My friend and I will be in Budapest and had originally intended to travel to Dubrovnik from there. Yet, after looking into how much money it will cost to get there and how long it takes we've decided that perhaps it might be better to look else where. We wanted to go to Dubrovnik for some relaxation as we will have been visiting major cities for the most of our trip. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions of where we could go from Budapest for a bit of a vacation from a vacation that wouldn't cost a whole lot of money or time to get too.

Thanks for any advice!

There is lots to see in Hungary. Pecs is a beautiful city, and quite different from Budapest. Kecskemet on the Great Plain is smaller, and there are fantastic horse shows in the area. Very interesting and different.

Well. In October, we went from Budapest to Zagreb via Malev airlines for about $111 round trip. It was an hour flight and I thought very reasonable.
So if you want to go to Croatia, you may not have to rule it out. You can also travel by bus which might be less expensive.

Here are some of the day trips I took on my visit to Budapest.

About an hour north of Budapest is a series of small towns in a region known as the Danube Bend. Estzergom has the National Cathedral of Hungary and the town itself has a pretty quaint medieval feel. About 20 minutes north of that is Visegrad. It has an beautiful old castle on top of a hill and the ruins of an even older palace in town. Coming back towards Budapest is the town of Szentendre, medieval, touristy, but still kind of cool.

You could also visit the towns of Eger or Pecs. Eger is about three hours drive west and is very picturesque and old timey. Pecs, about 2.5 hour south also has some neat old time stuff, but is a big university town so is pretty lively with young people.

Sorry, meant to say three hours East for Eger. Now if I can just get that damn left/right thing down.

I am planning a trip for early May and have a question. I plan on getting a car and visiting Pecs and Eger. Is there any place that I should visit between Pecs and Eger? What route should I take. My GPS has me going between Pecs and Eger through Budapest on the motorway.

Transylvania and Romanian castle country is not far. I'd wager it's not expensive either.

We travelled to Bratislava, Slovakia from Budapest. I don't remember it being that far on the train. We found Bratislava fascinating and the old town center charming. It was also quite inexpensive at the time.