May 09 Central Europe Trip Summary

by Zhiqiang & Tingyi on July 1, 2009 · 24 comments

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to start with Trip Summaries to follow our travels.

Check out About page to find out what this blog is all about.

Travel Mates

ZQ & TY – read more at our about page
Caroline – our travel mate from the 2007 Melbourne trip
Val – a Flowerpod forum member who responded to Caroline’s call for travel mates. We were unable to convince her to take a group photo with us. Thus, a silhouette figure which looked like her, was used to complete the picture here. What she looked like will remain a mystery to our blog readers for now but try spotting snippets of her back, hair etc in our pictures for our later blog posts.

May-09-Central-Europe-Travel-Mates

Central Europe Trip Itinerary

Central-Europe-Trip-Itinerary-Map

5 Countries 6 Cities in 17 Days spending about SGD 2700

A summary of our journeys around Central Europe:

Setting off from Singapore for a 12-Hour+ British Airways flight to London
Flying to Krakow (Poland) via a 2-Hour Easyjet flight
Rolling around a 4-bed couchette for a 13-Hour train journey to Budapest (Hungary)
Riding in a comfortable 3-Hour Orangeways coach to Vienna (Austria)
Taking a 5-Hour Train (Linz) + Private Shuttle to Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic)
Moving to Prague via a 3-Hour Student Agency bus
Flying back to London via a 2-Hour Easyjet flight
Another scary turbulent-filled 12-Hour+ British Airways flight back to Singapore

Feel free to download our Central Europe trip itinerary if you are:

Crazy Adventurous enough to embark on this fun and exciting journey
Kaypoh Curious enough to see what we were up to

Packing for the trip

Our luggage weighed a whopping 35 kg+ even before we stepped foot on the plane to London! Luckily we have 23 kg luggage allowance each.

Our Heavy Luggages

What’s in our luggages? – Food and Guidebooks!

TY was worried she can’t adapt to the food in Europe so brought along lots of Maggi Mees, cup noodles and biscuits.
ZQ was worried he will get lost in translation so he brought along the trusty lonely planet guidebooks – one for each city except Krakow.
And not to forget the tonnes of toiletries – moisturizers, hand/face/don’t know what else cream brought by TY.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks and Food

Central Europe Trip Posts

Day 1: England – London

Day 2: Poland – Krakow

Day 3: Poland – Krakow

Day 4: Poland – Krakow

Day 5: Hungary – Budapest

Day 6: Hungary – Budapest

Day 7: Hungary – Budapest

Day 8: Austria – Vienna

Day 9: Austria – Vienna

Day 10: Czech Republic – Cesky Krumlov

Day 11: Czech Republic – Cesky Krumlov

Day 12: Czech Republic – Prague

Day 13: Czech Republic – Prague (Kutna Hora)

Day 14: Czech Republic – Prague (Karlstejn)

Day 15: England – London

Related PassportChop Posts

Next post: London – Arrival at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4

Article by Zhiqiang & Tingyi

Zhiqiang & Tingyi have written 350 articles for PassportChop.com.

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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

1 ajit pandey August 24, 2009 at 4:52 pm

plz inform if i book the trip for may to europe this week only

2 Zhiqiang August 24, 2009 at 6:02 pm: @ajit

You must be mistaken . We are not a travel agency. If you would like to do the central europe trip free and easy, you may follow our journey in this blog.

ZQ

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3 Janaye June 1, 2011 at 10:25 pm: And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for setting me satrhigt.

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4 Shelz September 23, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Hi, I like your blog and I’m particularly interested in your Europe trip. Both of you spent only SD2700 for 17 days trip? Does it include flight tickets and accommodation?

It’s extremely cheap!

5 Tingyi September 23, 2009 at 9:37 pm: Hi Shelz, S$2.7K included everything inclusive of flight tickets and accommodation. All thanks to ZQ, he’s the planner and tour guide!!:D

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6 Shelz September 23, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Wow.. that’s amazing!

Mind to share in details? Do you have your expenses tracking in excel spreadsheet that you can share it to me?

