London to Budapest

Hi,

I’ve got a stag do (never mind...) in Budapest next July.

A pal of mine has a fear of flying so I’ve offered to train it down with him from London. I was expecting 36 hours so very pleased to see Eurail.com offer 18-24h travel. Obviously I couldn’t search on next year’s timetables yet, but that’s what I got for a November journey. Some of these are via Zurich, others via Frankfurt. Alternatives involve very early get ups in Cologne which I’d like to avoid.

Could someone with experience of this journey please offer some advice? I searched the forum but no reference to a UK-Hungary journey.

Cheers!
Dave

Seat61 shows The details of several options.
https://www.seat61.com/Hungary.htm

Dave W said:

Hi,

I’ve got a stag do (never mind...) in Budapest next July.

A pal of mine has a fear of flying so I’ve offered to train it down with him from London. I was expecting 36 hours so very pleased to see Eurail.com offer 18-24h travel. Obviously I couldn’t search on next year’s timetables yet, but that’s what I got for a November journey. Some of these are via Zurich, others via Frankfurt. Alternatives involve very early get ups in Cologne which I’d like to avoid.

Could someone with experience of this journey please offer some advice? I searched the forum but no reference to a UK-Hungary journey.

Cheers!
Dave

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I don't have any experience, but Seat61 lists seven routes. https://www.seat61.com/Hungary.htm

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/London/Budapest has some other suggestions by coach

Ah much appreciated. I hadn’t thought of looking there!

Dave W said:

Hi,

I’ve got a stag do (never mind...) in Budapest next July.

A pal of mine has a fear of flying so I’ve offered to train it down with him from London. I was expecting 36 hours so very pleased to see Eurail.com offer 18-24h travel. Obviously I couldn’t search on next year’s timetables yet, but that’s what I got for a November journey. Some of these are via Zurich, others via Frankfurt. Alternatives involve very early get ups in Cologne which I’d like to avoid.

Could someone with experience of this journey please offer some advice? I searched the forum but no reference to a UK-Hungary journey.

Cheers!
Dave

Click to expand...

Brussels to Vienna direct nightjet should be running by then. Eurostar to Brussels, overnight to Vienna, then a couple of hours to Budapest. Painless and pleasant

Alfonso said:

Brussels to Vienna direct nightjet should be running by then. Eurostar to Brussels, overnight to Vienna, then a couple of hours to Budapest. Painless and pleasant

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Failing that, the extra change in Cologne is not a problem. However, be aware that the NJ services from Germany are very popular and you may need to consider alternatives.
Sleepers are brilliant if you want an early or lunchtime arrival, but if evening into Budapest is OK I would consider a scenic route via Paris-Zurich or Brussels-Lindau, stay overnight and then take the Arlberg route across Austria to Budapest. Ideally 1st class in EC Transalpin as far as Innsbruck.
Depends on your preferences and the best man's plans

Alfonso said:

Brussels to Vienna direct nightjet should be running by then. Eurostar to Brussels, overnight to Vienna, then a couple of hours to Budapest. Painless and pleasant

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Worth mentioning that it'll only be a few days a week to start with, with full daily service coming by the end of the year

The train trip from Zurich to Vienna is quite nice till Innsbruck, much less afterwards. To Budapest it is quite a long journey for one day. You arrive too late for supper so two meals in the train are mandatory. The restaurant car of railjets is good and cheap, though.

30907 said:

Depends on your preferences and the best man's plans

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Majority of the group (including the stag and best man!) are flying and I normally would too, but then my plane-averse mate said “what about the train... could you organise it?” ... And any thought of flying immediately disappeared! Three of us will do the train, and now we’ve had the bright idea of starting on the Monday before the weekend and slowly winding our way through Europe to Hungary.

Hugely grateful to all respondents - I shall take all of your suggestions into account and endeavour to update how the plan goes!

Dave W said:

Majority of the group (including the stag and best man!) are flying and I normally would too, but then my plane-averse mate said “what about the train... could you organise it?” ... And any thought of flying immediately disappeared! Three of us will do the train, and now we’ve had the bright idea of starting on the Monday before the weekend and slowly winding our way through Europe to Hungary.

Hugely grateful to all respondents - I shall take all of your suggestions into account and endeavour to update how the plan goes!

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In that case cost out Interrail versus booked-train-only tickets, especially if you can avoid France. But in July I'd want reservations anyway.
I agree with MarcVD that Innsbruck-Salzburg-Linz-Budapest is less scenic than the Arlberg itself, but that particularly applies East of Linz and it's difficult to avoid that bit (unless you go a totally different route).

