We just got back from a 9-day tour of Eastern European Capitals in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It was an Insight Tour called the Bohemian. While we had a few minor issues, I would definitely use Insight again. Four cities in 9 days made for a quite busy tour, but we got to see a lot. We got to Vienna a day early which really helped. Except for the few other Americans in the group, most of the people on the trip had been in Europe for a while. We saw a lot the day we got there and then got to catch up on our sleep a little before the early morning departure for Budapest. While not cheap, the trip was worth the price.

Hotels - We stayed in high class hotels. Three out of five were Hiltons. Most were near the historic sites or easy access to the subway. The return Hilton in Vienna was not well situated, but it had a free shuttle to the downtown hotel. Most hotels had in room safes which are really helpful. The Hilton West End in Budapest was located in a modern shopping mall. If you were dropped into the mall and did not look hard, you would know what country you were in. However, it was not a tourist mall, so we had to go to town to find our souvenirs.

Bus – We had 39 tour members plus a tour guide in a large bus. The driver (Olivier) was the best bus driver that we have ever had on a tour. The bus had a toilet, but they discouraged us from using it, and I never noticed anyone using it the two days we were near the toilet. We stopped often enough not to need it.

Meals – Each hotel had a buffet breakfast included. The food was good, the service was so-so. The hard part was learning a new routine every other day for breakfast. Also, it was difficult eating cereal with a fork one morning. But I did get my coffee finally. The former Communist countries are still learning the art of service. We had four included dinner. The highlight dinner was good Hungarian food, but the other three were standard hotel food. Good, but not local food. We had one night in Bratislava, Slovakia, and I wanted some real Slovak food. So we ate part of the free meal in the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant that had a section of food that your Grandmother made. It was not the same as what my Slovak Grandmother made, but it was good.

Sights – We saw a lot of churches and castles. Each offered something different. It was not always easy to determine what was happening next on the tour which caused some confusion for us. The itinerary called for us to see St Charles Church in Vienna, so we skipped that while touring on our own. We saw it alright, from about 100 meters away on the bus. So on our last free day we went there on our own. The church dome was being renovated on the inside, so the entire area below the dome was in scaffolding. But for a few euros more, we took an elevator, then stairs to the top of the dome about 80 meters from the floor. You could almost reach out and touch the surface of the dome. We were so glad we went there.

Borders and money - Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic had just entered the European Union on May 1, but that transition will take some time. Most border crossings went well. At a few borders they took the passports of some of the tour members, but it did not take too long. At the border from the Czech Republic back in Austria we were through in a few minutes. The tour guide was really surprised. The three new EU countries still us their own currency, but the Euro was accepted at many tourist places at a fair rate. I got about $100 in currency for each country in Vienna at a money changing station and probably got ripped off the most there. But I was glad to have some local currency when we got to each county. ATMs were readily available, but on a rainy Sunday night in Bratislava it is not easy to find one.

Tour members – There was a nice age range in the group, from 20s to 70s. Only a few other Americans in the group. The largest contingent was from Australia, including a group of 16 Greek-Australians who tended to speak in Greek between themselves. That did not contribute to any unity among the group. Also, they had just finished a long tour in which the tour guide “made” them take all the extra tour. As a result they did not take any of the extra tours. That often resulted in the extra tours being cancelled due to not enough people. Insight does not have a lot of extra tours, but it does offer some. That gives you the option of free time or a guided tour. We would have like to take some the extra tours that did not go. The extra tour to the Hungarian Parliament building was wonderful. It is an impressive building for a county of 10 million people. It was build before WWI when Hungary was a much more important place.

Warnings – While the cities were safe, we were warned about pick-pockets. After being hit by pickpockets in Paris on another trip, I tended to keep most of my money and passport in the hotel safe. That worked well; except for the day in Budapest we took the subway into town. We did not notice where we were supposed to validate our subway ticket on the way to the trains. So we got stopped by the subway police and fined something like $10 for not validating our subway ticket. He spoke virtually not English and I spoke no Hungarian, so it took a while before we agreed to pay the fine on-the-spot. We were going to the Gellert Baths, so we did not take out passports along which might have helped, but I am not sure I would have given it to him anyway. It was not until we got back to the hotel that we figured out what had happened. We took a taxi back to the hotel.

People – The people were generally nice. In the formerly communist countries, the people still are a little stiff from the memories of all the days under communism. I have been to many places where the local people were friendlier. Enough foreign tourist and foreign money should change that eventually.

What is included in the price – The tour company takes care of you bags from the hotel room to the bus and back. We had to leave the bags outside the room about one hour before the bus left and they would be delivered to the room sometime after you got to the hotel. It worked pretty well except for the first day which was a disaster. We ended up rolling our bags to the bus. We came in one day early and had a 7:40AM flight back home, so we were picked up at the airport by car and provided a taxi to the airport. We did give the drives tips.

The Vienna included tours were mostly driving around the city and seeing the sights from the bus. We saw most of that by walking. The tour guide did tell me why the Red Army Liberation memorial was still in Vienna. The Russians included in the treaty to leave Austria after WWII that Austria would maintain the memorial.