Budapest. Troubles?
 

Booked Budapest for three nights later this month. We are a bit concerned with recent events. Should we just skip it?

If I may just jump in here for a moment...

The refugee crisis in Europe is obviously a big and hot topic. And, as bigguyinpasadena has noted, it could well have an impact on travel.

Please keep discussion on this thread to the practicalities of travel in affected areas. General discussion on the crisis in general is good material for OMNI/PR or similar, and will be moved there if necessary.

stut
Moderator
Europe Forum

From what I've heard, there's not much to worry about in Budapest at the moment, although ground travel to/from neighbouring countries is currently difficult, with trains curtailed to the borders, crowded connecting trains, and extra checks.

But it's difficult to predict what will happen in the next few days.

What are your travel plans for Hungary, bigguyinpasadena? If mostly in the city, and fly in/out, it looks OK for the moment.

I wouldn't be concerned about personal safety yet - just avoid desperate crowds. Last place refugees want to stay is Eastern Europe. I hear no impact on flights neither, rail travel is impacted.

mfk

If flying, no issues. Don't plan to take the train to/from Vienna. Possibly driving to/from Austria might also be disrupted especially on the main M1 motorway.

In Budapest (afaik) only the Keleti station and its direct neighbourhood is affected, the rest of the town is OK (except for tonight with the Hungarian-Romanian football game and both sides' ultras are out in force. Still they tend to beat up only each other and the riot police :td: )

taking the train from vienna is no problem
leaving west is problematic
even the hungarian train call center is suspended

flights from budapest to austria and germany just skyrocketed in fares (im talking 1500 EUR to vienna)

driving to border is also difficult as checks are in place with a long delay. it is possible to route through slovakia.

the city should be no problem

this is a day-to-day situation so things might very well have changed by end of month

Thanks for the responses. And thanks to Stut for cleaning up the thread (I missed the OT responses)
Flying into BUD from LHR . Flying BUD/PRG via VIE Third week of September

I will keep checking back for updates/advisories. Thank you in advance.

I wouldn't worry about it. The refugees are camped outside the station - if you don't venture near the station, you wouldn't know anything is going on. Seriously.

In any case, their protests have mainly been in the form of chanting. There has been hardly any violence at all - although, of course, these things are beefed up by the media.

I'd be far more concerned about encountering Premier League football fans on a Saturday afternoon in England (or even Bundesliga fans in Germany, if it comes to that).

I was planning on going to Budapest in a few weeks. But I think I might put that on hold. I'd be coming by train. And the trains from both Vienna and Bratislava use Keleti station. I'm not concerned over the safety of the matter; just the nuisance of train cancellations and people camped out in public. It seems that most of the refugees are trying to get on trains heading towards Vienna. Does anyone know if they are trying to board the Budapest-Bratislava-Prague-Berlin ones? (Which is the service I'd most likely use).

I've been keeping an eye out on the situation as well, with a short overnight in Budapest in a couple of weeks. Looks fine for now, in terms of fly in/fly out. Wasn't planning on being at Keleti station, where most of the migrants are; just heard in the last hour that the Hungarian government finally started providing bus transport to the Austrian border, so hopefully the backlog of humanity will be eased.

Unless more refugees keep trying to come in from the Serbian border. I really don't see this as a one-time event, but an ongoing saga. And I was under the impression that Hungary was providing busses for those who have started wallking to Austria alongside the autoway. Are they doing it for those at the train station as well?

As of about 10:00 CET today, international trains are getting back to normal.

The EC Hungaria to Prague and Berlin was the first, leaving Keleti about 30 minutes late.

They're saying the buses were a one-off, a response to the people who started walking en masse along the motorway towards the border.

So, I wouldn't necessarily count on the situation on the railways being resolved - or on the road border being a smooth crossing.

I'm supposed to be arriving in Budapest on Tuesday arriving by train from Prague and departing 4 days later to Vienna via train. I'm debating canceling both Vienna and Budapest based on possible train issues and concern about the possibility of the migrant issues continuing. I have non refundable bookings for accommodation but am thinking that it's better to take the loss rather than run Into issues.

Wow. That one is a tough call. Have you tried contacting the hotel in Budapest to see if they will allow you a refund? I'm not sure what I would do in your position. Especially since there are several direct trains each day between Prague and Vienna. One option if you want to still go to Budapest: you can take an EC train to Bratislava from Budapest. And then one of the hourly trains from Bratislava to Vienna (If the direct route between Budapest and Vienna is still chaotic when you're there).

