Vienna and Budapest were once the two capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at times the largest power in Europe (and arguably in the world). Many artifacts in both cities are still indicators of that history and the connection between the two cities. As a result of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split into many pieces, one of them being modern day Austria and one modern day Hungary, with Vienna and Budapest as their respective capitals. (It also resulted in the creation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, etc)
As a result of World War II, Hungary became part of the Sovjet empire and disappeared behind the Iron Curtain. However, even in the drab times of communist rule in Eastern Europe, Hungary was considered the "different kid", since its population enjoyed a few more freedoms than the rest of eastern europeans countries. Hungary was always *the* fun place to visit in the Eastern Block (since travel outside the Eastern Block was prohibited).
The former connection between Hungary and Austria played a major role in the fall of the Iron curtain, as the former connected countries were the first ones to open their borders to each other in early 1989. This led to the mass exodus of East Germans in the summer of 1989 that the ruling class in East Germany couldn't stop and resulted eventually in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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Budapest
There are many, many great hotels in Budapest (and even more shitty ones - and I've stayed in a few dozen), I'll only recommend one: the Corinthia Hotel Budapest.
This place has it all: the glam, the history, one of the best restaurants in the whole country (Bock Bisztro, check it out), it's close to everything (esp. the 'Oktogon' subway station) and it has a awesome spa. It was also the blue-print for the movie "Grand Budapest Hotel".
If you give the staff notice, they'll pick you up from the train station in a limo (they did that for free for us). Price should be around $200/night, which I think is very reasonable for this place. I recommend a 3 night stay.
What to see
River cruise
The best way to get your bearings around Budapest is to take one of the many 1-hour river cruises up and down the river first. If you got there in the morning, it's best to have the hotel arrange that for you, including a taxi to get to where that cruise starts. The metro system in Budapest isn't like Munich, it's entirely adequate, but you'll need some bearings first to use it. Once you got that, it's easier to navigate the different subways to get where you wanna go, and also get from the different places to the next. Make sure they also explain to you how to get back to the hotel.
The following is a list of things to see, more in priority order than geographical order. You'll have to plan your day trips to make sure you're not wasting too much time waiting for the metro or hopping from one train to the next. There are a few tips at the end of this list.
Spa's and baths
Budapest, with its Turkish history, has some 600+ spa's. Here are a couple that are noteworthy:
- The Gellert Spa (http://gellertspa.com/), which although showing its age (and problematic Communist management in the past), it' still a must see. It's at the southern end of the Budapest downtown area, right on the Danube river at the Liberty Bridge.
- the Szechenyi Spa (http://www.szechenyibath.hu/) is what you'll typically see on any post card from Budapest. You'll have to spend a few hours there, just to marvel the architecture. If there is a long line, try to upgrade to a massage, you can skip the line that way.
- the Kiraly Baths, one of the oldest still existing bath houses in Budapest, see http://en.kiralyfurdo.hu/ . It's located across the river from the Parliament building
- if you went with my hotel recommendation, you'll have one of the best private spas in the basement of your hotel.
Opera house and St. Stephen's Basilica
The opera house is within walking distance from your hotel, one M1 subway/metro station down towards the river from the Oktogon square near your hotel. The Oktogon station is about 4 blocks or so from your hotel, you'll leave your hotel to the right.
If possible, try to get tickets to the Opera house for one night that you're there. It's the best sounding opera house in Europe after the Scala in Milan. If the place looks familiar, it's probably because you've seen it in a dozen or so hollywood movies as a movie location. If you get tickets (they tend to be reasonable), make sure to dress up :)
From the opera house, keep walking down Andrassy street (ut. stands for utica, hungarian for street), about 5 blocks, and look to the right. You'll see St. Stephens basilica when you come up to a larger square. The church is named after the founder of Hungary. For the way back, you can use the subway M1 that runs along Andrassy street for two stations, back to Octogon.
While riding the M1 metro line, look at the design of the metro stations. This metro line is the oldest subway on mainland Europe.
Parliament building
Budapest has the largest parliament building in Europe (for real, it's larger than the Parliament in London). You'll have to get a guided tour, which is well worth it. When you're done, come around the southern side of the building towards the Danube river. You'll see shoes along the promenade - the history why they are there is at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Bank
Buda castle
This can be a day trip in itself, but it's on a steep hill, so use the funicular that starts at the Széchenyi Chain Bridge (literally a chain bridge) to get up there. After walking around up on the castle hill, perhaps paying a visit to the Torteneti Museum or the National Gallery, make your way to the Fisherman's Bastion and the Mathias Church. There is a nice bar up there at the bastion, have a drink and enjoy the view.
