I'll be teaching in Budapest for a couple of weeks in June; my wife will join me there for the second week, then we'll have about 11 days to go elsewhere in the second half of the month. We're playing with various options re how to use that time; right now the leading one is to bop around Central Europe. We figure that to do it in a relaxing enough way, we'd only go to two other cities.

We've both always wanted to get to Prague. I've been to Krakow before (though the last time was 7 or 8 years ago) and like it; she's interested in visiting there. Vienna also sounds nice and would be easy to combine with Budapest and Prague, though we have some slight hesitation (describe below)about it. Trying to get to all four cities would seem like a stretch.

FWIW, the things we like best about visiting cities are simply walking around, getting off the beaten track, day trips out of town, exploring historical sites, learning about the history/society/politics, hanging out at cafes, taking rides along rivers, seeing street performers, dining out at places that are short of exhorbitant (which I realize is a growing list in these days of the declining dollar), checking out the local beer/wine and pubs, and visiting places that are unique to a city. (E.g., while I've been to Budapest before, I've never been to the famous baths there, and we might want to check out those).

Also, FWIW, our accomodations in Budapest will be taken care of and there's a good chance we'd be able to use various hotel points we have for the other three cities, so hotel costs are not a major consideration.

I've done a search and have turned up useful info, but would still welcome some additional advice

1. As nice as Vienna sounds, two of its strongest suits--museums and fine music (symphonies, opera)--fall outside what we're most interested in. At the risk of sounding like heathens, would folks like us still find it fun?
2. Combining Krakow (rather than Vienna) with Budapest and Prague could be a bit logistically difficult, given the lengthier train travel in that triangle as opposed to Budapest-Vienna-Prague. Also, for better and fewer flight connections on the way back to the U.S. we'd probably be better off flying from Prague than Krakow even though Budapest-Krakow-Prague makes for an even longer triangle by train. Does getting around the three by plane offer easy, relatively cheap options?
3. Any good day trips out of town that you recommend? I'm aware of Bratislava from Vienna, but welcome any other suggestions.
4. If we were to do Budapest-Vienna-Prague, and since the three are relatively close, any places worth stopping off in between for a night or two? Or better to just do day trips from these places?
5. For any of these cities, any unique sights or activities you recommend?
6. Am I correct in assuming that Krakow would be a lot cheaper than Vienna?
7. If anyone has done the hydrofoil between Budapest and Vienna, would you recommend it over taking a train?

Thanks for any info and advice.