Come and visit Hungary!

Public transport in Budapest 1.

2012-10-04T03:27:00.002-07:00

After you arrived with your flight and could managed to get to the city from the airport, somehow you need to travel in the city. In Budapest the easiest way for this is using the public transport.

In the center of Budapest you can get to anywhere between half or one hour, because of the good transportation. On the main roads usually more buses or trams, so it's really easy to get to a place from somewhere.

Budapest has three metro lines: M1, M2 and M3. The M1 is the yellow line and is the shortest way, the peoples in Budapest call it the underground. This was the first metro line in the European continent! It's really old, was constructed in the end of the 19th century. Some decades ago it was totally renovated and now the stations looks like when they were built.

The line goes from the Vörösmarty square (he was a Hungarian poet) to Mexikói út (Mexican street). You can see a lot from Budapest's history around this line, such as Heroes square, Andrássy street, the Opera and etc.

The M2 line is a "newer" line, than the M1. This is the red line. It was built during the 1960-1970s, so now it's kinda old too. But some years ago the stations were renewed, and now there are new trains also on this line. It goes from Örs vezér sqare (was a leader during the Hungarian settlement) from the Déli pályaudvar (Southern Railway Station).

The M3 line is the newest line, it's color is blue. It was built during the 1970-1980s, it will be renewed in the next years. This is the longest metro line in Budapest. It goes from Kőbánya-Kispest (two districts of Budapest) to Újpest-központ (means Újpest-center, another district of Budapest). You can reach the airport using this line (after the 200E bus).

All of the three metro lines has a connection in the Deák Ferenc square (he was a Hungarian politician and patriot). This is one of the busiest squares in Budapest. And the good point is that you can use all of the metro lines by transferring to them in this square. It's quite big and has a lot of stairways and escalators, but the markings are clear and understandable, so you cannot get lost there. :)

Check-in

2012-10-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Anybody, who wanna come to Hungary, at first have to get here somehow. It's impossible to avoid, so we need these informations. Now I'd like to write about this.

What are my possibilities coming to Hungary?

We have a few options, let's see them!

1.)

If you come from Europe: there are more options, you can reach Hungary by train, by bus, by car or it's possible by ship also. Or by plane, but we'll talk about that later. Sorry I forgot, you can come by bicycle, or on foot also. But by spacecraft not yet.

Every international line run into Budapest, the capitol of Hungary. It is the biggest city in Hungary, with the most attractions, so it is a quite good thing to reach it. :)

The trains: Budapest has three big head stations, called Western, Southern and Eastern. The Eastern is the most important for us, because the international trains arrive there. It's a very nice old station, which was built in the 19th century. It has a unique atmosphere, and for that reason, there are a lot of costume film shoots.

Eastern station in Budapest. Source: wikipedia.

It has a quite good location, it's close to the city center and has an underground connection also. There goes the metro number two, it's the red line. The station is called "Keleti pályaudvar" (means Eastern Station). You can see its position on Google Maps:

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By train you can come directly, from many European countries. For example, Berlin, Frankfurt, Zürich, Rome, Milan, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, Kiev, Moscow, Istanbul etc. The international trains are usually quite cultural, clean and modern, but unfortunately quite slow also for a long journey. For example, a Berlin-Budapest train trip is 13 hours... but the view is very nice!

Next version: you can come here by bus. It's quite similar to the train version, the disadvantage are the long travel time, but by bus, you can reach more European cities, for example London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome etc.
The international bus station is called "Népliget" station (it means people's park). It's a bit further from the city center, but it has an underground connection also, with the metro number 3 (blue line). The station is called "Népliget" (what a surprise, not?). The bus station looks like this:

International bus station in Budapest. Source: Panoramio.

And its location on Google Maps: ( The big green area near to the station is the People's Park.)

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By ship: if you think you're the coolest person in the world, it's your choice. It's the slowest and most expensive version, but probably the most beautiful and most remarkable.

You can approach Budapest on the Danube, from Vienna, Bratislava, Passau and other German cities. And you don't need to use the public transport, because you'll arrive here:

Night in Budapest

So it has its advantage also....

But let's get back to the average person's versions.

2.)

If you come from America, Asia, or you just want to arrive faster, you can come by plane. Hungary has two international airports: there's an airport in Budapest and an other one in Debrecen.

Debrecen is the smaller airport, you can only come here from London, Milan and Eindhoven and Germanian cities. The other airport is in Budapest and it has connection to almost every European capitals and bigger cities. There are a lot of charter and cheap flights, but unfortunately, there's no direct flight from other continents, such as America or Asia, but Budapest has a good connection to the biggest European airports, like Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris or London.

The airport of Budapest called "Ferihegy Airport" (it's the older name, but it's still in use in public) or "Liszt Ferenc International Airport" (Liszt Ferenc, or Franz Liszt was a great Hungarian composer in the 19th century). The airport has three terminals: Terminal 1, 2A and 2B. The terminal 1 is now closed for indefinitely, so if you come to Hungary, you can be sure, that you'll arrive to Terminal 2. Terminal 2A and 2B are next to each other.

The airport of Budapest has an interesting advantage. It's one of the closest airport to the city center between the European cities. It's a good score for it, because you can get to the city quite fast.

The easiest way to get to the city is using the public transportation. There's an airport bus called 200E, and it goes between the airport and the final stop of the metro, which is called "Kőbánya-Kispest" (it means Stonepit-Smallpest, but it doesn't make a sense in Hungarian too.

And there you can change to the metro number 3 (blue line), and get to the center easily. This whole thing is approximately 30 minutes. You only need two single tickets, it's about 2 euros.
Of course there are direct bus transfers and shuttles to the city, many provider give you airport transfer to or from the city. The prices are approximately 10 euros.

You can see the airport is quite close to the city:

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The airport looks like as any airport in the world:

Budapest Airport Terminal 2. Source: wikipedia.

Basically, there are the options coming to Hungary. For more information:

Hungarian Railways: http://mav-start.hu
Hungarian Bus Company: http://volanbusz.hu
Hungarian Ship's Company: http://www.maharttours.com/
Budapest Airport: http://www.bud.hu
Debrecen Airport: http://www.airportdebrecen.hu/

...and what else? You just need to travel to Hungary... :)

What's this all about?

2012-09-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's about Hungary. A country located in the heart of Europe. Hungary has a lot of beautiful things, for example mountains, hills, lakes, landscapes, cities and countrysides, an interesting culture with nice peoples. And Hungary has a huge selection of very good wines. That's important. What else do you need?

On this blog you can find every information which is required if you visit Hungary. You can get informations about how can you come here, where can you go if you're already here, which places or programs worth the time to see them and why.

One more question word is the "who". My name is Thomas, i live in Hungary for a long time, so i have a huge advantage that i know every little piece about Hungary. And if you're interested i will share it with you!