Vienna to Budapest or Budapes to Vienna Train Tickets or Budpaest Elsewhere

Thank you for the post.
I am traveling December 15 from Budapest to Vienna and was getting concerned about fares as we got closer to the holidays. But I now realize I was messing up my search as I was comparing the price of 2 tickets on MAV to 1 on ÖBB. Oh well. Lessons learned.
I should have also been more patient as the trains/fares posted now for December 8 are less $$. So I assume they will be for they will be for the 15th too when they post (maybe next week?).

I bought tickets on OBB for 28.80 euros per ticket (for my first choice of train time). Not horrible but I do dislike wasting money.

My current issue though is do I purchase a seat assignment when they post or just wait and grab seats (2). We don’t have to sit together but I don’t want to stand. I don’t have any idea on how the christmas markets and holidays affect the loads.
Any advice on how full trains are that time of year?

I bought tickets on OBB for 28.80 euros per

You did good. Nothing wrong with that.

My current issue though is do I purchase a seat assignment when they
post

Just go back to the OBB site and on the first screen (I believe) there is a choice to just buy a seat assignment. Put in the dates, etc, and find your train and choose you want to pick a seat (vs they assign one) and you will get a diagram, just like airlines do and you pick your seat.

You mean OBB is selling tickets for December but not the seats? Interesting. I would get it done sooner than later. There is a post on the forum that implies they sell the seat for the entire length of the train route. Maybe that’s true, I don’t know. But if it’s true then seats could sell out faster than not because some guy getting on at the 3rd stop and getting off at the 4th stop will lock up the seat for all 16 stops (sounds unlikely to me, but like I said, I really don’t know). On MAV that seat might cost you $4, don’t know on OBB. If you don’t have a seat assignment I suspect that 90% of the time you will find an empty seat, but unless the previous post is correct, you could find yourself getting bumped out at a few stops. Again, don’t know. So I wouldn’t risk it

This got added to my Travel Notes if anyone is interested.

Here is an interesting twist. There is always a debate on when to buy train tickets. A couple of European members of the forum say to wait ... even till when you get to Europe. They imply that the locals buy their tickets a few days prior. They might. I dont know.

I do know a few weeks prior to the train the prices start going up. I assume the discount tickets are limited is why.

Tonight I discovered on the MAV site that the train ticket I wanted for 29 July was listed at 58 euro. Thats nuts. So i started walking back a few days at a time and discovered that up to exactly 3 months after todays date the trains were 13 and 17 euro. Then the next day and every day after 56 and 58 euro.

So when to buy? Between 3 months and 1 month prior should work well.

...or just travel Budapest to Vienna by rail on RegioJet - fares for tomorrow: Biz 30 Euro; Relax 24 Euro. For next week: Biz 25 Euro; Relax 19 Euro. Cancel up to 15 mins before departure. July not yet on sale. Cars may look old on the outside, but interiors are perfectly fine.

The least expensive "Low Cost" ( their catagory name) 2nd class ticket on RegioJet tomorrow is 1 euro more than MAVs least expensive. That surprises me as RegioJet generally runs a little less than MAV. The biggest headache with RegioJet is you have to go to Kelenföld station which isn't exactly in the city center. But cancellation 15 min prior is nice. BUT I believe its only for RegioJet credit, not for refund.

Never noticed their cars look any worse on the outside than the Austrian and MAV stock.

I'm not convinced yet that they will last, but I hope so. Competition is a good thing. Good option, but I'll stick with MAV/OBB for the Keleti Station convenience and experience.

The biggest headache with RegioJet is you have to go to Kelenföld station which isn't exactly in the city center.

Actually, the RegioJet train to Vienna originates at Budapest Deli and then stops at Kelenfold - the Metro M2 line to the Buda side terminates at Deli. For me it was an easy journey starting at M1 Opera.

Thanks Mark. You are absolutely correct.

I try and check things before I post because things do change. So I went to RegioJet and typed in Budapest to Vienna and all the trains were shown to originate at Budapest-Kelenföld. I knew the trains used to originate at Budapest-Déli pályaudvar (literally Southern train station). So after your comment I changed my search on their website to Budapest Déli and sure enough they do still originate at Déli. I wonder why when you do the city search they don’t send you to the station of origination. Strange.

Anyway. Déli is almost exactly 30 minutes from the Oktogon on Andrassy ut using the M1 and M2 metro lines. Kelenföld is almost exactly 30 minutes from the Oktogon on Andrassy ut using the 4/6 Tram and the new M4 Metro Line. So that’s a draw. Taking the train from Déli adds almost 15 minutes on to the trip to Vienna (2:47) as compared to starting in Kelenföld (2:34).