Gellert Hill
A large park on a steep hill overlooking Budapest. It's quite a hike to get up there, so if you're already spend from walking around all day, I'd recommend making a reservation for evening dinner at the Citadella Panorama Restaurant up there, take a cab to get there an hour early, walk around a bit, and then have dinner at the Citadella Panorama restaurant. Make sure to request a table by the window when making the reservation (you may have to make that reservation a day or two in advance), the view from there is unbeatable, and the food is excellent.
NOTE: I just looked and it seems the Citadella Panorama restaurant is closed. I'm not sure if that's just for the winter or permanently, so please check with the hotel to find out (I'd be curious myself). However, the Citadella park on top of the Gellert Hill is still worth a visit, if just for the great view over Budapest. There were some other restaurants up there as well, but they're not the same quality. In this case, it's better to find something around "Andrassy'" street for a good dinner.
From the Great Market Hall via Vaci Street to Vörösmarty square
The Great Market Hall is a huge hall of all sorts of Hungarian food and other items, located basically across the Liberty Bridge from the Gellert Spa. Enjoy some real Hungarian Salami, Hungarian Duck Liver pate and caviar. They also have great hungarian wine, and other hard liquors. The market is closed on Sundays, and closes already at 3PM Saturdays, otherwise open until 6PM. When you get out, make your way to Vaci street (basically across the street in front of the entrance), and walk up all the way to Vörösmarty square. There are hundreds of shops, restaurants and bars along the way. Once you make it to the square, stop in at the famous Café Gerbeaud
A few tips to combine sights
Gellert Bath + shopping in downtown Pest
- from the Hotel, make your way to the main train station (Budapest-Keleti) you arrived from (cab, uber or hotel transportation). It's about a 20 minute walk, but don't get lost if you choose to walk.
- find the Metro M4 in the basement of the station, take the train towards Kelenfoldi
- exit the subway at "Szent Gelert", the entrance to the Gellert Bath is at the square.
- Once you're done with the Spa, exit and cross the Liberty bridge right in front the square (the green, pretty looking bridge)
- About one block after the bridge, you'll find the Great Market Hall on your right, continue as above
- Once you followed the tour above and made it to Vörösmarty square (and had your coffee at Café Gerbeaud), find the entrance to the M1 metro. The line starts here.
- Exit at Oktogon, your hotel is about 3 blocks down Erzsebet street.
Parliament Building + Buda castle
- from the hotel, turn right and make your way to Oktogon
- take the M1 metro to Deak Ferenc and switch to the M2 Metro towards Deli palyaudvar
- exit the M2 metro after one station, at Kossuth Lajos
- Walk towards the river, the parliament building is on your right.
- Take a guided tour, then walk back to the Danube river and turn south towards the chain bridge
- cross the chain bridge, the funicular to the castle is right in front of you across the square
- walk around the castle, see exhibits etc, then
- make your way north towards Fisherman's Bastion
- after visiting Fisherman's bastion, make your way down the hill towards the Danube river. Just north is the M2 metro station Batthyany. Take the M2 metro 2 stations towards "Ors vezer" / "Keleti"
- at the Deak Ferenc station, switch back into M1, and ride back to Oktogon
Szechenyi Spa and park, Terror Haza, Vörösmarty square
- from Oktogon, take the M1 metro the opposite way as you would go towards the opera house or downtown, and exit at Szechenyi furdo (furdo is hungarian for bath).
- Plan to spend at least a 2-3 hours there.
- Afterwards, check out the large park right behind the bath, there is pretty much always something going on, especially if this is a weekend - most likely concerts, or a market with music, etc.
- If there isn't, you could also visit the House of Terror (TerrorHaza), a museum that chronicles Nazi and Soviet occupation/terror. On your way back from the bath, exit one station before Oktogon, keep walking towards Oktogon, the museum is on your right.
- After that, if you need something to brighten the mood, take the M1 metro towards downtown all the way to the last station, and have fun at the Vörösmarty square
Moving on...
There is a regular train schedule from Budapest to Vienna, a train leaving Budapest every two hours on the average. The trains are called RailJet and are very fast - the ride takes about 2 1/2 hours. They also serve food on board of those trains
Vienna
Vienna was once the capital of the largest state in Europe, and it shows: the downtown area is larger that Munich or Budapest. Although there is a good Metro ("U-Bahn") system, you're gonna be doing quite a bit of walking. With that in mind, it's a good idea to get a hotel that's close to the downtown area, but they can be quite expensive (or pretty crappy). One hotel I can recommend is the Hotel Beethoven (http://www.hotel-beethoven.at/en/) on the southern end of the downtown area, near the Naschmarkt. I'd recommend to stay for 3 nights, Vienna is big and you'll see places where you don't wanna rush.
