Note: The itinerary for Globus’ Imperial Splendours is from a trip in 2015. However, the tour has not changed much in the intervening years. Keep that in mind as you read the tips, however most of them will be similar!
RATING:
If you’re eager to do Eastern Europe, but aren’t sure where to start, Imperial Splendours was a fantastic introduction. The path to a five-star review on this tour is additional time in Vienna (possibly a day more). Otherwise, it was a fantastic balance of free time, accompanied tours, and great excursion options. In terms of price, I found this to be a great deal if only because free time in places like Prague and Budapest could truly be capitalized on due to the exchange rates.
Get more information on Imperial Splendours here!
Day 1: Munich
At 6 pm, meet your Tour Director and travel companions for a welcome dinner at your hotel
On your arrival day, you’ll be free for the majority of the day after your plane arrives. If you’re coming internationally, that likely means that you’ll have the entire day to explore. Though, you’ll likely be tired unless you got a good night’s sleep. For me and my friend, we decided to do a nearby factory tour plus lunch, followed by an Autobahn drive, which was a fun excursion.
In the early evening, you’ll meet up with your tour group for an introduction to your guide and the group. You’ll go over ground rules, what to expect, and then you’ll get to have the first provided dinner.
My caution around all these tour dinners is the same — they’re not great. They’re cooking mass portions in a hotel dining room and often you’re getting the cheaper options. I’ve started to look for tours that have fewer included dinners. That means I can go and find something better.
The night is yours – if you’ve got a truly admirable level of energy, you can go exploring. Or you can catch up on sleep and adjust to make sure jet lag doesn’t bog you down.
Day 2: Munich – Prague
Orientation tour includes the Marienplatz. Free time before continuing to Prague.
What I said about tour dinners does not apply to tour breakfasts. Often, because the hotels are extremely high quality, that also means their buffet breakfasts are too. Don’t skip out on one of these included breakfasts! The one in Munich offered pretzels, weissroast (wine sausage that tastes like warm pate) and pretty much everything you could think of. Oddities I didn’t even have room for included stuffed wine leaves, vitamin juice, and fresh honeycomb.
From there, the day begins with a stop at Marienplatz. While the glockenspiel is the highlight, it only plays at specific times, so you might not be lucky enough to catch the performance. Even without the performance, the architecture is magnificent. Because you’re there a little earlier than people wake up, you won’t be in a crowd at this point.
Once you’ve finished this brief stop, it’s on to the Square of Kings for a picture stop. Then, it’s off to Nyphemburg Palace. The guide might compare it to Versailles, but it reminded me more of the gardens of Vaux le Vicomte. They’re equally beautiful, just not quite as vast. It’s a good stop and not an overly large place to wander around since you’re limited to the outside. It does a great job of setting you up for the typical Europe experience of castles, charm, and grand gardens. You won’t have time to do a thorough visit or see the inside of the palace, so keep that in mind.
Next, you depart Munich, with a lunch stop in Regensburg before crossing the border into Prague. This first night featured a buffet dinner, which wasn’t fantastic — even by hotel dinner standards. Luckily, the hotels that Globus uses are quite central. That means that you can wander downtown to Vltava to hang out by the bridges, grab a drink, or even go to a grocery shop for snacks and drinks.
My friend and I did exactly that. We opted to wander along the river and see the options for the next night.
Day 3: Prague
Guided sightseeing features the Astronomical Clock and the Hradčany Castle grounds. Free time this afternoon and evening.
This dedicated day in Prague begins with an included city tour after breakfast. The day begins with a city tour. It starts with a ride up to the Hradčany Castle grounds to walk around the courtyards and cathedrals. The visit to the castle ends up with a fantastic view over Prague. Given that it was barely mid-morning, it felt like the sun was kissing the city to wake it up. This means that you may be waking up earlier than you would normally would on vacation. That’s especially true when you need to get your luggage out (typically an hour before your departure time).
The city tour continues with a walk through the Jewish Ghetto and a stop to see the Astronomical Clock. This clock is a relic from the 1300’s that’s still operating today, having withstood wars and time. While we were in Prague, there was a massive party in the square, which led to a fun atmosphere, but a truly harrowing number of people to navigate through. It was the most crowded part of Prague though. Other than that, the rest of the city felt manageable all the time.
This was the final stop of the city tour, at which point you were free to do whatever you liked. You could take the Vltava Lunch Cruise, which was an optional excursion offered by the tour company, but as we were already doing a cruise on the Danube later in the trip, we opted not to. The below is not part of the tour itself, but rather a few sights you could choose to explore in your free time (you’ll have both the afternoon and evening free).
