I have two tours booked for Eastern Europe with 3 free days between them. The first tour ends in Budapest and the second tour begins in Sofia, Bulgaria. How would you recommend I spend the free days? The train from Budapest to Sofia goes through Vienna so spending time there is one option.
Thanks!
Hard to say without knowing how much time you will spend in Budapest as part of the tour and how much time you will spend in Sofia as part of the tour. Exact dates might come into play if something interesting is going on in Budapest or Vienna or Sofia those days.
Train to Sofia? Another consideration stay in Budapest until one of the three days a week that Ryanair flies direct to Sofia .... some days tickets begin under $30. The 90 minute flight beats 15 or 20 hours on trains and may not cost any more.
The train from Budapest to Sofia goes through Vienna? That is very hard to believe as they are completely the opposite direction. I think the normal route would go east from Budapest through Romania. A couple days in a Romanian city en route, whether Cluj-Napoca, Brasov or Bucharest, would be time well spent, but you don’t have much time and travel through Romania by train is not speedy, so perhaps the idea of more time in Hungary and then a flight is better.
I am mistaken. The train goes west from Budapest to Vienna then I need to fly down to Sofia.
I should add that I recently visited Romania, including the three cities I mentioned, and loved it, so it would be a great thing to do between Hungary and Bulgaria. But I am concerned that your available time might not work for that.
If traveling back to Vienna and flying works, that’s good, as Vienna is an amazing city well worth as much time as you can give it.
I am mistaken. The train goes west from Budapest to Vienna then I need
to fly down to Sofia.
There are direct flights out of Budapest.
Okay, well, if the tour to Budapest is the RS tour with Vienna and Prague, then the tour has 3 full days in Budapest which is pretty “okay”. If that’s the tour, then going back to Vienna to catch a flight isn’t the best use of time. There is a direct flight from Budapest to Sofia (Ive been on it, it’s fine) that depending on the month goes on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday … or … Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday … or … Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday; so maybe you spend another day or two in Budapest to make one of those flights. 5 full days in Budapest isn’t too much.
Then if the Bulgaria tour is also the RS tour they give you one full day in Sofia. That’s a bit light. Two full days would be better and 3 sure wouldn’t kill you. So, if the flights work where you get a bit more time in Sofia, that’s great.
Not considered above is if something special is going on in either Budapest or Sofia. Or there might be something special going on in another city that connects well to both Budapest and Sofia. But that requires dates to make a suggestion.
