European Travel Advice

[KikiSashaFan]

I know there is a wealth of well travelled FSUers, so I thought this would be a good place to seek advice.

I finish my current contract at work at the end of May, and don't have anything lined up until mid July, so I've decided to do something I've always wanted to do and travel Europe. Alone.

What are the must see places, what is over rated and where should be avoided all together?

I'm planning on mostly travelling by train and staying in hostels, but I'm open to any and all suggestions.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

My favorite place in Europe is Berlin, and there are some excellent hostels there.

What are you interested in? I would never think any place in Europe was overrated, I mean, even if it is, at least you've been there and decided for yourself, you know?

Are you young enough for a Eurail pass? (26 and younger) If not, some of the "adult" ones are still worth it if you plan ahead and know where you are going.

 

[acraven]

Europe is just plain wonderful, with far too many great possibilities. So please tell us a bit about your interests and how tight your budget is. A capital-hopping trip will tend to be more costly than one focusing on smaller cities. There are exceptions, though: Berlin's a pretty low-cost capital, and Venice/Florence may be fairly small but are not remotely inexpensive. I haven't been to Budapest recently, but I know many FSUers love it, and I believe it's not too costly.

I'm big on variety, so I like to make trips that touch on several countries without requiring a lot of time-consuming and costly travel between stops, or several very different regions of one country. Examples of the latter might be Paris/Alsace/Provence, Berlin/Bavaria/the Rhine, or Italian Lakes/Venice/Florence&Tuscany/Rome.

If you live in the US or Canada, you should immediately look at flight options. You may find an attractive destination that is far less expensive than other possibilities, in which case you could build your trip around that. For example, someone on the Rick Steves forum mentioned very recently that from his origin the fare to Milan is quite low. Also, be aware that you do not have to fly in and out of the same city, so your trip needn't be a circle. Since mid-summer airfares tend to be very, very high, if you can be flexible and take advantage of a bargain, you could potentially save hundreds of dollars.

Weather-wise, there's not much hope of avoiding the heat south of the Alps unless you go up in the mountains somewhere, and it may well be hot even in countries like Germany. I mention that because you may find that you need accommodations that provide air-conditioning, which may eliminate a lot of lower-cost options. It's hard to know how critical that will be weeks in advance. Last summer I needed a/c everywhere from mid-May to mid-September, except for one city in northern Germany.

Are you going to try to nail down your itinerary ahead of time? There are several reasons to pre-book hotels, intra-European flights and trains:

- You may get nicer/cheaper/better-located hotels/hostels if you plan ahead.
- Intra-European flights can be bargains, but the prices go up and up as you get closer to departure. Taking advantage of those super-low fares makes it possible to split a vacation between distant countries. If you're willing to commit to flights months in advance, your trip can be London + Stockholm + Southern Spain, or something equally outrageous. I don't recommend that, but some folks end up with pretty long lists of "my trip will be incomplete if I don't see..." sights.
- Many countries have similar non-refundable/advance-purchase deals on train tickets. Those disappear as you get closer to the day of departure. I believe this is primarily an issue on the express trains. If you're taking mostly short trips to smaller cities, you'll be on regional trains, and you may not save a penny by buying the tickets ahead of time. And Germany, in particular, has some advantageous regional tickets that make travel there much less expensive per mile than might be expected.
- You can head out with a much clearer idea of what your total expenditure may be, though food and sightseeing expenses will be substantial and are harder to predict.

I, myself, don't book ahead, because I value flexibility highly. I make my hotel reservations 24 - 48 hours in advance. If the heat gets to me, I try to head for the mountains. If I love the city I'm in, I try to extend my stay. The local tourist office is normally my first stop in every city, and sometimes it tells me about a local activity I want to take advantage of, or an interesting nearby destination to which I can make a day-trip. Since I don't have a hotel booked in my planned next city, I can stick around if I want to. Only once have I had to find a different hotel in order to stay for an extra 2 days.

