Europe Trains Guide Forum
General discussion => Travel plans, routes and timetables => Topic started by: jacob on October 24, 2012, 04:30:46 pm
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Hi everyone, I have a plan to go to Europe to Budapest, Hungary then take a train to Oradea, Romania and then from there to Athens, Greece. I use yahoo maps for time and directions and from Budapest to Oradea is about 3 hours and from Oradea to Athens is about 16 hours but they go by car. How long is that by train,how much are the cheapest tickets.
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When it comes to timetable it's always better to check official websites of national railways you plan to use (Hungarian (http://elvira.mav-start.hu/), Romanian (http://www.cfrcalatori.ro/) etc.) or alternatively DB website (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?newrequest=yes&protocol=http:&), which almost always have the same info. Regarding your question, Budapest-Oradea by train takes from 4,5 to 5,5 hours depending on connection, while Oradea-Athens is much longer + not really possible, since Greek railways ceased all the international passenger rail connection to/from Greece, so you simply can't cross the Greek border on train. Although you can first travel Oreadea-Sofia (22+ hours with at least one change), then take a bus from Sofia to Thessaloniki (roughly another 6 hours) and finally train again from Thessaloniki to Athens (5:15-6 hours depending on connection)
Regarding fares and tickets, Budapest-Oradea ticket standard price (when purchasing in Hungary) is 18,2 euro, and that is basically the best you can do (in case you keep everything legal), with Oradea-Athens there are a lot of factors, but probably best solution isn't going with direct point-to-point tickets, but instead with Balkan Flexi Pass (more on that on our country pages). Plus such pass will allow you more flexibility, regarding various detours and additional travels in the region