We want to see the castles and drink wine in the Loire Valley. Thus, none of the four of us are all that keen on driving. As I look into it more, perhaps we’ll change our mind. DH is the only one who would be amenable to driving but that would curtail his ability to fully engage in his desire to wine taste.
Will check out all the suggestions. I’ve been looking at hotels in Budapest this afternoon and several are already booked. Seems I’m a bit late to the game so I really appreciate all the suggestions, particularly the ones for lodging.
We’ve stayed at the Budapest Hilton in the Castle District. Great location, hotel was good as expected with the brand name.
Sorry to divert, but @musicamusica - were you able to book an automatic from Tours? Or, maybe you can manage the stick! I want to do the Loire soon. I was thinking we’d have to rent from Charles deGaulle for better chances with an automatic - I’d be OK with driving out of there,we’ve done it before, but Tours would be closer to the destination.
I spent 3 days in Budapest with a friend - we rented a lovely, centrally located apartment via AirBnB and had a wonderful time. If I had it to do over again, I’d plan for a longer stay. We both absolutely loved Budapest.
Prague - Marino Grosetto Ristorante - an Italian restaurant on a boat. Our tour guide said it’s the best place in town. While I was at a conference, DH and D2 took a walking tour of the city that they enjoyed.
A tour of the Klementium is worth it for the chapel, library and the roof view. If you don’t know much about classical music but would like to hear a string quartet, they have a nice package that includes a concert. (If you do know about music, I’d skip this part!)
We stayed at the Kampa Garden hotel, which was basic but clean and convenient. Large breakfast included.
We still regret not taking the day tour out to Cesky Krumlov or Kutna Hora.
Seeing this thread makes me think about fields of sunflowers instead of 2 ft of snow! We spent a couple of days in Loire Valley in ‘13 on family trip. We rented car and drove from CDG. If you want an automatic, I’d suggest renting early as numbers are limited and the get more expensive during peak travel times.
We stopped at Guedelon Castle on the way – fascinating historical/ archeological project of building a 13th century castle with 13th century technology. Can see it and arrive in Loire in one day if that is of interest.
I think Chenonceaux and Villandry should definitely be on a list but our absolute favorite was Chaumont-sur-Loire. The grounds and many of the rooms in the chateaux are an art gallery – beautiful, evocative installations. The gardens are huge, varied and host an international garden festival. We would have missed it if not for the recommendation of the owner of the gite we stayed in.
Would also suggest exploring ‘gites-de-france’ for accommodations. They vary in refinement but we stayed in a lovely one near Loche, which is a small medieval-walled city worth exploring.
My brother lives in Prague on and off for work and loves it. He has traveled all over the globe for his job (the US movie industry), so given his regard for that city, I find it hard to believe there is little to do there.
This is a city I’m very interested in seeing. Hopefully, you will do a trip report after!
In Prague we stayed at the Hotel Metamotphosis. It was half a block from the old square which is a perfect location for walking to everything. Across the square is a wonderful church. The big thing to do is watch the bugler blow the change of hours. Just join the crowd. I love it so much the Orague church tower is our ring tone.
If you like fun jewelry Prague has lots of crystal things.
As mentioned above, music and Art Deci is what Prague is all about. We loved the Art Deco museums and architecture.
Again in Prague, take a tour with a local guide about the Velvet Revolution. We took a tour lead by a man about 65 who was a revolutionary. He told the story from personal experience. When he described what it was like to be imprisoned and tortured by the Soviets, it’s live history. Very moving.
I cannot speak to Budapest since I am one of the very few people who does not like Budapest. Too much sameness for me with no corresponding charm. One thing I loved was the river boat ride at night. Lovely.
With regard to the Loire valley, you almost cannot go wrong. If you can approach Chenenceau in the morning from the left path, do that instead of the straight forward oath. The trees will part and you will see the chateau crossing the river - gorgeous sight.
I’m going to chime in here because the Loire Valley is heaven on earth (especially for me from So Cal).
There is a group of small chateaus/inns that are part of an association but you will hardly find them on Trip Advisor or the Internet. Family owned, usually with their own vineyards. I have their small book one of the owners gave me. These fill up quick with French visitors. I’m going to go find it and post back.
I personally don’t know how you would get around without a car. Would recommend Chateau visits during day with rental car and then maybe taxi or driver in evenings. Driving Loire is easy and everyone in your party should be able to take turns, unless you come in peak summer season when everything is packed. We go in winter and have had entire castles to ourselves.