 

[screech]

First off, I'd recommend flying Iceland Air. It's cheaper than a lot of other airlines, plus they allow for stopovers (at no extra charge) in Iceland. I only spent a few hours there, outside Reykjavik at the Blue Lagoon, but it is absolutely fantastic and I plan on going back - definitely take advantage of it.

Personally, I was very underwhelmed by Prague. It had it's beauty and it's interesting bits, but I spent 3 days there, and it was 1 too many. Maybe it's because I went in February, but it was not my favourite trip. Best part of the trip was seeing Carmen at the opera.

I LOVED Berlin. Not as aesthetically beautiful as some of the more 'classic' European cities, but there's so much to do. I love exploring places with history and culture, and in Berlin it was a couple of days of WWII things, then on to the Cold War, then on to the Berlin Wall - so much!!

Rome is fantastic. I loved the tour I did of the Colloseum and Roman Forum, as well as touring the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. And the food!!! If you love pasta, of course it's fantastic. I'm an odd person who hates pasta, but even I was stuffed all the time, if only from the bread, cheese and proscuitto!

I enjoyed the French Riviera, but if you go there, it's advantageous to know that the beaches are not what you'd expect. In Nice they are large stones - very uncomfortable to walk on, and making it challenging to get into and out of the water. In Monaco it was smaller pebbles, so more manageable. In Cannes there's actually sand (apparently it's shipped in because of the film festival). Nice is a great base to do day trips. The 'old town' area is where I stayed and I remember a lot of smaller almost alleyways filled with restaurants and very charming.

Stockholm is an absolutely gorgeous city. It's also an extremely walkable city, and almost everyone speaks excellent English, which makes things a lot easier. The city is split into different islands - the Old Town is the most historical area, complete with the royal palace, but from there you can see Djurgarden, where there is everything from an ABBA Museum to the Vasa Museum, which houses an amazingly restored boat that sunk on it's maiden voyage in the 1620s.

One thing I started doing when I travelled in Europe is seeing if Sandeman had a base in the cities. Sandeman will offer a free tour of the cities but also various paid tours. I would do the free walking tour on my day of arrival or the next day (depending on my arrival time) - familiarized me with the city and kind of let me know what I wanted to learn more about, or any other tours I'd want to take. Then I would often take another of their paid tours once I knew what I wanted to see - you can buy the tour passes on the free tour, and they usually start just after the free one ends. It's a great way to get to know the city you visit. This is also great if you're a solo traveller, like I often was.

 

[Spun Silver]

My absolute favorite places in Europe were Venice (the mystery, the water, the winding streets!), Switzerland (seeing and climbing the Alps! lovely Berne, and the smaller towns, and the changes from German to French to Italian areas), Brittany (riding a bike along miles of coast), and the South of France (ancient stony town called Auch that I picked out of Frommer's). Have a great time!

 

[KikiSashaFan]

Thank you for all the feedback so far. I'm unfortunately a few years too old for the cheaper Eurorail pass, but I was still planning on going that route.

Berlin, Barcelona and Salzberg are my top 3 must sees, and my interests lean to historical sites, architecture and museums.

I was thinking of starting in London to Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Kraków to Budapest to Salzberg and then through either southern Germary and Switzerland or through Italy to the French Coast down to Barcelona.

Is that too much to cover in one go? I plan on spending about a month and have a max budget of 7500 for everything.

 

[Spun Silver]

It is doable but think of all the packing, unpacking and lugging, and what proportion of your time you will spend just getting to and from places, and checking in and out of hotels.

I have a tendency to overbook. When hubby and I went to Italy we visited 10 cities in 2 weeks. It is hard to say which I would subtract, but I have a visceral memory of the glares we got on trains as we tried to squeeze in with our two giant suitcases. At least do your darndest to travel light.

Padua and Siena were my two other biggest highlights in Italy. The Basilica of St Anthony in Padua is the most living shrine I have ever seen, and we somehow got the frescoes of Giotto at the Scrovegni Chapel all to ourselves for an entire hour. It was heavenly. Plus there was a great secret restaurant there called Alchimia (back room). Siena is just one of the most exquisite places in the world.

