[behaln]

Awesome travelogue buddy and nice pics too. I could feel the smell of strong Irish coffee in those pics, which I miss from my European days. You did bring back a lot of memories in me.

[basilmabraham]

Awesome travelogue.

Did you miss the twin jet engine powered boat cruise on the Salzac? This was one of the most enjoyed activity when we visited in 2009. The climb up on the Untersbergbahn was great too, at one point we were completely covered by clouds and had no clue where we were heading, one of the scary moments in life, you seem to have got much clearer weather.

Nice pics too, well done.

[D33-PAC]

No offense but didn't you fear going amidst the Europe invasion crisis ?

To the European you may have looked like another third world invader . Some Indians and North Africans/Middle Easterners look similar.

I'd have been scared to go to such a country during such a period.
Did you feel safe ? Europeans are more xenophobic than ever since the Syrian invasion crisis.

[SatsMumbai]

Very nice writeup with awesome pictures !! Super impressed. Did a search on the post but could not find it so let me ask you, It looks like there was no rain. Is that so? Then people should hire you guys to go with them on these trips. On our trips, many times rain has dampened the spirits a bit but these clear skies in all the places of your pictures looks awesome!

[gunsho]

Amazing trip and very thoughtful sharing. Excellent.

Originally Posted by feluda86

[i]2. I am not associated with any of the firms/services mentioned in the post. This post is about me and my wife's experiences - good or bad using those services.

Trust me, its going to be helpful to lot who travel along these routes. Its good you shared the names/services

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by basilmabraham

Awesome travelogue.

Did you miss the twin jet engine powered boat cruise on the Salzac? This was one of the most enjoyed activity when we visited in 2009. The climb up on the Untersbergbahn was great too, at one point we were completely covered by clouds and had no clue where we were heading, one of the scary moments in life, you seem to have got much clearer weather.

Nice pics too, well done.

Yes unfortunately that is the one we missed. We kept it for our last full day in Salzburg and missed it by a whisker. Untersberg was fantastic!

Originally Posted by D33-PAC

No offense but didn't you fear going amidst the Europe invasion crisis ?

To the European you may have looked like another third world invader . Some Indians and North Africans/Middle Easterners look similar.

I'd have been scared to go to such a country during such a period.
Did you feel safe ? Europeans are more xenophobic than ever since the Syrian invasion crisis.

On the contrary we felt very welcomed as Indians. There were a few occasions where locals even tried speaking to us in broken Hindi on getting to know we are Indians. One of the Airbnb hosts took great details about India as he planned to visit next year. We also had locals coming forward to help us on their own when we got lost a couple of times. We were worried to start with but it was great. We encountered some great people during these days and they are very tourist friendly.

Originally Posted by SatsMumbai

Very nice writeup with awesome pictures !! Super impressed. Did a search on the post but could not find it so let me ask you, It looks like there was no rain. Is that so? Then people should hire you guys to go with them on these trips. On our trips, many times rain has dampened the spirits a bit but these clear skies in all the places of your pictures looks awesome!

We got fantastic weather this time. No rains only blue skies. This year weather in Europe seems to have been a little off. Lot of rain during summer which totally stopped by October. We got to know from our host in Salzburg that had we gone the week before we would have had to stay indoors as it was pouring.

We did arrive to a cloudy Vienna from Budapest, but it cleared up by the time we reached our apartment. It rained when we were on our way to the airport. Vienna was probably crying I believe.

Thanks all for all the kind words!

[Hells Bells]

Awesome travelogue which brings out the love of travelling you folks have For sure a reference one for me as and when we get a chance to scoot to Europe with time off.

[RoadTrippin]

Wonderfully detailed travelogue with lovely pics. How was your AirBnB experiences? Were you able to find places that were easy to reach and convenient in terms of key handovers?

