View the route
Date of the journey:- September 2019
Distance travelled:- 151 miles
Our journey from Vienna to Budapest in Hungary was completed by bus.
We found this to be the cheapest way to travel between the two cities, but not the quickest.
We got the Flixbus from Vienna International bus station to Budapest Nepliget bus station. The cost of the 3hr 5min journey was 9 Euros each.
There were also a number of train options from Vienna to Budapest on the date we wanted to travel. It is best to check the Austrian train website to see the various options and prices. We found the direct train took 2hr 40min at a cost of 45 Euros each. Prices did reduce for slower trains but still not as cheap as the bus.
This was even taking into account that Nepliget bus station is outside of the city centre, meaning travelling on the Budapest metro to get into the tourist area.
The bus from Vienna to Budapest was very comfortable, WiFi and charging points were available. Departure and arrival were both on time as scheduled and the roads were good throughout the entire journey.
Luggage is stowed under the bus.
Our plan was to see the sights in Budapest just for the day. Having already pre-booked our train tickets to Brasov in Romania on the Hungarian train website.
Getting into Budapest
From Nepliget bus station, we were supposed to get the metro at Nepliget metro station. Owing to engineering works on the M3 metro line, we couldn’t take the metro. We opted to walk to Nagyvarad Ter, the next metro station on the line. From there we could get tram number 24 directly to our destination of Keleti Palyaudvar train station. The walk took about 10mins, during which, we withdrew some local currency from a cash machine.
At Nagyvarad Ter metro station we were able to purchase our tram tickets for 350 HUF each.
That was a single trip ticket for the number 24 tram to Keleti Palyaudvar train station.
Our sleeper train to Brasov, Romania was leaving from Keleti Palyaudvar train station later that evening. Going straight to this train station allowed us to do two things. Collect our train tickets and store our luggage while we went sightseeing in the city.
There were a couple of places at the station where we could store our luggage. The first was on the right-hand side of the station as we entered through the main entrance. The second was downstairs under platform 7. Going for the latter because it was adjacent to the ticket office, with lots of people around as well as CCTV coverage.
One large locker, sufficient for our 70 litre and 40 litre backpacks with room for another bag, cost 800 HUF for a 24 hour period. The lockers only accept 100 & 200 HUF coins and there was nowhere to obtain change. We resorted to buying a cake at a station bakery to get the right change.
Directly outside the train station was Keleti Palyaudvar metro station. This is on the M2 line which goes directly into the main tourist area. A single ticket to Deák Ferenc tér metro station being 350 HUF. Read about our day sightseeing in Budapest.