Budapest in 3 Days Plus Day Trips
Three days is one day settling into Budapest, then two real day trips: Szentendre on the Danube Bend and Eger’s wine cellars, both under 2 hours away by train. Only have two days? Drop Eger and see the 2-day version . Got a fourth day? The 4-day plan adds a cheap Vienna hop on top of this same spine.
Book these before you go
- Budapest hotel near Keleti or the M2 red metro line: check rates on Booking.com
- Prefer a guided Eger wine day: Eger wine day tour
- Prefer a guided Danube Bend combining all three towns: Danube Bend day tour
Day 1: Land, settle into Budapest
Bus 100E runs from the airport straight to Deak Ferenc ter for 2,500 HUF, roughly 30-45 minutes depending on traffic; a Fotaxi booth at arrivals dispatches a fixed fare of 10,000-13,000 HUF if you’d rather not deal with the bus. Skip anyone offering a ride before you’ve reached either option, unlicensed touts working the arrivals hall routinely charge multiples of the real fare. Settle in near Keleti station or anywhere on the M2 red line, since that line also reaches Batthyany ter, tomorrow’s departure point. Buy a BKK 24-hour pass rather than single tickets if you’re moving around the city today. Hungary uses the forint, not the euro, so decline any card terminal’s offer to charge you in euros instead, the conversion is always worse than letting your own bank do it.
Day 2: The Danube Bend, Szentendre
Take the HEV suburban line H5 from Batthyany ter, departures every 15-20 minutes, for the roughly 40 minute ride to Szentendre. A standard BKK ticket plus a small supplement covers it, all in around 700-800 HUF one way. Walk the old town, a Baroque riverside settlement built up by Serbian merchant families, and see the Skanzen open-air museum if you have a couple of spare hours. Be back in Budapest by early evening; tomorrow’s train to Eger leaves from a different station and rewards an early start.
Day 3: Eger’s wine cellars
A direct MAV train from Keleti covers the roughly 132km to Eger in about 1 hour 50 minutes, close to hourly departures, for a fare around 3,000-4,000 HUF. Eger’s “Valley of the Beautiful Women” is a row of wine cellars pouring Egri Bikavar, Bull’s Blood; pick two or three and taste properly rather than rushing five. The hilltop castle is worth an hour if wine isn’t the whole point of your day. Catch an evening train back, the line runs close to hourly until late.
Should Eger be a day trip or an overnight on a 3 day plan?
A day trip, if three days is all you have. It costs a full day either way, and turning it into an overnight would mean losing your Danube Bend day entirely. If you ever come back with a fourth or fifth day free, that’s when Eger earns an actual overnight instead of a rushed cellar crawl.
Which of the 6 day trips pair best on a short visit?
Szentendre and Eger, specifically because neither one requires a car and both run on frequent, no-reservation trains. Vienna and Bratislava are cheap but eat a whole day on international rail; Lake Balaton only makes sense in summer. For a 3 day trip, this pairing gets you the most variety, a riverside town and a wine region, for the least logistics.
The 6 real day trips from Budapest, for reference
| Day trip | One-way time | Fare |
|---|---|---|
| Danube Bend (Szentendre) | ~40 min, HEV from Batthyany ter | ~700-800 HUF |
| Eger | ~1h50min, MAV from Keleti | 3,000-4,000 HUF |
| Vienna, Austria | ~2h16-2h37min, Railjet from Keleti | EUR 12-19 advance, EUR 32+ walk-up |
| Bratislava, Slovakia | ~1h54min, train from Keleti | EUR 12 advance, EUR 40+ walk-up |
| Lake Balaton (summer only) | ~1.5-2h, train from Budapest-Deli | 1,900-3,000 HUF |
| Godollo Palace | ~30-45 min, train or HEV from Keleti/Ors vezer tere | standard suburban fare |
Buy the Eger train ticket the same morning if you’re on a regular InterRegio service, seat reservations usually aren’t needed, but check the departure board rather than assuming every hourly slot runs the direct route.