From Budapest to Istanbul. What routes?


Hi, I’m Guillermo, and I am planning a solo trip this August from Barcelona-Istanbu, passing thourgh the main capitals of Europe.

I have some doubts about the end of the trip, more concretely, about the posible paths to go from Budapest to Istanbul. I’ve done some research and seems like:

  • The Budapest-Belgrade-Sofia-Istanbul route is pretty fucked up with no transparent schedules, etc… in the Serbia part.
  • The better option is to go to Budapest-Bucharest(or Craiova)-Sofia-Istanbul, which seems also pretty bad with lots of changes and no direct trains?

Any one that knows how this part is really working now a days? Which is the best route in terms of less complications, and maybe less time? Thanks in advance!


2 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Bucharest- Istanbul will be a direct carriage from early June :) Sofia- Istanbul is already in service 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

And do note when-the overnight to IST only runs summertime. As seewulf says: daily from Sof and with a few extra cars from BUcur joined later on. NOte it does not go into IST-city but ends (5.30) at Halkali, a dreary suburban stop from where its a newly built kind of supermetro-into Asia via the tunnel.

From around half aug there will be works on one of the HU-RO crossings and no trains/diverted.

So from Bp it should be doable in 2 (long) nights and even it should be, with careful choice of train from Bp, be doable with a short daytime stopover in Bucur. Its a very long time since I´ve been there but the town has never struck me as overly nice. IF you want to see a little bit of ROMania, stop in Brasov, Sibiu or maybe Cluj.

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