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Traveling from Budapest to Zakopane, Poland

What is best way? Day Trip Europe, Bus? Looking for suggestions, we will be traveling April 30, 2017

Posted by
16893 posts

There is no direct public transport. Rome2rio.com suggests a private shuttle van operated by EuroBusWays, plus a taxi for the last bit from Liptovsky Mikulas. Or, also from Liptovsky Mikulas, there is a train to Poprad-Tatra on the Slovakian side of the same mountain range.

Posted by
17627 posts

I made almost that full trip about 18 months ago. The gentleman I would have used was busy (http://www.silverwings.hu/) so I used these guys: http://transferbudapesthungary.com/ and they were competent and reasonably priced.

You can also do this by train to Poprad through Bratislava or Kosice if you wanted. From Poprad there are frequent busses to Zakopane (2 hours?). Or maybe you use the driver as far as Poprad to save some money, then hop the bus.

Posted by
4637 posts

As others said there is no direct connection. You can do it by train to Poprad either via Kosice or Bratislava. Both are significant detours. Or to do super detour you can go by train to Krakow and then back to Zakopane. There used to be direct bus between Poprad and Zakopane. But last time I was there (about two years ago) there was no bus. I took taxi from Zakopane to Strbske Pleso. It was about 60 dollars. I paid in local currency - zloty. If I were you I would improvise. You don't want to do all these detours. First day you come to Budapest go and investigate at the bus station and at local travel agencies. There are so many connections into Slovakia and Poland but it is very difficult to find it online if you don't know the website. But I am sure that there are buses to Banska Bystrica, Liptovsky Mikulas, Ruzomberok and maybe even Poprad itself. From the above mentioned towns is easy to get to Poprad.
If you go to Zakopane just to be in the mountains then stay on the Slovak side. The mountains there are higher and resorts are right in the mountains much closer than Zakopane is. I would recommend to stay in Strbske Pleso, Stary Smokovec or Tatranska Lomnica. In April hope for nice weather and views. Not much hiking because high trails are still under snow.