If I were doing it again, I would pick two base cities to stay in and make day trips to the others, but without that crazy tour, I wouldnt know which ones I wanted for my bases.

 

[Jayar]

I went to Europe for the first time last year, and I would say to be sure to get to Italy. There is so much to see and do there. I especially loved Rome, Florence, and Amalfi. Greece is also beautiful-- I felt at home there.

 

[dinakt]

Late May-June is a wonderful time to travel; not yet too hot and a little less crowded than later in summer.
Even if you travel for over a month, the main difficulty would be to narrow things down, to avoid too much travel fatigue.
Are you more of an advance planner, or do you improvise?
Read lots of travel website forums (tripadvisor, Rick Stevens, Fodors...) because there is so much information there, and current advice. I usually find the links by just googling key words. Also, www.rome2rio.com is a wonderful website, it will tell you all options of getting from point A to point B, the time it takes and cost. As an alternative to hostels, you might consider VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owners) website, but as a woman traveling alone probably best to look at places with lots of good reviews.
Write down a few "dream" itineraries with more or less realistic travel times and run it by here
I cannot even say what my favorites in Europe are, there are so many places I love. London and Prague are my emotional favorites, but it is colored by personal experiences.
About your interests- what kind of museums? History/Archaeology would take you to Berlin and London, Art- to Paris and Florence... (vastly generalizing of course, there's everything everywhere...)
Do you prefer big cities or are tiny beautiful villages a draw? Are you into nature/hiking, or not so much? If you are into history/culture/language, which ones? Is meeting people a priority or an annoyance?
If you take a train from Berlin to Salzburg, consider a stop in Bamberg. I found it extraordinary. They also serve a crazy smoked beer that smells like bacon. Bruges is similarly striking, and is somewhat on the way from Amsterdam to Paris.

 

[dinakt]

Siena is just one of the most exquisite places in the world.

Seconded.

 

[acraven]

Your budget sounds fine as long as ground transportation doesn't turn out to be exorbitant. I believe you'll find your destinations are a bit too numerous and too spread out to allow adequate time in each city, especially the large ones with time-consuming sights (London, Paris, Berlin, and Barcelona). Figure it will cost you at least half a day every time you switch hotels (probably longer on your itinerary because some legs look like flights), so a one-month trip with nine major destinations really means about 25 days of sightseeing time; that's not allowing for stopovers in transit to Barcelona. That's a generous vacation, but covering such a large area will be a major challenge. It's not impossible, but you'll be rushing from place to place more than I would like.

I'd suggest sketching out an itinerary (using rome2rio to estimate transportation times) and seeing what you come up with. Get hold of a European guidebook and make a list of what you want to see and do in your key cities. Does it look workable? Remember that you'll be making your own sightseeing arrangements, which sometimes entails waiting in rather lengthy lines.

Depending on how you tweak your itinerary, a rail pass may or may not be cost-effective. Most rail passes are expensive, and if you opt for flights in lieu of long train trips, you've reduced the chances that the rail pass will pay off.

 

[Deleted member 1204]

My main advice would be to pay attention to how much time you'll spend on trains. They get really boring really fast. And overnight trains are not very comfortable.

 

[Deleted member 221]

I was thinking of starting in London to Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Kraków to Budapest to Salzberg and then through either southern Germary and Switzerland or through Italy to the French Coast down to Barcelona.

Is that too much to cover in one go? I plan on spending about a month and have a max budget of 7500 for everything.

I think it's way too much to cover in a month, and you'll be exhausted from the constant travel.

You can easily spend 4-5 days each in London and Paris and leave not having seen all of the major attractions. Give yourself 3 days (really 2-1/2 days with travel) in Amsterdam (tip: if you want to see the Anne Frank House, book tickets NOW or be prepared to spend hours in line) and Berlin.

