Tour Information

Why choose Best of Prague & Budapest tour?

🧳Guides

The tour leader and local guides will create a memorable journey with masterfully curated walking tours, well-planned site visits, magnificent cultural experiences, and fun surprises.

🧳Lodging

The hotels are centrally located and provide comfortable accommodations and hearty breakfasts.

🧳Transportation

Travel to Budapest is on board a clean, spacious motorcoach, and in both cities, tour participants are provided a public transportation pass.

🧳Grautity

No need to worry about tipping at the hotels and dinners or the guides, as that is all handled by the tour leader.

🧳Camaraderie

Experience Europe with a group of welcoming and fun travelers. (As a solo traveler, I loved the fellowship between the members of my group!)

Most important reason - the world's best dessert, The Gundel Pancake!!

Important Note: The trip itinerary has changed, so the 2025 schedule will differ from what I present in this scrapbook. I looked through the new schedule, and activities appear to be the same, with the big difference being the number of nights spent in each city (2024: 4 nights in Prague; 3 nights in Budapest 2025: 3 nights in Prague; 4 nights in Budapest).

For more information visit Rick Steves' Europe Best of Prague & Budapest tour site.

2024 Itinerary

A few things to note:

✔️ Balance of tour activities and free time

✔️ No activities on day 8, just breakfast

✔️ Start times are not too early (except on travel day)

✔️ Walking tours include a coffee break

When you receive the tour itinerary during the orientation meeting, take a picture so you always have a copy on hand!

Lodging

The hotels for my tour were the Leon D' Oro in Prague and the K + K Opera in Budapest. Each provided wonderful customer service, served a hearty breakfast, had well-appointed bedrooms, and was in a great, central location.

Wow Moment: When checking in at the Leon D' Oro, the receptionist asked if I preferred a room on the 4th floor or one on the 6th floor. The room on the 6th floor had a terrace so I obviously picked that one. To my surprise, the terrace provided some lovely views of Prague.

My view for 6 nights...a favorite memory from my first 1st trip to Europe!

I traveled solo and opted for the single supplement. The rooms I was offered were spacious, clean, and had considerable storage space. Both rooms were air-conditioned and had a decent amount of outlets.

Leon D' Oro was an older, charming hotel, while the K + K Opera was more modern. Each provided breakfast in the morning and offered luggage storage if needed. The K + K Opera had on-site dining and a mini-market (kiosk that sold snacks, sandwiches, and drinks).

Prague

Budapest

Forgot to take pictures of the breakfast area and only remembered to take pictures of the room at 3AM on the way to the airport.

Meals

Now to my favorite subject: food! The tour included 4 dinners, 1 lunch (prepared by the group during a cooking class), and 3 coffee breaks. During the orientation meeting, participants had the opportunity to select their meal preferences for each included dinner.

This section only covers the included dinners. Later in the scrapbook, I will write about the cooking class, coffee breaks, and other delicious meals I enjoyed in Europe.

Special diets and food allergies: Since I follow a predominantly vegetarian diet, with the occasional seafood dish, I was a bit worried that the tour meals may be a problem. Fortunately, all tour meals included a vegetarian option, and there was a fish option in Budapest. Other tourmates had various dietary restrictions, and all were accommodated without issues. We were all very well-fed on this tour!

Prague