Aug 2,2018 - Danube Budapest to Prague

GailNY

Hello. We are having a hard time deciding between the options of Salzburg or Cesky Krumlov excursions on Day 8 of our cruise. I'm really interested in a Sound of Music tour - I know we stop at Mirabelle Gardens, but is that all from the film? Would there be time for a 4 hr tour with a company? What is in Salzburg to see vs Cesky Krumlov? Help!

AshvEd

We enjoyed the trip to Salzburg, primarily due to our love of "The Sound of Music". Mirabelle Gardens is about all we saw related to SoM, however the town is nice to walk thru and includes Mozart's birthplace, and some lovely historic buildings.

CatLover8

Gail - this is a difficult choice. We chose Salzburg. But, everyone who chose Cesky Krumlov enjoyed it. I really wanted to see Salzburg for several reasons. The Mirabell Gardens and tour of the more historic Old Town area are included and then you are "set free" for a few hours. I don't remember how long, but the time seemed to fly by. I would recommend you call Tauck and ask them at what time you are "set free" and figure out if you have 4 hours to do your SofM tour. I'm thinking it would be extremely tight, especially depending on where you have to meet for your SofM tour. Perhaps one option would be to leave the group early, before the Old Town area tour, if the SofM tour is what you really want. Warning though, the downtown area is awfully cute and I would hate for you to miss it. But you could walk through on your own in a very short amount of time. Cafe Tomaselli is quintessential Salzburg - lovely coffee and pastries right on the Old Square. Enjoy your trip. My husband and I need to go back to Salzburg and do the SofM tour and see more of the beautiful town. I hope you have fabulous weather on this wonderful tour.

CalKat

Sorry to make your decision harder, but Cesky Krumlov was one of my favorite spots on our trip! The entire medieval town is a World Heritage site. The castle tour and town are fascinating. I know the people who went to Salzburg enjoyed that experience as well.

Linda T.

You did not indicate whether you have booked any extra days in Prague. If you are, you might want to consider booking a separate tour of Cesky Krumlov on your own. We are going on the cruise in June and are spending two extra days in Prague. We have booked a full day at this spot so that we do not have to choose between Cesky Krumlov and Salzburg. The guide picks us up at the hotel in Prague and it is about a 2 1/2 hour ride to Cesky Krumlov.

AlanS

We are on the eastbound Blue Danube leaving this April. We have been to Salzburg on the Ultimate Alps tour and liked it so much that we decided to take that excursion to see it again. At this point we haven't decided what, beyond the walking tour, we will do there. You can call Tauck and they should be able to give you a tentative schedule for when you leave the boat, arrive in Salzburg, walking tour, and depart to return to the boat. You might need to forego the walking tour in order to do a SOM tour.

We already have our Blue Danube"green book," but all it says about the Salzburg excursion is, "Set on the Salzach river, Salzburg offers picturesque narrow lanes, old squares, church towers and unique palaces that we'll explore on a walking tour that includes Mirabel Gardens and Old Town."

We arrive in Prague a full day early and will be taking a private day trip to Cesky Krumlov, before the tour begins. It was just going to be the two of us, but three friends we met on K&T (two of whom also traveled with us last year on P&G) are also on this cruise and wanted to join us. Two additional folks (friends of our friends) will be joining us as well, so we will have a group of 7- me and my harem : ) - headed to Cesky Krumlov!! We agreed to a VERY early departure (unfortunately for me : ) ) so we will have enough time to really see the castle and town and still be back in time for the welcome dinner.

Several months ago I made arrangements for the tour with PragueWalker. They were recommended on the Tauck forum and also by Rick Steves. They were easy to work with and excellent communicators. Their website has photos & fairly impressive bios of their guides- they provide standard and custom tours.

To do it right, Cesky Krumlov requires a full day (the typical PragueWalker tour of Cesky Krumlov is 10 hours, door to door.) Depending on traffic, the trip from/to Prague can take anywhere from 2:15 to 3 hours each way. Main attractions include the castle/complex, castle theater (featured on Rick Steves "Beyond Prague" video - available for free viewing online- check it out) and the old town. There are other things to see in this UNESCO World Heritage site as well.

