Well, there are serious mountains involved in this route, so nothing is going to be very direct. Krakow to Poprad (Slovakian side of the high tatras) has one fairly direct train (1 connection and about 8 hours) each day. Other options involve more connections and/or time. Poprad to Brasov is 14 to 23 hours and at least 2 connections. The best option may be to spend time on the Polish side of the Tatras (sorry, I’m not familiar with that at all) or to go from Poprad to Bratislava/Vienna and then on to Brasov via Budapest.

Oldlady do you know how long it will take to get from Poprad to Bratislava? Also is there a better way that you can think of to get from Krakow Brasov? I would like to stop in Slovakia but I am always up for another suggestion. Also I will not be traveling that long and would prefer not to spend an entire day on a train. Thanks for all your help.

It’s between 4 and 5 hours between Poprad and Bratislava with about a dozen trains to choose from each day.

I do not think that renting a car is going to make this any easier. A car will not be any faster than the train.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish as your itinerary doesn’t seem to match your question. This may just plain be too much territory to cover in 19 days.

Sorry. I am flying into Warsaw and flying out of Bucharest. Poland and Romania are the two places I would like to see. Since I had to go threw Slovakia anyway I thought it was a good idea to stop there for a few days. I did not realize that the travel in that area would be so difficult. Do you think it would be better to skip Slovakia altogether? And if so which route would you choose. Thanks for all of your help on this matter.

I love Slovakia, so I wouldn’t recommend skipping it, however this won’t be an easy trip. The first two places I’d probably recommend cutting would be Warsaw (haven’t been there, but it doesn’t seem to get the greatest reviews) and Bucharest which is interesting but a little edgy, IMO…

I really think you need to stick to your arrival/departure cities and 4 (max 5)other cities/areas. Use http://reiseauskunft… for rail schedules and maybe the maps at www.railpass.com or at ricksteves.com to plot this out. Maybe one (max 2) cheap flights will help. www.whichbudget.com will tell you which budget airlines fly which routes and you’ll find lots of tips and help on our “cheap flights” forum.