International daytime flying/trains Budapest/Vienna/Prague
 

Hello, I am looking for anyone's comments on flying internationally during the day and landing at our destination at 12:15 at night. We have a 7:50am flight from Boston to London, change planes (1 hour and a half layover) then on to Budapest. We have always flown at night sleeping our way across and staying up when we got to our destination to starve off jet lag. Will landing and going to bed since it will be in the middle of the night be better for avoiding jetlag?
Also, we are taking the train from Budapest to Vienna then Vienna to Prague. Since we are leaving Budapest on a Sunday from what I've read from the f:orum we should make reservations on the Hungarian travel site, I believe we should leave from the Keleti train station, and am unsure about which Vienna train station is best. Any advice would be well appreciated. Thank you.

Check www.seat61.com for sage advice on booking those tickets - many say that www.thetrainline.com has similar fares always and easier to use - not sure they cover Hungary but believe so. And check first class as well as 2nd - sometimes not much difference and if so first is rather more relaxed. Those trains only to fromKeleti P station in Budapest and only serve Vienna Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) in Vienna though s-bahn and u-bahns link that station to other Viennese places. For lots on trains in general like first vs 2nd class check also BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

I have taken a US daytime flight to London several times. I actually like it a lot. It might seem like a waste of a day but you can read, plan your trip, watch movies, whatever. I found it a relaxing way to travel. And then I would go to bed as soon as I got to hotel. With an ambien usually. But sleep the normal night in London and then be great the next day without jet lag.

Most airfares to places on the continent via London won't penalize you for a "forced" overnight in London, and if you're there on a through ticket with less than 24h in the UK you won't have to pay the UK's air passenger duty (departure tax.) Our standard approach was to take a day flight to London, get a hotel near Heathrow (used Priceline and never paid more than $100 for a 4-star or better hotel, e.g. Sheraton Skyline, Marriott etc.) and then continued on to the continent the next morning. It REALLY whacked jetlag, and meant your first day was easy and quite enjoyable.

Because so much of my international travel has been to Asia, I'm accustomed to arriving around midnight. I find I can go to sleep and wake up in the morning in the new time zone. Much easier for me than arriving in Europe early in the morning, as I cannot sleep on planes.

Tried to do on www.thetrainline.eu but did not recongize station so Hungarian site is probably best bet. For fun you could take hydrofoils between Budapest and Vienna on the not-so-Blue Danube.

We fly daytime Boston to LHR whenever we go to Europe. We have dinner stay overnight at LHR and continue on the next morning. We do not have jet lag when we do this.

Many thanks to everyone who has answered. Good answers and we have decided on taking a train to Vienna via Bratislava. We watched some You Tube videos of the hydrofoil and would be interested in going through the locks but feel our time would be better served going to the city of Bratislava since it is on our day trip list. We will be putting our luggage in the train station that serves Vienna. Still working on the fine details.

Both Bratislava train stations serve Vienna - trains from Budapest should serve the main station near the town center - so pretty easy.

I would suggest going to Vienna and day tripping to Bratislava from there - to do it en route Budapest to Vienna means after stuffing luggage away you'll have but a few hours in Bratislava - I did as day trip from Vienna and a whole day was great.

Hello PalenQ, originally that was our plan as we want to do a "day" trip from each city we are staying. However, our shortest time is in Vienna and our day trip will be train, boat and bike to the Melk Abbey and the Wachu area. Thank you for the suggestion.

That helps me plan, thank you.

I could pose the thought of trying to do too much - Bratislava is nice but how long do you have in Vienna?

@PalenQ, you have caused me to rethink my plans to go from Budapest via Bratislava to Vienna. It is to much, with a foreign language, unknown country, navigating the train, get to Bratislava, stash the luggage, see the (crowded) town, get back on the train and go to Vienna.( relax and have fun). Yes, it is way to much, so thank you for your considerate, not scolding voice. We are only going to be in Vienna 4 days, 2 of which are train in and out days and 1, I really want to go out to Melk for a day trip, riding bikes in the Wachu area....so not going to Bratislava is not going to work this trip.
On a side note, I had a terrible time on the Hungarian site for trains and ended up using trainline, which was so much easier to navigate, and yes, I did read (many times) Seat61 for advice. I'm sure we paid more than we should for our fare from Budapest to Vienna but managed to snag a really good rate from Vienna to Prague. I think it had to do with booking train tickets so late....this forum really helps, thank you to all who contribute. We leave this Tuesday and are very excited.....will try to post a trip report to give back to others....any other advice is greatly appreciated.

I really want to go out to Melk for a day trip, riding bikes in the Wachau area - boats I believe have bikes that you can ride between docks - at least mine did but that was several years ago - but nice bike paths along the whole valley - one of Europe's primo cycling venues - Yes Bratislava for a few hours and all that travail - we have a tendency to try to do too much often - natural one but less can indeed be more!