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private car service from Vienna airport to Budapest

Would anyone recommend a reliable car service from Vienna to Budapest. We are traveling with 2 small children and would rather avoid the hassle of transferring from subway/train/bus to get to our destination. Thank you!

Posted by
1875 posts

To go to Budapest by car is slower than by train, not to mention the costs. I guess that two small children crammed in a small car for maybe 4 hours is more problematic than in a comfortable, spacious railway coach for 2.5 hours, where you have e.g. the seating option at a table for four.

If you think it is a hassle to get from your hotel in Vienna to the main train station (Wien Hbf) using public transport just take a taxi.

Posted by
3961 posts

You might consider mydaytrip.com. My cousins (4 adults) used this service last summer. They chose the van transfer for sightseeing stops along the way. They also offer nonstop transfers. They felt the service was reliable and comfortable. As previously mentioned much longer trip vs. train. We plan to go the opposite direction next Fall. We will take the train.

Posted by
5362 posts

I don’t understand where you are getting your information from. To go from the airport to Budapest involves taking a 15 minute train to the main train station and then switching tracks to the train to Budapest. There is no subway or bus involved.

Again, as stated above and as a mother of two, taking the much faster train with kids will be a much more pleasant experience then being cooped up in a car for hours.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you for your suggestions. We'll be arriving on a red-eye flight, so I figured it would be easier to have a driver meet us at the airport and drive us uninterrupted to our hotel in Budapest, instead of transferring from airport to train station, taking train to Budapest, and transferring to hotel. From what I read, train will take 2.5 hours, and some car services also advertise driving as taking about 2.5 hours. Is it not the case? We will be arriving on a Saturday morning, so I'm not sure how traffic will affect the timing.

If we take the train as suggested, what time do you think would be a safe time to book the train for? We will be arriving on a Saturday morning at 8:30. Thank you.

Posted by
1875 posts

... and some car services also advertise driving as taking about 2.5 hours. Is it not the case?

It is doable under optimal circumstances, i.e. good weather, light traffic, no border controls, no traffic jams, no constructions sites along the highway, etc. Reality is sometimes different.

Posted by
5362 posts

You will arrive in the Austrian flight from Dulles, I assume. I take that flight frequently. You’ll need to give yourself 1.5 hours to clears customs, get your bags to be safe. I suggest a prebooked taxi to Vienna Hauptbahnhof from the airport and then you can plan to be on a train in a 10:30 - 11:30 timeframe. And to answer your question on TripAdvisor, yes, you should book the train tickets in advance to save money.

If you insist on a car service, I suggest hiring a driver in Budapest to come for you as that will likely be cheaper. Alternatively, there is a bus which goes from the Vienna airport to Budapest.

Why didn’t you just fly to Budapest?

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you! I will look more carefully at the train option.

Regarding flying directly to Budapest, we considered the option, but the price difference was just too much. The second leg of our trip will be in Vienna, so we will be flying home from the Vienna airport. Non-stop round trip flight between Dullus and Vienna was more than $2000 cheaper than a connecting flight to Budapest and a return from Vienna.

Posted by
26840 posts

When you were shopping for the airline tickets, did you look for multi-city fares, or did you price out two one-way tickets? The multi-city fare is what you need to look for

Posted by
4 posts

Yes, I priced flights using multi-city fares and watched the prices for a few weeks. They were consistently more expensive than the round-trip to and from Vienna.

Posted by
2165 posts

We are also flying to Vienna because of the price difference from our airport to Budapest. Perhaps if you're flying out of a major airport you'd find a better price to Budapest than what we were able to find.