoy the cities you do visit.
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We did a similar trip in the summer, and we felt we got the number of days wrong in nearly every city! Here%26#39;s a run-down of what we did/did wrong!
Berlin: we spent 5 days in what is our favourite city, and this was just right for us, but you can do it in3-4 days if you%26#39;ve got time restrictions.
Prague: we spent 3 days here but in hindsight 4 would have been better as we ran out of time to do all the things we had planned!
Bratislava:we spent 3 days here, but that was FAR too long! 1 day would have been plenty as there is little or nothing to see and we found the place rather depressing. I should stress that this is just personal opinion!
Budapest: we spent 4 days here and could happily have spent another 4. We loved it! If i was to go back i%26#39;d definetly go for longer.
Vienna: We only spent about a day and a half in Vienna, and it would probably be worth spending longer as it is a beautiful city!
I can%26#39;t comment on Dresden as we only stopped there for a half hour, but what i would recommend to you is that you consider getting the bus for a lot of your journey as it is much cheaper, more comfortable, and in some cases takes less time. As well as this there is entertainment provided so the time passes very quickly! Hope this helps a little!
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I have to concur with the general opinion on Bratislava - although I love Slovakia, Bratislava is not my favourite place - there are far nicer places to see in the country - if you must visit, then do it as a day trip from Vienna (day return €14 which you buy on the day). It is quite pleasant in the summer when you can sit at a street cafe and watch the world go by, but you need deep pockets. A much better option is to stop off in Brno between Prague and Vienna - there is loads to see and do in the city and its near vicinity.
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