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.
I must have forgotten that you were trying to get back for a game on 5/31. If we do Thursday to Thursday, we should do Budapest first - I agree. I'm fine with switching the days up if we want to go earlier in the month. I have a customer launch on 5/1, but I can always have someone cover for me if something goes cuckoo.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how you slice and dice it, we are looking at $1000 a person roundtrip. I've looked at it 10 different ways today - flying in/out of Poland, Frankfurt, Munich, Budapest, Prague. I think it just makes sense to stick with in/out of Prague/Budapest (either way) and not try to complicate the matter too much.
I thought all along that we were coming back shortly after Memorial Day, regardless of sports leagues.
ReplyDeleteAirfare is expensive, we've both looked at the same options 100 times and it's not changing, so let's plan on where we want to be and when and find flights that suit that. We're not going to find cheap flights, then figure out our itinerary based off that.
Ok - So we will go sooner in May and keep the itinerary with Prague to Budapest or we will go later in the month and switch the order. That works for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your vacation time situation?
ReplyDeleteLooks like April and May are both "high season" for Europe, so there probably won't be significant lodging cost savings by going earlier. That's a big expense.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between $100/night and $125/night for 13 nights is $300.
I'm all over the cheap lodging. Remember - most include breakfast so that's an expense that we won't have.
ReplyDeleteVacation time right now - 9 days. I'll have more than 10 by the time we go in May. I was planning on using 10 days max.
If we do 5/17 to 5/31, that's 13 nights in Europe and 9 vacation days (because of Memorial Day). We could then take a 10th vacation day before or after the trip. For example, I would probably take off Friday 6/1 to recover/pick up Hossa, go back to work 6/4. I do not know if we need to factor in vacation time on 6/8 for the Hoagalinski rehearsal dinner. Not sure if it matters. Man, poor Hossa, we'll have to find someone to take care of her 6/9 as well, just a week after we get back together.
ReplyDeleteI probably don't have to be back for my basketball game 5/31. It's probably a regular season game, and even if it's not, I'm sure the team will be fine without me (although my ego likes to say otherwise). I'm just missing 2 games for Europe and 1 game for a Hawks game. That's like 1/3 of the season. At some point, I should just agree to sub as needed and let them find a full time player.
If we go late April/early May, we don't get Memorial Day as a bonus vacation day. Could still do 2 weeks, but don't have the buffer before or after. Plus, according to our calendar, you have a concert 4/28 and a pub crawl 5/4.
Are you pretty certain of your volleyball schedule? I'd hate to plan things around it, then find out your league is pushed back a week and your playoffs are actually 5/23 or something. And it's only a 1-week playoff, right? 4 teams?
Basketball is scheduled to start 3/29. It usually starts on time. 8-week season puts playoffs starting 5/31. However, I assume we'll have an off week for Easter, pushing playoffs to 6/7.
I'm not concerned about missing volleyball. It's one night and I'm not certain if we'll make the playoffs. We most likely will as we do every season, but maybe this season we won't. Either way, they can survive without me if it means we are in Europe. I would rather we go when we want to go to Europe versus planning our trip around my volleyball league.
ReplyDeleteWe're generally looking at somewhere between 5/14-5/28 and 5/17-5/31, right?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking
ReplyDeleteI guess my point being, if you want to play in your volleyball game, we can arrange the trip accordingly. As far as I can figure, it doesn't really affect anything we want to do. We can still go for 2 weeks. It should significantly affect airline or hotel prices.
ReplyDeleteI just found out that I am to attend a symposium in Ohio on 5/16. Most likely I will go to that and not play vball because I don't think that I will be back in time. Either way, if we could target the 17th through the 30th or 31st that would be best for me.
ReplyDeleteSo you're going to be traveling the day before we leave for Europe?
ReplyDeleteThat's a buzz kill, figuring we need to drop off Hossa, pack, etc. Oh, and travel for like 15 hours the following day.