Never been to Prague, Krakow, or Salzburg, and going to Budapest for the first time on Friday. Seems like each of these are 2.5 day (3 with travel) places. So you're already at around 23 days spending the minimum amount of time in each place. Southern Germany and Switzerland are beautiful, as are the Italian and French rivieras, but you'll be rushing from place to place and spending much of your time in transit. Then, there's Barcelona, which easily requires 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 days.

If you're in Europe for a month (4 weeks/30 days), I would suggest picking five or at most six destinations. In each destination, you can daytrip from your home base to a side destination (e.g., spend a day in Sitges if you go to Barcelona) if you find yourself running out of things to do. Prioritise, and group geographically -- either stay in the same general area of Europe (within a couple of hours by train), or pick two areas and take one flight in the middle of your trip.

 

[genevieve]

If you're in Europe for a month (4 weeks/30 days), I would suggest picking five or at most six destinations. In each destination, you can daytrip from your home base to a side destination (e.g., spend a day in Sitges if you go to Barcelona) if you find yourself running out of things to do. Prioritise, and group geographically -- either stay in the same general area of Europe (within a couple of hours by train), or pick two areas and take one flight in the middle of your trip.

I think this advice is more important than where those destinations are.

Also - is June the start of heavy tourist season, or still the shoulder? This could impact prices overall, and ability to get in to see sites. Choosing a less-popular destination may provide more flexibility - although the main European cities are popular for a reason!

 

[Allskate]

Berlin, Barcelona and Salzberg are my top 3 must sees, and my interests lean to historical sites, architecture and museums.

I was thinking of starting in London to Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Kraków to Budapest to Salzberg and then through either southern Germary and Switzerland or through Italy to the French Coast down to Barcelona.

Is that too much to cover in one go? I plan on spending about a month and have a max budget of 7500 for everything.

IMO, it's way too much. And I'm someone who tends to pack a lot into a trip and have used overnight trains in Europe to preserve touristing time. Maybe start in Barcelona, skip London, and take an overnight train to Paris. (It will be easy to add London to a later trip.) I really like Amsterdam, but unless you really want to see the Van Gogh Museum, maybe skip Amsterdam, too. I've never been to Krakow. Between Berlin, Budapest, and Prague, I'd definitely pick Prague. Florence is a good base in Italy to explore, and it has lots of history, architecture, and museums.

 

[MsZem]

Berlin, Barcelona and Salzberg are my top 3 must sees, and my interests lean to historical sites, architecture and museums.

I was thinking of starting in London to Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Kraków to Budapest to Salzberg and then through either southern Germary and Switzerland or through Italy to the French Coast down to Barcelona.

I'll echo everyone else and suggest focusing on a smaller number of cities and prioritizing geographical proximity.

Of the cities on your list, I've been to London, Paris, Berlin, Krakow, Budapest and Barcelona. I'm definitely more a fan of Paris than of London, but either city would provide you with plenty to do. Berlin is fabulous and has some fantastic museums. Krakow had some beautiful areas when I was there in the 1990s and may look even better now. I wasn't blown away by either Budapest or Barcelona, but both are nice for a short visit. January may not be the best time for the former (other than the excellent outdoor skating!) and I know that a lot of FSUers love Barcelona.

Budapest, Krakow and Berlin should be cheaper than Paris and London, if that's going to be a factor.

BTW, does anyone have tips about stuff to see and do in Oslo? I'm going to be spending a few days there at the end of May.

 

[Deleted member 221]

BTW, does anyone have tips about stuff to see and do in Oslo? I'm going to be spending a few days there at the end of May.

I spent about 24 hours there on my way to Northern Norway. It's high on my list of places to go back to.

Frogner/Vigeland park is a must. The statues (including one of Sonja Henie) are incredible; you'd swear some of them were in motion.

I love the Opera House, which is beautiful from the inside as well as outside. The tour is interesting and not too long, if you time it right.