What to see
Downtown Vienna
Even though Vienna is also along the Danube, the main area of Vienna is not along the river like in Budapest, therefore a river cruise doesn't make much sense. It's pretty tough to find a starting point for something like Vienna, but a good place to start is at the south-western end of the downtown area, with the Hofburg(2), Heldenplatz, Volksgarten(3), Parlament(4) and Rathaus(5) in the illustration. You can rent a horse-drawn carriage (called a "fiaker") to do this section of Vienna in style, and to save your feet. But you may still wanna come back later to take a look inside some of the places (at least the Hofburg) after the "fiaker" carriage ride.
Afterwards, head to the Opera House (in the map at the far lower right corner, just cut off) and take a look inside (you won't get tickets here, that would be beyond lucky).
Then head up the Kaernter Strasse (the pedestrian mall) towards St. Stephens cathedral. Along the way you come by Hotel Sacher, take a look at the pastries there (and their world famous cake - Sachertorte). Vienna is famous for it's old style Coffee-Houses with grand architecture. Along the way, try to spot some famous one's like Cafe Central, Cafe Demel and Cafe Hawelka, they're all around the downtown area near the Kaernter Strasse.
But make sure to take a look inside St. Stephens cathedral once you made your way there.
If you head further up north past the cathedral, you'll eventually will wind up at the Prater, a very old amusement park with a big ferris wheel. If you ever seen the movie The Third Man with Orson Welles, this will look familiar. Take a loop with the ferris wheel to get a look across Vienna, and take a gander through the park.
Turn around, and once you make your way back south through the Kaernter Strasse pedestrian area again (and walk around the side streets), past the southern end and past the Opera House is the Naschmarkt, a culinary market with amazing foods from all over the world.
To the east from here, about a 3/4 mile walking thru old Vienna (or taking a cab), is Belvedere, a huge complex made up of palaces, gardens and parks. Since you're there in spring, you'll see the gardens in full bloom. If the place looks familiar, it's because it starred in an endless number of movies as backdrop, including James Bond.
And this is only a few pieces of downtown Vienna. I didn't put this into an actual step-by-step guide on purpose, since it depends somewhat on where you're staying. All in all, this will probably take the better part of a full day, if not two.
Schoenbrunn Palace
A must-see, this is the equivalent of Versailles for Vienna. Take subway #4 (U4) to the Schonbrunn station, and follow the signs (and the masses) towards the Schoenbrunn Palace. This will take the better part of a day. Walk up the hill to the Gloriette and have a coffee there while marveling at the gardens, fountains and palace below. After walking back down, make sure you get into the palace to see the Great Gallery and everything else there is to see, and spend a 1/2 a day wondering how it must have felt to be a king.
Zentralfriedhof (central cemetery)
To get back to earth, you could take a trip to the Vienna central cemetery. This is not a joke, many famous people (Beethoven, Boltzmann, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms, Juergens, Falco, etc) are buried here and have real monuments here as their tomb stones. However, even though the name is "central cemetery", it's actually quite a bit outside of Vienna. You take the subway #6 ("U6") to "Zentralfriedhof, 2. Tor", and with some wandering around, will find quite a number of people whose names you know. Be warned: This place is HUGE.
Back to Vienna
If you want to find some good restaurants and bars in Vienna, the area along the Danube channel has some good places. Walk (or take the subway) to "Schwedenplatz" (U1 or U4), and take a walk up the channel. However, the town has good places to eat and drink all over, it shouldn't be hard to find something good or even outstanding. Especially if you stay at the Hotel Beethoven, the Naschmarkt area right outside is fabulous.
But since Vienna is also the city of music (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and many more all got their big break here), if you feel inclined to see a opera performance, try the Volksoper, they typically aren't sold out years in advance as the opera house is. You can get there via the "U6" subway. If the place looks familiar, yes, this was also a location in a Bond movie...
Moving on...
Next stop is Prague and Dresden, Prague being the medieval bohemian capital, and Dresden the capital of Saxony.
To get to Prague from Vienna is pretty easy, there are again RailJet connections every two hours. The trip in those fast trains takes about 4 hours. If you get going early (around 7:00AM), you're in Prague before lunch. The best connection is probably the one at 9:00AM, which gets you to Prague at 1:00PM, at which time your hotel room there should be ready for you.
There is food on the train, and it's not even bad. Since it's a long ride, you may wanna consider 1st class tickets to get a bit more room. At a minimum, you should make seat reservations, to ensure that you sit together. The train has plugs to charge your devices, and has also free Wifi.