Budapest - Bratislava - Vienna.

[reb0118]

What would the forum recommend as the "best" fare for a trip from Budapest (Friday) to Braislava (Friday & Saturday) with a day trip from Bratislava to Vienna (Saturday) before returning to Budapest (Sunday).

Two FIP (one with free passes for all three countries; one with free for Austria only and 50% discount for Hungary & Slovakia) and two public fares.

By best I mean cheapest but they would not be adverse to paying a little more for some flexibility.

TIA.

 

[wellhouse]

Can't help you with the fares, but I do recommend the Hydrofoil on the Danube from Vienna to Budapest.

http://www.mahartpassnave.hu/webset32.cgi?MAHART@@EN@@38@@GOOGLEBOT

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

What would the forum recommend as the "best" fare for a trip from Budapest (Friday) to Braislava (Friday & Saturday) with a day trip from Bratislava to Vienna (Saturday) before returning to Budapest (Sunday).
Two FIP (one with free passes for all three countries; one with free for Austria only and 50% discount for Hungary & Slovakia) and two public fares.
By best I mean cheapest but they would not be adverse to paying a little more for some flexibility.
TIA.

For Budapest-Bratislava:
There appear to be public fares of €19.50 return (ZSSK) on the MAV-START site http://elvira.mav-start.hu/elvira.dll/uf
There was also a €24.60 discount return fare for the same trains, not sure what the difference is.

It's a cranky site though, with availability not always shown 60 days in advance.
But I did buy a Budapest-Ostrava ticket on line through the site earlier this year.
You get an email with a booking reference, and then you use this to print the ticket using MAV ATMs at stations in Budapest.

Edit: For Bratislava-Vienna, I think there is a Euregio ticket at about €15 return, but not available on line.

 

[Searle]

Please just whatever you do, do NOT buy international tickets from Budapest Keleti. You will be waiting for hours unless you go bang on 6am, when it opens (and there was already a queue forming by 6:10)

 

[Max]

Please just whatever you do, do NOT buy international tickets from Budapest Keleti. You will be waiting for hours unless you go bang on 6am, when it opens (and there was already a queue forming by 6:10)

Not the case for Bratislava though, they have a separate queue specifically for Bratislava passengers and I managed to buy a ticket within 5 minutes. For other tickets you are spot on.

I seem to recall that there is a cheap Bratislava return ticket that can be bought on the day at Budapest Keleti, circa 17 EUR, that is cheaper even than a single as it benefits from some kind of cross-border subsidy. However, I cannot for the life of me remember whether this is a day ticket or a period return...

 

[Searle]

Not the case for Bratislava though, they have a separate queue specifically for Bratislava passengers and I managed to buy a ticket within 5 minutes. For other tickets you are spot on.

I seem to recall that there is a cheap Bratislava return ticket that can be bought on the day at Budapest Keleti, circa 17 EUR, that is cheaper even than a single as it benefits from some kind of cross-border subsidy. However, I cannot for the life of me remember whether this is a day ticket or a period return...

Budapest Keleti has a seperate queue for Hungarian tickets only (including TVM's), but the international ticket office was still hellful. Bratislava Hlavna Stanica however was lovely, and I was able to make a query about seat reservations without even having to queue up!