Tokaji region or Zagreb

I would go to Tokaji. Zagreb, after Budapest, is just another Habsburg town, smaller and not as charming as Budapest. Whereas the countryside around Tokaji is really gorgeous and worth seeing. Not to mention: WINE!

I haven't been to Zagreb, but it is supposed to be worth the visit; still the travel time is six hours if you take one of the two direct trains. One leaves too early for me and the other too late.

Unless there is some great draw for Zagreb; if you just want to do something unexpected, then I would look into what the discount airlines (Wizzair and Ryan) can provide you on the day you want to travel. You can reach a lot of one-off places for under $100, non-stop in under 1.5 hours. The destinations include most of the Balkan States and most of Eastern Europe.

We always look for events in the region and then make one or two night visits from Budapest. Rose Festivals in Bulgaria, Independence Day parades in Kiev, Orthodox Christmas Mass on Red Square and even Hanukah one year in Jerusalem (Tel Aviv takes a couple of hours and the RT is about $300), New Year in Scotland, etc.

Otherwise, if you aren't driven to get out of town, I would suggest that four full 4 days is a minimum for Budapest, 5 being better. If not two nights in Tarcal, maybe one night in Eger (easier to get to and worth a night or even two). So you get to choose.

You might look at what is going on in Budapest in June; there is usually a lot. There are some links on an adjacent post.

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess we will stick to the current itinerary. I thought Zagreb was just 3 .30 hrs from Budapest.

it's a pretty solid 6 hours which means you pretty much loose a day.

How are you getting to Tarcal, cause that's a pretty interesting train trip too. you might consider private transportation on the way up and the train back.

James, I see that they have a train to Tokaji, when I searched for traveling from Budapest to Tarcal. (https://www.virail.com/train-budapest-tarcal).

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions as to how to get there. Also any private transport company which you would suggest.

Thanks

Your trip to Tarcel requires 1 or 2 train changes. Many of the scheduled trips have transfers of less than 10 minutes. Maybe return trips are better.

The guy I use is http://silverwings.hu/

I called the hotel and they suggested to get train to Tokaj and they will send the hotel car for pick up.
I'll look into the suggested guy too.
Thanks so much!