I see several options. 1). Use Vienna as a hub — you might even be able to return to the same hotel/hostel and leave much of your stuff there while you’re off on short trips. I’d probably spend several days (including day trips) in Budapest, back to Vienna and a day trip or overnight to Salzburg, back to Vienna or straight through to Bratislava, then a couple of days in the High Tatras and back to Vienna. Prague is another option — but I’m thinking you’ve already been there?? 2). Do a loop from Vienna, perhaps something like Salzburg (you can visit as an all day stopover on your way to Munich), Munich, Bratislava (would actually require a connection in Vienna), Budapest, Vienna. Another loop would be overnight train to Venice, Trieste, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Vienna. 3). I don’t think I’d recommend completely skipping Vienna, but you could. You could fly or take an overnight train to almost anywhere in Europe and spend your 10 days in Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Ukraine, wherever. We ended up with at least an overnight in Vienna several times when we were working or visiting in Eastern Europe. We stayed at the airport hotel and sometimes didn’t go into Vienna at all — which means I know a lot about the Vienna airport if you end up spending time there.

I really like Bratislava, and I really love the Tatras in Slovakia.

Oh, there are plenty of pleasant places in that region. I would suggest daytrips, or even longer wandering, to these locations:
1) Tokaj wine region. 240 km east from Budapest, easy train connection (bi-hourly), 2 and a half hour ride. Tokaj is a pleasant small town with numerous wine cellars and excellent food and wines.
2) Hungarian spas. Very many, most of them thermal, with perfect possibility of renewing your energy. Brief outline here http://www.hungaroti…
3) Slovak mountains. Beginning 100 km north from Budapest, but best reachable from Bratislava by train. High and Low Tatras are beautiful, and the Slovak paradise is the most breathtaking natural beauty in Slovakia, for me. Tatras are best reachable by train from Bratislava to Poprad-Tatry (at least bi-hourly), the Slovak paradise can be reached either by train to Spisska Nova Ves (bi-hourly) and then by bus, or by fast train no. 811 “Horehronec” leaving Bratislava at 6:21 AM – descend anywhere after Telgart station. Transport takes 3.5 to 6 hours).
4) if travelling in summer, then Balaton (the “Hungarian sea”) and Neusiedler See (at the Austrian-Hungarian border) offer all the summer activities.
5) A daytrip to the Alps from Vienna. There are so many good destinations in the Alps, within easy reach by train, that it would be very tiring to list them all.
6) A day trip to Venice. A bit away, but with a very good and comfy connection from both Budapest and Vienna. There is the EuroNight train 240/241 “Venezia” running every night between Budapest-Keleti sta. and Venezia-Santa Lucia sta., and the EuroNight train 237/238 “Allegro Don Gi” between Wien-Westbahnhof and Venezia-Santa Lucia.

I’ve never been but have heard great things about Slovenia – both Llubjana and the mountains/lakes – so that would a priority if it were me…

Vienna is a fantastic beautiful city, architechturally one of the most impressive there is…. – BUT , it’s very expensive. I almost think Vienna is just two-day kind of destination, especially if you’re on a budget..

Budapest is cool.. I never got to that central steppe region of Hungary, but it’s quite high on my list of places left in Europe to see…

Cycle all the way from Budapest to Vienna on those picturesque trails.
For 11 days, you can take a number of side detours and check out a lot of the countryside.
I want to do the same, but the reverse route – want to bike from Prague->Vienna->Bratislava->Budapest. You can rent bicycles at around 30 euros/day. And drop them off at designated cities. (Vienna including i think)

Not sure I’d be ready to cycle this — particularly since you probably have gear for a long trip, but I would look into taking a Danube cruise from Budapest to Vienna.

Some awesome suggestions, thankyou. I think we’ll just take it as it comes, if we decide Bratislava from Budapest we will, we could also do Slovenia via Zagreb, heaps of options.

My next question is in regards to Eurail pass. If I’m not sure how this portion of the trip will pan out, am I better off buying point to point tickets? Or should I include these countries in a Eurail-Select pass?

The only things I’m sure about is at least 2 day rail trips within Hungary, and at least 1 possibly more in Austria. Are Hungarian train tickets cheap enough that I won’t need a railpass?

I’ll still be buying some sort of Eurail pass to cover extensive stays in Germany and Czech Republic, just trying to decide which other countries to include in either a Select or Global pass.

Thanks!!!

(I know this specific comment belongs in a different forum but thought it was relevant to this already created thread, apologies if this is a mistake.)

I would add Austria to the pass you’re already getting. The pass prices are based on Western Europe and tickets are cheap, by comparison, in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Rep., etc. If you can buy your tickets in advance and take advantage of the specials available in Germany you may be better off without any pass. http://reiseauskunft…

Yes, Hungarian domestic tickets are very cheap. I will find the exact price later. And you can check (and even buy) Austrian domestic tickets at http://www.oebb.at/e…

I dont know about exact kilometrage you’re planning to do in the Czech republic, and I don’t know about the price you’d pay for your trip, please list them, maybe I’ll have a better option for you if you travel a lot (at least 1300 km) within the Czech rep.

Thanks again.
We’re trying to organise a visit with long distant relatives in Czech, and if we do, we’ll need to head in the area of Litmosyl, I assume this will be done via train from Vienna via Brno…
Whilst we’re playing by ear I guess most of the stay will be in Prague but we’ll also visit/possibly stay in Cesky Krumlov and Plzen. Then on the way out, will head to Munich.

Next two weeks (ish) in Germany but going no further north than Wurzburg. Travel between Nurnberg and Munich with daytrips down to the castles, Salzburg, exiting via Fierburg to Basel (Switzerland).

I was in Budapest a few years back, and took a side trip to Lake Baloton(Papyr mentioned it above)….I wish that I had 2 days at this lake! We were there at the end of June, and it was warm for swimming and very peaceful, not to mention that at that time it was rather inexpensive to rent a room for 2 (this was in 2001).