We are planning a trip to Lviv, Budapest, Warsaw, and Vilnius. We are figuring out the order. There are non stops on LOT from Chicago to Budapest and Warsaw to CHicago and shot hops from the other cities to Warsaw. I thought originally of Budapest-Lviv (by train)-Warsaw-Vilnius but it doesnt sound like the overnight train is very pleasant for a decent night sleep (the rest of the trip on planes, mostly LOT). Also Lviv to Vilnus is a half day affair. The alternative was Budapest-Vilnius (also a half day and not cheap except on Baltic Air)-Warsaw-Lviv. This is in May-June 2018. Any suggestions? I enjoy the challenge of putting this together (did this with Munich-Prague-Krakow-Wroclaw-Berlin a few years back) and I am trying to go reasonably inexpensively if possible. Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
The flights are not expensive, as long as you book well in advance. No way I would suffer a night train, especially on these routes with many stops.
Posted by
Washington DC
27929 posts
Yeah, I hate night trains, too.
I always look at things from the weather standpoint, and I'm pretty sure if you check historical weather stats you'll find that Budapest will likely be warmer than L'viv and Warsaw, which are usually warmer than Vilnius. So I'd try to structure my itinerary to take advantage of that, to the extent practical. In addition to avoiding cool nights, it will keep you out of Budapest in June where there is some risk of an unpleasant heat wave. The record June high in Budapest is 103F, which is 7 to 10 degrees above what has occurred in the other cities.
I flew into Budapest on May 2 this year. Until well into my trip (months later), the most uncomfortable days on the hot/muggy scale were at the very beginning of the trip while I was in Budapest. It wasn't miserable, but it was over 80F and humid. I traveled through Hungary for over 3 weeks, spent about 3 weeks in Ukraine, then traveled to Warsaw and Gdansk before moving south through Poland toward Krakow. I don't think I hit early-May Budapest conditions again until I got to Wroclaw and Krakow in late July/early August. Every year is different, of course.
Posted by
San Francisco
14915 posts
Good choice of interesting and historical cities.
If you can sleep on the plane, then you should be able to sleep on the night train. Given the choice of sleeping for sure on a trans-Atlantic flight or on the night train, my chances are much better on the train. My first time to Warsaw was in July, all three day trips to Budapest, 2010, 2014, 2015, were in May. Expect your list of cities to be hot..period.
On the "reasonably inexpensive" issue...what about buses as an option? Day or night? There is night train from between Budapest to Warsaw. Budapest is a night train hub...a big advantage.
You may end up wasting more time at airports but not necessarily...depends on how you tailor the flights.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
19998 posts
Add one of my favorite towns to the trip and it sort of works on nonstop low cost carriers ($25 to $100). So that would be Budapest to Kyiv (one of my favorites) to Lviv to Warsaw to Vilnius..... The Budapest to Lviv train is "exciting" and long..... You will have to work out the fact that the low cost carriers dont fly the same route every day; and where you go after Vilnius to catch a flight home.
I use Google Flights. Pick a city, choose one way, non stop to Europe and all the options come up. Then piece them together.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
19998 posts
oh, I am really biased, so i would do it in reverse and relax and unwind for 3 or 4 days in Budapest before heading home.
Posted by
OP
52 posts
I am locked in by dates for Budapest first (hitting their nonstop from Chicago). Hard to add another city for a 2 week trip as we are taking side trips from Vilnius and Lviv to villages where our grandparents were born and not overloading time for transportation between cities.
Posted by
San Francisco
14915 posts
Interesting ! Were the grandparents Polish, Lithuanian, German or Ukrainian? Their native languages? Both cities at the turn of the century, when it was known as Lemberg, say 1910 when the census was done also had double digit percentage in its Jewish minority.
Posted by
OP
52 posts
Shumsk, 3 hr drive from Lviv- was Poland or Russia depending on the year and Moletai (formerly Malat) near Vilnius. Yiddish though many spoke up to 5 languages.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
19998 posts
Okay, well there are discount flights from Budapest to Warsaw every day of the week. Non stop in about 1.5 hours and under $115 (flights on Wizzair start under $50). Then there are flights from Warsaw to Vilnius every day of the week. Non stop in about an hour and under $105. Then Monday and Friday there are direct flights from Vilnius to Lviv; again for about $100 and 1.5 hours. From Lviv, if you want the other half of your direct round trip to Budapest, you will have to make on stop to get back to Budapest. I think the cheapest and fastest is Lviv to Kyiv to Budapest. About 4 hours in all and still only about $125 (of course you could spend the night in Kyiv and travel on to Budapest the next morning).
Posted by
San Francisco
14915 posts
Thanks. Exactly...depends on the year. Prior to 1919 it's Lemberg, the province capital of Galicia in Austria-Hungary, 4th or 5 th largest city in the Empire. In the inter-war years the former Lemberg is now Lwow and is part of Poland, ie from !919-1939.
After 1945, Lwow becomes Lvov in the USSR. After the fall of the USSR it becomes Lviv in the Ukraine.