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WIEN - Budapest-Keleti - train ticket

Hi All! please help.... we are trying to go to Budapest from Vienna. we were thinking of leaving Vienna as early as 6am to get a day in Budapest before catching our flight at 8PM (5/26/13) another scenario is...leaving Vienna around 9PM and spend a night in Budapest, to get a head start. i've read Keleti station is the main station of Budapest. but my problem is....i cant find a ticket from WIEN-HBF to Budapest-Keleti. However, there is available train from Wien Meidling - Budapest-Keleti for 38Euro (cheapest) + 10 (seat reservation) = 48Euro(2persons). i know May is probably too far ahead but i'v also tried Feb-April just to get an idea of how much the fare. but no available ticket from Wien Hbf - Budapest-Keleti... if we will stay in Wien Meidling (to get close to the train station)...is that far from the city or tourist attraction of Vienna? thank you so much,....

Posted by
4162 posts

The train from Vienna to Budapest does not leave from the station you refer to , It does leave from Vienna Meidling since the 2009 closure of the Vienna Sudbahnhof due to the massive reconstruction of the Vienna Central Station . This project is now only partially operational and will be complete in 2015 . The travel time to Budapest is three hours. The station is close to Schonbrunn Palace . As far as sites in Vienna ,there are more than you can shake a pretzel at . Not knowing where your personal tastes lie , it is difficult to make a meaningful suggestion . The distance to the city center is , I believe two to three miles . All of the city is very accessible via various municipal rail systems .

Posted by
14980 posts

Hi, The trains from Vienna to Budapest direct leave from Wien Westbahnhof and Wien Meidling. You can get tickets departing from these two stations to Keleti . As pointed out above, they don't depart from Hbf. I stay at Westbahnhof, numerous hotel at various price ranges in the immediate area, where the U-3 and U-6 can get you to the sights. When I went to Budapest in May 2010, I took the train direct from Wien Westbahnhof....no transfer required either in Vienna or in Hungary.

Posted by
11294 posts

"i've read Keleti station is the main station of Budapest" That's not really true. Budapest has 3 main stations - Keleti, Nyugati, and Deli. Sometimes you have a choice of which station to use for a particular destination, but other times you don't. All three are on the Metro, and you shouldn't hesitate to use any of the three if that's the one that has a train to your destination (i.e., you shouldn't take a convoluted route just to arrive at Keleti instead of one of the others).

Posted by
127 posts

Vienna has an excellent u-bahn system, so you could stay anywhere that's served by the u-bahn. I stayed at a hotel on Schottenring. On the day of my departure for Budapest from West Banhof, I walked the 1/2 block to the Schottentor stop, boarded the u-bahn, transferred at Volkstheatre, and got to West Banhof within ten minutes.