How To Take the Train From Budapest to Vienna

I woke up on my last day in Budapest, showered, packed, and checked out of my hostel. I made my way down Király Street to Deák Ferenc tér (square) to catch to metro to Budapest’s central train station, Keleti Pályaudvar. The lovely staff at Wombats had helped me to the website where the train schedules lived and there were trains leaving to Vienna pretty regularly so I decided I’d take whichever one was leaving next when I got to the station.

Budapest’s incredibly beautiful central train station!

I was trying to use up the last of my Forint so I purchased a first class one way ticket on the MAV-START train line to Vienna. (Spoiler: I still had 20,000 Forint left.) Keleti Pályaudvar is a beautiful train station, though partially outdoors, so it was cold, but it has everything you need: shops, tracks, lounges. As soon as my track was announced, I went outside the first class lounge and found my car. I had the car mostly to myself which was awesome.

I LOVED train travel in Hungary. It was clean and comfy. They sold meals if you were hungry and gave snacks out for free after departure. There were chargers on the sides of all the seats, too. There were a handful of stops on the way to Vienna and it was cool to see the little towns that we passed through. If you are traveling between Budapest and Vienna, I would highly recommend taking the train. You could fly, but it wouldn’t save you any time and it may be more expensive.