GailNY

Thanks everyone. I will contact Tauck to find out about more specific times frames. We do have 2 extra days in Prague, but one day we're taking a day trip to Terezin and the next a 3 hr. Jewish quarter tour (we're opting out of Tauck's Jewish quarter walk and doing the Old Town tour instead with them). Otherwise we would do the day trip to Cesky Krumlov.

GailNY

Hello again. So we have booked a couple of tours while in Prague, and now we have to decide what to do about Budapest. Should we contact the concierge at the hotel regarding guides and restaurant reservations? How far in advance should we be making restaurant reservations? We have the name of a private guide and I"m thinking we should see the Jewish Quarter (Dohany synagogue) separately from Tauck and do the Parliament,, Embassy and St Stephen's Basilica with Tauck? I would like to see the Museum of Terror and shoes memorial as well? How do we get to Margaret Island and how long does all this take? We have one day and half before the 6pm welcome dinner with Tauck. Advice?

AshvEd

GailNY:

A few ideas from our trip. We would suggest booking the nicer restaurants way ahead of time.

Prague:
Brewpub called Lokal Dlouhaa. More of a local crowd. Sausages and beer.
Terasa U Zlate Studne (10 minute taxi). Wonderful food and spectacular views of the city.

Budapest:
Pesti Diszno Bistrot (close to Opera).
Borkanyaha WineKitchen (close to Basilica of St. Stephen).

We explored both cities on our own.

In Prague we bought a one day metro pass, went up the funicular to the park and took the elevator to the top of their mini-Eiffel Tower. Also did a 1 hour cruise on the Vltava river with great views of Charles Bridge and the Castle. Heard a nice concert at the Klementinum.

In Budapest we explored the city on foot and attended a concert at the Basilica of St. Stephen.

dolciani

We are on the August 30 Eastbound Prague to Budapest. We're going a couple of days early to Prague and planning a possible daytrip to Cesky Krumlov before the Tauck tour begins. Figured this would allow us to choose the Salzburg tour without regrets of missing Cesky Krumlov. If anyone has used services for this tour, we'd appreciate any input about tour guides or companies that you used and found to be successful.

AlanS

dolciani wrote:

We are on the August 30 Eastbound Prague to Budapest. We're going a couple of days early to Prague and planning a possible daytrip to Cesky Krumlov before the Tauck tour begins. Figured this would allow us to choose the Salzburg tour without regrets of missing Cesky Krumlov. If anyone has used services for this tour, we'd appreciate any input about tour guides or companies that you used and found to be successful.

Stayed tuned- We are on the 12 April departure and I'll be writing a review next month. See my post (#6) earlier in this thread.

We will be going to Cesky Krumlov with PragueWalker on the day of the welcome dinner and want to be back by 5:00 pm so we can attend the welcome reception which starts at 5:30. Depending on traffic, the drive from Prague to Cesky Krumlov can take anywhere from 2:15 to 3 hours. So, to get the full 10 hours for the typical tour we will be leaving the InterContinental at 7:00 am. It will be a long day. It would have been better if we had another day where the excursion was the only thing we had to do.

Additional info-

Breakfast opens up at 6:30 am but I arranged with the hotel staff for "to go" meals for anyone in our little group who wants one- to sleep in a few more minutes or just wants eat along the way. I don't know what they will pack and forgot to ask if we need to pay, but regular breakfast is always included in before/after tour hotel stays booked through Tauck. I don't eat a big breakfast and am a fast eater, too, so will likely just eat at the breakfast buffet.

In addition to touring the town of Cesky Krumlov we are taking the official tour of the castle (separate charge)- check out the official website- a number of different tours are offered. It doesn't open until May so we won't be able to see it, but one that sounded interesting is the tour of the baroque theater. It was featured on one of the Rick Steves shows (viewable for free on his website.) You can easily Google all of this stuff.