Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe
- The 2008 edition of Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe is now available.
- See the guidebook updates for Prague & the Czech Republic and Croatia & Slovenia.
Passport Alert
An increasing number of European countries are requiring that your passport be valid for six months after your ticketed date of return to the US. If you need to get or renew a passport, it can take up to three months (for more on passports, see www.travel.state.gov).
Updates since the 2008 edition:
Night Train between Kraków and Budapest/Eger
The night train that connects Kraków and Budapest has changed. The main route now passes west, through the Czech Republic (southbound — departs Kraków at 22:25, arrives Budapest at 8:32; northbound — departs Budapest at 20:00, arrives Kraków at 6:22). While some schedules initially indicated that a transfer was required in Breclav, Czech Republic (northbound — at 4:20 in the morning; southbound — at 23:42), more recent sources suggest this is a direct train, without a transfer.
The bad news: The new train route does not pass through the Hungarian town of Füzesabony, and its handy connection to Eger. This makes taking a night train from Kraków to Eger more complicated (explained below).
The good news: They have reinstated the old train route (via Füzesabony) for the summer only (late June through the end of August). During this time, the train will continue to run as described in the book.
Kraków-to-Eger Alternatives
If you want to take a train from Kraków to Eger outside of summer (late June-Aug), you have a few alternatives.
Night Train Option: Take the Kraków-Budapest night train (described above), then transfer to a train to Eger (departing Budapest at 9:05 and arriving Eger at 11:24).
Day Train Option: A direct daytime train (EuroCity 383) still follows the old route: It leaves Kraków at 12:10 in the afternoon and heads south through Slovakia, stopping at 20:02 in Füzesabony (with an easy transfer to Eger, arriving 20:24), and ends in Budapest at 21:27.
Airplane Option: For a faster connection, consider flying LOT Polish Airlines between Kraków and Budapest (with a transfer in Warsaw; www.lot.com); from there, you can take the 2.5-hour train to Eger.
For details on all rail connections, visit http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en.
Appendix
In the Climate Chart, the third line shows the number of rainy days.