Rick Steves Europe: Prague & Budapest

Our first course of action was to book a tour with Rick Steves' Europe. To find out more about this decision, see Why Rick Steves?

 

We settled on this itenerary:

 

Day 1: Fly to Prague via Paris.

Day 2-3: Pre-tour days on our own in Prague, staying at Hotel Julian.

Day 4-7: Prague with the tour, staying at Hotel Metamorphis.

Day 8-10: Budapest with the tour, staying at K&K Hotel.

Day 11-12: Post-tour days on our own in Budapest.

Day 13: Fly home!

 

Once we had the major details worked out – dates chosen, passports renewed, and tour, hotels & flights booked – we had several months to complete our preparations bit by bit. The only tickets we bought ahead of time were for our first night in Prague, to see Rusalka, a Czech opera.

 

The two websites we used most for research were Rick Steves’ site, primarily the travel forums, and tripadvisor.com. We also used Rick Steves’ guidebooks and read portions of several books on the history of the places we’d be visiting.

 

Since we were arriving before our group orientation in Prague, Erica learned a few words in Czech to help us when we were traveling solo.  She used a free iPhone app called “Czech by Nemo,” and it was very useful, even though most people we met spoke English.  The shopkeepers and other people we spoke with really seemed to appreciate a few words in their own language, and it made our interactions especially friendly!