Akershus Fortress is cool, but didn't seem all that different to me than other fortresses/castles, so I just walked around a little and didn't go up. It's reasonably near the City Hall, which (if you happen to pass by; not worth a separate trip) is worth stopping in -- cool artwork and murals.

I loved the Munch Museum. He has done a lot more than just "The Scream," but that's there, too, in a room where you can't take pictures.

The neighboring botanical garden was only OK; I'd skip it if I had to do it again.

That's what I managed to do in one marathon day, where I planned carefully around opening and closing times of attractions. I intend to go back for hopefully 2-3 more days and then take the train to Bergen, which I hear is one of the most beautiful train rides in the world.

If you're feeling adventurous, take a side trip to northern Norway. (The local airports are surprisingly efficient, even if you have to make a few connections, and small towns of a few thousand people tend to have airports, thanks to a Norwegian legal requirement -- and I'm sure tons of oil money.) Tromso is super cool, and I went up to the Honningsvag / Nordkapp area, which is one of the northernmost points in Europe. Beautiful little town, when the cruise ships are not in town.

Beware -- goods and food in Norway are the most expensive I've ever seen anywhere. Coffee from the local 7-11 cost the equivalent of 5 USD, and a latte from Starbucks 15 USD, when I was there. Never in my life have seen such expensive items. The dollar is a little stronger now, but prices are still likely to shock you.

 

[MsZem]

If you're feeling adventurous, take a side trip to northern Norway. (The local airports are surprisingly efficient, even if you have to make a few connections, and small towns of a few thousand people tend to have airports, thanks to a Norwegian legal requirement -- and I'm sure tons of oil money.) Tromso is super cool, and I went up to the Honningsvag / Nordkapp area, which is one of the northernmost points in Europe. Beautiful little town, when the cruise ships are not in town.

Beware -- goods and food in Norway are the most expensive I've ever seen anywhere. Coffee from the local 7-11 cost the equivalent of 5 USD, and a latte from Starbucks 15 USD, when I was there. Never in my life have seen such expensive items. The dollar is a little stronger now, but prices are still likely to shock you.

Thanks - that is super-helpful! I'm going there for just a few days, so hopefully I will not go bankrupt trying to keep myself fed luckily I do not drink coffee.

Of course, the bad news is that I will not have any time for trips outside the city. Maybe next time...

 

[KikiSashaFan]

Again, thank you for all the feedback I thought the list was a little long, but I figured I may as well list everything and then reduce from there.

I think London/Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam could be its own trip, so I'm going to eliminate those (until next time!)

I did spend two weeks travelling just Italy once, and I agree with everyone up thread, Sienna and Florence are my two favourite places, but I've never been anywhere else in Europe. Because of that, I think I will mostly skip Italy this time around.

I'm thinking of starting in Berlin to Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg over about 2.5 weeks and then spending about 5 days travelling to Barcelona with stop overs along the way, finishing with 4 or 5 days in Barcelona, depending on how long I take to get there. Better?

 

[ballettmaus]

Again, thank you for all the feedback I thought the list was a little long, but I figured I may as well list everything and then reduce from there.

I think London/Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam could be its own trip, so I'm going to eliminate those (until next time!)

I did spend two weeks travelling just Italy once, and I agree with everyone up thread, Sienna and Florence are my two favourite places, but I've never been anywhere else in Europe. Because of that, I think I will mostly skip Italy this time around.

I'm thinking of starting in Berlin to Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg over about 2.5 weeks and then spending about 5 days travelling to Barcelona with stop overs along the way, finishing with 4 or 5 days in Barcelona, depending on how long I take to get there. Better?

