Prague Hotels

Here are my Prague hotel suggestions (4 nights: 5/27-5/31 including breakfast and fitness center):

Hotel Julian - 572 USD
Andel's - 719 USD
Park Inn - 647 USD
Eurostars David - 562 USD
Hotel Seven Days - 549 USD

Budapest Hotels

Frommer's recommends the Cotton House hotel $220 for 3 nights.

City Hotel Ring, $280 for 3 nights, breakfast included.

Carat Boutique Hotel, $460, breakfast included. Fitness center.

NH Hotel. $400, breakfast included. Fitness Center

Budapest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular

I had no idea that is what those were called, but we supposedly can take one like we did in Bergen to check out some super duper cool views.

Also, we should try this (if we want). I was kinda bummed that we didn't do this in Finland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell%C3%A9rt_Baths

Central Europe Triangle Pass

http://www.raileurope.com/rail-tickets-passes/central-europe-triangle-pass/index.html

Not sure if this is a good fare, but could be an option. I'm also not sure if you saw this one already.

Changes

Things that could open up our itinerary:

1. Give up our boat trip from Budapest to Vienna (or vice versa). I think it will be cool, but the two trips each way per week are serious limiting with our 5/17 to 5/31 travel plans.
2. Skip Ceske Krumlov, I could live without it. I think the hiking would be cool, but that might be a poor attempt to re-live Bergen.
3. Do Ceske Krumlov in one night, arrive one morning, leave the next afternoon, not might have to give up the hiking
4. Adjust our departure/arrive dates
5. Stay an extra day - I'm open to either. With Memorial Day, we could stay for 14 nights with only 10 days off work

Itinerary Option 3: Krakow

So, if we fly round trip to Krakow, we're looking at this:

The schedule I can make work with the hydrofoil schedule is the same as Frankfurt, but sub in Krakow for Frankfurt:

Thursday, May 17: Depart Chicago
Friday, May 18: Arrive Krakow, Travel to Budapest
Monday, May 21: Depart Budapest, Arrive Vienna
Thursday, May 24: Depart Vienna, Arrive Ceske Krumlov
Saturday, May 26: Depart Ceske Krumlov, Arrive Prague
Tuesday, May 29, Depart Prague, Arrive Krakow
Thursday, May 31: Depart Krakow, Arrive Chicago

In addition to the baseline itinerary fares:

I've got round trip airfare to Krakow at $1,200.
One way from Kakow to Budapest is $235 by plane (2.5 hours, 1-stop) or $144 by train (8 hours, overnight train)
One way from Prague to Krakow is $275 by plane (2.5 hours, 1-stop) or $104 by train (11 hours, overnight train)
There may be some sort of Poland-Czech-Hungary-Austria rail pass

So, things seems expensive like Frankfurt, and those train travel times are longer than I anticipated.

Seems Warsaw might be a cheaper flight.

Itinerary Option 2: London

So, if we fly round trip to London, we're looking at this:

The schedule I can make work with the hydrofoil schedule is the same as Frankfurt, but sub in London for Frankfurt:

Thursday, May 17: Depart Chicago
Friday, May 18: Arrive London, Fly to Budapest
Monday, May 21: Depart Budapest, Arrive Vienna
Thursday, May 24: Depart Vienna, Arrive Ceske Krumlov
Saturday, May 26: Depart Ceske Krumlov, Arrive Prague
Tuesday, May 29, Depart Prague, Arrive London
Thursday, May 31: Depart London, Arrive Chicago

In addition to the baseline itinerary fares:

I've got round trip airfare to London at $950.
One way from London to Budapest is $110 by plane (2.5 hours non-stop).
One way from Prague to London is $60 by plane (2 hours, non-stop).
Kind of assume rail isn't an option.

So, our overall travel costs are probably about the same, but we get to see London. Not sure if you can use miles. I assume London is more expensive than the other cities in terms of lodging/food/booze.

Hold tight for my quick Krakow analysis!

Itinerary Option 1: Frankfort

So, if we fly round trip to Frankfort, we're looking at this:

The schedule I can make work with the hydrofoil schedule:

Thursday, May 17: Depart Chicago
Friday, May 18: Arrive Frankfort, Fly to Budapest

Monday, May 21: Depart Budapest, Arrive Vienna
Thursday, May 24: Depart Vienna, Arrive Ceske Krumlov
Saturday, May 26: Depart Ceske Krumlov, Arrive Prague
Tuesday, May 29, Depart Prague, Arrive Frankfort
Thursday, May 31: Depart Frankfort, Arrive Chicago

In addition to the baseline itinerary fares:

I've got round trip airfare to Frankfort at $1200/person, you can get $950 for different days.
One way from Frankfort to Budapest is $175 by plane (3.5 hours with a connection). Non-stop is over $800. We may be able to find something cheaper, I didn't put a ton of thought into it. Rail from Frankfurt to Budapest appears to be about $300 (16 hours).

So, even if we change travel dates to grab the $950 fare, I'm not sure our overall travel costs are any cheaper than $1,625.

Baseline Itinerary

The first in a series of posts to nail down our itinerary.

