Hey!

Well, only with quite a detour… you may go from Budapest to Ljubljana/Vienna and then make it to Italy… From different Italian ports (Ancona, Bari e.g.) you may have a ferry to Greece (Igoumenitsa, Patras) and from there you can make it to Athens

But why is Bucharest no option for you? Shouldn’t be a problem to get a nighttrain from Budapest to Bucharest, then the train from Bucharest to Sofia and then take a bus to Saloniki (20-25 euro) and then continue by train to Athens.
This variant might be cheaper then the huge detour via Italy IMO. On the way back (depending on your plan), you might use the variant via Italy...

Hi! Thank you so much for the reply! Bucharest was an option but I read that there were no trains this year between Sofia and Bucharest and between Bucharest and Budapest. Is this true? Also, because we didn't want to arrive in Bucharest at five in the morning (I only saw one train to Bucharest with that timetable), and not have anywhere to go. We are a group of young girls, and although the European Union is safe, we want to minimize risks.

Do you have an approximate date? Like May, June, July, August? 

For example today you’d have this options:
 

There is usually also a train at 15.10 from Budapest with arrival in Bucharest at 08.06… That one allows a same day connection to Sofia with the 10.55 train to Ruse. In summer months (from some date in June on until beginning of October) there is a direct train from Bucharest to Sofia (at least it was announced).
There is only one daily train across the border to Bulgaria (also another from Craiova, but maybe via Bucharest is more interesting, especially if you have to stay for a night in the city - Bucharest has hostels while Craiova doesn’t have), so you’d have to stay a night in Bucharest on the way to Bulgaria/Greece (except if you are able to catch the 15.10 train from Budapest). Would highly recommend you to use couchette for this long trip - the seats are not really comfortable and the supplement for couchette should be only around 10 euro I think?! (at least with normal ticket when I used it in March difference was only 10 euro between seat and couchette..)

Thank you so much again. You are now my favorite person. 

We are going to travel the first two weeks of agust. We are taking a plane to athens, then a train to Thessaloniki, and then (because I am informed there are no trains to Sofia), a bus to Sofía. Do you know if there is a night train from Sofia to Bucharest that arrives at a normal hour? (Not 5 in the morning) and a night train from Bucharest to Budapest? or (instead of bodering you) where I can see the timetables? 

Thank you so much for your help again, really. 

There is no direct nighttrain from Sofia to Bucharest. Only daytime train was announced for summer. Would leave at around 7.15 from Sofia, arrive in Ruse on Bulgarian border at around 13.30 and then in Bucharest at around 17.00 somewhere.
From Bucharest to Budapest there should be a train at 14 (arrives at 5.xx in Budapest, so very early), one at 17.45, arrives at 8.50 in Budapest) and also one at 22.00 with arrival at 12.50 in Budapest).
I’d recommend the 17.45 one - uses the beautiful route through Romanian mountains and also has a good arrival time in Budapest, only disadvantage is border control after midnight…

BTW: If you didn’t buy interrail tickets yet, you may think about if single fare tickets might not be the cheaper option for you. There are quite some good offers available on those routes… e.g. couchette Bucharest-Budapest for 40€ p.p.

You can check the timetables on bahn. de for example. Due to construction works and small timetable changes in June there might be some differences then, but in general you can count on it… also maybe the direct train Sofia-Bucharest might not yet be shown there as it was only announced like 10 days ago...

Ok!! Thanks a lot for helping me out so much, really!

ALL the way cannot be done by train, as far as current info is.

You do not need to pass BUc but then you have to change more and go from BP via Craiova-the new (EU-funded) line to VIDIN in BG (only 1 train/day, they started with an overnite, but that was very unsuccesfull), then local BDZ train to Sofia. BUT for a fairly long period in this summer there are works on the border for this train, so it will be rerouted very much and not via Craiova.

In fact: if you have no interest in visiting the in-between: book yourself an overnight bus Bp-Sofia, will cost around 20-30€ and the time is much, much shorter.

There is also a gap between trains (NOT rails) from last stop in BG=Kulata and 1st stop where Gr/OSE trains start again.

Unfortunately, since Covid started, there has been no train connection (at least for passengers) between Greece and any other country. The lines are still in place but have no service, and no rail replacement bus/coach either.

Officially the connections are still suspended “due to Covid” - but obviously there is nothing Covid related preventing services from restarting anymore. It is more a matter of inertia and political will to fund the restart of such heavily loss-making services.

The best option to get between Thessaloniki and Sofia is undoubtedly the bus (flying also makes sense if you’re coming from the Athens direction). However if you want to do it by rail as much as possible, you can take a train from Thessaloniki to Strymonas. There are only 2 trains per day, one around 5am and another around 6pm; in the opposite direction it looks like there is just train one per day from Strymonas at 8:45am - I imagine there must be a train that runs through non-stop?

From Strymonas you can then either take a taxi or hike (around 20km!) to Kulata. I took a taxi, it wasn’t too expensive and took me up to the border checkpoint. I walked through - they were very confused to see someone arriving on foot! Kulata station is not far (maybe 1km) from the border. Google Maps claims there is a replacement bus between Strymonas and Kulata but there was no evidence of any such bus existing when I got off at Strymonas, and I cannot find it in any other timetable. I would ignore that.

Whilst there is a lot of history and interesting places to see in Greece, to be honest, I don’t think it is worthwhile visiting if you are looking for a scenic railway journey. There are some moderately scenic lines but overall other countries offer much better frequencies and scenery, and are even cheaper to stay in/eat out etc. I probably won’t come back until I have seen everything I want to see in Eastern Europe.

That said, if you do want to visit Greece, and use rail to get to Sofia, then if you take the early morning train from Thessaloniki to Strymonas, and a taxi up to Kulata, there is a direct service to Sofia that connects quite well (I think I had around 45 minutes waiting at Kulata - enough time to get something to eat at a supermarket). It takes around 5 hours but it’s a very scenic journey. I can highly recommend it.

Hi, do you happen to remember the price and the name of the taxi company that you took for the transfer between Strymonas and Kulata?
Do you know if there is maybe a bus in Strymonas or any nearby train station on the line that could get us to Kulata (instead of taking the taxi)?

Thanks a lot ;)

I think the taxi was €25 or thereabouts? Definitely bring cash as they probably won't take card. Can't recall the name of the company - I asked my hotel in Thessaloniki whether they would be able to help book it for me, as Strymonas is a small village so most of the locals only speak Greek.

Unfortunately Strymonas is the closest station - the railway line on the Greek side doesn't get much closer than that to Kulata, as there is a chain of hills along the border. Kulata is one of only a few border crossings between Greece and Bulgaria.

I couldn't find any evidence of a bus that stops in Strymonas, as I say you can definitely get a coach from Thessaloniki to Sofia, but I don't think it would stop at such a minor town.

Yeah that’s what I had calculated myself (roughly). Thanks a lot! I definitely will have some cash on me for those kinds of situations. I would really love to do this ride, it seems like a fun adventure, but I really don’t know if the taxi is to trust and if they won’t end up overcharging me (has happened to me before in Greece many times). Plus, there recently has been some really weird stuff going around with Trainose since their timetable change of the 15th of May: look at the bahn.de timetable between Thessaloniki and Strymonas and then go on tickets.trainose.gr. The trains are completely different and the one at 5:58 doesn’t appear after the 31st of May for some reason. Plus the past few days the train at 5:58 simply wouldn’t even show up… I just don’t wanna end up waiting for some sort of ghost train at Thessaloniki. Maybe I should just take a coach :/