Train from Budapest to Prague

I have no idea. But if i were going to ride a train from Budapest to Prague, I would be inclined to buy the ticket from the Hungarian rail company: https://www.mavcsoport.hu/en

To be perfectly honest, I wouldnt book a train, I would fly.

Thanks..but it doesn’t seem you can buy the ticket online through the Hungarian rail site. I am leaving Budapest to Prague on oct 8.

But you can, just not easy. I think the guy in seat 61 has posted how to do it. Now, purchasing a $100 ticket on Czech Air is a snap.

"I have read from some places that ticket booked via the Czech railway cannot be validated at Budapest when you are departing from Budapest."

This doesn't make sense to me, since the ticket should not need validation. If you had to pick up tickets in the station, then that could be an issue. If it's a print-at-home or display-on-phone ticket, then you're ready to board the train. Also, the availability of this ticket on the Czech site has improved in the last couple of years, so you may have read old information. See also https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/prague-to-budapest-by-train.htm.

Great. Thank you for your reassurance. I will book my ticket from CD. Cz

Hello from Wisconsin,
Excuse my disdain. Fly? When you can pass through and partially see the cities of Brataslava, and Brno. See the landscapes. And not have to go through security strip searches (I exaggerate). Depart and Arrive from the city centers. Climate controlled, smooth, fast. cd.cz. Should be easy.

wayne iNWI

Excuse my disdain.

"Disdain" the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one's consideration or respect; contempt.

Seriously? Over a train ride? And one wonders why the world is so screwed up.

The OP will be taking the train, and that’s great.

If it were my trip, my logic would be like this.

My favorite hotel in Prague is the Hotel Ventana; in Budapest my favorite is the K&K Opera. You just cant do better for quality, comfort or location than these two hotels.

Checking train schedules and flight times I see I have a choice between arriving before noon or after 4pm. I love my time on vacations so I would choose to save a half day and fly. Of course, flying will cost more. Its about 60 euro more for the plane ticket and I am going to guess another 25 euro on taxi fares. So those 5 extra hours in Prague would cost me 85 euro more for one or 145 euro more for two traveling together.

Flight
7:15 AM Taxi from the K&K to the airport (35 minutes)
7:50 AM Check in 1.5 hours before flight time (eat breakfast in the airport)
9:20 AM Czech Air departs
10:45 AM Czech Air arrives
11:15 AM Getting off plane and making your way to the taxi stand (30 min) = 11:15 am
11:40 AM Taxi to the hotel (25 minutes)

Total = 4:25

Train
8:20 AM Breakfast at the hotel (45 minutes)
9:05 AM Taxi from the K&K to Nyugati Station (5 minutes)

9:10 AM Arrive 30 minute before train time (assuming you have a ticket and don’t have to use the ticket machine to retrieve your ticket ordered on line)
9:40 AM EC train departs
4:07 PM Arrives
4:22 PM Getting off train and making your way to the taxi stand (15 min)
4:27 PM Taxi to the hotel (5 minutes)
Total = 8:07

i read this one too. "Czech railway cannot be validated at Budapest when you are departing from Budapest."

so can we buy train ticket from budapest to prague using www.cd.cz? I tried to use www.mavcsoport.hu, but they don't have the one departure time I need. but there is one on www.cd.cz. I like to make sure I can buy ticket on Czech railway website.

thanks

We're in Budapest now. We leave for Prague tomorrow on the train and I booked through the Czech site. I have the ticket with barcode on my phone and also printed. We went to the train station where I asked at the international ticket desk if I needed anything further or some other validation. She looked at my phone ticket and said we were set just to get on the train. I will let you know if we have any issues tomorrow.

I hope you enjoyed Budapest.

Thank you. I will wait for your update. We will be going in 2 weeks.

Thanks, James. We enjoyed our stay in Budapest! Especially the Parliament tour and Vajdahunyad Castle in City Park.
Weather has been great!

I am very happy

Hi sunharriet
We made it to Prague without incident!
As I mentioned previously I bought our Budapest to Prague tickets on the Czech website. I printed out the ticket info which has the scan code. The train has compartments for seating and people in our compartment had regular paper tickets or a printed sheet. I do not know if mobile devise tickets work so do print your ticket. The conductor scanned our ticket quite soon after leaving Budapest. The ticket was checked three times as the trip involved three countries. You should have no problem. Enjoy your trip!