Accommodation in Budapest is AirBnB so e have done our money. We have decided to cancel Budapest as it seems the messiest and could be the most problematic destination for us. At this time we will go direct from Prague to Vienna. I am going to contact the hotel in Vienna and see if they will allow us to move our non refundable bookings forward by a few days. Obviously they have no obligation to do so but will ask.

We're scheduled to arrive in Budapest on Thursday AM on the overnight train from Prague and to leave for Vienna the following Tuesday. Based on the news reports, we're sticking with our plans. One encouraging thing is that the car service we had scheduled in Budapest had cancelled all reservations but has reinstated ours based on a discussion I had with them. It is of course subject to change if the situation reverts to chaos, which they are not expecting. Since they're there and involved I'm inclined to follow their lead,

On that subject, they told me that there are groups of 4000+ refugees expected at the Hungarian Border today and tomorrow. If they are treated differently, which seems to be the Hungarian plan, they will be moved to the Austrian border as quickly as possible with minimal impact on the rail and road transport systems.

The situation seems to change every day - now all westbound rail services from HU are restored and running on schedule.

Safe travels, enjoy Budapest, it's a great city!

I was just there this week and unless you are going to the train station, which is not near the touristy part of the city, you wouldn't even know this was happening. I enjoyed the trip without any trouble. Although I did see the Football police riot on the way in from the airport, but that was about it.

One other suggestion, if you are talking to drunken locals in a bar about the situation, better to talk about the weather instead. The opinions on this seemed to be very heated on both sides.

Indeed. Budapest is business as usual, except with some train and bus travel -- in so much as it has been the past several years; and even that is now just about normal for at least those not from countries to the south and/or east (or otherwise perceived to be). That said, touching upon the topic of what has gone on with refugee and other migrant movements is a recipe for some emotional voices or worse.

I arrived in Budapest this morning via the Night Train (EN 477) from Prague. There was no trouble and no problems at the train station.

I was there a week ago and all seemed fine. But I wasn't anywhere near the train station. Flights were fine, the airport seemed quiet actually. I think the media makes things look worse than they actually are, although the migrant crisis is bad of course.

The trains between Hungary and Slovakia are not the issue. As the migrants are trying to get to Austria. And AP News reports today that ÖBB has suspended all trains service into/out of Hungary. They are only running train service from Nickelsdorf (Austrian side of the border) to Vienna.

The earlier problem that we (and many others) were affected by was the situation at Keleti.

I saw the announcement about the ÖBB service suspension later in the day.

I'm scheduled to travel from Keleti - Vienna next Tuesday and will have to make back up arrangements due to the announcements:

From http://www.mavcsoport.hu/en/node/9235 (Bolding is mine)

Train
 

Direct train services to and from Vieanna and BUD are suspended indefinitely. Crossing boarder on the M1 motorway is also tricky, because sometimes the Austrians just simply close down their borders for hours.

Also from Sept 15th police will start to beat up migrants so things will be tence. If you wanna be on world wide TV just visit Hungary.:)

Air travel service is uninterrupted, thought prices for air travel increased drastically.

Austria says it is no longer going to suspend the rules which is allowing these migrants to just transit through their country. Let's see how well that goes. Like I said upthread. There is hourly regional train station service between Bratislava and Vienna. If the Budpaest-Bratislava EC train service is not suspended, that routing is probably the best option. It's about 5 hours total on the trains, plus the connecting time in Bratislava, versus the 3 hour direct train ride (which is currently suspended).

Train service from Austria to Germany has been suspended from 17:00 CET. Also border control has been reinstated between Germany and Austria!

If anyone's planning/considering travel between Budapest and Vienna via Bratislava as an alternative, feel free to PM if you need any advice. I know this area (and its transit options and roads) well and will be more than happy to assist you with planning (subject to my availability :)).

The German rail company informed the Austrian rail company about the cross-border service situation, and so the Austrian rail company followed the German rail company in shutting down service. And indeed German border control has been temporarily reinstated, on orders from a German cabinet-level figure.

Checks on river boats too?

Train services between Austria and Germany are now resumed with some services still being affected (mostly between Salzburg and Munich) and with documents checks on border.