Just to give you an idea, I just checked - Berlin-Prague is said to be 4:28 hrs via train. Since it's the train, you might want to add about 30 minutes for possible delays. The quickest train connection I could find from Prague to Krakow was 7:20 hrs. (I did a search over the German train website (Deutsche Bahn)) There might be a quicker one if you look at the Czech train website, however, Prague-Krakow is further than Berlin-Prague and Krakow-Budapest doesn't appear to be much shorter. You also need to get from wherever you're staying to the station and from the station to wherever you're staying. I can only speak for Berlin but might well take you up to an hour, depending on where you end up staying. If you add another two hours to the 4:30 hrs that it takes you to get from Berlin to Prague then I don't think you'll have much time left to do anything that day. In other words, it sounds like at least three whole days will be spent travelling unless you take the night train. German night trains are okay. I'm have no idea about Czech and Polnish ones.

Personally, I find 2 1/2 weeks a tight schedule for the cities you chose. You can easily spend five days in Berlin and not get bored. Also, keep in mind that Berlin, at least, is not tight-centered/has two City Centers due to its division, so it can take you some time to get from A to B which might not allow you to do as much in one day as you could do in other cities.

 

[Spun Silver]

I think your trip sounds fabulous.

BTW, I don't know if this would interest you, but when I went to Krakow, the most interesting thing I did was to take a side trip up in the Jura Mountains. It was gorgeous and remote. (My friend had a cottage up there.) I always remember seeing a horse-drawn farm wagon and two children in red stockings sleeping in a haystack.

 

[acraven]

Postponing the NW cities till a later trip helps a lot.

I disagree with Louis that 3 days is OK for Berlin. Read about the museums and the Cold War-related historic sights (I found some interesting things on TripAdvisor) before you make a decision. The museums on Museuminseln are huge. If you're interested in the subject matter, you will not be in and out in 2 hours. At least I wasn't. Sometimes there's a long line for entry, as well. I also spent a great deal of time at the 20th century historical sites (the House at Checkpoint Charlie, the Stasi prison, etc.), of which there are many. It's definitely worth reviewing the options ahead of time with a map in front of you, so you can figure out a logical plan of attack. Berlin is a sprawling city, as balletmaus said.

Folks on the Rick Steves forum frequently mention a bus company called "Student Agency" which isn't limited to transporting students. It has Prague-Berlin and Prague-Budapest routes that might be useful to you.

Edited to add: This link may be helpful: The Man in Seat 61 . It has a wealth of information on European trains.

 

[genevieve]

Edited to add: This link may be helpful: The Man in Seat 61 . It has a wealth of information on European trains.

I love that blog!

I like your itinerary, although I think the Berlin-Salzberg part would feel cramped if that was your entire trip. Doing it all in 2.5 weeks?

 

[allezfred]

Just because you're in Europe don't feel obliged to take a train. A lot of the time it can be quicker and cheaper to fly.

Berlin and Barcelona are absolutely fascinating cities. Spend as long as you can in both!

 

[Allskate]

I'm thinking of starting in Berlin to Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg over about 2.5 weeks and then spending about 5 days travelling to Barcelona with stop overs along the way, finishing with 4 or 5 days in Barcelona, depending on how long I take to get there. Better?

Spending five days traveling on and off to Barcelona sounds like a lot of time spent in train stations and checking in and out of hostels, and not that much time seeing things. I agree with allezfred about flying. Consider flying to Barcelona. That would leave you more time to spend in the other places you'll visit. (An alternative is to take a sleeper train from Austria to a place in France or Switzerland that you want to visit. Spend a few days there, and then take a sleeper train to Barcelona. I've taken a sleeper train from France to Barcelona. It was fine.)

As others have said, you're doing a lot in 2.5 weeks. Like Louis, three days in Berlin would be fine for me (and even skipping Vienna), but it might not be enough for you. Try to figure out what you think you'll want to do in each place to get a sense of how much time it will take you, and factor in travel time and check-in and check-out times for hostels.

 

[PRlady]

Again, thank you for all the feedback I thought the list was a little long, but I figured I may as well list everything and then reduce from there.

I think London/Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam could be its own trip, so I'm going to eliminate those (until next time!)

I did spend two weeks travelling just Italy once, and I agree with everyone up thread, Sienna and Florence are my two favourite places, but I've never been anywhere else in Europe. Because of that, I think I will mostly skip Italy this time around.

