Transportaion to and from BUD airport to city center Budapest

You are free to pay 35 euro for a 25 euro taxi ride if you would like. The taxi kiosk is on the sidewalk right outside the arrival hall. The service is clean, honest and efficient. For the return trip call City Tax the night before. I've done literally dozens of the early flights and City Taxi has never failed me. 2 hour arrival prior to flight time is fine. If you have your boarding passes and no luggage to check, 90 minutes works.

https://citytaxi.hu/en/home/

I would take the taxi outside the terminal upon arrival on your own. You’ll save money and it might actually be easier. Just have your address written down - or marked on Google Maps - to show the person at the kiosk. It’s not hard to find and the taxi pulls right up to where you are standing.

For the return, I understand the desire to make life easier. And the cost isn’t significantly more to have your host set it up (€7or €8 more). Basically you would be paying him to make the phone call. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. City Taxi has been 100% reliable for me but I remember being very nervous the first time I booked through the app. So if it saves some stress, it’s ok. Completely up to you! But absolutely yes, you can book a taxi that early (it’s a regular flight and the taxi, if scheduled, will arrive).

I have flown out a few times (usually BA with a transfer in London) and 3 hours early is a bit excessive. 2 to 2 1/2 hours should be fine. Edit: I see Mr. É said 2 hours is sufficient - I agree!

https://youtu.be/6h7T_zbPGBw?si=CBDlkagNHRJUOVwi

Thank you both so much! I will stick with my original plan to take a taxi both ways. Yes, British Airways to London, then on to DFW.

Just watched the video linked by Mr. E. Do you remember that I am a Longhorn? But my beloved Grandfather in law was an Aggie and left the Cadet Corps as a junior to join the Army and go off to WW2 in the Pacific Theater. He went back to finish his senior year after the war ended. So I watched in honor of him!!

Whoop!.....

LAB, that has been my flight a number of times. :) And I really hate getting up in the middle of the night, so in October I am trying a new strategy to see if I like it. I am flying to Helsinki with an overnight there (time for dinner and activity in the city), and an early afternoon flight on to DFW. It will take me an extra day, but time isn’t my problem.

My most used flights were Lufthansa and KLM out of Budapest between 6 and 6:30 am. I usually got picked up 3 hours prior. The coffee shops open about 4:30. Security appears closed, but there is a hall on the left that takes you to an open security.

Sorry for all of the posts. I see you are staying at Erzsébet krt. 41, next to the Corinthia Hotel.

And there is the Bus. But that depends on where you are staying. The bus is really inexpensive and pretty quick, but you will have walk a bit once you get to town, may even need to get on the metro or a tram or another bus. Depending on your luggage that might not be as fun. In your case you woudl get off the bus, walk down the stairs and get on the M1 Metro to the Oktogon, then up the stairs and turn right and its about a 5 minute walk to your hotel.

This is where I say that you will be riding the 4/6 Tram a lot because it runs in front of your building. You are halfway between the Wesselényi utca tram stop and the Király utca tram stop. Interesting my favorite Wine Bar called Kadarka is located on Kiraly utca not too terribly far from you. More interesting, I live next to Kadarka.

In one direction the 4/6 will take you to the Oktogon for the Andrassy ut sights (M1 metro), then to Nyugati Staition by Eiffel (M3 Metro), then to Jászai Mari tér (2 Tram), then to Margrit Island, then to Buda (Margaret's restaurant ;-) ).

In the other direction it goes to NY Palace Coffee House and has stops at Blaha Lujza tér (M2 Metro), Corvin-negyed
(M3 metro) and Rákóczi tér (M4 metro), as it heads around to Buda down river. The 6 ends in Buda at Móricz Zsigmond körtér M
which is a good place to stop for pie and coffee. Its also where it sees like half the trams in town converge and the M4 metro has a stop.

Now the bad news. From the Oktogon to to at least Corvin-negyed the 4/6 tram is closed for repairs. BUT!!! It is replaced with busses. Takes a tad longer but they are big shinny new busses and run often enough to take the load. You will see them as they say 4/6 in the front, rear and side displays. They dont stop at the exact same location as the tram did because the tram platforms are not set up for that. Walk towards the tram stop and than watch the approachin busses and you will see where they stop.

You will be going to the M1 and Andrassy ut most of the time, and thats a short enough walk that I wouldnt mess with bus or tram.

Thanks for all of this info, Mr. E! Kadarka is on my list. We leave tomorrow...off to pack.

@TexasTravelMom: I am flying to Helsinki with an overnight there (time for dinner and activity in the city), and an early afternoon flight on to DFW. It
will take me an extra day, but time isn’t my problem.

Great strategy!

On dozens of flights back to DFW from Europe while working and now while retired, I always travel to my departure city the night before. Sometimes with time for dinner, etc. Other times, straight to my airport hotel. This is because I really dislike the zero dark thirty wakeup calls to make an early morning flight and the fact that a number of times I had work colleages miss their flight to DFW because they took the early morning conection and a delay caused them to miss their flight home.

jkh, right? I don’t worry about missing the connection at LHR, but I sure hate that 3:30am alarm in Budapest. LOL.

I will say, I had the Budapest-Helsinki leg cancelled for Oct. I don’t know why because I was able to call and book the same flights for 2 days later. We’ll see how it goes. It worked well for me, though, because I had bought a ballet ticket for the wrong day (day of my original departure) and was going to have to try to give it away. Now I can go!