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Europe Trains Guide Forum  |  General discussion  |  Train fares and tariffs  |  Warsaw to Budapest
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marks046
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« on: July 20, 2011, 10:11:14 am »

Can anybody please tell me the rough price of return ticket (regular fare) from Warsaw to Budapest is?
I'm planing a trip in August and would like to know how much of a budget it will require.

Thank you in advance
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tUt
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« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2011, 10:58:26 am »

Can anybody please tell me the rough price of return ticket (regular fare) from Warsaw to Budapest is?
Full return ticket fare is app.112 EUR + potential sleeper reservation (couchette from 9.4 EUR, sleepers - from 15.4 EUR).
But there is always a way to travel cheaper, we discussed such Poland-Hungary options within this forum, so you might benefit from that info as well.
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marks046
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« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2011, 02:34:27 pm »

Thank you for the information.

I have been looking around the forum to find a way to travel cheaper, but to be honest I feel a bit lost in the forest of information out there, especialy since this is the first time I'm trying to organise a trip like this.

My final destination in this trip is actually Zagreb, so when planing the whole rute I considered the Warsaw-Vienna-Zagerb or Warsaw-Budapest zagreb rute.

Of course price is a concern in all this, but as the trip needs to be two way one, and with flexible dates (return within one month period, but still no fixed date when), I figured that the best option would be to go by Warsaw-Budapest-Zagreb rute since there are discounts for a two way trip.

I would also be traveling with a companion, so possibly it would be wise to use CityStar or RailPlus, but I am not sure what limitations come with this (regarding return dates flexibility).

Like I said, I'm pretty new to all this, so any advice would be most welcomed one.
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tUt
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« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2011, 06:34:40 pm »

In general, with Warsawa-Budapest you have two major options here:
1) both PKP and MAV sell discounted tickets for this connection, depending whether you'll use daytime carriages or overnight option it will be either SparDay or SparNight offer. Both start from 29 EUR (seat). For the overnight carriages you can as well get couchette for as low as 39 EUR or sleeper for as low as 54 EUR. The only inconvenience is that since such tickets are sold in limited number, thus you need to buy them in advance. Officially at least 3 days in advance, but no guarantees that even 5 or 10 days in advance they won't be sold out, especially during summer peak periods. PKP doesn't sell them online, so the only chance to buy such discounted tickets is at the ticket counter in Poland. MAV does sell it, so you can purchase it online and print it from the ticket machine in Budapest before departure.
Resume: fare with such offer is rather good and can save you quite a lot from the standard price, but purchase in advance kind of requires knowing the exact date some time in advance.
2) second option we can call something like "doing tricks with tickets". Basically here you don't need to prepurchase anything in advance, thus no ties to any specific dates. The trick is to combine different tickets to cover the whole route. Such combination in total due to better discounts costs cheaper than the direct ticket. Depending on your desire to save you can can "break" tickets either once (via Slovak Bratislava or Sturovo) or twice (via Czech republic station and Slovak station). In best case scenario it will allow you to travel for app. 80 EUR per person instead of 112 with the direct ticket. Resume: such tricks won't give you the price of discounted offer ticket, but on the contrary will not require purchasing anything in advance since you can purchase such combination of tickets while already traveling. The inconvenience is that you will need to deal with a bunch of tickets and purchasing them during the stops. If you still interested - we are ready to give you more detailed overview of such tickets combination. 

Regarding CityStar and use of your companion as a benefit... well you can do it, but it's not that great in your case. There is no CityStar to Poland from Hungary, but only till Czech Republic. For two passenger till Czech-Polish border (Bohumin/Zebr.) it will cost 123 EUR. While Polish domestic part (Zebrzydowice-Warsaw) for need train cost 56 PLN (app.15 EUR) per person, multiply that by 2 (2 passengers) and again by 2 for the return and get around 175-180 EUR for both.

In case of Budapest-Zagreb, as you yourself mentioned, everything turns out rather nicely since you get 60% discount on return ticket which is valid one month and cost only 30 EUR.
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marks046
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« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2011, 10:49:44 am »

From what you told me the regular return ticket really does seem like the best option.

SparDay or SparNight would definitly save me money, but as there is no way to get the one from Warsaw to Budapest online, and I am not from Poland, I would once again require a regular ticket for that leg of the journey. Is there maybe an agency I could use to purchase the Warsaw-hungary SparDay or SparNight? Also, if you could, please tell me the price of regular one way fare from Warsaw to Budapest.

Doing tricks with ticket doesn't really seem worth it, getting off and on the train would mean braking up the journey quite often and possibly lenghten it to much. But, as I said, I would welcome any advice on this, so if you feel like sharing some tips, please do.

CityStar really doesn't seem like that grat of an option in this particular case either. What about RailPlus though? From what I've been told it offers 25% discount on international train fares.

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tUt
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« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2011, 09:42:23 pm »

Is there maybe an agency I could use to purchase the Warsaw-hungary SparDay or SparNight?
Well, we aren't really big fans of advertising/recommending agencies, since in most cases they charge rather high commission and in addition quite possibly might fail to provide on time the thing you need etc. Plus in your case actual commission might be higher than difference between Spar ticket and return PKP-MAV, thus, imho, not worth powder and shot.
Maybe you have a friend or somebody in Poland who can help you out with it? If not, we emailed you link for the most known polish agency via private message, but be careful not to overpay  ;)
... please tell me the price of regular one way fare from Warsaw to Budapest.
Since there is no discount for one-way ticket, the fare is almost insane for Central Europe - almost 93 EUR, thus we definitely not recommend going with such option.
Doing tricks with ticket doesn't really seem worth it, getting off and on the train would mean braking up the journey quite often and possibly lenghten it to much.
Actually time loss might be not that essential or even not existing at all, plus you won't need to change trains till the morning or at all. For instance, purchase Warsawa-Bohumin RT ticket (37 EUR per person), board Warsawa-Budapest carriage, it stops in Czech station Bohumin for almost an hour waiting for reattachments, during this time you simply visit ticket counter and purchase two separate tickets: a)Bohumin-Sturovo RT CityStar for 2 (will cost 68 EUR in total) and b) Sturovo-Budapest RT (14 EUR per person or even cheaper if you <26). The second ticket can be also purchased in Poland for the same fare. With such ticket combination you cover the whole route and won't need to get off train at all. Such not very complicated trick with buying tickets in Bohumin will give you total fare Warsawa-Budapest-Warsawa (for 2 passenger) app. 170 EUR, instead of 2*112 EUR with the direct tickets.
Also, you can save even more, but then will need to get off train in Sturovo, walk over the bridge to Hungarian Esztergom and arrive to Budapest +1 or +2 hours later then Warsaw-Budapest carriages, but that's might be already to much of a hassle though.
What about RailPlus though? From what I've been told it offers 25% discount on international train fares.
Yes, RailPlus card will give you -25% from the original ticket fare. But you first need to have that RailPlus card. It costs money and purchasing it (price depends on your age and country you purchase it in) might again be not worth powder and shot, unless you plan to use it few times, thus it can pay off.
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