Amsterdam/Austria/Prague
 

My wife and I are planning a 2 week trip next spring. I think we've settled on a pretty good itenary, but I'm looking for some advice on transportation.

This is the plan so far:

4/28 - Arrive in Frankfurt (Stay and Learn Hostel)
4/29 - Travel to Amsterdam (Flying Pig Uptown)
4/30 - Amsterdam (Queensday) (Flying Pig Uptown)
5/01 - Amsterdam (Flying Pig Uptown)
5/02 - Travel to Prague (Sir Toby's)
5/03 - Prague (Sir Toby's)
5/04 - Prague (Sir Toby's)
5/05 - Travel Salzburg (Yoho Hostel)
5/06 - Salzburg (Yoho Hostel)
5/07 - Travel Innsbruck (Nepomuk's B&B Hostel)
5/08 - Innsbruck (Nepomuk's B&B Hostel)
5/09 - Munich (stay with friends)
5/10 - Travel Frankfurt (Stay and Learn Hostel)
5/11 - Return Home

We were planning to fly from Amsterdam to Prague, and take the train everywhere else. I don't know if a bus would be a cheaper option, or worth it. Our friends in Munich can give us a ride to Frankfurt. Any advice or sudjestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Beau

Hey Beau, I'm afraid I can't help with your travel plans, but just wanted to say welcome to tpunk! I'm sure someone will have the answers you're looking for though!

Welcome to TravelPunk :)

That is a great itinerary! You and your wife are going to have a good time as that is the best time to visit pretty much all of Europe.

Two questions...Is this your first time to Europe? Have you already gotten your tickets? If the answer to the latter is no, have you considered doing an "open jaw" ticket? Fly directly in to Amsterdam and return out of Munich. <-This eliminates spending two nights in Frankurt which can be spent elsewhere.

I think you are right to opt for a flight between Amsterdam and Prague since that is about 15 hours by train (part of that can be while you sleep but still). British Airways can get you there for about 215 USD per person, one way.

It looks like you may be on a bit of a time crunch. If so, you may want to prioritize between Salzburg and Innsbruck. In fact you may find it easier to take a (night)train from Prague to Munich and a train to Salzburg (it is included on the Bavaria (Bayern) pass for 20 Euros).

--Joey

You need to make your reservations for Amsterdam TODAY!!!! The entire city will sell out, and I haven't checked, but I bet the flying Pig is already booked. Queens Day is the biggest party in The Netherlands, so be ready for one of the best street parties ever. I think you could fly austria air or czech air for about $100 each or less. I currently own 2 tickets (non-refundable) from Brussels to Prague that I bought a few months ago, because the deal was so sweet, but then of course my timeline jumped 3 months, and they are now bunk. We paid $156. for two tickets total one way.

I have a wealth of knowledge on Amsterdam, so ask any questions you may have.

Cheers,
Marc

Czechair is clocking in at the same rate.

You may find this interesting...If you punch in Amsterdam->Prague one way the price is 356 USD, if you do it roundtrip 43. With taxes it is 210 and nonstop (which is how I would go)

Good suggestion Marc!

--Joey

Welcome to Tpunk. I stayed at Sir Toby's last summer and it was great. Nice choice. In fact, I have a coupon thingy. If you send me a private message with your address I can mail it to you.

Thanks for the welcome. Even though this is my first post, This forum has been the best resource for my planning. I've found most of the info. I was looking for just digging through old threads.

We've been to Munich before, but that's about it for Europe. We haven't purchased our tickets yet, but I have checked on flights. The problem is there isn't a straight flight into Munich for us. To fly into Munich we still have a layover in Frankfurt and it's about $400 more. It looks like it isn't much more to fly directly into Amsterdam and leave from Frankfurt than to do a round trip into Frankfurt. That would allow us to cut out one night in Frankfurt. I've been using Kayak. Is there a better source to use for open jaw tickets?

I'll keep that in mind about the night train. My wife is really looking forward to traveling through Austria. I don't know if I can cut out much of that. We were also thinking about making a stop in Ceske Budejovice on our way to Salzburg.

You should have seen all our want to do list before I trimmed it down to this. It's the same old story I'm sure you've heard a 1000 times before. It's so hard to try and cut down your trip.

If you fly into Amsterdam and out of Munich it is about 900 on Kayak. Not sure that is much more expensive than in and out of Frankfurt.

Since I see that you have been to Munich you can disregard my previous remark (I personally think that Munich has more to do than Salzburg). With your saved day(s) I hear Cesky Krumlov is pretty awesome :)

--Joey

I would like to suggest a stay at "Haus Christine" in Salzburg. It is more of a pension then a hostel. Search for it on hostelworld dot com. Last May it was 18 Euros a person and was an extremely nice deal.

This is a picture from our balcony
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/SUNP0117.jpg

This is a picture of where you have breakfast
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/SUNP0112.jpg

This is a picture of our bedroom (in a real house) and does not do it justice. There is no bathroom in the room, just a sink.
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/SUNP0116.jpg

It is a 4 minute train ride out of town, which you can purchase multiple train passes for cheaply.

Hope this helps

Ya know, if you could shift your departure date to a Tue or Thur and return on one of those days as well, your price will be much cheaper than flying out on a sunday. One of the down sides to the airline industry. And forget about mondays..... thats when all the international business men travel, so the rates skyrocket.
Cheers,
Marc

I'll be honest, I loved Innsbruck and Salzburg. Very quaint, beautiful towns. But I loved Vienna and Munich. I had a little bit of a harder time with the people in Munich, especially after spending time in Berlin where the people were friendlier. Some of my favorite pictures from my first trip to Austria and Germany were in Innsbruck and Salzburg. But it really depends on your personal priorities. Innsbruck is just as pretty. The view from the Olympic slopes is kinda neat too.

A 15 hour train ride seems reasonable when you're planning, but you'll hate it. We did about 11-12 hours from Berlin to Krakow, and we were super antsy. When it's such a short trip overall and you have loads of energy that you want to put to good use, 15 hours is a lot of time to dump into a train.

I ran accross that place in my searches, and wondered how it was. It looks great. Thanks for the pictures.

I checked on Kayak and the price was pretty much the same for leaving on Mon. or Tues and returning on Thurs or Sat. It does look like I can fly into AMS and leave from MUC just as cheap as leaving from FRA. That will save me 2 days.



We had thought about Vienna too, but cut it out because it seamed to be a little out of the way. I don't want to be too rushed. Will it still be ski season @ the end of April? If there's still some good snow, we'd like to hit the slopes while we're there.

This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get when I posted. Thank you for all the help.