Serbian Railways offers ‘Budapest special’ promo tickets for journey between Belgrade and Budapest for only 26 EUR. One way ticket is 15 EUR. It’s not possible to buy tickets online via Serbian Railways website. MAV which is a Hungarian State Railway offers booking via internet but you need to collect your ticket at any of the ticket collection points at the railway station. Home printing is not possible so if you arrive without a collected ticket you’ll need to buy a new one.

However, you can buy tickets directly at the station, even before the start of the journey as usually there are no shortage of tickets. Making a reservation is a good idea if you want to travel during holidays such as New Year’s Eve or during the time of some festivals. These promo tickets are valid for 2nd class only.

There are three daily departures from Belgrade to Budapest, at 07:36, 11:35 and 21:50. The departures from Budapest are following: at 08:05, 12,05 and 22:25. The full timetable can be seen here. You need to type BEOGRAD instead of Belgrade.

Belgrade to Budapest by train

I departed from Belgrade at 7:20 in the morning. The passenger car was part of MAV – Hungarian State Railway. The seats were okay considering this is 2nd class. There were many empty seats, just around 10 people in my passenger car. The train has a restaurant and two power outlets per car. You can’t use it for a laptop but it’s good for charging your phone. Power outlets are at the beginning and the end of the car if you wanna catch those seats 😉

The train has WiFi but it only works on the Hungarian territory. Actually it barely works on it too as the signal disappears often. And it only works up to 4 hours.

Arrival to Subotica is around 11:20am and the first passport check is here. The journey continues at 12:50.  It takes two hours for passport check at the both sides. Hungarians are really strict especially because of the current situation with immigrants.

Budapest to Belgrade by train

Ivo Andric train leaves Budapest at 08:05. This passenger car is owned by Serbian Railways. The carriages are old but the seats are more comfortable. Again the car was almost empty but a lot of people entered in Novi Sad. This car has power outlets by every window. No WiFi  and restaurant here. If you are traveling from Budapest to Belgrade ‘Avala Train’ which leaves at 12:05 could be a better solution. This one is operated by MAV.

Safety

Stay alert if you are traveling alone and keep an eye on your valuables. People get on and off on this train quite often so being alert is more than recommended, as the cases of small theft used to happen quite often.

Any questions or comments, feel free to write below.