- Walk across Charles Bridge and do some shopping (but be mindful, this is a fairly crowded tourist destination, so watch your belongings as you would in any crowd)
- John Lennon wall (which we discovered by accident after lunch near a little canal)
- Wallenstein Palace & Gardens
- The Franz Kafka Museum (and peeing fountains!)
- Vyšehrad (a historic fort)
- Climb Petřín Tower
- Take the subway and explore some of the sights!
You’ll be on your own for dinner, but there are plenty of options for a delicious and cheap meal. We opted for a pizza place near the hotel and were able to get full meals, drinks, and desserts for around 20 Euros (including service and tax). The city is then yours to explore. You can wander along the river and find some local pubs — and be careful that you have some Czech Crowns on you, because some places won’t take Euros like the one we went to (Pivnice Jamajka, a traditional pub that was mainly packed with locals). The riverfront also has a lot of bars and options, but it may get a little crowded, so better to find basement bars where you can sit and enjoy your drink!
Day 4: Prague – Bratislava – Budapest
Orientation walk and free time before continuing to Budapest.
The morning wake-up call is quite early for this morning. As with other tours, your luggage will need to go out approximately thirty minutes at minimum before your meeting time. That means you’ll have to have everything packed with only your hand luggage kept on you, which is a talent that takes time to perfect.
The drive will take you from Prague, through Moravia, passing Austerlitz until you arrive at the Slovakia border. Soon, you reach your stop — Bratislava. This is a quaint and charming little town. The crosswalk men even wear little hats in their icons! You’ll have time to wander the centre of town, including the market where you can do some very affordable souvenir shopping.
Lunch is included in Bratislava (check that it is for your tour) and featured potato soup, goulash, and a fruit cup. The goulash was quite heavy on the paprika, but still tasty. Once lunch is finished, you’ll head back to the bus to complete your day’s drive — onward to Budapest to arrive in the mid-afternoon. Dinner is also included that evening, but as it’s another hotel dinner for a group, it’s average fare — not bad, but not great.
Once dinner is over, you’re free to either rest up or you can do as we did and explore the city a little. There is an optional excursion to be driven around the city, but truthfully, it’s a very walkable city — save your money and do it yourself. We stopped to see the Jewish synagogue near the hotel before continuing on to Erzsébet Square to have a beer and listen to some music acts.
Nearby, there’s the Budapest Eye (a ferris wheel modeled after the London Eye, but much smaller) which gave us a bird’s eye view of Budapest. Our last stop was to head down to the river to see the lights along the Danube as the monuments lit up as the sun went down. We got to take our time, not be rushed, and linger as we liked. The whole time took only a few hours, which was much better than riding around the city in a bus. However, if you have mobility issues, then it’s a great option. Otherwise, I recommend doing it yourself and saving some money.
Day 5: Budapest
Guided sightseeing includes the Matthias Coronation Church and Heroes’ Square. Free time this afternoon and evening.
Your full day in Budapest begins with guided sightseeing. It’s not a terribly early morning, which means you can enjoy a leisurely and delicious breakfast at your hotel. At the time of my tour, it stayed at the Continental Hotel Budapest, which was fantastically central and very upscale.
The first stop requires a quick bus ride to Heroes Square, which features massive statues dedicated to heroic figures from Hungary’s history.
The Budapest tour continues with a drive up to the Castle District, where you’ll see Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Coronation Church. There are some very nice shops in this area where you can buy water, trinkets, or other souvenirs if you’re done your sightseeing a little ahead of the pack. In this area, you’re in the Buda side of the city (the Pest is the other part, separated by the Danube river), which means you’re elevated above the city. It’s an unbeatable view that’s utterly stunning.
Near to this area are the hot baths, as well as a funicular, but the tour’s tight timing means that it’s a little more difficult to do. The morning tour ends after the visit to the church and you’re brought back to the hotel.
At this point, you have time to yourself or you can opt into the optional excursion, a Danube Cruise. I recommend opting out of the cruise and booking your own, as we did. We managed to get a more elevated cruise (with included champagne), and it had a stop at Margaret Island and for a cheaper price.
Prior to getting on the cruise, my friend and I made a stop at St. Stephen’s church, which purports to have a relic of St. Stephen’s right hand. We found a lovely riverside restaurant to have lunch at before heading towards the quays to pick up a boat for our cruise.
Then, we were off for our Danube cruise with complimentary champagne, with a stop at Margaret Island. Taking this cruise was fantastic as it gave you as much time as you’d like to explore before returning.
Our dinner this evening was an additional optional excursion to enjoy a Hungarian dinner. This was hosted (in 2015) at a restaurant called Szeged, featuring beef broth soup, a meat pancake, cabbage rolls, and spongecake. With this, a truly impressive amount of wine and schnapps were served. We had a traditional Hungarian folk band playing for us while we ate; there were songs, dancing, an amazing instrument called the zimball (like a xylophone meets a piano) and two singers performed.