Found my book. Bienvenue au Chateau, bed and breakfast in private Chateau and manor houses.
I believe they have a website. However, most of these places will be already reserved in summer. You really should go in the fall!!
I’m not sure all of the inns can be found on the Internet.
We have stayed at Chateau des Bidaudieres which was wonderful, reasonably priced and gorgeous views across the valley. Get the room at the end of 2nd floor. All of these places serve a nice breakfast. Can’t remember names of the others ive stayed at. Have also stayed at some of the Chateau that are heavily advertised with the Chateau Relais company and found them overly expensive with the overly expensive foodie gourmet restaurants. I am not an extreme foodie so they would get dissapointed when we didn’t dine in the restaurant.
Airbnb apartments are plentiful in Budapest. We rented a 2 BR 2 BA one in November in Pest. Everything in Budapest was inexpensive - rent, food, transportation. Our family enjoyed the Castle Museum, Hospital in the Rock, Opera House tour, and the baths (we did Szechenyi bath). The area around the bath was nice - from Heroes Square to a very large park. One more expensive meal was Eat & Meet (check it out on Trip Advisor).
Someone mentioned Seat61 for train ticket advice. I think I got advice from that site. Be sure to buy your tickets directly through the Hungarian rail, not Eurorail. It was fairly easy to register on the site, you buy tickets and get a code that you will use at the train station to print your tickets.
The Doheny Synagogue tour in Budapest is very interesting. None of my traveling companions were Jewish but they all felt it was a highlight of the trip. You may also want to do the Gellart Baths or similar.
Great suggestions, pizzagirl, thank you. We are Jewish and are traveling with a couple who is also and who are particularly interested in seeing Jewish sites so hearing about this Synagogue tour is helpful. I will check out the Gellart Baths too.
Again, thanks to everyone. When I first posted, I was completely overwhelmed and now things are more clear. I have secured accommodations in Budapest and Prague and am waiting to hear back from a Chateau in the Amboise area of the Loire Valley to see if they have room for us.
Unfortunately, when I (finally) confirmed flights with our friends, I went back and the return flight from Paris had gone up $250. Now I’m in that bad spot of trying to figure out if we pay more than (I believe) is reasonable for flights that are perfect or wait a bit to see if that return flight will come back down ($910 for the return leg–it was $665!) That will add $500 to the trip for each couple but, otoh, I have been pleasantly surprised to see how reasonable hotels have been priced.
Grrrr, just venting. The return flight just went up to $990! It just occurred to me that dh and I can use miles but it will deplete us completely. Will talk to dh about that tonight. Spoke with United to see if we could pay for the outbound leg to Budapest (reasonably priced) and use miles for the leg home (unreasonably priced) but was told no as the outbound leg would revert to a one way fare which is hundreds more than when part of a round trip. Very frustrating!
musicamusica, I’m looking at United (we have status so economy means economy plus for us and it happened to be the most reasonably priced) and we’re flying from the west coast to Budapest and flying home from Paris. I checked all configurations (with Prague) and this was not only the least expensive but there’s a benefit to flying home from Paris as it’s nonstop and it’s an easier trip than flying home from either of the other two, farther, requiring a stop, cities.
OK! We like the Airfrance non stops out of LAX and discovered that on one trip to Paris, if we added Prague—That is one way to CDG then on to Prague on the same day, a week in Prague, back to Paris for two weeks—that we actually saved $160 per person than if it was just LAX-CDG-LAX for the very same dates… But knowing that much of this depends on the time of the year, the phase of the moon and “whatever”> I just thought that it might be worth a shot. YMMV
On the Danube trip H and I took last August, Budapest was our beginning, Prague the end (an extension we took). They were by far our 2 favorite cities. Wish we had had time to visit a bath. Hope to revisit both cities, as well as that other little Medieval city mentioned above by another poster. We did not have one bad meal in Prague. You will likely enjoy visiting the Synagogues in Prague, as well as Budapest.
Enjoy your trip. I can’t speak to your part to France, as I only know Paris and up the Seine to the Normany beaches.
If you go to the baths in Budapest, I suggest bringing your own towels if possible. We went on a Saturday evening, and the line to rent towels was about 30 minutes long.
A couple places we ate - Hummus Bar for a casual lunch (we walked there from the Synagogue) and Kat Szerecsen (small so reservations necessary) near the Opera.