If I was heading to Budapest on day trains with overnight stops, I think I would do:
Day 1 London-Brussels-Köln
Day 2 Köln 0953-Vienna 1845 (ICE27, runs via Rhine Valley to Frankfurt)
Day 3 Vienna-Budapest - any suitable service, 3 hours (you could reach Budapest late on Day 2 if desired).

You can book most of this with DB 6 months in advance, and Köln-Budapest could be as low as €50 on one ticket (insert length of stopover on DB site).
It should also be possible to book this from Brussels to Budapest (with a stopover in Köln) on one ticket for something like €90, if you use ICE Brussels-Köln.
You'd need a Eurostar ticket to Brussels.
There are of course other options depending on where you want to stop over.

Dave W said:

Hi,

I’ve got a stag do (never mind...) in Budapest next July.

A pal of mine has a fear of flying so I’ve offered to train it down with him from London. I was expecting 36 hours so very pleased to see Eurail.com offer 18-24h travel. Obviously I couldn’t search on next year’s timetables yet, but that’s what I got for a November journey. Some of these are via Zurich, others via Frankfurt. Alternatives involve very early get ups in Cologne which I’d like to avoid.

Could someone with experience of this journey please offer some advice? I searched the forum but no reference to a UK-Hungary journey.

Cheers!
Dave

Click to expand...

Interestingly, I went on a Stag do to Budapest back in March and happily went by train rather than flying (to the bemusement of other attendees, their loss though!).

All depends on your time, finance and wants but I got a morning Eurostar to Brussels, had a couple of hours there for lunch and a beer. Then took the afternoon ICE train (Serves draught Bitburger on the train!) to Cologne. Had a very pleasant five hours there wandering and sampling some of the local produce (Kolsch and Pork Knuckle were a lovely combination) before taking the Nightjet to Vienna. From there as has been said, it's a 2 hour 30 min ride to Budapest. That was enough for me seeing as I had to persuade The Boss that not only was I going on a Stag to Budapest, but I was going a day early to go by train!

Cologne was great and I recommend spending time there. It's heaven for good beer and honest food. Vienna was lovely but very expensive. I spent a few hours there on the way back (flights back were significantly cheaper from Vienna than Budapest) and whilst I could see myself enjoying more time there, it would all depend what you are after.

Respect to you for not flying!

In addition to the good suggestions above, and pointing out that you may not necessarily want to get there as fast as you can, if you can afford the time (one of the benefits of sustainable / slow travel is of course the freedom to discover places on the way), one more suggestion: if you want to do it stupidly cheaply, beyond Brussels, use Czech Railways' tickets. So...

- Get yourself the best deal you can on Eurostar as far as Brussels (could be Interrail in some cases, given that now includes domestic travel legs)

- Get yourself a ticket on cd.cz from Brussels to Praha. Make sure you DEselect "bus" options (to avoid DB "Intercity Bus" connections coming up) and put in journeys, depending what you fancy, via Berlin - Dresden, via Frankfurt - Dresden, or via Cheb (which is via Nürnberg). You should find fares of about £20-35, or a bit more in first class. Some other routes DON'T have cheap fares, e.g. via Regensburg - Domazlice and via the rancid bus.

- Book another piece from Prague to Budapest - again it will be very cheap, and there are comfortable Eurocity trains direct a few times a day. Similar sort of cost - a bit over £25 for an advance-purchase ticket.

NB These ČD pieces are advance-purchase, so at least one train will be "obligatory", but if you read the small print there's actually some flexibility on other legs. The tickets are straightforward print-at-home PDFs.

NB again: I've suggested via Prague - in fact if you want to go via somewhere else in the Czech Republic, you should also find good deals. So feel free to experiment....

Hope this helps!

The Prague suggestion is a good one BUT you need to be aware that trains in summer can be very crowded as young people and wrinklies like me travel at silly prices - plus Prague to Budapest is a popular Interrail route!

30907 said:

The Prague suggestion is a good one BUT you need to be aware that trains in summer can be very crowded as young people and wrinklies like me travel at silly prices - plus Prague to Budapest is a popular Interrail route!

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If you are a 'wrinkly', that is over 65, and a citizen of an EU-member country one can use public transport in Hungary free of charge by simply showing your passport. You still have to pay the supplements for using trains for which a supplement is charged, although I have no direct experience of doing that.

