Adventure Awaits Your Family

Travel Day – we flew overnight, with a stop in Munich before arriving in Prague in later afternoon. We grabbed a bite in Old Town Square before crashing that night!

Accommodations: We stayed here, at the BEST Airbnb!

Cannot say enough about the space (it was huge, with three bedrooms, full kitchen and two living spaces) and how affordable it was! In fact, Prague is one of the most affordable cities we have traveled to! 

11:00 a.m.: Private walking tour of the city. This was a great introduction to the city which is completely walkable! We visited Wenceslas Square, old Town, Old Town Hall, Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge, St Vitus Cathedral and the Astronomical Clock. 

7:30 p.m.: Dinner at Mlynec. This is right on the river with views of the Charles Bridge. The food and ambience were great and very affordable for an upscale meal. The kids got adventurous and even tried Beef Tongue! 

8:00 a.m.: We took the kids to a Harry Potter themed Escape Room. It is not a usual activity we do on trips, but ended up being a lot of fun for all! 

In the afternoon, we visited the Dancing House and then headed to Petrin Tower (mini Eiffel tower in gardens with great views). You can grab a beer or glass of champagne when the top. There are also food carts for snacks! 

We ended with a Medieval Dinner, which was dinner and a show. It was perfectly decorated to feel and look like Medieval Times and was fun for the kids, but the food was just okay. 

Travel Day to Hallstatt (My Favorite!)

While a bit out of the way, this is one of the most ‘Pinned’ places in the world on Pinterest and for good reason. The pictures do not do justice to just how incredible this spot is. It is a remote and quaint Austrian village right on the side of Austria's mountainous Salzkammergut region. If you are traveling in the area and coming from Prague, make a stop at Český Krumlov. We did not and wish we did, but were pressed for time. 

7:15 a.m. – Private shuttle to Hallstatt. There is not an easy way to get here, so we arranged for a Private Van to take us. It was a beautiful drive, and we had a great driver! 

Hotel: Seehotel Gruner Baum – this is a quaint lakeside hotel that needs to be booked in advance as it can quickly fill up. It was a perfect location – walkable to everything and had a restaurant on site! 

2:00 p.m. – Salt Mine Tour: this was a lot of fun! We experienced the history of salt mining which included a guided tour complete with enjoying the slides that took us between floors. We then explored and walked around with incredible aerial views. 

4:30 p.m. – Took funicular down the mountain (buy passes ahead of time) 

Travel Day to Salzburg 

9:00 a.m. – stroll around the Lake at Hallstatt and shop; visit Market Square and stopped at Aussichtspunkt (picture perfect postcard spot!)

2:00 p.m. – Departed for Train. We took the ferry across the lake with luggage to get to the train stop. This is a small house, without an attendant. Need to buy tickets at the kiosk or ahead of time. Train boards right there. 

4:30 p.m. – Arrive and check into Hotel Hapimag. We stayed in two rooms at this hotel as they didn’t have anything large enough to accommodate all 6 of us. It worked out great and each had one bedroom, a pull out couch and then a full kitchen. 

9:30 a.m. – Hohensalzburg Fortress Tour: this castle is a landmark of Salzburg and includes history of the city and amazing views from the top.

11:00 a.m. – Scenic walk through Salzburg including Mozart birthplace. 

 2:00 p.m. – Altstadt: shopping in Getreudegasse; visited St Peters Abbey (cemetery from Sound of Music), spent time in the main square of Salzburg and ended visiting Mirabelle Palace and Garden.

7:00 p.m. – Dinner at Wasserful 

9:00 a.m. – Train to Vienna (easy to access train via uber or taxi) 

12:00 p.m. – Check into Airbnb: this Airbnb had plenty of space and great views, however I probably wouldn’t stay here again. I know it sounds silly, but the main bathroom had a shower without a door so water would just fill across the entire floor and out into the bedroom. Because of this, we really only had one usable bathroom for six people. 

1:00p.m. – Walk by Rathaus and Parliament building.

1:30 p.m. – Café Central for lunch (best coffee in the city!) Amazing architecture and space.

2:30 p.m. – walk Innere Stradt and visit St. Stephens Cathedral. There was great shopping along this cute cobble stone street. 

4:00 p.m. – Visit Hofburg Palace –This is the former imperial palace of the Habsburg Dynasty with history and heritage to learn about. 

9:15 a.m. – Schonbrunn Palace Tour: we did the Grand Palace Tour which took us through the private apartments of Franz Jospeh and Elisabeth as well as the State Apartments. 

2:00 p.m. – Belvedere Palace Tour

4:30 p.m. – Naschmarkt – great area with vendors for food and shopping. Our kids tried a bunch of local foods here which was fun. 

9:45 a.m. – Train to Budapest 

12:00 p.m. – Arrive in Budapest and check into D8 Hotel (great location! We secured two rooms next to each other). This hotel also offered an impressive breakfast buffet which was great with the kids. They have a full restaurant and bar on site too. And chess boards, which we all played over and over in downtime!

1:00 p.m. – grabbed lunch and walked around city. Right outside our hotel there was a large area with food trucks and shopping so the kids got to pick and choose what they wanted to eat.

5:00 p.m. – Evening dinner cruise on the Danube River. Recommend skipping the dinner cruise and just doing cocktail sunset cruise instead. Food was not great but the views made a boat ride worth doing.  

 A family favorite of all the cities we visited. Wish we had another night or two here. We walked most everywhere and visited Fisherman’s Bastion (amazing views!), Matthias Church, Buda Castle, Szechenyi Chain Bridge, and St. Stephen Basicilia. 

We ended visiting the Szechenyi Thermal Baths as well (pack suits if you plan to go here).