Vienna-Budapest-Krakow

This itinerary will take you from Vienna, the longtime seat of European culture where music drips out the windows and onto the cobblestones, through the capital of Hungary split in half by a river, and finally into the beautiful medieval city of Krakow, Poland. 

Highlights

Sample Vienna's world-famous opera, theater and classical music at the Burgtheater or the Volkstheater Wien. Waltz through the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace. Relax your weary backpacker body in one of Budapest's many famous medicinal-bath spas after a visit to Buda Castle on the top of Castle Hill. Spend your days remembering the victims of the Holocaust at the Plasnow Concentration Camp Memorial, and then celebrate their lives and your own in the clubs of Krakow- a surprising hot spot in the nightlife of Europe.

Suggested Route

Starting Point: Vienna

Ending Point: Krakow

Time Frame: 10 to 14 days

Altogether you will travel roughly 510 kilometers (about 320 miles) on this itinerary.  You can travel cheaply by bus from Vienna to Budapest (5 hours), or spend a little more and hop the train (about 3 hours) A night train from Budapest to Krakow will save precious daylight hours (and the cost of a night in a hostel). Trains and life in general is not expensive in Eastern Europe as they are in many of the Western countries- have another espresso and enjoy!