Travelling to Budapest

Well I’m sure by now you all know that I’m a big fan of Qatar airways, i think they have exquisite flights and traveling couldn’t go any smoother with them. So it was a definite choice that I would choose Qatar airways to fly to Budapest. I was traveling to Budapest from Tehran and there were no direct flights so we booked a Tehran-Doha, Doha-budapest flight. Our flight was at 5 am which was extremely tiresome. We had an enormous amount of luggage and some extra weight which we had to get sorted out. Anyhow our transit was less than 2 hours so upon reaching Hamad international airport we didn’t have much time to relax. We kept running towards the gate, hoping to catch our flight. The security did ask us a few questions as to why we were traveling to Budapest, which we were glad to answer.

(Hamad international airport, probably the most aesthetically pleasing airport in the entire world)

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Now the odd thing was that, the gate designated for Budapest was so far away and it was like they had the worst gate ever. We first went through the gate, then got into a transit bus or what looked like a transit bus; we then went through the whole airport, taking about 20 turns and then we reached the plane, there wasn’t any passenger boarding bridge so we had to walk up the flight of stairs. I had two backpacks and a small suitcase so imagine how difficult that must have been. The plane was old, didn’t have any plugs or monitors and the seats were uncomfortable. All of a sudden it didn’t feel like Qatar airways anymore, it felt like a normal commercial airline. Anyhow we got through the flight, which took about 6 hours.

Budapest’s airport is known as Ferenc Liszt International Airport, it’s a small but convenient airport. We first had to go through immigration. I’m not so fond of immigration lines in any country, they take long, they require too many documents and overall the atmosphere isn’t so friendly, but to my surprise the officers were really pleasant, they spoke moderately well English and they even told me to have a great stay. I was loving Budapest from the moment I set foot in it!

(A picture of the budapest aiport)

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Now here on I’m going to give you some tips regarding the airport that I wish someone had given me and then we are going to cover the ways in which you can get to the city from the airport.

Tips:

#1 Do not change money in the airport

Yes, this sounds pretty simple and everyone knows that airports have really bad exchange rates. But budapest’s airport is on another level, you can’t imagine. Hungary’s currency is called forints, one euro is about 300 forints and one US dollar is about 250 forints. I changed 100 US dollars, which is an equivalent of 25, 000 forints but in the airport they gave me 20, 000 in exchange for 100 US dollars. JUST imagine. 5, 000 forints is a lot of money, you can buy a sweater in Bershka or have a meal for two in an inexpensive restaurant with 5, 000. A better alternative is to change some money before coming to Hungary, buy the currency from your local money exchanger. Don’t make the same mistake as us. I needed to change money because I had to pay for transport from the airport to the city or else I honestly wouldn’t have.

(One of the money exchangers in the airport)

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#2 Don’t buy anything in the airport

Okay it sounds like a whole lot of warning and it’s not that there is anything wrong with buying stuff in the airport. It’s just that it’s so much more expensive than the city. This specially holds true for food and drinks. I went into the supermarket in the airport to buy some mineral water and a small bottle of water cost about 450 forints, now the same small bottle of water costs around 70 forints in the city. How many times more expensive is that? That’s math I can’t even do. So yea if you weren’t really thirsty or Hungary avoid buying too much food in the airport. Think about your bank account balance.

#3 buying a SIM card

Before buying a SIM card in Budapest you should ask yourselves and know two things :How long are you going to stay in Budapest? How important is it to have a SIM card right now and not wait till you get to the city? Well okay before we answer those questions you should know that Vodafone has got a small outlet in the airport, you can ask the information kiosk and they will direct you there. I had to stand in line for about 20 minutes, it was exhausting honestly specially after such a long flight. When I spoke with the assistants they asked me how long do I need the SIM card for and then they gave me three options: First option was a SIM card with 1 GB of 3G (internet) + 100 minutes of free calls+ 25 minutes of long distance calls (including international calls). Second option was a SIM card with 3 GB internet and the same amount of local and international calls. Third option was a SIM card with 8 GB of 3G and some other call options which I can’t recall at the moment (pardon me but I was very exhausted at those moments). Anyhow, the first option cost about 29 euros, or 9000 forints which is a lot to pay for a SIM card but we chose the first option anyway. Now these options were given to me since I chose the long term SIM card plan. The options may vary if you choose the short term plans.

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In my opinion Vodafone is great for short term plans, if you plan on visiting Budapest and you don’t already have a Vodafone SIM card you can just purchase one at the airport and be happy with your choice. The trouble arises with long term plans, I have been using Vodafone for a couple of months now and I have many friends who have been using it, and almost everyone is complaining about it. They say that it’s extremely expensive. After the first month, every 300 MB of internet costs about 500 forints, and the calls are also quite costly. My advice is if you need a SIM card for a long term choose another service provider such as Telecom (more on these later).

The tips section was just a tad longer than I expected it to be, but I just want you guys to use my experiences and create better ones for yourselves.

So anyhow, how on earth do we get to the city from the airport? Easy peasy! There are two options: Airport taxis and airport shuttle buses. Both methods are convenient and secure, lets take a look at both.

The airport taxi service

I’m Assuming you guys wouldn’t be travelling to Budapest with as much luggage as me; I mean after all you aren’t planning on living here but if you are let me know ( that would be great), anyways I swear I’m the queen of going off topic. Back to the topic, the airport taxis are well equipped and modern. Most of the drivers don’t speak English but that isn’t much of an issue. That is mostly due to the fact that you pay for your ride before you even get on. So basically there is a kiosk there, you order your cab by telling them your destinations and they will calculate the fare. Bear in mind that cabs are quite expensive, we paid around 6000 forints (about 20 euros) to get to the city (district 9), the ride would cost anywhere from 5000 forints to 8000 forints depending on your destination.

Now let’s take a look at the other option.

Airport shuttle bus

I didn’t use this method myself but literally eveyone uses this mean of transport to go and come back from the airport because it’s inexpensive, convenient and again it’s inexpensive. So let’s see how you can use this method to your convenience. The most well known bus is the 200E bus, I’m not sure about other buses that would go to the airport and the route they might take so I’m not going to include an unsure option for you guys. 200E on the other hand is extremely well known and pretty much everyone uses it to go to the airport from the city center, even the locals and certainly the students! Okay so the bus 200E will take off from Deak Ferenc ter. Yes! We are back at Deak again, can you believe it? Okay so from there the bus leaves every 30 minutes from 4 am to 23:30 pm every day. The timings are pretty good and you can catch the bus at any time of the day. From the airport to the city center the first bus leaves at 5:00 am and the last one at 00:30 am. So basically again you can get the bus at pretty much any time. Another thing to keep in mind is that you need a special ticket for the bus which costs about 900 forints, pretty cheap right? You can purchase the ticket from ticket machines or ask the driver if you can pay on the bus. One last thing to keep in mind is that you should always check the bus schedule before counting on it since the timings could change at any moment. I’m not suggesting that it’s unreliable cause it’s not but like just to be sure. You can check the schedule on bbk. hu.

(The bus boarding the passengers at the airport)

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I really do hope that you guys find this piece useful. I promise to keep writing if medical school lets me (you know I always have to rant a little about this). Till next time.

Cheers!

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