My boyfriend and I are going to visit Prague, Budapest %26amp; Vienna this September. We hope you could help us out with figuring out how to best allocate and split our time between these three cities (how many days do we need for each, should it be an even split?). We will have 8 days available. Any other general advice on activities, sight-seeing, in-between city trains, eating out, etc would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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if you have 8 days, spend 3 days each in prague and vienna and 2 days in budapest. there is less to see in budapest and the city generally looks dirtier than the other two
prague to budapest by train is 7 hours, prague to vienna is 4 hours and vienna to budapest 2.5 hours
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I completely disagree with the above post. I went to Prague, Vienna and Budapest in May of this year, and Budapest was hands down my favourite. We had planned 4 days there and stayed for 8. We found so many things we wanted to see and do (Danube cruise, Castle, Hungarian Baths, Terror Museum, Climb to the Indpendence statue, Basillica, Synagogue, Day trip to a village, wine tour). The nightlife was the BEST of anywhere we went in Eastern Europe.
I suppose it comes down to a matter of personal preference, but dont be so quick to discount Budapest.
PS. It may be dirtier than the other cities, but it also has more character.
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Hi
I%26#39;d spend six days in Prague and just drive through the other two.
We went to Vienna last year and the first thing I noticed when we got off the boat was the litter and general grubbiness. Budapest is just not as spectacular as Prague, although I have done a bit more research ready for my next visit, the first time we went it was less than nice. Incidentally my son has just been there too and he said there was little more the city could do to make him hate it more.
If you are following the itinerary of these three cities make Prague the last on the list, otherwise the other two will be a massive dissapointment.
Jackie
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I think it depends on what you like to do.
When I was just out of university I visited all 3 cities in a row. Budapest was by far my favourite because it had better nightlife, and I loved the turkish baths. The pastries were as good as Vienna but lots cheaper and we seemed to spend several days lounging in the baths and then at the cafe. I%26#39;d been travelling for many weeks by this point and I appreciated that there wasn%26#39;t a huge amount of cultural monuments to see.
Now, I prefer Prague and Vienna. I love the buildings, the art, the opera, the ballet, the palaces and castles and the good restaurants. The cities are easier to handle and I prefer compact to sprawl.
Nowadays I would agree with Peb on 3 each for Prague and Vienna and 2 for Budapest, but 10 years ago I%26#39;d would have said 4 Budapest, 1-2 Vienna (much more expensive than the others) and 2 Prague.
I hope this helps explain the contradictory replies you got.
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utterly disagree with Peb7 who seems to be putting down Budapest at every possible chance. Budapest is far larger than Prague and maybe not as clean as Prague but show me a capital city that%26#39;s as pristine as a village.In Prague sights are within walking distance whereas in Budapest you do have rely on public transport.
My suggestion would be 2 days in Prague and 3 days in Vienna and Budapest.
Start off in Budapest than a short(approx. 3-4hours) train ride to Vienna and finish in Prague approx.4-6hours ride from Vienna.
Have a nice trip!
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Notice that your original post was July 30, so you%26#39;ve probably already set your plans by now, but just had to add my two cents.
I have to agree that, while everything is a matter of personal preference, Budapest should not be discounted. We spent 7 days traveling through these three cities, and at the end of the trip, concluded that Budapest was our favorite. They were all great, and I wouldn%26#39;t miss any of them, but we just liked Budapest most. Instead of simply saying %26quot;Yea for Budapest!%26quot;, I%26#39;ll try to explain what we disliked and liked about each, so that it might help you decide.
Prague - Very pretty city. Definitely the most picturesque, on the whole, of the three, and more reminiscent of the %26quot;Old World.%26quot; From the hilltop near the castle, you can look down on the city and the river and see beautiful green trees and a sea of red tile roofs. The architecture, ranging from Roman to Gothic, to Baroque to modern has been relatively undisturbed by war, so you can see more of it here than anywhere else. I%26#39;m a Franz Kafka fan, so enjoyed that also. There is an FK museum. What we didn%26#39;t like were the throngs of tourists. Of course, we were tourists too, so can%26#39;t really fault anyone else for being there, but all the popular tourist areas were very crowded. Prague is the %26quot;place to be%26quot; in Eastern Europe, and apparently, everyone is going. On the other hand, it probably has the largest number of %26quot;must-see%26quot; places, so spending the larger portion of your trip in Prague may not be a bad idea.
Vienna - Very nice, modern and sleek, but still retaining lots of beautiful old architecture and character. Definitely the most modern and developed of the three, with the greatest number of nice hotels, restaurants and shops. A trip to the suburbs/outskirts and some of the neighborhoods around the city will still reveal some very nice, quaint areas. And don%26#39;t get me wrong, we enjoyed Vienna very much, but it didn%26#39;t seem to have as much obviously unique character as the other two. I%26#39;m sure that for those who live there, Vienna is very unique, but then again, since they live there, they have the time and opportunity to really get to know the city, but for a visitor on a short trip, one doesn%26#39;t have that opportunity, so you judge a city by its surface character, and Vienna just didn%26#39;t seem to have as much on the surface. I%26#39;ve said this before in another post, and started a lot of disagreement (among locals defending their turf) but it seemed to me like just another big European city. Again, I liked Vienna, and I will definitely go back, but compared to the other two, and not by a large margin, it was probably my least favorite.
Budapest - For us, it was a nice combination of old world charm and modern convenience. Plenty of beauty, architecture, panoramic views of the city and river, etc (although not as much as Prague) but not nearly as crowded with tourists as Prague. Also a better bargain cost-wise. One note on Budapest, however, is that it seems to pretty quickly lose a lot of its charm as you move away from the center (sort of the opposite of Vienna). If you stay concentrated on the city center, around the Chain Bridge and castle district, it is very nice. So in the end, we liked Budapest best, but it was mainly because of the crowds in Prague. If you could spend time in Prague without the crowds, I think it would probably be the most enjoyable of the three.
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whether you like prague , budapest or vienna is as said above all down to personal preference. I give my personal preference - I am not a fan of budapest as much as I am of prague and vienna. budapest in terms of development since 1989 is somewhat behind prague - you only need to look at the surroundings on the drive into the city from prague and budapest airports to compare.
budapest is not helped by the fact that it was two cities until little over 100 years ago (and so there is no real city centre unlike in vienna and prague). also, unlike prague, there was severe fighting in the war, with the result that the castle was destroyed. ou can see from the wide boulevards that it was the centre of an empire, unlike prague, but if you go after vienna it will disappoint you. prague is dirty, but I find budapest more so. the traffic also makes it very polluted.
the baths are unique and worth going to, but in some, the rules are a bit hard to understand and not a pleasant experience if you get them wrong.
so do go to budapest, but go before prague and vienna and do compare between the three
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these are three incredible cities - frankly, I would see only two of them, any two, and leave the third for another time.
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