OK, so we have made cruise reservations for next summer. (You get a huge discount a year out.) We will be going from Amsterdam to Budapest. My lovely wife of course will take the cruise lines’ standard sort of flight from the US to Amsterdam, then Budapest back to the US.
I on the other hand will on my own. I will fly from here to Amsterdam and then somehow get back here.
Given prices, complexity and fun as factors, ought I to fly to Amsterdam then out of Budapest? To Amsterdam, then the train from Budapest and fly out of Amsterdam? Or perhaps the reverse, fly into Budapest, train to Amsterdam then fly out of Budapest?
How long is the ICE from Budapest to Amsterdam? How much does it cost?
Your thoughts?
There is no ICE in Hungary. I would expect there to be night trains that will get you from Hungary to Germany and from anywhere in Germany it is pretty easy to get an ICE to Frankfurt, where the ICE to Amsterdam departs. I’m not sure who your airline works, but my experience is that there is hardly any (read zero) price advantage to arriving and departing from the same airport.
If you do find prices to be cheaper this way; there are lowcost airlines (less than E50) that fly between Budapest and Amsterdam… so it might be best to fly take one of these flights. Budapest - Amsterdam is quite a trainride, so unless you plan to take a few days to enjoy Vienna, Munich, Nurnberg or Berlin even, I’d try to stick to the skies.
Well, taking a day off to see (name city) en route is not out of the question, I suppose. But if I opted for the train straight through to Amsterdam, how long are we talking about? It is about two inches on my map.
Thirteen hours it seems, from a quick search. It is do-able, I suppose.