Laundry

I did a little research. It appears most people in Prague have a washer at home, so there are few laundromats.

It might be easier in Vienna, but could cost as much as $50 at a laundromat, who knows how much at a hotel.

I think we should plan on staying somewhere where we can do our laundry ourselves.

Vienna Hotels

Seem to be kind of expensive.

We can stay at the Suite Novotel Wien Messe for $420 for 3 nights. Fitness center, wifi, breakfast is an extra charge. It's east of city center, near the Danube. Two metros to/from the train station.

NH Atterseehaus is $150/night. Seems to be like the apartments we stayed at in Copenhagen, but without the washer/dryer. Free wifi, complimentary breakfast. It says it has a fitness center, but it appears to be one cardio machine. It's a 20 minute walk to downtown, but right on a metro line. It's probably walking distance to the train station.

NH Belvedere is $130/night. Breakfast does not seem to be included, but is available for purchase. It's got wifi in each room. There is a fitness center, but I couldn't tell what it included. I think, in general, we can expect these fitness centers to suck, which is ok. We're on vacation. It's two metros and a walk/tram to the hotel from the train station. But it is a direct metro ride to the city center.

Renaissance Wien Hotel. $160/night. Away from city center. Metro ride to city center and train station (different metro lines). Wifi in the room. Fitness center. Breakfast is not included.

I think that's good for now. Obviously there are a lot of hotels, but these seem reasonable. Seems a rental in Vienna is cheaper than a hotel. We lose the fitness center, and have to deal with additional hassles, like meeting the owner, exchanging keys, etc. I'm not sure which is "safer" - hotel or rental. Seems like it should be a hotel, but there are people in and out of your room all day.

So, What Did We Decide Saturday?

We'll be in Budapest Friday May 18 to Monday, May 21?

Vienna Monday, May 21 to Thursday, May 24? Or Friday, May 25?

Prague, Friday, May 25 to Monday May 28?

Cesky Krumlov May 28? Budweis May 29?

Prague May 30?

Home May 31?

Try to do laundry in Prague? We are open to hotels or rental places, since we don't need breakfast every morning? Man, that's a lot of variables. I'll see what I can find.

Vienna to Cesky Krumlov

So, there are a bunch of options, but I'll try to summarize.

We can take a train from Vienna to Cesky Krumlov, but we probably have to connect through Linz, Prague, and/or Budweis. If we buy the train pass, it's cost effective to travel by train.

A bus ticket from Vienna to CK is about $60/each. The ride is only 3 hours, but it generally leaves at like 1 PM, so you don't get into CK until 4 PM or so.

So, we could travel to to CK Friday morning, spend Friday night there, hike and Saturday, and then either head to Prague and/or Budweis Saturday evening or Sunday morning. I guess I'd like to hike and get drunk in CK. I'd prefer to hike first, but if that take s whole day, we'd have to do that on Saturday, not Friday afternoon.

Or, we could head to Prague Friday, then do a couple days in CK Sunday or Monday. We don't leave until Thursday.

I don't mind keeping our options open, but it would then behoove us to have open-ended lodging plans, i.e. hotels, not apartments. Also, we'll want to pack light, maybe do laundry more than once. That's hard in a hotel, but I'm sure we can pay them to do it, although it expensive. I'm sure places also have laundry mats, I don't think everyone in Europe has their own washer/dryer like we do in the US.

I don't know if we think Linz is worth seeing. We could take a train from Vienna to Linz, look around, then catch an afternoon bus to CK. I think it leaves from Linz at 2, is cheaper, and only takes an hour and a half. It's probably the same bus that left Vienna at 1. But again, that means we don't want to be hauling too much luggage around.

Vienna Rentals

Here's what I go so far. Vienna seems kinda spread out, but has a kick ass public transit system (if we can figure it out).

Basically looked for location, free wifi, and a washer/dryer.  Figured we're not going to spend a ton of time there.

I looked at May 21-24, so 3 nights? Is that right? Anyway...

Apartment Leopold, $360.

Mozart Apartments, $330 for a 1-bedroom, $300 for a studio, although it might only have broadband internet (the kind you plug in).

This one is a little off the beaten path, but it looks nice. I don't think it's more than a mile from the old town/tourist district. He said 255.00. Not sure if that's euros or dollars. Everything on the listing is in dollars. Either way, it's not bad.

Apartment Swittalek is right near the city centre and has a confirmed washer and dryer, but it close to $400 for the 3 nights.


That's all I found that's available so far. There's a bunch of stuff on VRBO. I'm trying to keep this as close to $100/night as possible