Tour Title: The Best of Eastern Europe
Tour Company: G Adventures
Tour Leader: Christin Braatz
Cities Visited: Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Český Krumlov, Vienna, Budapest
Countries Visited: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary
Dates: Sunday 07 April 2024 to Saturday 20 April 2024 (Duration 14 days)
Tour Type: Classic
Tour Itinerary (PDF) and Journal Entries

Tour Type – Classic

G Adventures Classic Description: All of the highlights, culture, access, and I-can’t-believe-we-did-that moments, all at a great price.

This tour was part of long tour that I booked Eastern Europe, Croatia and the Balkans (Sunday 07 April to Saturday 4 May 2024).

The second tour leg was Croatia and the Balkans with a new CEO leading us and 10 of the original tour members continuing on. The new leg started on Saturday 20 April 2024.

Chief Experience Officer (CEO)

The CEO, more commonly known as a Tour Leader, can assist you with almost everything you could need.

Our CEO for this tour was Christin who is a very passionate and energetic CEO who organised many events and options not listed on the itinerary.

Christin joined us for many optional events when we officially on free time for example attending the State Opera House in Vienna to watch a ballet of Die Kameliendame. By attending on her free time we got the best tickets and experience both before, during and after performance than if we attended by ourselves.

Christin also took us on additional activites not included in the tour plan for example going to Petrin Hill Tower (Prague) via a funicular. Christin did this on two different days to accomandate different members of the group.

Christin also organised the optional activities listed below and organised many good dinners. The Budapest Dinner Cruise on the Danube River was particularly great way to end this tour.

I was also impressed on how Christin ensured she interacted with everyone multiple times. During our underground mining visit Christin quickly took action to help a tour member suffering from claustrophobia.

We also used a WhatsApp group to share information and photos. It’s worth having this App installed on your phone before arrival as you need to validate to setup WhatsApp for the first time using your home mobile number.

Tour Members

This was an almost full tour group with 14 members (maximum is 16); Stewart (Doug), Kimberley, Anne, Alexa, Mary, Gerolf, Theresa, Andres, Aaron, Megan, Carolyn, Ivan plus Darby and myself.

We had members from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The group got on extremely well with age range from 18 (my neice Darby) to retirees. I found this group to be have a good mix of ages, a little older than G Adventure tours I’ve done in South America and Central America but everyone had a can do ‘let’s explore’ attitude which is way more important than age.

Included Activities

• Your G for Good Moment: Magdas Hotel, Vienna (not possible this tour)
• Your G for Good Moment: Nem Adom Fel Café and Bar, Budapest
• Your Discover Moment: Berlin
• Your Discover Moment: Budapest
• Orientation tour of Krakow
• Auschwitz entrance and guided tour (Krakow)
• Orientation walk of Prague
• Vienna walking tour

Optional Activites

• Berlin: Dark Worlds tour – Berlin Gesundbrunnen Bunker 16 Euros
• Krakow: The “Wieliczka” Salt Mine 240 PLN / 56 Euros
• Krakow: Krakow Vodka Tasting 140 PLN / 33 Euros
• Prague: Folklore Dinner 1000 CZK / 40 Euros
• Vienna: Waltz Class 25 Euros
• Budapest: Dinner Cruise 60 Euros

I did not do either the Vodka Tasting or the Waltz Class. My neice did the Vodka tasting and had a blast so something to do if you like vodka.

The above after the opatinal activities organised by Christin for the entire group. I did do a lot of other activities for example in Vienna attending the Ballet (18 euros for standing room tickets – highly recommend), and paying for entry to many different churches and using two funiculars in Prague and Budapest.

Accommodations

Berlin: AC Hotel by Marriott Berlin Humboldthain Park 
A very nice above standard hotel. Very fast wifi speeds and great included breakfast.

Krakow: Globtroter Guest House
Converted into a Guest House this accommodation is very easy to miss and walk past. You need to use a security token multiple times to get to your room plus keys so a very secure room. Great location very close to Main Square and all the action and places to visit. Reasonable wifi speeds. The Guest Houe doesn’t provide breakfast so G Adventure organised breakfast at a nearby Cafe.

Prague: Miss Sophie’s Downtown
Very clean and modern hotel. High speed wifi. Very nice included breakfast with lots of options. Two free water bottles provide and two welcome chocolates. Opposite main train station and very close to the main attractions.

Český Krumlov: Pensione Familia
A small guest house type accommodation. Wifi connections were difficult to maintain from my room. Breakkfast was a bit limited but okay.

Vienna: Arcotel Wimberger
Clean and modern hotel. Strong speed wifi / internet. Very good included breakfast with lots of options but it gets very busy as this is a major hotel with many guests. Near both a train station and a tram line.

Note: This was a replacement hotel and is not normal hotel for this tour in Vienna.

Budapest: Ibis Styles Budapest Center
A funky hotel with a Video Gaming Theme. Good speed wifi / internet. Good to fair included breakfast but can get busy. Is near both multiple train stations and multiple tram lines. There is also buses (which I didn’t use).

Highlights

You can’t go past the visit to Auschwitz while in Poland. The education you get on this site, plus a lot of history on World War 2. While I consider myself informed I learnt a lot during this visit in particular about Polish prisoners when the camp first started.

Having been to Berlin previously I was surprised at how much I got on a return visit, learning about the Berlin Wall from our CEO who was born in the no longer existing East Germany probably helped. Exploring an underground bunker was also eye openning especially for how even when escaping bombing the Nazi’s still ensured those protected were the ‘right’ people.

Exploring the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine was a lot of fun, especially given all the activities we did definitely a must do assuming you don’t suffer from claustrophobia!

Almost everything in Prague was a highlighted, amost beautiful city but the Folklore Dinner lead to a lot of fun with drinks, very good food, excellent live fold music and even dancing. If in Prague don’t miss out on local treat – trdelnik (it’s like a donut cone filled with ice cream!)

In Vienna a real highlight was exploring the Schönbrunn Palace. As the location of summer palace to Emperors of a significant empire you know you are in for something special.

And attending a performance at the State Opera House is a must, I had done this previously in 2006 with an Opera, this time it was an excellent Ballet. Cheap standing room tickets for some of the best performers in the world.

I loved exploring Budapest, living how this was two city originally was news tome. Buda Castle was a must and the Hungarian Parliament probably the best Parliament buildings I’ve ever seen. Seeing it lite up at night from Danube River can be very inspiring.

Summary

When I booked this 4 week tour the first 2 weeks covered a lot of places I had visited before with Polandand Hungary being new to me. I expected to enjoy the other places, especially taking my neice who was experiencing Europe for the first time.

I underestimated how much I would enjoy revisiting these countries and cities. I had new eyes then 18 years ago and got new experiences then when I was a backpacker. Eastern Europe has a lot to offer even with multiple visits.

I won’t forget Poland or Hungary either as they over delivered. This was a reminder to me why it is so important to travel with passionate people, both tour members and tour leader.

Definitely worth doing this tour.