On Sunday, Sept 21, 2025 we'll be taking a train from Budapest to Vienna.
On Thursday, Sept 25, 2025 we'll be taking a train from Vienna to Prague.
When should we buy the tickets? Should we reserve specific seats? What class tickets? Anything else that we should know?
Thanks!
When to buy? When you are firmly sure of your travel dates.
If you aren't familiar with European trains, visit the Man in Seat 61 website to learn more. https://www.seat61.com/
To book tickets, go to the Austrian rail website. https://www.oebb.at/en/
In my opinion there is no need to buy 1st class tickets. Make sure to buy seat reservations, select your seats from the cars' floor plans (e.g. with or without a table, quiet zone, etc.).
HI there,
You've been given some good advice here. I'll add one little thing we noticed last year on the Budapest-Vienna run: you'll want to buy a ticket AND a seat reservation to be certain of having a seat. We saw many people who bought a ticket but no reserved place -- they ended up sitting on the floor. Mind you, that was August. Perhaps September won't be as busy.
Wishing you a wonderful visit to some great cities.
Agree with the advice above - 2nd class is fine, and definitely get reserved seats. For the Budapest to Vienna leg, you can also buy tix at the Hungarian train website https://www.mavcsoport.hu/en Sometimes the prices are different than the oebb website. Both sites sell tickets for the same trains. To select your own seats, watch carefully in the process; you have to specifically click to make a selection to view the seat layout; and then it will show you all cars and let you click on each to see available seats. You can practice now to get the hang of it, and also try a date next week to see the likely price difference if you were to wait until a week before..
p.s. likely you can also buy the Prague tix from either oebb or Czech website.
dartmouthgirl: We saw many people who bought a ticket but no reserved place -- they
ended up sitting on the floor.
wmt1: In my opinion there is no need to buy 1st class tickets.
I have been on the Budapest to Vienna train and the Vienna to Budapest train a number of times over the last year (to reach a lot of Europe from Budapest you have to go through Vienna). Each and every time the aisles were full of individuals that did not purchase seats. Generally, these are the type that are young and loud and swing their back packs in circles. Even getting to the toilet or the snack car was near impossible. So, what class? Next time I am going to the first-class.
Also don’t make any plans too close to arrival time in Vienna. The OBB trains between Vienna and Budapest are notorious for being late.
CJean: To book tickets, go to the Austrian rail website
The trans are OBB rolling stock, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy tickets from OBB. MAV the Hungarian rail service sells the tickets too. With OBB Second-Class on the 21st of September (any train between 8:40 and noon) will cost you 52.30 euro and first-class will cost you 85.40 euro. BUT, if you were to buy the same ticket for the same train on MAV, the ticket could cost you 17-euro second-class and 27-euro first-class (that’s the 9:40 train but most of the others are 25 euro or less). https://jegy.mav.hu/ So if you go with MAV you can travel first-class for half the cost of a second-class seat purchased from OBB. I would buy them soon, because those discount tickets will sell out.
For the Vienna to Prague, check with the Czech rail company. Pretty good chance they will be less expensive than OBB too.
Whoever you buy from, download their app.
Yes you should reserve seats. That will cost you 2-euro more on the MAV site.
Budapest to Vienna read this - https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Budapest.htm#Budapest-Austria
Vienna to Prague read this - https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/prague-to-vienna-by-train.htm
Buy the tickets now for the best fares. The longer you wait, the more expensive the tickets become.
Yes, always reserve seats unless you like standing for hours.
Second class is perfectly fine. First class is unnecessary.
On this route, 1st Class isnt a waste of money. And it can be cheap if you buy in advance. The reason is that the odds of the asiles being full of people standing and swinging around backpacks is pretty good. Not a certainity, but pretty good odds. Every route has its unique features, I am certain its not a problem on most routes, but what i have been running into. First class gets you away from that for about 14 euro.
YES, get a seat assignment. 2 euro on the MAV site.