7 Zhiqiang September 24, 2009 at 9:36 pm: @Shelz, sure I am currently working on this itinerary spreadsheet and will upload onto Trip Itinerary section when done. Will drop you a note when its ready

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8 Ying Zi November 12, 2009 at 4:13 pm

It has always,always been my dream to back pack around Europe! I’m amazed that you guys spent only $2.7K inclusive of air accomodation?! That’s the best bargain I’ve ever heard off. I tried to download the itinerary but it wasn’t available =/

9 Zhiqiang November 12, 2009 at 4:16 pm: We are having some backend problems with the upload. Pls check back tomorrow. I should have it fixed by then.

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10 Clara February 27, 2010 at 10:34 am

Hello guys, it’s amazing how you did it within such tight budget! We are a group of 3 adults + 1 4-year old kid, and we plan to follow your itinerary but we only have 12 days at most. How do you suggest we change the itinerary? What are the places we can skip? Thanks!

11 Clara February 27, 2010 at 10:41 am

Btw, the 12 days I mentioned excludes flight times from Singapore to London and back.

12 Zhiqiang February 27, 2010 at 12:07 pm: Hi Clara

12 days is a bit tight to fit in everything in the itinerary. You might have to skip some cities e.g. London and Vienna.

Reach London – fly to Prague – spend 2 days
Bus down to Cesky Krumlov – spend 2 days and go back to Prague to catch a night train to Warsaw – spend 1-2 days then train to Krakow – 2 days then go to Budapest – 2-3 days then fly back to London from Budapest.

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13 Caroline April 1, 2010 at 9:11 pm

where’s ur taiwan iterinary??
i wanna kop..thanks!

14 Zhiqiang April 2, 2010 at 10:19 am: uploaded – go take a look

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15 Lynn Lee May 18, 2010 at 11:56 pm

Hi ZQ &TY
A very big thank you for your trip itinerary for Central Europe. We took your advice and were able to save quite a bit on our trip in May 10. We also loved the recommendations for the food and would like to compliment you for all the time & effort that you have spent taking pictures and writing the blogs. Kudos for a job well-done!

16 Tingyi June 13, 2010 at 6:41 pm: Thanks Lynn!! Glad that our Central Europe Trip blog posts help you in planning your holiday. We will be updating our Turkey trip itinerary soon, do keep a lookout if you are planning to go Europe in future too! =)

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17 Jane March 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm

Hi ,

I would like to know how do you get student rate for the train ticket. And do you buy any special pass like Europe pass or you buy your transportation tickets as and when you like…
Thanks

18 Zhiqiang & Tingyi March 9, 2011 at 3:13 pm: Usually they accept the ISIC Student card. We bought transportation tickets as and when needed on the spot as our train travel during the trip is not as extensive.

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19 Jane March 9, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Hi,
Thanks for your prompt reply. Do you know what is the age limit of using ISIC student card? And did you apply this card in S’pore. If yes, where did you apply for it?

Thanks!

20 Jane March 9, 2011 at 3:51 pm

Does it mean that I need to be a student in order to get the ISIC card? If I am not a student, this means I am not eligible to apply knowing that ISIC card has no upper age limit.

Thanks!

21 Zhiqiang & Tingyi March 9, 2011 at 3:56 pm: I think there are ISIC cards for Student and for Youth (under 26 years old). If you are under 26 years old, you can apply for the latter. Otherwise, you will have to be a Teacher to qualify for the next category of ISIC card.

You can apply for the card at STA Travel Agencies in Singapore – see statravel.com for more info.

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22 Lau Chek May 14, 2011 at 3:34 pm

I don’t think I would like to follow your so-called adventurous fun and exciting journey. In fact, it is too tiring especially you need to spent 13 hour before you could reach Budapest .I would rather start my journey from Munich- – Salzburg- Hallstatt -CK- Vienna- Bratislava-Prague. It is more relaxing and you have more time to do sightseeing.
You may plan your next trip to include Budapest with Zegreb, Ljubljana, Split, Dubrovnik and Venice.

23 Zhiqiang & Tingyi May 14, 2011 at 8:50 pm: Hi Lau Chek – the itinerary had catered for abt 2-3 days per city e.g. at Budapest, to rest off the 13-hr overnight sleeper train ride from Krakow, the following day was quite a relaxed one. Thanks for sharing your route, that is also another possible route to take in most of the sights, would be great if you can share more details.

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24 Travel Ria January 9, 2012 at 1:43 pm