mariannes

My husband refuses to drive in large cities and we are planning an auto trip in June. We want to visit Vienna and Budapest. Looking at a map, it appears that we could drive to Bratislava and take the train to Vienna and Budapest. Does this sound practical or is there another small town that we can use as a base? I would appreciate any advice.

tomboy

An alternative you might consider for Vienna and Budapest is to get accomodations on the perimeter and take public transport (electric trams) into city center. Both cities' tram systems are better than excellent. I can understand his reluctance to drive in big cities, and in our experience, trams are a great solution.
Twice in the last 3 years I've checked this out for both cities, and found ample accomodations on tourism websites for each, complete with city transit maps so you could know in advance how to make the 15-20 minutes tram into town. This, in concert with e-mailing hotel candidates in advance of booking to confirm proximity to trams, makes it quite easy. Frankly, it's no harder than finding a place to stay in Wash. DC. Re Vienna, I also know a very nice pension in Schwechat, about 4 miles from the airport, on the train line into Vienna.

Michael

When looking for B&B's in Budapest, I noticed that one was in an outlying residential area, so that there would be little city driving if you chose such an accomodation. I also noticed, when taken to the Budapest airport on the shuttle bus, that it stopped at a chain hotel located at the end of a tram line on the outskirts of the city. You might find something similar in Vienna. In both case it would be preferable to using Bratislava as a base, which may also be a pain to drive. If you are not staying near the RR station, you would have to take into account the public transportation to the RR station as part of your day trip to Vienna or Budapest.

Michael

One word of warning about getting to Budapest. If you come from the west and plan to stay on the eastern end of Budapest, try to stay on the left bank of the Danube (left facing downstream) so that you do not have to cross the center of the city. The first bridge across the Danube is within the city of Budapest.

tcreath

I agree with the above. After our horrendous driving experience in London (what were we thinking) my DH refuses to drive in any large European city. We either stay somewhere just outside of town that has good public transportation or we stay in a suburban town within an hour or so of the city.

If you prefer to stay in the downtown area of either city, perhaps you can do some research to find out if there are any secure parking garages outside of town where you could leave the car for a few nights.

Tracy

Alice_the_Magyar

This past year I met my Dear friend in Hungary. We had met here at Fodors.com, and were pen pals for years before we finally met in Hungary. She rented a car during her two week stay in Hungary and we even went on to Slovakia. She is from Arizona! No traffic at all where she lives! Only Dessert area. She did wonderful driving all over Hungary! I was amazed! And guess what? She was a lot older then me! She was 77 years old! I was always afraid to drive in Hungary. I go there every year for 6 or more weeks. I think I will look into renting a car in May 2006 when I return there. We were there in High season, June, so traffic was heavy. Have a wonderful trip. Alizka