What is the best way to travel from budapest to vienna then prague. Train or car service? I read some posts re: a bela lukacs and I have tried all three email addresses for that person that I found on this site and none of them are functioning. Anyone know of a correct email address? Any other ideas or transfer service? If train, then is it best to buy tickets once there or should i purchase them at raileurope?

Train travel is very easy in Europe. I went the other way (Prague to Vienna, then Vienna to Budapest) last week. In both cases I went to the train stations the day before to buy my tickets, but neither train I was on required reservations, and if the trains weren't completely full you would be able to buy them at the station right before you get on the train. In fact, my tickets were not for a specific train and would have worked on any train between the two cities (as far as I know) for several months.

Use this page to check train schedules in Europe:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

There are several direct trains a day between Budapest and Vienna and between Vienna and Prague. Note that if you arrive in Vienna and depart later on another train, you will probably be arriving and leaving from two different train stations. Going the opposite direction, I arrived at the South station (Südbahnhof) and departed for Budapest from the West station (Westbahnhof). Just pay attention to which station you need to use.

Andrew

You are doing the same trip that we will be doing in two weeks. My investigation indicates that notwithstanding my desire to have all this sort of thing done ahead it is much less expensive to buy train tickets locally rather than through Raileurope.

Hi,
We used Bela as a driver in July. The e-mail we used was: [email protected]
We thought he was terrific.

Good advice above.

Just purchase the tickets when and where you need them. Ticket prices are lower when purchased at the departing Eastern Europe station than from the US, or even Austria.

As mentioned, make sure that you're dealing with the same Vienna train stations when coming and going. A few of the Vienna-Hungary trains do depart directly from the Westbanhof.

Another route to consider is through Bratislava instead of Vienna.

That's a lot of hours riding in a car - I'd much rather take the train where you can move and stretch your legs.

Neither Hungary nor the Chech Republic have good internet rail info, and since Vienna is in between, I suggest you use the Austrian website www.oebb.at/vip8/oebb/de/ (pull down "Sprachen/Languages" near the toip to select english).

Yes, as mentioned, take note of which train stations the various connections use, in all three cities.

WK

I, too, recommend Bela very highly. We used him to go from Budapest to Vienna. Much better than taking the train since his service is door-to-door. The trip only takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. You also get the benefit of his experience, etc. Unfortunately, Bela has advised me that due to the cost of gas, his prices have risen. Suggest you contact him and see if it still makes sense financially to use his services.
As for the trip from Vienna to Prague, the train is probably your best bet.
Good luck.

My friend and I used Bela as a driver from Vienna to Budapest (Sept 22) and it was great!!! (Thanks Bela for all the advice on places to eat) I would highly recommend using his travel service.

lexi_0906 jerry S or jeg Do you know how to contact him...please let me know. Thanks for the help

I contacted Bela through the following email address:

[email protected]