After looking at the Man in Seat 61 Website, I am not real impressed. My amateur opinion:
Seat 61 Says: Fares start at €19.90 in 2nd class, €29.90 in 1st class or €44.90 in business class (premium 1st class, only on railjets).
Seat 61 Says: Buy tickets at www.thetrainline.com (easy to use, in €, £ or $, international credit cards no problem, small booking fee
Seat 61 Says: Booking opens up to 6 months ahead, although it may not be possible to add an optional seat reservation when booking more than 60 days ahead as this has to be sourced from the Hungarian system.
Seat 61 Says: For business class on a railjet, select 1st class then the €15 Business class upgrade. You print your own ticket.
Seat 61 Says: You can also buy tickets at the Austrian Railways website www.oebb.at (only in €, same fares).
Seat 61 Says: You can also book at the Hungarian Railways website www.mavcsoport.hu (in forints, more fiddly, see my advice for using it) Booking with MAV only opens 60 days ahead and It can't book business class, but it may have cheaper fares than oebb.at or Trainline for a given date & train. You print your own ticket or can show it in the MAV app on your phone.
First class I$ indeed, a waste of money.
Sometimes answers are route specific so overly generalizing, relying on google searches and experiences from the past dont provide the best answers.
On this route, recently, from experience, the nature of 2nd class isn’t as good as say, that on Vienna to Salzburg …. for some reason. Don’t know why. And I am not the only one with this experience. There have been two others on here with similar experiences on the same route.
So for half of the cost of a TheTrainline or OBB 2nd class ticket one can travel first class on a MAV ticket. If one flew to Europe on Premium Economy or better then 1st class might be your ticket.
Another option is RegioJet, but that’s another discussion.
21 September 08:40 train (but consistent with all the train costs on the OP’s travel date).
TheTrainline(.)com and OBB sites
52.30€ 2nd class,
76.80€ 1st class
MAV Site
17€ 2nd class,
27€ 1st class
I'm an outlier. I recently traveled Prague to Vienna.
I bought first class tickets. The seats are bigger, the car is quieter, no one sits on the floor.
A much more pleasant journey. If cost isn't an issue, consider first class. If you are trying to save as much money as possible, second class will get you there.
I guess for me it is just a principle thing rather than a cost thing. Regular class is nicer than any airplane seat. First class in my mind is for business travelers or for snobs (no offense to the posters above, I don't think you are snobs).
I always travel 1st class when I have luggage. There is just more room for me and my suitcase.
I know other responders here have traveled 1st class, they just don’t like to admit it for some odd reason. :-)
There is no shame in wanting to be comfortable.
Carrie, one of the negative comments comes from someone who buys tickets from TheTrainLine(.)com and there is no way I would go first class if I believed like they do what the cost of a first-class ticket is on the route in question. But first-class can be pretty darn cheap if you buy smart (buy a little early and from the cheapest national company).
Its a personal thing and its not exceedingly polite to tell people they are wasting their money when they buy what they prefer, or that they should not enjoy what it is that they enjoy when traveling.
I believe that in an article or video RS recommended second-class so you could sit with and meet the masses. Sounds good, except that I have nothing in common with a bunh of young tourist backpackers sitting on the floor in the aisle. But the one and only time, so far, that I did ride first-class (I actually got bumped up) I found individuals of my age, experience and education, who were Hungarian, that were fascinating to talk to.
I think the OP has probably long ago left the room and/or made their decision. But to add to what seems like it has now become an insider RS discussion :), I can't resist adding a comment since I have a recent data point. I rode this train a few weeks ago on the Friday 11:40 train in 2nd class. It was very quiet and comfortable, plenty of room for our luggage on the rack above, and definitely nobody standing in the aisle or any sense of overcrowding. Just one data point; I'm not questioning that overcrowding probably occasionally occurs. To each their own, and happy travels to all!
p.s. - Mr E. - your posts were very helpful on our trip to Budapest, thanks so much!! But I'm curious - I used the website https://www.mavcsoport.hu/en to buy our train tickets, but you say this website is 'not correct'. It seemed to work fine for us. What is wrong with it....?
