Getting back from Budapest - ideas wanted

[vernon]

There is a cheap and easy method - fly to Manchester but I want to savour the journey back so Ive been researching the route back using Earthbound transport. I've got a Eurostar place booked fromParis to London and train from London back to Leeds - the gap to be filled is from Budapest to Paris.

This is what I've come up with so far:

Budapest to Paris via Munich (two days stay in Munich) by train.
PROBLEM: The Budapest to Munich part of the journey involves four trains. The first leg from Budapest to Bratislava can't be booked with bicycle reservations by the German railway company DBB. The first leg is run by the Slovaks and is dirt cheap and they can book bicycle reservations only if you are in Hungary or Slovakia...do I take a chance and book the last three legs with DBB hoping that I'll be able to book tickets when I reach Bratislava on my way to Budapest? I've read that the Hungarians cannbe touchy with bike reservations and that the reservation counts for little if the guard is a git.

Budapest to Vienna by hydrofoil then by train to Munich and a sleeper to Paris - no probs there - the only downside is that the hydrofoil only travels three times a week

Budapest Bratislava by train - hydrofoil to Viena train to Munich and a sleeper to Paris - cheaper than the previous option and the hydrofoil leg has a daily service.


The question - are there alternative rail routes that I have overlooked that will get me from Budapest to Paris - preferably with minimal changes of trains? My geographic knowledge and knowledge of the European rail system is limited hence the question.

 

[Durian]

Try this site. www.seat61.com

Warning: The site is addictive!

 

[vernon]

Try this site. www.seat61.com

Warning: The site is addictive!

Been there done that.

Thanks all the same.

 

[vernon]

The dynamics of the journey changed this fternoon when I discovered that i couldn't use the City Night Line on the preferred date and had to move events forward by 24 hrs.

The forcing of my hand means that everything is booked from Vienna homewards leaving a gap between Budapest and Vienna to be resolved - probably while we are in Bratislava heading towards Hungary.

 

[Yellow7]

My idea would be to cycle back. ;-)

 

[vernon]

My idea would be to cycle back. ;-)

In three days???!!!!!

 

[Bodhbh]

I spoke to some germans having a pit stop in at Budapest last year after touring Romania and going back to Germany via coach. There were very enthusiastic about the coach service, but it went in one ear and out the other as I had no intention of using it at the time. Obviously the service took bikes. I wish I could remember the name of the company. But it sounds like it's worth not ruling out coach travel immediately.