Eastern Europe Itinerary help

[stephy]

Hi,

I've just found this website and have been enjoying reading all the thread. Some great advice!

My friend and I are planning a trip to Eastern Europe over dec/jan and I was wondering what people think of this itinerary. I think it may well be too ambitious, and so any suggestions as to where to cut would be most welcome.

Days 1-2 Prague (overnight train to Krakow)
Days 3-6 Krakow (overnight to budapest)
Days 7-9 Budapest (overnight to sarajevo)
Days 10-11 Sarajevo
Day 12 Sarajevo to Mostar
Day 13 Mostar
Day 14 Mostar to Dubrovnik
Days 15-16 Dubrovnik
Day 17 Dubrovnik to Kotor
Day 18 Kotor
Day 19 Kotor to Belgrade
Day 20-21 Belgrade (overnight to Brasov)
Days 21-22 Brasov
Day 23 Brasov to Veliko Tarnovo
Day 24 Veliko Tarnovo
Day 25 Veliko Tarnovo to Sofia
Day 26 Sofia
Day 27 Sofia (overnight to Athens)
Day 28-32 Athens

Thanks

[herrbert]

It looks a bit rushed. A lot of one and two day visits. (but also a lot of towns, I don't know (well there's always Google Earth to find them), so maybe it is ok to have these as one or two day visits). I noticed that you picked towns, that seem really interesting, but are also scattered all over the Balkan.

allow yourself to adjust to European time, when you arrive in Prague (questions on Prague are best handled by Ray, see his own topic). But I think one extra day would be no luxury, as you lose most of the first day.

Also take a look at www.bahn.de (go to international guests, for the english section) Here you can search for the timetables, and get a sense about how much time you need if you go by train.

Athens is good for about three days. Unless you are planning daytrips (Delphi?)

I think Krakow is the city, that needs the most effort to travel to. If it is a must-see for you, I will not try to change your mind, but it is not, you might want to save it for a next trip, and maybe add Vienna to the mix. Which happens to be en-route between Prague and Budapest.

[Eagle]

stephy, Welcome! I was going to reply to your Post a few days ago, but have been busy with work-related matters. Thankfully, herrbert has provided some excellent comments.

In reading your Post for the first time, I had the same impression as herrbert in that it seems a bit "rushed" with too many short stops. It would help to have some further information about your trip and where you're flying from.

The knowledge base here is probably a bit "limited" with respect to travel in the Balkans, as that area is just beginning to become popular with tourists. However I'm sure there will be some comments regarding your stops in Prague, Krakow and Greece.

In terms of the "order of cities", a somewhat more logical route would be to begin your trip in Krakow, and then to Prague, Budapest, Sarajevo, etc. (ie: moving north-to-south). It appears that you only have about a month for travel, but you might find it more realistic to drop at least one city so that you can plan a more relaxed travel schedule.

I couldn't tell from your Profile where you're located, so have little information on what flights might be available to you? I'm assuming that you intend to board your flight home from Athens?

With regard to travel in the Balkans, you might find some good travel tips by reading about the experiences of Rick Steves as he travels through that area - check www.ricksteves.com/blog/ for further details.

Hopefully some of the others will have further tips to help plan your trip.

Cheers!!!

[madamtrashheap]

stephy, welcome and allow me to join in on the points that the boys have given.

I agree with herrbert and Eagle, it is a little rushed, particularly from the perspective of distances to travel and modes of transport available between some of these places. They are, however, great choices and you'll find a lot of history, both recent and ancient, to discover, however some of the train and bus services are still getting back on track (no pun intended) or are still being developed (new Members of the EU) and aren't always reliable in terms of punctuality, so this may throw a small spanner in the works if you've not allowed for delays. For example, Belgrade to Brasov you'll have a border stop that can take anywhere from 30mins to 3 hours (checking visas, etc) plus in December/January the snow comes in to the mountains in this area (Brasov is great for cheap skiing) which may cause further delays.

For Sofia to Athens, would you consider flying instead? That's an incredibly long journey (good scenery though!) so flying might be an option on this route (I'm not sure of the train connections you'd have to make, but Greek trains aren't the fastest). For flights, check Aegean Air (new routes) as they may have good flights/prices.

Hope that assists in your planning - make sure you keep us posted on how the trip goes and what you discover in that area as not many people on these Boards have been to that part of the world (it's been 7 years since I was last there) but are interested in going.

[stephy]

Thank you for all your responses, they have given me some good things to think about. We're from New Zealand, but will be in England for a couple of weeks before our trip so will by flying from London to Prague. We have booked our flight home out of Athens, so we need to end up there.

One of us has seen Prague before, and we have both been to Vienna so that was our rationale for heading quickly to Krakow, also it will be just before christmas and so Krakow will be our base over christmas, as we don't really want to be travelling on christmas or boxing day, and things may be closed.

I think you are all correct that it is rather rushed, so I think we're going to have to be realistic and flexible if it get s bit much when we're there, perhaps cutting out the Romanian part and going straight from Belgrade to Sofia.

Another option we're considering at the moment is to skip both prague and krakow and fly directly to budapest, which while it would be very disappointing to miss those two places, would give us more time to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Thanks again for the advice

[herrbert]

You are quite right that on Christmas day and boxing day, there will be a (very) limited service, as far as public transport is concerned. The same will be true for New year's day, and from about 16.00h on the 31st of December. So it is good to keep that in mind. Also depending on where you are you will find that the 6th of January can also be a holiday. And if I am not mistaken in some orthodox places, that day is considered as Christmas. (but you might want to double check, the last bit).

You have obvious reasons to don't spend a lot of time in Prague, and don't got to Vienna.

I have never been there, but from what I have heared from other people, is that they didn't like Sofia a lot. So perhaps you could also consider flying to Athens from Bucharest (Also Aegean), and skipping Sofia. Doesn't look like an easy decision (in other words: I am glad I don't have to make the decision )

From Sofia to Athens, you can also try Hemus Air (www.hemusair.bg)

[crystal]

Well here's my two pennies worth.

Mostar can be made as a day trip from Dubrovnik. I heard that it's a good town to visit but once you've seen the bridge and had a bit of a wander about you have pretty much nailed it in a few hours.

If Sofia is not to your liking you could look at Varna instead (sorry extremly bias as I love Varna)

January 6th is a public holiday in Spain, Italy and Puerto Rico and while it is recognised as an important date in the Eastern Orthodox church I don't think it is a public holiday.