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Vienna - Bratislava: RegioJet Bus vs. Flixbus

Hi! I'll be taking my first trip to Austria in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to decide which bus company to take for a day trip from Vienna to Bratislava. I'm overwhelmed by the options and I'm hoping some of you savvy folks with prior experience can help me decide. Is there a certain bus company or specific route that will drop me closer to the old town (or the area with the most sights to see) in Bratislava? I've read a lot of these forums and have decided that the bus is the way to go instead of the train, but I'd like this to be as easy as possible (read: not a lot of multiple local bus or train transfers). Walking distance is not an issue as long as the area is safe for out-of-towners.

Flixbus has Vienna departures at either Erdberg VIB or the Vienna Central Train Station; arriving in Bratislava at Novy Most, Airport, AS, or Einsteinova.

RegioJet bus has Vienna departures at either U2 Stadion, Busterminal, Stadioncenter, Engerthstrasse (unclear if these are all stops along the way and I can grab the bus at any of them with my ticket); arriving in Bratislava at AS Mlynske Nivy.

Which one of those arrival stations in Bratislava will be the one I want for a quick day trip? Again, I'm interested in having a look around, checking out some local restaurants and shops, and heading back to Vienna in the early evening.

Posted by
8091 posts

It's just a 39 mile trip from the Central Train Station to Bratislava, and either bus will be just fine. I just remember the bus stopping in one small town on the trip. Bratislava may be in Slovakia, but it's essentially a suburb of Vienna--albeit a high income, high tech place where Hungarian's spoken. (We didn't hear a word of German spoken in 3 days there.) They have an incredible, modern mall with a bunch of restaurants overlooking the river with outside dining on the lawn.
You don't say what month you're going, but there's also a fast ferry going from just east of St. Stephens' to downtown Bratislava through the Summer months.

Posted by
32 posts

Thanks for the reply, David! I did look into the boat but we will be there in early March and the boat doesn't start operating for the season until a couple of weeks later. So would any of those Bratislava arrival stations be acceptable?

Posted by
8091 posts

Bratislava is a small, walkable town. I'd just ask the driver where the best place to get off is to see the city center. It'll be about a 1/4 mile walk up a slight incline.
After 5 days in Budapest, we used Bratislava to slow down and recharge our batteries.
It's a very safe city. The only "criminal" we experienced was a cab driver that drove us all over town from the train station to our hotel--when it was just a 1 mile straight shot.