I'm thinking of starting in Berlin to Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg over about 2.5 weeks and then spending about 5 days travelling to Barcelona with stop overs along the way, finishing with 4 or 5 days in Barcelona, depending on how long I take to get there. Better?

I took my daughter to Berlin, Prague and Vienna a few years ago. It's was a fantastic trip, and the trains were fast and easy between cities.

Berlin is simply one of the most interesting cities ever. We ended up spending much more time on the Checkpoint Charlie museum and Wall and other Cold War sites than the WWII or 19th century sites but I wish we had stayed there five or six days instead of three. The museum island alone is amazing...

Prague is lovely but a two-day city, and we were fine with three days in Vienna, but I wish we could have gone to Salzburg and the countryside.

 

[screech]

When I travelled throughout Europe, I came to love Air B&B. I was able to travel for 2 weeks straight in England and France with just a backpack, because I had access to a washing machine in the apartment. Also, you can get places in a great location for a cheaper price, often with amenities you wouldn't have otherwise (in Nice, our host gave us 2 bottles of wine, for example, and in Rome, our host had made his own map of the city, highlighting his favourite attractions and nearby restaurants he recommended).

From your locations, as I said before, I've done Prague and Berlin. For me, 3 days was MORE than enough in Prague. The best thing there, to me, was that in the main part of the town, everything was really close, so it was extremely walkable. The King Charles Bridge, though, is quite spectacular. I also did a day trip to Kutna Hora. Kind of a meh trip, but there is a neat cathedral there where everything inside, including a chandelier and family crest, is made with human bones.

I can't say enough about Berlin. As I said before, I love doing the free walking tours of cities to get myself familiar with it. I loved the one in Berlin especially, because you come across things you wouldn't really recognize on your own (well, unless you researched it) - like the parking lot of a random apartment building that lies on top of Hitler's bunker (I knew a parking lot was the location, and I'd actually walked past it on my way to the museum, but didn't know that was it). There are so many outstanding memorials to different figures and groups. You see the lasting effects of the War with the buildings riddled with bullet holes. Seeing the Wall, and walking along it's former location, seeing memorials to the people who died (and on the locations where they died) is just remarkable. And the biggest highlight for me was a day trip to the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. Most of what is there is replicas, but you still get this amazing feeling there, and there are no words to really describe it. I spent 3 full days there, and I didn't even see any museums other than the Topography of Terror. I'd definitely go back. Five days would have been a bit better for me.

 

[PRlady]

I also want to add that the Berliners were among the friendliest and most helpful people I've met in Europe. My daughter is a whiz at subway systems and figured theirs out quickly, but we got wonderful tips from strangers along the way.

I also ate the best bacon of my life there. Don't order the weird white sausage, though.

 

[Deleted member 1204]

Totally agree about the advice about flying instead of trains. Saves a lot of time, and the trains can be pretty expensive, so the cost differential is not that much. I also rent cars a lot in Europe- that way you can go on your own schedule and stop whenever and wherever you want. Gas is pricey though.

 

[Hanna]

I'm thinking of starting in Berlin to Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg over about 2.5 weeks and then spending about 5 days travelling to Barcelona with stop overs along the way, finishing with 4 or 5 days in Barcelona, depending on how long I take to get there. Better?

Definitely a lot better than your original plan! I mean, I think one could spend a month in just London + Paris alone. Spending something like 3 days in each would just be scratching the surface and you'd probably only end up being mad at yourself. Save those for another trip.

I love all of Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg and Barcelona. Although Barcelona is probably my biggest favorite - it's hard to beat that combination of beach/history/architecture/food anywhere in Europe. Berlin is also fabulous, probably the most hipster city in all of Europe, and with so much history. Also loved Vienna in June - beautiful.

Prague and Budapest can probably be done in 2-3 days each. Salzburg is charming but small and IMO can be done in 1 day (unless you're planning on using it as a base for a trip to mountains).