[V.Narayan]

Thank you for sharing the photos most of which are really very good. Can you share your experience of the people you dealt with in Hungary - attitude, tone, friendliness, helpfulness etc. We visited Budapest in 2003 when the kids were still in our control (now they holiday independently!) and were quite disappointed by the negativeness we had to deal with for the folks in hotels, metro, cabbies etc. It is the only East European country we holidayed in before or since. Thanks.

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by RoadTrippin

Wonderfully detailed travelogue with lovely pics. How was your AirBnB experiences? Were you able to find places that were easy to reach and convenient in terms of key handovers?

Our experiences with AirBnB were really very good. We had nothing to complain about. We gave priority to the location of the apartment and reviews while booking. Prime locations with good reviews are a little hard to get and comparatively more expensive (good deal cheaper than hotels in such locations). However, if you book with some time in hand you will get good places. The app we felt is very good for most parts. However, if you keep looking at certain areas of the city for apartments over and over again, the prices magically go up. We used my phone to browse and my wife's phone to book. That way we found differences in rates close to 10-20% sometimes.

For all the places that we booked, the owner met us personally (even if it was late in the night as was the case in Vienna). They were available on phone and chat (on the AirBnB app) during the entire time to clarify directions and other details.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but AirBnB provides for a good experience for most parts.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you for sharing the photos most of which are really very good. Can you share your experience of the people you dealt with in Hungary - attitude, tone, friendliness, helpfulness etc. We visited Budapest in 2003 when the kids were still in our control (now they holiday independently!) and were quite disappointed by the negativeness we had to deal with for the folks in hotels, metro, cabbies etc. It is the only East European country we holidayed in before or since. Thanks.

It is sad to hear about your experiences in Budapest. We found the city very friendly though. We always had smiling faces welcoming us everywhere. Our AirBnB host was good and spent some time explaining to us about things to do in Budapest. He even got a map for us and marked out places to go to and avoid which we felt was really sweet. We found that English is not a very popular language there and people are a little uncomfortable communicating in English. At one of the restaurants on Castle hill, we were even given a discount on toilet use as the lady operating the door was fond of her experiences on Mumbai. The only bad experience we had was on the train back to Vienna from Budapest. The pantry was over loaded and they were not very polite to most people.

[rst89]

Wonderful trip report.

I am also the kind of person who plans everything himself. Rarely I have taken a guided tour.

The best way to save toilet expenses is to empty your bladder in railway coaches, museums pubs and hotels.
I have never seen pubs take money for using toilets.

By the way, the Turkish airlines flight from Mumbai is around 7 a.m. Kinda spoils the night but I do know few spots in T2 to sleep without disturbance.

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by rst89

Wonderful trip report.

I am also the kind of person who plans everything himself. Rarely I have taken a guided tour.

The best way to save toilet expenses is to empty your bladder in railway coaches, museums pubs and hotels.
I have never seen pubs take money for using toilets.

By the way, the Turkish airlines flight from Mumbai is around 7 a.m. Kinda spoils the night but I do know few spots in T2 to sleep without disturbance.

For some reason some of the hotels also charged us - especially the ones on Buda castle hill.

We had taken that 6:20 AM Turkish airlines flight so that we can catch the Istanbul tour. We prepared for a sleepless night well . We used the priority lounge at T2. was fairly crowded but the food was decent.

[chetan_l]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Pic 1 -->

Attachment 1702803

Pic 2 -->

Attachment 1702804

I've marked the similarities in both the pictures in red - 1)tourist with the red jacket & 2) bunch of students/musicians getting their group picture clicked.

A closer look -->
Attachment 1702869
Attachment 1702868

The only difference is Pic 1 is taken by you and Pic 2 was taken by me, which means we were at the same place, at the same time, on the same day and in the same month!!! What a coincidence.

What a coincidence!!

Great travelgoue, @feluda86! Fantastic details.

My wife and I traveled to Europe in May 2017. Haven't gotten around to putting up my travelogue. I need to get down to it...!