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I am traveling to Budapest next month via Bratislava airport. We will be arriving at 20:40 in Bratislava, and we want to catch a bus or train to Budapest ASAP.

From what I have found the best option is to catch the 21:30 FlixBus from Bratislava, AS Mlynské nivy station.

The only other available options, that leave later from Bratislava airport, are going through Vienna, which is in the opposite direction, and the trip lasts many hours.

So I would like to ask, if you think it would be possible (if the flight has no delays of course) to make it to the bus station by 21:30 from the airport (leaving say at 21:00) on a Friday night. (We will take a taxi from the airport in order to have a chance to be on time.) Our flight is from within Schengen, so we'll only have to wait for checked bags, not immigration.

P.S. If you know of any other available options please let me know.

Update The FlixBus service is the only one I could find online. I would be greatful if someone local can point me to other transportation services available (like local bus companies) that have any routes later that 21:30 from Bratislava to Budapest.

I would be interested also to know how much approximately a taxi fare would be.

AFTER TRIP UPDATE

For what it's worth, it seems that we could have made it after all, but it would cost about 25€(~30$).

The taxi ride was less than 15 minutes, with almost no traffic at all (being it holy Friday i suppose(?)) and since we had no checked in bags, and the taxis were just outside the arrival hall, we were able to get one at 21:00.

Just be careful when going to the bus station, as it seems that the old terminal, that is permanently closed, is still listed on Google maps, and that can be misleading.

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    It sounds rather optimistic in any city to plan for less than an hour to deplane, get through immigration (if applicable), wait for your checked luggage, and find local transport to a bus station presumably in the city.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Mar 30, 2019 at 18:16
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    If I were you, I would plan for a night in Bratislava and a morning shuttle to Budapest. That way you will avoid stress and potential, if not likely, failure.
    – MastaBaba
    Commented Mar 30, 2019 at 21:53

3 Answers 3

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Is plane-side at BTS Airport to AS Mlynské nivy doable in 50 min?

It might work out but it's extremely tight with checked bags.

In order to make the connection the flight will need to be exactly on time, the baggage service quite prompt and there be no other hiccups. I expect the biggest risk beyond the flight is for the bags to take more than 20 minutes to make it onto the claim. This probably depends on how many other flights are being handled at that moment.

BTS Airport is small, planes often park at gates where passengers can just walk up to the terminal and exit through baggage claim. Sometimes, though, passengers need take buses from the plane to terminal, adding a few minutes.

  • 20:40 plane doors open, passengers begin to disembark
  • 20:50 bus leaves side of plane for terminal
  • 20:55 bus arrives terminal, grab bag
  • 21:00 get in taxi
  • 21:15 arrive at bus station

Options for traveling Bratislava to Budapest at night

Busbud summarizes bus companies on this route: Eurolines, FlixBus, Korona Travel, and RegioJet. (Full disclosure: I worked there.)

Unfortunately the 21:30 FlixBus is indeed the last bus of the night on the dates I checked. RegioJet offers the first bus at 3:15 the next morning.

There are no train connections either during this time. With one adventurous exception - only running on Saturdays: take the RegioJet train from Bratislava Nove Mesto at 22:13 to Komárno arriving at 00:13. Then bikeshare, walk, or take a taxi to Komarom (Hungary) to catch train R 4819 departing 3:39 to Budapest-Deli arriving 5:09.

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  • Great info thank you so much for the detailed answer
    – ktsangop
    Commented Mar 31, 2019 at 13:25
  • You're welcome, hope it helps. You can always play it by ear if you don't mind booking stuff last minute. :)
    – Carl
    Commented Apr 4, 2019 at 19:20
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The taxi ride is <15 minutes. Here's the Google Maps route. It's a bit tricky to get Gmaps route it properly, it goes bonkers with the lanes on the bridgehead but if you set it to go to the Regiojet stop, then it draws the straight lines.

Speaking of Regiojet, while there is no way to prove a negative, but here's what Regiojet has to offer:

enter image description here

Googling in Hungarian doesn't get further, this is from a Hungarian site:

enter image description here

these are remarkably the same buses.

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    For those who don't know: Pozsony is the Hungarian name for Bratislava.
    – TonyK
    Commented Mar 31, 2019 at 13:35
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You can try, but is it worth the stress? Imagine arriving at an unfamiliar airport, waiting for your bags, and dashing to the taxi rank (wherever that is), only to miss your bus by three minutes! If I were you, I would find a hotel in Bratislava (a taxi to Budapest costs 142 Euros, according to this website).

I know that some online booking agents seem to treat Bratislava as an alternative airport to Budapest, but it really isn't. It's 200km!

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  • Probably not worth the stress, I suppose we should stay the night in Bratislava
    – ktsangop
    Commented Mar 31, 2019 at 13:25

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