Neither Déli nor Kelenföld are anything to be excited to see. Both commie era creations. Both mostly outside plazas with very little “station”. Kelenföld has some newer renovations as a result of getting connected to the new M4 metro line some years back. Déli https://youtu.be/4gw7fkp2XsQ?si=dg75ddbfAWCiNo4L Kelenföld https://youtu.be/ylzKCYyQYwU?si=36u93XnmKPFe806T

If you go back and look at my post, I also said, “but I'll stick with MAV/OBB for the Keleti Station convenience and experience”. Yes, convenience is marginal. You can get from the Oktogon to Keleti pályaudvar (literally meaning Eastern train station) using the 4/6 Tram and the M2 Metro in about 10 minutes or there is a bus that is a few minutes faster. You could even walk it in 30 minutes.

But the experience. This is a personal thing. I love great old train stations, and I am on holiday so that influences decisions a lot. Keleti pályaudvar is a great old station. https://youtu.be/ylzKCYyQYwU?si=36u93XnmKPFe806T The guy in Seat 61 says “Budapest Keleti is one of Europe's great stations, with graceful architecture and trains arriving & departing to or from ….”

Travel time from Keleti to Vienna is 2:38 on the high speed RJX train or 2:40 on the EC Trains (LOL!!!). So about half way between the time from Déli or Kelenföld.

But the RegioJet trains do have a lot of creature comforts that the national trains do not have. Its why I love private enterprise over nationalized services. On a long haul, like Budapest to Prague, I would think really hard to give up those creature comforts just to leave out of Nyugati pályaudvar (literally Western train station) ………….. but the Eiffel constructed station is also one of Europe’s great stations. https://youtu.be/d2AdH-BmKJM?si=FK56cFgTb0TxDi67

Mark, I always appreciate corrections. How I learn.

Thanks for the timely information. We will be in Vienna for 3 weeks August-September and plan to take a trip to Budapest for a few days during or at the end of this time, still working on our after Vienna plan. Six yeas ago we bought our Vienna to Budapest train tickets for about 1/2 of the cost my brother paid for his OBB tickets on the same train. I think I asked a question on the forum to be sure we’d really bought usable tickets and was assured that it was really a complete fare with MAV.

For the beginning of our upcoming trip we just bought tickets on the OBB website for a RailJet train from our first location, Venice to Vienna for 28€. The price was too good to pass up. Now if we could decide on our timing for Budapest I’d start to play with train companies and fares. Mr É if you happen to do a thread on summer events in Budapest that may help us in our decision making, just saying ;)

Mona, like most of the posts, there isnt a right or wrong, just different and preference. Sometimes OBB has the same prices as MAV. I think it has something to do with how many discount tickets thay have. Maybe they sell faster through OBB. Dont know. And RegioJet is just fine too. Sort of nicer service too. Which ever you choose, let me know where you are staying and I can tell you how to get there ... or taxi.

I will look at the summer events.

Here you go Mona: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/list-of-budapest-events-july-through-october-25

OMG James, thank you for the preliminary summer update for events. That first one gave us a rapid heartbeat though!

“6 thru 11 Sziget Festival. You wouldn’t catch me here, but maybe
a younger tourist. I believe its still the largest of its kind in
Europe each year.”

Unbeknownst to the four of us, and our 4 carry on bags, we tried to get on our Vienna to Budapest train on the first day of the Sziget Festival. However the train was already packed full with standing room only because the train had come from Munich and they were packing people on any train moving that day because of storm interruptions up there. Fortunately, we had seat reservations for 4 top table seats and after we carried our luggage down the aisle, stepping around all of the people sitting on the floor, the young people sitting at the table moved when they saw us coming looking bewildered at our seats. We rode for 2.5 hours with the four of us and our luggage squeezed but at least we had seats. When they would make the announcement about all of the food and beverages in the Bord car, everyone would laugh because no one could move from their tight spots. Finally one guy stepped over a lot of people and came back with two handfuls of beer bottles and people cheered. Because we then knew there was this big concert going on at the park in Budapest we avoided the area but I think that is where I needed to go to see storks in Budapest. I’ll try that this year but thank you for helping us know about those August dates!

As bad as it sounds the kids stay on the Island and rarely cause a stil in town. But the hotels and airbnb's are sold out.

Your story does make a good point about buying tickets. There are events where they sell out and tourists cant be expectd to know when those are ..... so buy tickets at the earliest convenience. AND, always, always get seat reservations. Which brings up another vs local difference. A local is comfortable in te process and might show up at the station 10 min before the train leaves. Fine. No problem. I dont much like the language barrier involved in throwing someone out of my reserved seat (they either are not well marked or they are not marked at all) so I like to settle in early befor the others show up. On my last local train trip I watched one poor woman get thrown out of three seats before whe moved on to another car. Not worth it.

The summer list is just updated dates on the one i did for last year. I will spend time over the next few weeks and make it better.