We are flying in to Dublin, touring there then flying to Amsterdam to take a River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. As we are traveling using reward miles we have determined it will be more economical to fly home from Dublin. So... we need to get there from Budapest. It was suggested to me that we could take the train back to Amsterdam (then fly back to Dublin), which should be cheaper plus we would get to see more.

I did search the forum and found some train links, but seemed to get lost trying to get the info. I must have been doing something wrong.

Can anyone give me some ball park info - 1) Is this route possible 2) approx travel time 3) approx cost

What is the difference between traveling 1st class and regular class other than obviously it would cost more. Is that the way to go?

The train portion would be mid Oct, 2014.

Thanks for your help.

First - are you sure your frequent-flyer-miles program doesn't allow an "open-jaw" trip, flying into Dublin and flying home from Budapest or somewhere closer to there than Dublin? With a partner airline maybe - have you exhausted that research?

Second - do you wish to go back via an other stay in Amsterdam, or are you simply considering Amsterdam to "make lemonade from a lemon?"

You can fly from Budapest to Dublin for fares in the vicinity of 200 USD and be done with it.

But if you really want to do it via Amsterdam and not by plane, then take the midday train from Budapest to Munich, a bit over 7 hours by pretty spiffy train, and if booked well in advance (go to www.bahn.de - then select English on top right) it doesn't cost much.

Either stay the night and a day and look around Munich, or simply have dinner near the station and take the 10:50PM night train (CNL - City Night Line) that gets into Amsterdam at 9AM the next morning. There are several levels of sleeping comfort - again book at www.bahn.de

oh my... I can not believe it is cheaper to take the train to Amsterdam and then fly to Dublin?

Have you tried Aer Lingus or RyanAir Budapest to Dublin?.. (Or, I recently used British Air, but I had to make a connection. I was not so constrained by luggage limits).

At that time of year, this ticket should not be expensive. I flew RyanAir and it cost 59 euro to go Budapest to Dublin in July (you would need to add on for bags in that option).

I do not think you will see the highlghts of Europe on this train trip (beyond what you already saw on the boat). Personally, when my trip is effectively done - I like to move on the faster way possible.

Pricing may have changed in a year from now, but you can look at fares for Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan, on sites like skyscanner .com, just to get an idea. New routes by additional airlines might well come into being by then, things change often. Also look at flights from VIE and other nearby airports.

If you look at October fares for this year, then it won't be representative since it's too close.

Very good food for thought, thank you. I did check with the reward miles and yes, they do allow the open jaw but it sure 'eats' up the points and was quite pricey to do it that way, with the taxes, fuel surcharges etc. The difference in doing the Dublin return as to the open jaw was around $1500 Cdn. I figured we could do it more reasonably on our own. Train travel was an option mentioned so thought I would explore.
Thank you for your insight and great info. I think I will explore the flights between Budapest and Dublin. I didn't know they could be that reasonable! And yes, we were just 'making lemonade' by going back to Amsterdam.

This is our first Europe trip.... I can see I have a lot to learn. Thanks to the good folks here for helping me on my learning curve.

You can book Budapest to Munich from €39 at www.bahn.de/en

The 13:10 Railjet from Budapest Keleti arrives Munich 20:34.

Then book the excellent City Night Line sleeper from Munich to Amsterdam departing 22:50 arriving 08:56, from €59 with couchette, from €104 with a bed in a 2-bed sleeper, or from €134 with a bed in a 2-bed deluxe sleeper with shower and toilet, booked at www.bahn.de/en

In both cases, you print your own ticket and booking normally opens 92 days before departure.

When you are flying, and from what home city, both affect the calculation of airline prices. I checked flights from New York City in late January as a test, using www.itasoftware.com
In real money rather than points, it showed a saving of about $200 on the fare by returning to Dublin from Budapest, on RyanAir’s cheapest run, for your flight home. (I left out the cost of getting from Dublin to Budapest initially on the assumption you intend to pay that anyhow. It would not be an efficient way to use points.)
RyanAir will not connect you to any other flights so you almost certainly will have to stay overnight in Dublin for the trans-Atlantic flight. That wastes a day of your vacation, to save $200.
Other departure cities in North America will probably be more expensive and may include more complicated connections. Even so, you may want to consider alternatives. One, phone your points reward system and discuss your routes with an experienced agent to see what the best use of your freebees could be. Two, pay cash and use the points another time when they could save you more money.