Eger Transportation

To get into town from the railway station you have to follow Deák Ferenc utca northwards for about a kilometre. Journey time to/from Budapest Keleti station is about two hours, and it costed 2.160 HUF ~7 Euro, as of May 2011.

Travelling to Eger by bus is probably the best option. First the bus station is extremely central. It's just a couple of minutes walk to the center (the main train station is much further out). Secondly the Eger station is on a small local line, meaning that, coming from Budapest, you either have to change at Füzesabony, or take one of the few direct local trains; these are so slow that they take longer than if you change at Füzesabony!

Buses are more regular too, running around twice an hour, cost about the same, and are generally more pleasant.

Transport in Hungary can be a bit hit or miss, though. The bus to Eger was on a wonderful, modern air-conditioned Volvo. The return trip was on a crummy old model, like the "dud" pictured. There does seem to be some way of discovering which trains and buses are nice and which are crap. I find asking at the ticket counter helps.

You can use the surprisingly good Volanbusz site (leagues ahead of the MAV train site) to check timetables and even book your ticket. It's easy enough to buy your ticket from the driver, though.

You can get the MAV train from Budapest's Keleti station (you can arrive here using the red metro line). It costs 2290ft one way though you may have to pay an extra 500 or so ft for seat reservations. Some trains are direct and on others you have to change trains at Fuzesabony. You can also take the more expensive intercity train which costs just over 3000ft but gets there in under 2 hours and makes no stops along the way.

Trains go about every hour and the last one back is at 8:30pm. If you don't get the intercity it take you just over 2 hours to get there, depending on the changeover times at Fuzesabony of course.

Use the website below for more accurate and up to date info.

Some road distances from Eger to:

- Budapest: 140 kms.
- Sofia (Bulgaria): 887 kms.
- Moscow (Russia): 1.761 kms.
- Madrid (Spain): 2.542 kms.

For more distances together with driving times and the best routes, you can check the web.

We had a bit of difficulty arranging transport to Eger. The evening before travelling we went out to Keleti station in the east of Budapest to try and book tickets or at least find out times. However, the info booth there was closed and the lady in the ticket office spoke no English. She sent us upstairs to another ticket office but the queue there was very long and moving slowly.

We tried another info booth but they covered hotels, not trains, so they sent us to yet another booth on the other side of the station. This, however, was also closed. There were timetables in hungarian but they looked rather complicated and very old. So we had wasted about an hour out here trying to find any information about getting to Eger. In the end we called the Tourist Information office in the city centre and finally we got the details we needed.

The express trains to Eger were leaving at times that didn't suit us so, instead we took the slow train to Fuzesabony, waited there for 40 minutes, and changed to an even slower train to Eger. The journey took about 2.5 hours and tickets cost 3068 for two returns. The journey was fairly dull as the landscape wasn't too exciting and we were moving so slowly.

We had no idea which station was Fuzesabony as from our carriage we couldn't see station names and many of the stations didn't seem to have names. Luckily we knew the approximate time of arrival in Fuzesabony and alighted at the correct place.

Eger station is about 10 minutes walk from the town centre though it took us a long time to find our hotel which was on the other side of town, almost in the suburbs.

There are very frecuent buses from Budapest Nepliget bus station, aproximadly 13 at day and you can return to Budapest from Eger bus station.
The price is 1500ft one way aproximadly, and Student and Children has reducen fares.

The bus takes around an hour from Miskolc. No need to buy a ticket, pay the driver -- however, at peak times you can expect the buses to be crowded.

Buses run to and from Miskolc approximately every hour and a half.

Eger bus station is central, just behind the Basilica.

Regular train service from the train station in Budapest who's name fails me, but right across the street from the Yellow Submarine Youth Hostel. The train takes a few hours, and you can do Eger as a day trip, but I wouldn't want to leave the cellars.

Should you travel on train from Budapest you can choose from 4 express trains and an InterCity train of Hungarian State Railways (InterCity requires seat reservation, fee: 250HUF/person).

There are some other opportunities if you change train in Fuzesabony. The railway station is about one kilometer far from the downtown on ?llomas Square, in which is a motel.
If you travel by car or bus from Budapest there are two highways: Highway 25 (Kerecsend-ozd), and Highway 24 (Gyongyos-Recsk-Eger). From the M3 Motorway you will cross Fuzesabony and Maklar, or on Highway 25 you will cross Kerecsend. Parking opportunities for buses: Ady Endre Street. Parking fee is 200HUF / hour, 800HUF / 12 hours or 1600HUF / day. The bus station is in Bark?czy Street.
There are a few carparks in town, with fees of 100, 120, 150HUF / hour. You should by your parking ticket at the automats placed in the carparks. Cars parked illegally may be fined. Free carparks for buses & cars by the TESCO supermarket. The historical downtown is only open for pedestrians.

If you travel by car or bus from Budapest there are two highways: Highway 25 (Kerecsend-ozd), and Highway 24 (Gyongyos-Recsk-Eger). From the M3 Motorway you will cross Fuzesabony and Maklar, or on Highway 25 you will cross Kerecsend. Parking opportunities for buses. Eger is a very user-friendly town; all the main sites are within walking distance from the city center and street signs in Hungarian, German and English make things easy to find.