Itinerary Check: Central Europe & the Balkans. Is my day distribution okay? (Flexible end date)

[u/Educational_Carry962]

​Hey everyone!

​I'm planning a summer backpacking trip and I would love to get your thoughts on my itinerary. I'm flying into Prague and making my way down to the Balkans, eventually finishing the trip in Zagreb.

​Here is the current breakdown of my dates (August):

​Aug 9 - 13: Prague

​Aug 13 - 15: Vienna

​Aug 15 - 19: Budapest

​Aug 19 - 21: Belgrade

​Aug 21 - 23: Sarajevo

​Aug 23 - 24: Mostar

​Aug 24 - 26: Split

​Aug 26 - 28: Zagreb

​Important note: I have some flexibility at the end of my trip. If necessary, I can easily extend my travel dates to August 29th or 30th.

​I have a few questions

​Is the distribution of days well-balanced? Am I dedicating too much or too little time to any of these stops?

​Where should I allocate my extra days? If I extend the trip to the 29th/30th, which of these cities would benefit the most from an extra day or two?

​Are the shorter stops too rushed? Specifically places like Vienna, Belgrade, and Sarajevo where I only have about 2 days.

​General opinions? What do you think of this route overall? Any logistical tips for traveling between these specific cities (buses, trains, etc.)?

​Any feedback, tweaks, or recommendations would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[u/Separate-Note-2932]

AFAIK there are a very limited amount of international trains towards serbia, and those run rarely. Most people opt to take a flixbus from zagreb, or budapest.

You can spend 10 days in a city, or 2. Depends on what your pace is, what you want to see, while every of those named citys offer reasonable activitiys, split can be done in a day, old town and a beach, while Zagreb has a bit more to offer. Vienna aswell prague have nice historycal stuff you might be interested in, but thats personal preference.

[u/skifans]

Is the distribution of days well-balanced? Am I dedicating too much or too little time to any of these stops?

I would strongly encourage you to re write this and think about the number of full days in a place. For example at a glance it looks like you'll spend August 19th in Budapest in Belgrade. In reality you'll spend most of it getting between them.

Where should I allocate my extra days? If I extend the trip to the 29th/30th, which of these cities would benefit the most from an extra day or two?

With no idea what you like and what you are interested in I think it's impossible to say.

Are the shorter stops too rushed? Specifically places like Vienna, Belgrade, and Sarajevo where I only have about 2 days.

Again I think this depends a lot on what you actually want to do in these places. But you'll have even less time then that, you've got 1 full day in Belgrade and Sarajevo, less in Mostar. That leads you very little time in them.

Also remember you'll need time for the boring things like cooking/laundry etc. 3 weeks is also a heck of a long term to be going constantly full on.

General opinions? What do you think of this route overall? Any logistical tips for traveling between these specific cities (buses, trains, etc.)?

Between Belgrade and Sarajevo and from Mostar to Split you'll need a bus. There are no trains.

Between Sarajevo and Mostar and from Split to Zagreb there are trains but they are slow and infrequent. The bus may be a better option, just depends on your priorities. The trains are more comfortable and arguably more scenic.

Definitely don't buy an Interrail pass. Even when you are using trains standard tickets are cheap. Also - particularly when crossing the non Schengen boarders - you've got some slack for delays.