Budapest to Krakow train

We are booked on Orangeways Bus (orangeways.com/en) for this same trip July 1. Thy run buses 4 days, Sun, M, W 7 AM, Fri at 2 PM. Their on-line schedule runs about 2 months ahead. Trip is listed for 7.5 hours, two stops in Slovakia. It goes straight north through the mountains and is supposed to be spectacular ride. Seats can be reserved online, and are cheap. If you do this, specify HUF and not Euro, it's cheaper. Website easy to use. I've found good reviews of this bus.
FWIW, train is about 12-14 hours as it goes circular, more stops, and costlier. Krakow bus and train station are next door to each other. AND as this is inter-country, getting price info and advance tickets more difficult, at least i could nver get prices.

I just took the orangeways bus from Budapest to Krakow on May 20th and purchases the tickets through their website before I left the states. The bus is MUCH cheaper than the train and takes less time. We only got to stop once in Slovakia to stretch our legs. The hostess spoke very little English, when asked when we would be stopping her answer to everyone was "one hour". Yes, the scenery is very nice. You go through the mountains through scenic ski resorts. We passed some spectacular castles as well. The Orangeways bus station is across the street from the main bus station.

Thank you, very helpful, was the bus full ?

The bus was 100% full. I guess since we purchased tickets ahead of time we were lucky to get a seat. You can choose your seats online. We chose the seats next to the bathroom/exit. Total cost was $27 each with the credit card that added a 3% foreign exchange fee. One annoying and stupid fee was 300 HUF for each bag you checked. Ridiculous fee, even though it was a very small amount. The snacks available for purchase on the bus are very cheap. Heineken cans were 200 HUF.

thanks again, how were the restrooms ?, did they take euros or HUFs in Slovakia

Slovakia currency is Euro.

Just use a credit card in Slovakia if you want to buy anything. The stop the bus made was at a clean, modern gas station with different snack options. The bathroom did get messy towards the end of trip. The video at the start of the trip asked that you use the bathroom for only number 1 and to refrain from number 2.

thanks, very useful info. by the way has anyone taken the bus from Krakow to Ostrava, Czeck Rep. ? if so any details would be helpful

I could not find any bus from Krakow to Ostrava on idos.cz There are trains. Most of them with change in Katowice.

thanks, that has been by research also.

Yep, I can only agree with the above. I've taken Orangeways several times (from short 2-3 hour trips to 12 hour trips) and was always satisfyied with them. Sometimes the bus is really empty (10-15 people) but it can get pretty full. They serve free coffee and hot chocolate on board and snacks can be purchased. It's important that they depart from Népliget Station in Budapest but not from the coach terminal but from next to Ferencváros Football Stadium's entrance. I've taken the regular train service to Krakow few year ago -before the Orangeways era- but it's certainly a hassle, not recommended.

I must post our awful experience from our July 1 Orangeways mentioned earlier. First, departed 1 hour late. Our bus was coming from Vienna, we were to leave 14:00, bus arrived 14:30. As it was due in 13:50, we could never have been timely. Left at 15:00 Next, forced to check our airline carry-on bags (RS convertible), they would not even let us show they fit the rack. Coffee/hot chocolate machine out entire trip. Bus stopped TWICE for gas and water. Some time made up, but forced to leave bus just past the Polish border (<70 miles from Krakow), this was to be for 15 minutes. This stop required money for the can, and had no ATM. Bus left, could not use it. Bus returned 35 minutes later -and - Went south back to border. Were boarded by guards, demanded passports, luckily ours were not still in our bags (see paragraph3!). But they only checked our photos, not stamps. And then left with 3 passports for 15 minutes. WTF??
After they were returned we remained there. Continued

(ContinuedOrangebus problem) Seems Poland switched on July 1 to have all trucks and buses have transponders to register and charge mileage due to road wear, rather than use the regular road pass (reasonable!). But for reasons unknown, Orangeways had neither obtained the device nor even set up the paperwork in advance. So we sat there for hours in a logjam of trucks, with the station's computer continually crashing. End result - we were first ordered off the bus at 20:06. By the time we finally left the border it was about 23:45. We had been due in at 21:30 - we arrived 1:18 (and then had to wait for our bags!) And at the terminal were a huddled bunch of people, standing in a 55 degree drizzle, waiting for this bus, which they were to board at 22:30 to go to Budapest, with no explanation, with the terminal long-since closed for the night. Not a word of explanation nor apology from the 2 drivers nor hostess (who could speak virtually no English). Even getting access to our bags was a major issue (needed to get phone# for the b and B awaiting us at 21:30. Totally unprofessional. I cannot imagine riding with this company again. Also, no response to complain to their customer service line ("We want to hear from you")

Larry. seems like train would have been better.

Who knew?
The train costs a lot more, and the times were inconvenient - at least until this got messed up. We did get another 1/2 day wandering around the city. And until the border mess, it was a fantastic scenic ride through the mountains.

logo Orange way is one of the coach company that runs services to various famous cities across Europe e.g. Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, etc. The advertising in the website seemed to be promising with good review from other customers. Since it has a good review, without any doubt I booked open return ticket for two from Budapest to Vienna. Here is the experience I had with Orangeways. First day - travelling to Vienna. The schedule advertised in the website stated that the coach would travel three trips per day at 7:00am, 11:00am and 3:00pm. Since we got an open ticket, we did not want to wake up early in the morning and rush for the coach, so we decided to take the 11:00am coach. Thirty minutes before departure time, we went to the Orangeways station in Nepliget and found out that the coach for 11:00am has been cancelled. This is not something that was advertised in the website. We thought it was our fault that we did not read the time table correctly so we went to Budapest central to kill some time before we get the next coach at 3:00pm. We walked around the beautiful city in both Buda and Pest with interesting and exciting Christmas market. Mulled wine is something that to keep us warm. When it was about the time to travel, we took the metro (underground) from central to Nepliget again. We reached at the same station at 2:00pm and to our delight we saw the Orangeways coach. The bus was rather smaller than the one advertised. It didn't matter at the time as long as we could get on the coach and go to Vienna. We were attended by a coach coordinator and he checked our details on the list. He flipped the booking list over and over again and said that we could not get on the coach because we did not book in advanced in at least two hours prior to our schedule travel time. More nightmare story here

If you have a generous budget I have another suggestion.