My wife and I travelled from Balatonlelle to Budapest and back as well as using the Metro and trams whilst there by simply waving our passports. Nobody batted an eyelid!

coppercapped said:

If you are a 'wrinkly', that is over 65, and a citizen of an EU-member country one can use public transport in Hungary free of charge by simply showing your passport. You still have to pay the supplements for using trains for which a supplement is charged, although I have no direct experience of doing that.

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The MAV-START web site factors the senior concession into its fares quotes, so you end up buying an IC and/or First Class supplement for a few HUF.
Just don't use it on cross-border services as it's expressly disallowed (not that the rules tell you that).
It's also free in Slovakia but you have to get a certificate at a booking office first, using your passport.
In Czechia I think it's 70 for the senior CD discount and there's also a railcard (also applies to city transport in Prague).
The "EU citizen" thing probably means we will lose these discounts when Boris "takes back control".

Finland, Norway and Portugal are countries where there's a 50% discount for seniors with no residence restriction.
Belgium has special cheap off-peak senior fares on demand.
Spain has a cheap €6 senior annual railcard which gives you 40% off normal fares, but you can only get one from a Renfe station and you need the card number to book the cheap tickets.
France has senior discounts in some (but not all) TER regions, and SNCF similarly has senior discounts on some TGV routes.
For other European countries I haven't fathomed a meaningful way of tapping into senior discounts for short trips, as either the residence/payment rules or initial railcard cost rules it out.

LNW-GW Joint said:

It's also free in Slovakia but you have to get a certificate at a booking office first, using your passport.
In Czechia I think it's 70 for the senior CD discount and there's also a railcard (also applies to city transport in Prague).
The "EU citizen" thing probably means we will lose these discounts when Boris "takes back control".

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SK - age 62+, photocard with small photo needed, free tickets may not be available on fast trains on day of travel.
CZ - 65+ discount on CD (and on many buses) but 70 (and free IIRC) in Prague.
EU - the SK card is for anyone, as is the CD discount.

I've been to Budapest and back by rail 3 times over the past 20 years. One enjoyable option that's sadly no longer available is the hydrofoil from Vienna along the Danube.

This summer we went out (using Interrail) :
Day 1
Leisurely trip to Harwich International
Overnight ferry to Hoek Van Holland)
Day 2
Hoek Van Holland-Schiedam
Schiedam-Utrecht
Utrecht-Frankfurt
Frankfurt-Basel
Basel-Zurich
Day 3
In Zurich (Boat trip on Zurichsee)
Day 4
Zurich-Budapest

Switzerland is very expensive, so it would be cheaper to overnight before reaching Basel

You can eat well in the Restaurant Cars on all the long distance trains.

TVM Ticket Machines allow you (in English) to select Pensioner Fares, charging just the relevant supplement. THESE are valid generally only for departures in the next 4 hours as far as I could make out.

Returning, our itinerary was:
Day 1
Budapest-Prague
Days 2,3
In Prague
Day 4
Prague-Berlin
Berlin-Dusseldorf
Day 5
In Dusseldorf
Day 6
Dusseldorf-Cologne
Cologne-Brussels
Day 7
Brussels-Kortrijk (Lunch)
Kortrijk-Lille
Lille-London

If you can make it fit your overall schedule, I'd recommend taking the route through the Rhine Gorge rather than the high speed line between Cologne and Frankfurt in at least one direction.

I have enjoyed sleepers, but you sacrifice the glorious Alpine scenery.

LNW-GW Joint said:

For other European countries I haven't fathomed a meaningful way of tapping into senior discounts for short trips, as either the residence/payment rules or initial railcard cost rules it out.

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The Austrian „Vorteilscard Senior“ is available to anyone over 63 (64 from 2020), costs only € 29, giving a discount of 50% (45% if you buy at a Counter vs online or a ticket machine) and is valid for a year.

I am not aware of any residence restrictions and ÖBBs English-language Site does not mention any either.

Since a normal standard class one-way-Ticket Wien - Salzburg is €55, this railcard can rapidly be worth its money.

I have made the journey many times and indeed will be in again in a couple of weeks.

I prefer travelling via Munich or Zurich for the overnight train depending on availability. Both are accessible via a single change in Paris, are pleasant journeys and you will arrive at Keleti station the next morning. The only drawback is having to cross Paris but if you follow the advice on Seat 61, you will be fine!

Hope you enjoy it

I made this trip in early September on the way to Istanbul:

1. Day 1: London -> Brussels -> Cologne -> Munich; left at 8:55 arrived at 20:07
   
2. Day 2: Munich -> Budapest; left at 13:30, arrived at 20:17