I’ll try. Why Frankfurt? Why Bratislava? Maybe pick 1 in Croatia, and drop Budapest this time.

I’d probably cut Frankfurt first —certainly not a bad visit, but not, IMO, as interesting as the others unless you’re willing to go at a somewhat slower pace to enjoy the nearby Rhine valley. All the rest of these places are great visits. You really don’t have a lot of time, so you need to decide “North, South or Central” for the main focus. You can do one of the three with your friends for the 9 days and then go to the adjacent one for your solo 6.

I would pick Munich, Prague, Budapest (center) for the 9 days (about 3 days each including a day trip from Munich) and Croatia (with some time in Slovenia if you like mountains) for my 6 days.

Thanks guys. The only reason I have Frankfurt in there is because of flights. I am going to keep looking but no matter where I check, the best prices from Halifax, NS are to Frankfurt or London. However I totally agree about cutting it out. I just need to find a better place to fly into, to start the trip.

Frankfurt’s a major transportation hub (including some trains you can catch at the airport train station), so not necessarily a bad place to fly into/outof. It’s fast and easy to get to Munich from Frankfurt so that would work fine for the strategy I chose. Look at flying into Munich as a slightly better option and also look into an open jaw flight (into one city, out of another to avoid backtracking)— at least for you, if not for your friends. Open jaw flights often work out better than roundtrips — but it depends on the specific cities you choose.

I think you’ll find a lot of time involved in getting to/from Krakow — maybe enough time that your itinerary isn’t workable. Frankfurt to Prague is roughly 7 hours, Prague to Krakow is at least 8 hours (some routings as long as 14), Krakow to Budapest is over 10 hours. Overnight trains and flights may help a little, but this is still an awful lot of time spent in transit as opposed to actually enjoying a city.

Definitely leave out Frankfurt. Maybe leave out Bratislava. If time presses, shorten Munich or leave it out. Focus on Berlin, Prague, Krakow, Budapest and the Balkan countries, these are lively, while Frankfurt and Munich sometimes give a feeling of orderly boredom.