Travelling from Vienna to Budapest to Prague back to Vienna- I have a transportation question

You may want to use the train between the larger cities and then get a local rental to journey out to the smaller towns. Kinda multiple hubs and spokes logistics. This assumes you will not need the car in Vienna, etc. and anticipates that different city and country pick-up and drop-off locations fees may be expensive.

Arrive Vienna
Train to Gyor and visit Pannonhalma then back on the train to Budapest. Same track so this is no detour.

Using Budapest as a base you can visit Eger, Pecs, Balaton, a whole list of interesting places by train, no car necessary. Plan on 4 full days in Budapest plus 2 days for each out of town visit.

Fly to Prague, yup, its the fastest and easiest way. Discount airline nonstop flights lights starting under $50 every day but Sunday.

Prague takes 3 full days.

Then there are two good shuttle services to Cesky Krumlov Bean and CK Shuttle. They also go Cesky Krumlov to Vienna so that completes your trip back to Vienna. Wait, you wanted to go to Mikulov and Brno. Okay, out of my league mabye a Czech expert will chime in. I suspect you can do it with the shuttle services or with Daytrip.com. Renting a car is a last resort. Expensive by the time you gas it, park it and tol it. Then drop off fees can be killer. But maybe you do set up camp in Prague and rent and do a big circular tour returning to Prague and the train to Vienna? Naaa, I would rather find other ways before I rent a car.

Bratislava is a day trip out of Vienna.

Thank you both for your replies. Too bad using a car isn’t the best form of transportation because many times it offers the most flexibility. Would I have to book my trains in advance? Hopefully this isn’t the case.

If you like to drive and you dont mind the cost, the dirve. It does have its advantages. But you can not use the car in the cities. Just not pratical. The parking will cost you abut 35 euro a night, the tolls might add up to 100 euro for this trip. Gas for this trip is twice the cost of gas in the US and the drop off charge if not where you got it could be 800 euro. I am guessing $2000 to $3000 for 16 days if you drop where you got it. The train tickets and one flight might be $250 to $450 per person.

One of the things I enjoy about travel is being in and among the people. For me a car meant many, many isolated hours in a car but again, thats me, nothing you decide to do is wrong.

You can book your train tickets a few night before for the best fare, or the day of for a bit more. Rarely a train sells out and they generally run ever hour or two.

Thank you. I guess I’ll just have to get to small towns such as Szentendre and Eger from Budapest without a car if I go the train route. Maybe I could rent a car for the day and visit both towns?

I have some thoughts on that.

Szentendre is a short commuter train trip. Free if you are over 65, a few dollars otherwise. Return on the boat for less than $10. Entering Budapest on the river is special. Better than driving. It's a half day trip.

Eger by train is 3 hours. About $15, less if you are over 65+. You can walk to some wine places and there are transfers to others. It's an overnight trip to really enjoy. 2 nights even.

Pecs is another to consider by train. Or Vac for a day trip.

Thank you for taking the time to give me your thoughts. Much appreciated.

There are very few places in Hungary that would interest a tourist that aren't easy by train. If you did want to rent a car and go sightseeing for an overnight trip consider Lake Balaton. You could hit a number of towns on the lake. My favorite is Tihany. Székesfehérvár would be a good stop too. Practice saying it first.

I’m going to look up that area. Thanks for the advice.