Most of our guests travel to Central Europe from the US by air, unless they are already traveling in a neighboring country. There are direct flights to many Central European capitals, including Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw and Vienna as well as to Munich in Germany and several Swiss cities. We usually recommend getting an “open jaw” ticket which has you flying in to the first city on your trip and out of the last. This will save time and usually cost less when you factor in the cost of returning to the first city on your itinerary. Although we don’t sell airfare, our travel advisors will help you pick out the best fare and routing.

With so many potential routes, it all depends on which cities you want to see on your custom tour. Our travel advisors and expert trip planners will help you decide when we prepare your initial itinerary. Any of our sample itineraries can also be taken in reverse.

Spring, early summer and early fall are the very best times of year to visit Central Europe if you’re visiting for a primarily cultural and historical interest trip. The weather is not dissimilar to that of New York. July and August can be very warm. Late fall and January through mid March are the low season. Hotel and flight prices are lower but there are fewer, or no, direct flights from the US to cities like Prague and Budapest at that time. The cities experience another busy period with Christmas markets visitors from late November until New Years.

It is very difficult to see all of Central Europe in one trip and many of our guests make several trips, sometimes revisiting favorite places mixed with new cities for them. With just a week we suggest no more than two big cities, such as Prague and Budapest or Vienna and maybe a smaller city in between. With ten days you could spend three nights in each of three cities. This gives you enough time to experience the city itself and take a day trip somewhere close by to get more of a sense for the country as a whole.

The most popular itinerary for a Central Europe tour is Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Each of these three capital cities have unique characteristic. This route combines the postcard-perfect magic of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge, the Imperial grandeur of Vienna, and dreamy Budapest, with its thermal baths and Danube river views of the impressive parliament building from Fisherman’s Bastion.

Being in the middle of our map, there are plenty of possible extensions, if you have time. You could go further east, to Ukraine or head south to the Balkans, via Slovenia. A pairing we arrange often is Prague and Croatia, thanks to inexpensive direct flights between the two countries.

As most of the distances between cities are less than five hours by road or rail, we don’t recommend traveling by plane once you’ve arrived in Europe. Based on your preferences and budget we can include train or bus station transfers and tickets, or door-to-door private transfers in your travel package. One advantage of a private transfer over taking the train is the ability to make stops at places of interest along the way.

For a couple of reasons. Firstly there’s really no better description for the group of countries that are located in the geographical heart of Europe. Secondly, although some of these countries were ‘behind the iron curtain’ as Communist countries and satellite states of the Soviet Union, they have developed significantly in the three decades since gaining independence to the point of being indistinguishable from their western neighbors, especially in the capitals and major cities. Locals in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia feel, to a lesser or greater degree, insulted by the epithet ‘Eastern European’. While some tour companies include everything east of Germany in “Eastern Europe”, then stop when they reach Croatia or Hungary, we like to be a little more precise. We consider Eastern Europe to be countries genuinely in the east of the continent: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

Although several of the countries in Central Europe have adopted the Euro, there are still several holdouts. Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have retained their own currencies and Switzerland is not a member of the EU and therefore still uses the Swiss Franc.