Weekend and two days off work, what to do? Backpacking in Europe of course! After carefully studying the map we figured out that Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary have interesting cities very close to one another. But is it worth travelling  to this many places in such a short time?

Our trip started and ended in Stavanger, Norway. From here we flew to Prague, took a bus to Bratislava and Vienna. From Vienna we caught a train to Sopron and flew home from Vienna again. We started the journey in the morning and returned to Norway in the evening on the last day. This gave us roughly 24 hours in each city, with the exception of Sopron where we only had a day trip.

Day 1: Prague

The aircraft touched down in Prague at 11:05 and we started exploring the city around noon after a short taxi ride and check-in at the hotel. Prague is a very nice city and we spent quite some time just exploring the city itself. Some time was set aside seing the common attractions in the city center, such as the astronomical clock and Old Town Square. We also visited the Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol exhibition in the afternoon. In the evening we went up to St. Vitus Cathedral and got a great view of the city. All in all we got to see quite a lot in one day, but Prague has definitively much more to offer than what we had time for.

Day 2: Bratislava

The bus departed from Prague at 09:00 in the morning and arrived in Bratislava at 13:15. Since both countries (all four in fact) are EU members and part of Schengen there is no delays or stops at border crossings. Bratislava is a fairly small city, we managed to walk brom the bus station to the hotel and to everything we wanted to see. The city was surprisingly quiet and we felt that we almost managed to see everything we wanted in the one day we had there. Once again the recommendations of TripAdvisor and Triposo was the basis of our todo list; on one of the hill tops we visited the monument Slavin, being one of the most famous attractions. The view from here is quite good, remember to bring a camera if you are visiting. We also visited the Blue Church and Bratislava Castle.

Day 3: Vienna

Vienna is located right next to Bratislava; we spent no more than an hour on the bus getting there in the morning. Some time was again spent exploring the city, and a fair amount of time was spent visiting the Museum of Natural History. It must be one of the largest and most incredible museums in the world. Meteorites, fossils of dinosaurs, mounted animals and much more. The reminder of the day was spend further exploring and enjoying this very easily likeable city.

Day 4: Sopron

On the very border to Austria lies a small Hungarian city named Sopron. We caught a train from Vienna to Sopron in the morning, a journey taking just under 1,5 hours. While the border crossings between the other countries has been rather natural, like a river, the border to Hungary was in the middle of a farmer’s field. To this day we still wonder which city the farmer lives in… We were unable to discover a lot to do in Sopron, but they do have a few museums, among them an old bell tower and a mining museum. Both were interesting visits, but once they have been seen, what is next? As a small city one can always relax in the town square and take a break, but besides this we did not find too much to do. On our return we missed our train and had to wait for the next one. While waiting the bording pass popped up on the phone because it assumed we were in the airport in Vienna based on the current time. But no, we were not even in the right country! Luckily we managed to get on the next train and made in back to the airport in time.

Conclusion

Out four days were exiting and we managed to see a lot. Whether you want to undertake a journey like this or not highly depends on what you wish to accomplish. For us the purpose was to get an idea of what the different countries are like and where we can plan to go on a future vacation. We quite quickly concluded that Prague was a very nice city we would like to return to, the same goes for Vienna. On the other hand, Sopron and Bratislava were rather boring cities and we see no reason to return here anytime soon. That doesn’t necessarily mean that one should not go here, but we would at least no plan on staying here for very long unless you like doing the same over and over again.

If your goal is to get a deeper insight into culture and understanding of these countries, then more time than we had is definitively a must. But many people does not have the luxury of extending vacations as they want, and for these kind of scenarios our trip was perfect for a getaway from everyday life.

Tips for short trips

We made some experiences during this trip for weekend getaways and how to best utilise the time:

• Flight hours are critical: Many treat travel days as days where nothing else can happen. Book an early flight in the morning and you have all day to do something better than getting to your destination. You also save a night at a hotel if you travel in the morning instead of the evening before.
• Don’t spend time getting around: Eight hours on the bus is eight hours waisted on travel. If you can find fast ways to get around more time will be available to actually enjoy your destination. Neither of our trips, including the flight with a stopover lasted more than 4,5 hours. Between three of the cities we never exceeded 1,5 hours in travel time per leg. In other words, choose destinations where you don’t spend all your time getting there.
• Plan what to see and do in advance: Limited time does not give you the luxury of wandering around until you stumble upon something interesting. Check TripAdvisor and similar webpages in advance and make a map of what you want to see. Find the location of everything and make a plan of how to get there as efficiently as possible. If there are two main areas in a city where the attractions are, everything in one area can be visited first, then the other area. Doing it this way saves lots of time going back and fourth, not to mention all the time saved by not having to plan what to do next when you are at your destination.