One of our traveling companions just booked our tickets to travel by train from Vienna to Budapest in late September. He ordered first class tickets for us but did not get a reservation. Is there any potential problem with doing this? Our tickets are for a specific day, date and time. Is there some possibility that without a reservation for a specific seat, we could need to stand for an entire trip to Venice--in first class? We hardly ever take trains and somehow I'm always mystified by how they work. Please enlighten me on this. Thanks.

The train you are probably taking would be either an InterCity or a EuroCity train on which seat reservations are not compulsory. This means the railroad can sell an unlimited number of tickets that could potentially all be used on the same day you are traveling.

The number of seats (and the reservations for them) is limited. You can usually get seat reservations up to several hours ahead of the train's departure time.

In my experience at that time of year all the First Class seats will not have been reserved. If you decide not to get seat reservations (and if you do, getting them in Europe is a lot cheaper than getting them through an agency such as RailEurope ahead of time)there is a strategy you can employ to give yourself the maximum possibility of getting the unreserved seats:

Assuming the train STARTS OUT in Vienna, get to the station ahead of time and be on the platform when the train is pushed, or pulled, into position, and get on immediately and look for seats that aren't reserved.

Again, at that time of year I doubt you'll have trouble finding a place to sit.

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like a good plan. I feel like we should be ok.

No chance you will have to stand all the way to Venice as you will not be passing through Italy. Let's assume this was a typo.

The trip from Vienna to Budapest takes only 2 and three quarter hours and is not a major journey. I took that trip both ways this past Easter weekend and the train was not crowded in the very comfortable (by NA standards, luxurious) 2nd class -- 1st class must have been emptier still. And there is always the restaurant car.

You don't say whether your train arrives at Deli or Keleti station. It would be useful to find that out, if you do not know -- the former is on the Buda side, the latter is on the edge of downtown Pest. If you do not know Budapest and want help orienting yourself, contact me at [email protected]. I am no expert but my spouse is heading there on September 13, I have been there twice this year and we would be glad to help.

Hi Julie,

Why not call back and make seat reservations?

Ira, didn't make them initially because it seemed like an excessive charge. The idea of reserving once we get to Vienna for considerably less is appealing.
Tedgale, thanks for your generous offer to assist. I'm pretty good, once we get to a place and I have a map in hand so I think we'll be ok. But thanks for the willingness to assist. My concern about Venice was a typo. We finish up the trip there so it's kind of on my mind. But our train ride is Vienna to budapest. Thanks for the info about arrival stations. I'll check on that.

Hi, Julie.
For what it's worth when we did that trip, we made reservations in first class and ended up in one of those compartment cars which I'm really not crazy about. It ended up there was one open coach type car in First Class, which they didn't reserve at all. We moved into that car, so basically our reservations went to waste. Have fun.

topping

As a follow-on..there are actually three different stations in Budapest but from my own experience let me say this:
regardless of which station you arrive at, if you are taking a taxi try to determine the price in advance....even if they have a meter. The reason I say this is I am convinced some of those taxi meters in that city are faulty at best and rigged at worst. (I think they may have learned their craft from some of those even more infamous crooked taxis in Prague)

Evenm with a meter the taxi driver can estimate the probable cost.

Have a great trip!

If you take the "Franz Liszt" train from Vienna to Budapest, chances are you will be sitting in a compartment with others in first class, not a problem, but sometimes uncomfortable. I was in a compartment with a couple from Germany and the husband glared at me the entire trip.