The schedule:

Thursday, May 17: Depart Chicago
Friday, May 18: Arrive Budapest
Monday, May 21: Depart Budapest, Arrive Vienna
Friday, May 25: Depart Vienna, Arrive Ceske Krumlov
Sunday, May 27: Depart Ceske Krumlov, Arrive Prague
Thursday, May 31: Depart Prague, Arrive Chicago

I've got airfare into Budapest and out of Prague at $1200/person
Boat from Budapest to Vienna at $150/person
Train from Vienna to Bratislava (round trip) at $75/person. That may be the international line, not the local line, which might be cheaper.
Train from Vienna to Ceske Krumlov at $130/person. There is a bus from Prague that is cheaper/faster, not sure if that's an option from Vienna.
Train from Ceske Krumlov to Prague at $70/person. Bus might be slightly cheaper.

Add that together and we have $1,625 per person in travel costs.

A Hungary-Austria-Czech Republic EuroPass costs $400/person. Slovakia doesn't seem to be included, so that would make our travel cost $1,825/person, so not really worth it.

Passport

Looks like we are all set there. They are valid for 10 years. I don't look substantially different than I did in 2009. I assume I look older, wiser, and sexier, like George Clooney.

I forget if you renewed in 2009 or used yours from your grad school trip, but that has been less than 10 years. Good thing you haven't officially changed your last name, otherwise you'd need a new passport.

Weather

Prague:

http://www.prague-guide.co.uk/articles/prague-weather-and-when-to-go.html

Vienna:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g190454-s208/Vienna:Austria:Weather.And.When.To.Go.html

Budapest:

http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/budapest-weather.html

Bratislava

We should eat here
http://www.slovakpub.sk/hlavna_stranka/

And here for some cheap pizza
http://www.17bar.sk/

And get there from Vienna via
http://www.slovakrail.sk/
Timetable for the line from Vienna to Bratislava
http://www.slovakrail.sk/fileadmin/Dokumenty/gvd_11_12/definitivny/100.pdf

Itinerary Update

Ok, so we the hydrofoil runs

Vienna to Budapest on Tuesday/Thursday
and Budapest to Vienna on Monday/Wednesday

We could leave on Sunday, May 14 and spend one less day in Prague or Vienna so we're traveling to Budapest on Thursday May 24.

We could reverse the whole trip. We could tweak the day we leave.

We could go Thursday May 17 to Thursday May 31. You can play in your playoff game on the 16th. I can play in my game on the 31st. As currently scheduled, that would be Round 1 of our playoffs, but that doesn't include a week off for Easter or Greek Orthodox Easter, which we usually have, so that will be the last game of the regular season. I can play jet lagged and have two weeks shake the rust off, which is plenty. Not like 2 weeks off from basketball will ruin my game or fitness. Probably be good for my old ass.

I think if we do Thursday-Thursday, we have to do Budapest first.

Or we could get crazy and go like May 1 to May 15. We lost Memorial Day, but could avoid other complications. I have a big report due May 2, but it should be wrapped up before that. Someone just needs to print it and send to the client. The heavy lifting will be done.

United Miles

United has award travel available for 30K each leg.  I have 35K miles.  Not sure if you can get anything United.  The earliest we could travel would be 5/18. 

 

Or we can book for around $1000K each.  I'm not sure we are going to find something cheaper.  I've been looking at flying into Budapest and out of Prague with the hydrofoil knowledge in tow.

 

- Shannon

United

Looks like I can use my Chase points for about $400 off airfare. There seems to be quite a few airline options.

Looks like the farthest east United will get us is Stockholm. But obviously that's north. Munich is more central. Possibly Zurich plus a nice train ride through the Alps? Is that where the Alps are? I think so.

They also fly into most major western European cities - Berlin, Rome, Paris, Madrid, London, etc.

I found a Lufthansa flight for $920 with our Chicago to Prague, Budapest to Chicago itinerary. There were some long layovers, but I'm not sure we're going to avoid those.

Hmmm, Chicago to Zurich still wants us to connect in Copenhagen. And is $900. So much for that plan. Lame.

We can get to Madrid for $850, Copenhagen for $750, London for $900, Rome for $1,000, Munich for $900....not sure any of these are helping.

Looks like it's then $200 to fly to Prague and back from Budapest (to Copenhagen). So we're at $950, where we would be anyway.

Czech Republic

We should do this:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Klet_-_Blansky_Lees

I've been comparing Ceske Budejovice (Budweis) to Cekse Krumlov. I looked at what wikitravel and Frommers had to say.

Itinerary

Here's how I see it. We want to be gone for two weeks. We want to see Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest. We might want to see Ceske Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Vienna and Bratislava are essentially one stop. We want to utilize the Memorial Day holiday as a day off. We probably want end our trip around Memorial Day to avoid peak season. We want to fly into Prague and out of Budapest. We want to take a boat from Vienna to Budapest on the Danube. We want to take trains everywhere else. So, with all that in mind, here's what I came up with.

We're Back

Hello blog. It's been a while.

We didn't go on this trip...YET!

We had a busy 2011. Let's see, we totaled our car, but were not seriously hurt. My mom had cancer. She survived. Our dog had cancer. She didn't. Shannon's brother graduated high school and started college. Shannon's mom suffered from empty nest syndrome. My sister and brother in law moved across the country for a new job, only to lose it. Again. Oh, and we got married.

So, with all that, Europe 2011 didn't happen.

But Europe 2012 aka our honeymoon IS going to happen. We promise.