An option we are looking at: a Bohemian trip
Prague to start, then Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Munich, Salzburg, Český Krumlov, Vienna, and Budapest to finish. Karlštejn and Kutná Hora as days out from Prague rather than towns to unpack in, and Nuremberg as an afternoon on the drive rather than another hotel. Around three weeks, seven beds, and no drive longer than about three hours.
We are saying "an option" because that is what it is. It is the shape the planning has actually landed on, it is the one we would run tomorrow, and it is still not a thing you can book.
- It ends in Budapest rather than doubling back. Driving Budapest to Prague is five and a half hours through Slovakia, and there is no reason to spend a day on it. The trip finishes where it finishes.
- Seven beds in three weeks. That is the part worth caring about. The last trip through this part of Europe changed hotel seven times in ten nights, and it is the single thing we would undo.
- Late May into June. The rest of this page explains why that window and not July.
- Small groups, led in person. Doug is going anyway. That is the whole premise — not a coach tour with a guide who read about it.
- Anyone can come. This is not a family-and-friends trip. If you have read this site and thought "I want that one", it is for you.
What is not settled — and we would rather say so
- Whether there is one departure or two. There may be an earlier group and a later one across the window, and that is partly what we are trying to find out. Telling us which end of the season suits you is what decides it.
- How you would fly it. Landing in Prague and leaving from Budapest is one ticket, not two, and it is the thing that makes the route work. We are still pricing it properly and will not put a number on it until we have.
- Whether Dresden and Berlin get their own trip. They are the other direction out of Prague and they do not fit on the end of this one. Say if they are the reason you would come.
- The price and the group size. Neither is decided, and quoting a number we might not hold to is not how this site works.
- The exact route. We have a very good idea. We are not going to publish it as though it were final when it is not.
Why late May and June, and not July
- Hallstatt before the coaches own it. By July the village takes day traffic on a scale it was never built for. In late May you can stand on the shore road in the morning and have it to yourself, which is the entire reason to give it a day rather than an hour.
- Prague is warm and not yet full. The Old Town in high summer is a queue with a city around it. Six weeks earlier it is the same buildings and a third of the people.
- Long light. By the first week of June the valleys hold light until well past nine, which changes what you can fit into a day.
- And the flights are cheaper. Round trips from Las Vegas have been running under $1,000 for a late-May departure, and $150 to $300 more once June is properly underway. Checked on 21 September 2026 against the 2027 season. That is what moved us to look at this end of the window — it is an observation about airfares, not a fare anybody is quoting you, and airfares move.
- And the honest catch: late May in Bohemia can still be cool and wet, and a number of Czech castles and monuments keep shorter spring hours or close on Mondays — Karlštejn and Kutná Hora both need checking against their own 2027 calendars before a day is promised to them. Planning around that is the job, and it is a reason to go with somebody who will look it up rather than guess.