The evening is then free for exploration. With our free time, we decided to keep the party going and head to the ruins pub at Szimpla Kert, which was quite conveniently located to the hotel the tour had put us in. The ruins pub are fantastically weird and funky with an open roof and smatterings of unique things dotting every corner. Have fun, drink a few local specialties — just don’t forget that you will be getting up fairly early the next morning.
Day 6: Budapest – Vienna
Free time for lunch. Guided sightseeing features a drive along the famous Ringstrasse and St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Today, the tour begins with a drive from Budapest to Vienna. Upon arrival in the early afternoon, you’ll have some time for lunch before returning for a visit to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Beyond the beautiful stained glass windows and incredible architecture, St. Stephen’s also has a historical draw for music lovers. It’s also where Mozart was married.
After this, you continue with a walking tour through the middle of Vienna, stopping to briefly see locations like the opera house and many other museums. The walking tour ends so that people can head off to the optional excursion of Schönbrunn Palace. My tip here is the same as the Danube — book this on your own. You’ll have the free time and it’s much cheaper. If you opt out, you can head to the hotel and get settled in.
This evening, there’s another optional excursion option — a Heuriger wine dinner. For this dinner, the menu contained a tasty cold cut platter, pork, chicken, and wienerschnitzel. The dessert was a tartufo and plenty of wine to go with it. Heuriger simply refers to a wine tavern location or “Heuriger Wine” being this year’s wine. In terms of the quality of food and entertainment, this was the weaker of the two optional dinners. The Budapest one was slightly better, but the Vienna location in the hills was absolutely beautiful.
In general, having a dinner for the optional excursion is a good shortcut if you don’t want to research other local options. However, if you’re a bit of a foodie and want some time for yourself to find great spots, then give these excursions a pass.
Day 7: Vienna
Enjoy free day in beautiful Vienna.
Since you’re not driving to another country this morning, you’ll get to sleep in during your day in Vienna and get some rest. Then, if you’ve booked it, the optional excursion for the day begins with a trip out to the Vienna Woods. This takes you to Liechtenstein Castle, Holy Cross, a quick stop at Mayerling (a practicing silent convent) and lunch in Baden.
There’s enough time in Baden to wander around, have some lunch, and do some shopping. Then, you’ll be back in your Vienna hotel just after lunch with plenty of time to yourself. There’s another optional excursion this evening with the concert (again, there was in 2015), but my friend and I opted out of that and instead did Schönbrunn Palace on our own. Buying tickets online was a breeze and the metro brought us right to the palace in no time, at a much cheaper price than the tour was offering.
It’s immense and so beautiful. Having the time to explore the palace properly only reinforced the one downside of this tour — that you don’t get enough time to explore the other museums in Vienna to this degree. Once you’re through with the inside of the palace, there’s still the gardens to explore.
They’re full of roses, statues, mazes, labyrinths, but the most prominent feature is the gloriette structure at the top of a hill. Don’t be fooled. This hill is a hike, but that’s why you should take your time and settle in on the grassy hill to relax if you’re finding it a bit much. It was a great way to cap off a visit to the gardens because it meant that we saved the exhausting part for last. If you have even more time, there’s a zoo you can access from about halfway up the hill hike. However, that would basically take a whole additional half-day, and we were short on time.
Once you’ve finished the hike, you might be a bit peckish. Luckily, there’s a café near the entrance of the palace to enjoy some apple strudel in the courtyard. You can rest up before grabbing the metro back to the hotel to find a dinner spot. Luckily, there’s no shortage of options. We chose one local to our tour hotel and lingered long after dinner with drinks, to the point that the tour group returned from their optional excursion (a Vienna concert) and joined us to cap off the last night in Vienna.
Day 8: Vienna – Salzburg
From Krems – Danube cruise with a Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) tasting.
SALZBURG Guided walking tour features Mirabell Gardens and Residenz Square. Dinner at St. Peter Stiftskeller restaurant.
The morning begins on the bus with a departure out of Vienna towards Krems. This is where you’ll disembark the bus to take a cruise of the Danube for a couple stops. During those stops, you’ll see barges, river cruises, and a few locations that you pass (including Durnstein, where Richard Lionheart was held captive).
If you’re worried about seasickness, it’s a short voyage and on a steady river. My friend has issues with motion sickness, but had no issues with the boat. There’s a couple snacks and beverages on offer, otherwise you can just enjoy being on the river.
Once you get off the boat, it’s back onto the bus to continue the drive further into Austria towards the Alps. Prior to arriving at the final destination for the day, there’s a quick stop in Melk to see the monastery. Insider is incredible, with gold-leaf adorning nearly every surface your eye can see.
