Kiev to Budapest by Train

Kiev does offer one direct train to Budapest, and that train leaves at 11:10 am daily and arrives 25 hours later at the Budapest - Keleti station at 11:17 am (there is an hour time change in the middle). This route of Kiev to Budapest by train is by far the easiest to take since it involves no train changes whatsoever. The bad part, however, is that it takes 25 hours, and there is only one possible choice of train and time!

What the ticket attendants fail to tell you is that there ARE in fact other routes you can take to get from Kiev to Budapest by train that involve changing trains a few times. Perhaps it was because my Russian wasn't the best, but the attendants said they had no information for any other trains that go outside of Ukraine, besides the one they have direct daily. I knew there were other ways that could save me time, so I took a chance and was successful at getting from Kiev to Budapest via Chop in less than 23 hours, and returning in less than 21 hours! Here's how I did it:

Kiev to Chop, Ukraine by Train

If the route isn't one of the direct routes that run daily, the Kiev train station cannot issue any ticket for outside of Ukraine. So, I had to buy my tickets as I went, and my first one was for Kiev to Chop, Ukraine by an overnight train.

Chop, Ukraine is on the border of Ukraine and Hungary. It took me a whopping 16 hours to get to Chop from Kiev, so I had to do it on an overnight train - the only way to travel such long distances in comfort in Ukraine.

Kiev (depart 23.58) - Chop (arrive 16.13)

Once in Chop, you can buy a ticket that takes you just across to the other side of the border. You cannot walk across the border from what I hear, so you have to go by car or by train. The next border crossing train to Zahony, Hungary didn't leave for a little over an hour, so it gave me plenty of time to find a money changer in order to get some Hungarian money to quickly buy my tickets once in the other country.

(I had tried to find Hungarian money in Kiev, but was unsuccessful at the various money changers I went to).

Chop to Zahony, Hungary by Train

To get on the train for the border crossing, you have to go through customs and security check. The Ukrainian guards will ask you what you have in your bags, ask you to open them, and even ask you your purpose of travel.

Chop (depart 17:35) - Zahony (16:52) with an hour time change at border.

The train across the border literally takes about 10 minutes, but be prepared to be stuck in the train while Hungarian customs and security guards check passports, bags, as well as the train for smuggled goods. I had previously looked up timetables on bahn.de (my favorite train site) and knew that the next train I needed to get on in Zahony left in 20 minutes.

I got a bit anxious waiting, especially since I was not quite next in line for passport checks, so I made a bit of a show to let the guards know I was in a frenzy to get my next train. Luckily, this worked, and I was able to get into the building, buy my next ticket, and magically find the train to Nyiregyhaza, Hungary in a matter of minutes.

Zahony to Nyiregyhaza, Hungary by Train

Zahony to Nyiregyhaza takes a little over an hour to get to, and there really is no drama involved, expect for in my case, I wanted to catch a train to Budapest with only a 13 minute train change window.

Zahony (depart 17:12) - Nyiregyhaza (arrive 18.23)

The problem was that if the trains were slow and I missed the train to Budapest, then I would have to wait several hours in order to get the next one, meaning I wouldn't get to Budapest until the middle of the night. How inconvenient!

Nyiregyhaza to Budapest, Hungary by Train

Luckily, the train was on time, and I was well on my way to Budapest which took another 3 hours.

Nyiregyhaza (depart 18:36) - Budapest (arrive 21:42)

The train will arrive in the Budapest - Nyugati station since the train being taken is not an international train.

Kiev to Budapest by Train

The entire process was a bit of an adventure and risky to say the least, but for those that want to maximize a weekend away in Budapest from Kiev, this is another route to take. Since I worked during the day/evening, I did not want to take the 11:10 train the following day and lose a precious day in Hungary. By leaving at night, I was able to gain another night in Hungary, and spend a little less time in one place, on one train.