My husband and I are traveling to Hungary and staying in Budapest for 1 week and then have a week to travel where ever until we need to fly out of Budapest. We are looking at exploring Austria - is this best done by car or rail? We thought we would get a train to Vienna and then rent a car to drive to salzburg and explore in that region. Is the increased price worth it for a car? (is there not to be missed villages to stop at along the way?) Could we do this region justice by train? We need to be back in Budapest for a noon flight - what cities (salzburg, venice, prague) have a sleeper option? We would like to choose a city to depart from based on that - how do I find that out?
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
You mentioned Prague - if you're planning to include Prague in your itinerary, you'd be better off going by rail because of time & distance. Budapest - Salzburg - Prague - Budapest adds up to over 900 miles of driving & you only have a week.
Posted by
OP
Draper, UT, USA
3 posts
Thanks- we are somewhat open ended and are trying to figure out where to go in our week. We know that we want to explore around Salzburg, Innsbrook, and Ruette areas but do we need to get to a "big" city to get a sleeper to Budapest?
Posted by
Reston, Virginia
403 posts
Leighann: I did a quick check on DB---look under "plan your trip" on this website for a link and explanations as to how to use this invaluable tool--and it appears to me that while there may indeed be night trains from Salzburg to Budapest and Vienna to Budapest, the distances are so short that you would get at most 5 or 6 hours of sleep....essentially these are trains coming from somewhere else that happen to stop in Salzburg and Vienna in the middle of the night on their way to Budapest. From Prague, on the other hand, there appear to be some reasonable choices for night trains that would give you a night's sleep IF you can sleep on night trains (I can't). So you could do something like this...Day 1 train from Budapest to Vienna. Stay in Vienna on Days 1, 2, 3, 4 with a daytrip in that period to Salzburg. Day 5, train Vienna to Prague. Prague Days 5 and 6 leaving on night train near midnight Day 6 and arriving Budapest about 8:30 am on Day 7.
I would urge you to play with maps and rr schedules for yourself and see whether you can come up with the ideal schedule for what you want to do. Have fun!
Posted by
OP
Draper, UT, USA
3 posts
I'm still doing fact finding and found that there is a night train from Salzburg to Budapest. Rail Europe is quoting a price of $106/person for the ticket and $83 per person for the sleeper compartment reservation. How do I know if this is about what the price should be? Is there any other way for me to make this sleeper reservation ahead of time?
I think that renting a car on our own is cheaper than purchasing a rail/drive pass. The more we read - the more we find that we want a car to explore hidden roads and villages between our "destinations".