It’s your last stop before arriving in Salzburg, though you will pass sights like Mondsee, where you can quickly glimpse the church they used to film the wedding in Sound of Music.
The tour arrives at the hotel where you get a few hours to decompress before the walking tour of Salzburg begins. The first stop here is Mirabell Gardens, which might be a familiar sight if you’re a fan of the Sound of Music. In general, everywhere you go in Salzburg feels a little like you’re on a behind the scenes tour of the movie.
Once you pass through the gardens and admire the fortress on the hill, you continue on to the gorgeous little side streets. You get to see the church where Mozart was born, as well as the apartment where he and Nannerl lived.
One thing that’s very unique about Salzburg is that they have bespoke signs outside of the stores in their downtown city streets. Even places like McDonald’s had fancy crests and wrought ironwork adorning their location.
Downtown, the main church plays not bells, but a glockenspiel tune from The Magic Flute (one I love so much that it’s become my ringtone). You get some time here to explore the church before moving on to dinner at Europe’s first restaurant — St. Peterskiller. Once dinner is done, the tour group returns back to the hotel. If you’re there at the right time of year, hopefully that means it’s at sunset with the mountains in the backdrop.
Day 9: Salzburg – Munich
SALZBURG Enjoy free time this morning.
MUNICH Join a farewell dinner at the Ratskeller restaurant followed by a visit to the Hofbräuhaus.
On the final morning, you get free time on the tour. You can also opt to take an optional excursion to the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. This is a great optional excursion because Globus will get you there early in the morning before the crowds arrive. However, that does mean you will also be awake around 6AM for a wakeup call for your departure.
On the way to the excursion, there are more Sound of Music sights. That includes the wall they shot the “I Have Confidence” number against, plus the facade of one of the palaces used in the movie. Soon, though, you arrive at the starting point of the journey.
You begin with a city-style bus that brings you up the winding mountain roads. It stops just outside the tunnel that leads to the golden elevator. Though Jeeps used to drive inside, you’ll be walking to the elevator instead. Globus got us there early enough that we were the very first up the elevator. That meant tons of privacy at the top and no crowds to contend with. You get a lot of history at the top, but stunning views of Konigsee and the mountains, too.
Your local guide will show you some pictures at the top before you get free time. There’s plenty to see on all sides of the mountaintop and with good weather, you’ll have views in all directions.
When it’s time to head back, you still have some free time before the departure to Munich. This is a great time to do some shopping or try some local delicacies.
In the afternoon, the tour returns to the starting point in Munich. Dinner is at a local restaurant and the final stop brings you to the infamous Hofbrauhaus, the home of so many Oktoberfests. You can stay here as long as you’d like. Personally, at the end of a tour, I was a little overwhelmed by the people, the noise, and the smell (it’s crowded and the beer’s not great here). You can leave whenever you like to get some rest before your departure day of the tour.
Day 10: Munich
Your vacation ends with breakfast this morning.
There’s not much left to do on this last day! Breakfast is still included, but you’ll be heading on to your next destination from here. That might be home or somewhere else in Europe, but your time with Globus will have come to an end!
At the time of taking this tour, the optional excursions available were the following. For the ones I didn’t take, I’ve put explanations of why they were skipped.
Optional Excursions Enjoyed
- Vienna Woods
- Dinner in Budapest
- Berchtesgaden
- Austrian Dinner
OPTIONAL EXCURSIONS SKIPPED
- Schönbrunn Palace.
- AVOID. This one is better to do on your own. The tickets are easy to purchase and it’s easily accessible by the metro system. If you’re determined to have a guide, you can consider booking it, but it’s an easy self-guided tour.
- Budapest Night Drive.
- AVOID. The city is compact enough that it’s better to wander around on your own as the sun sets. You’ll get to truly experience Budapest without having to look at it through a window.
- Danube Cruise.
- AVOID. As mentioned above, this is better served to book your own. It’ll be cheaper and you can book with a company that offers more for a lower price.
- Classical Concert.
- While I would have loved to do this, my friend isn’t a huge classical music fan, so instead we decided to go to an amazing Austrian restaurant. If I were doing this tour again, I would have opted into this excursion.
Don’t forget that you need to set aside some funds to tip your driver and your guide on a tour like this. They’ve been shepherding you around Europe for nearly ten days and deserve a thank you for that work!
Overall, Imperial Splendours was one of my favourite Globus tours that I’ve done. It’s a good pace without too many driving days, it goes to fantastic locations, and the optional excursions give you a nice range of options. If you’re thinking about any of the destinations on the list, but want a sampler before you dive in deep, this is a great way to start!
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