We could leave Friday, 5/18, but then we don't arrive in Europe until Saturday, and lose a Friday night in Europe. Not that the day of the week makes a lot of difference when on vacation
I'm sticking with leaving on 5/17 and coming back on 5/31. There are decent flights on United. I've done some additional research this AM. I can get a flight from Prague to Chicago on 5/31 using miles but the one way to Budapest costs $2500. If we book multiple destinations through United the flights for both of us comes to $2379.60. Now the same flights via Amtrav - our corporate travel agent - is $2159.60 for both of us.
ReplyDeleteFlight times:
5/17 leave Chicago at 2:26 pm connect in Frankfurt arrive in Budapest on 5/18 at 8:50 am (This gives us the whole day in Budapest versus arriving at night)
5/31 leave Prague at 950 am connect in Frankfurt arrive in Chicago at 2:55 pm on 5/31
I get the same rates from our corporate travel website. Same flight times too.
ReplyDeleteThat's a short layover in Frankfort, so it makes sense to fly.
Some fights had like an 8-hour layover. At that point, I'd rather take a train from Frankfurt to Budapest. It's about 8-hours by train. Rather be on a train than in an airport.
I thought it might be cost effective to book a round trip airline ticket and a EuroRail Pass, but it doesn't seem to work. There are nonstops to Frankfort, Brussels, Zurich, it's unfortunate non of them are cheaper than our multi-city itinerary.
Do you like those flight times? Should we monitor over the next week to see if the price fluctuates at all?
ReplyDeleteThose flight times look ok. I'm not sure how much price will change over time.
ReplyDeleteLufthansa has a sale going on right now, I'm playing with our options there.
These cities aren't that far apart, so we could conceivably do round trip through one of them if it's cost effective.
Gotcha. That's an option. I was looking at roundtrip to Frankfurt the other day and was getting prices that our comparable to getting to the destinations that we were interested. But, if we can find cost savings, it might be the way to go.
ReplyDeleteKinda what I mean. I thought it would be cheaper to fly round trip than multi-city, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
ReplyDeleteLike, I thought we could fly round trip to Frankfort or Munich cheaply, than train/fly/drive/hitchhike to one of our destinations, but its not working.
KLM can get us to Istanbul for $670.
ReplyDelete5/15-5/30
I know, that doesn't help, but it was nice to find a low far somewhere!
Istanbul, Turkey? :)
ReplyDeleteNot Constantinople.
ReplyDeleteThey Might Be Giants joke? Anybody?
I was thinking it. You said it.
DeleteKLM can do our planned route - Chicago to Budpest, Prague to Chicago for $815/person.
ReplyDeleteBut it has to be 5/14 to 5/28.
And we have an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam on the way there, so we don't get to Budapest until mid-afternoon. Amsterdam again on the way home, but only for a couple hours.
Not sure it's worth it up rooting our plan for a few hundred dollars.
It's like $1300 for the dates we had in mind
$400 isn't chump change. I think we are saving on travel between countries on this one versus our Scandinavian trip and hopefully food/drink will be cheaper. I'm trying to remember that as well. So, if we pay a bit more for flights to and from Europe but save elsewhere that's ok.
ReplyDeleteI'm ok with switching the dates if it makes the most sense.
British Airways seems to be pretty cheap. I was super excited because I thought I found a flight for $421 but it was $421 each way. BOO!
ReplyDeleteI think we have it narrowed down to a couple of options:
ReplyDeleteRoundtrip Chicago - London
Roundtrip Chicago - Krakow
One way Chicago - Budapest one way Prague - Chicago
What about roundtrip Chicago - Frankfort
There's a difference of about $200 in some cases traveling 5/17-5/31.
Do you have a preference? I wouldn't mind seeing another city. I guess I need to stop overanalzying it. Darnit - you rubbed off on me.
Can we fly direct to Frankfort?
ReplyDeleteUnited and Lufthansa have direct flights for around $1000.
ReplyDelete