Ease of travel/border times London → Eurostar Amst/Brussels or Budapest(via STN or LTN)

I flew from London to Budapest last April. Upon arrival in Budapest. It took about 15 minutes to get through border control. It really depends on how many other flights come in at that time.

With Eurostar, you do passport control before you depart, so you need to be at the station at least 90 minutes before departure. When you get to Brussels, you just walk off the train and go about your day.

I take flights and trains during my travels. I keep an eye on possible strikes but most are announced days ahead of time.

Since Brexit there have been long queues at St Pancras, especially for Amsterdam trains, but they try and give people priority if they are on trains that are leaving soon.

I took the eurostar last month from London to Brussels. The whole process was much easier than expected. I got to the line the recommended 90 minutes early and was in the (very crowded) departure area in 20 minutes. It cleared out as soon as the Paris train left. The train was not crowded and I had a seat to myself the whole way.

Headed back to our favorite Budapest? 🤣 There is always more to see!

The flights are easy and it is only an opinion about not taking them mid-trip. If it makes sense timewise, I don’t mind doing that at all. It completely depends on where I want to go on any given trip. I may be a bit nutty (but it made sense) but on my Oct. trip last year, I flew Budapest to Birmingham for a concert and a one night stay, then flew back.

One consideration would be the time it takes to get to Luton or Stansted from where you are staying in London. I also remember you are not fond of flying, but it’s not a hard trip.

However if you haven’t yet been to Amsterdam/Brussels, that is a very good reason to choose there instead. With 15 days and 7 of those in London, you could easily use your other 8 around Amsterdam, etc.

Headed back to our favorite Budapest? 🤣 There is always more to see!

@TexasTravelmom awesome/thanks for weighing in! Have you been back in Budapest, how was it

"However if you haven’t yet been to Amsterdam/Brussels, that is a very good reason to choose there instead. With 15 days and 7 of those in London, you could easily use your other 8 around Amsterdam, etc."

Realizing there's no "right" answer, would your global impression be: Instead of Budapest - a few days around Brussels/Amsterdam? Or non-London parts of UK? (with the understanding that I won't be renting a car. I can barely drive on the right side of the road)

Tough one - because again, it just depends on what you want to do. I sometimes put my trips together in odd ways, just because I feel like it.

That being said, the absolute easiest would be staying within fhe UK - maybe in the direction of York. By train and bus, there are easily 4-5 or more days of things to see. Durham, just a bit further up also a nice stop. Then you could head to Edinburgh and spend a week with train trips or tour days. Easily more to see than you have time for this time. But those are the places that have called my name. With 8 days, you could head slightly different directions within England.

And, of course, Amsterdam, Harlaam, Bruges, Ghent….. could easily and interestingly fill 8 days and more.

Truly, if you haven’t been to either of these areas, I might suggest one of them.

Yes, I was back to Budapest for a week in March moving slowly from Dubai to Andalusia. :) It seems to make a handy stop for some of the areas that are of interest to me right now and better flights home. But I will be in London for a week late Nov-early Dec!