Szeged

After driving around Budapest over the last week, me and my HU GF have to conclude driving in Budapest is a nightmare:

One-way streets all over the place, to the point you cannot park anyway where you actually want to visit. On most ocassions we either had to park 1-3 blocks away or just not take the car there.

Lack of parking spaces and overall a frustrating environment. If you are in the wrong lane, which is easy to achieve, other drivers will not give you the time and space to change lanes. They are very impatient and do not want to give way.

You need an up-to-date Sat-Nav. We were driving from Szeged to Budapest whereby there was an accident after Kecskemét. The detour took an extra 20Km, but we only shaved off a couple of extra Km (i.e. only took off the equivalent of one junction with the detour). When we turned off the motorway (accident ahead) we had to go via a village that must of had the worst 15km stretch of road I have ever travelled on. Tallk about bumpy ride. This was Pothole Hell.

THE HIRED CAR:

Our hired car was 12 years old but in excellent condition. We could of got a more modern car, but we were on a budaget.

The car hire company picked us up from Ferihegy Airport and drove us to their office, in the car we were hiring. HU GF signed the papers and we drove off. Returned the car 13 days later. No problems with the car hire company. Very satifised and highly recommended.

Autóbérlés - autóbérlés, autókölcsönzés, budapest - autóbérlés, autóbérlés Budapest, autóbérlés kaució nélkül, bérautó, autókölcsönzés, autóbérlés Ferihegy, autókölcsönzés Budapest

84,200 Ft for 13 days car hire, with child seat and sat-nav.

wolfi

Budapest is no different there from other big cities - our young ones moved to a place in the outskirts, where you can find a place to park. In their old place it also was a nightmare - so we only went in on Sundays/holidays ...

A bit OT:
If you want a stay in a hotel or b&b you should always look/ask for a parking place - and move around the city with bus or tube.
That's what my sister and her family did - found a nice place via bnb, not too expensive. And being over 65 for the old ones the traveling was free - only the children had to pay.

Razorbite101

First time driving in Budapest a few years back,we got completely lost whilst looking for our hotel. I didn't have a sat -nav at the time, but am normally very good with directions. Turns out they pedestrianized the street outside our hotel a few days earlier. Strayed in to the tram lanes a few times and got cursed at a few times by the tram drivers
Bit more used it now,just drive a bit more carefully than I do in London and have no problems.
Last few years, we have been using Sixt from either the airport or their branch on Vaci Ut. Prices seem comparable with the company you linked above and we usually get a nice ,late model car or else we get a large Renault Traffic van from the Vaci Ut branch ,when we need to pick something up from Ikea or get some building supplies.
So far we've not had any issues when renting from them.

PS Szeged, on your recommendation we went to Csarnok Halvendeglo a few weeks ago,we really liked it and even went back the next night.

Szeged

Glad you liked Csarnok Halvendeglo - I like it very much and went their two days ago. Met the owner who was out walking, taking a smoke break!. Their food is still great and they currently have special prices on the Goulash and various meals.

I also saw the "proper" Budapest this time when I caught the Number 7 bus in the wrong direction! Got a nice tip with regards to the metro also - They drive on the right side and so do their metros. Meaning, you head the same way as the street when deciding which side of the street to catch a metro ride. So many times I took the wrong direction.

To get to the immigration I actually took tram 2, then tram 4 and then 133e only to find that the 133e would take me straight there in half the time.

Even my HU GF hates the Budapest traffic and she is normally very relaxed. I've never seen her curse so many "Id-dee-ots" with a harsh Kurva Anyádet!!

wolfi

Traffic in Hungary is generally bad - too many people don't care at all for their own safety and the safety of others - driving with 80 km/h or more through the villages ...

One problem inherited from Communist times is the very low image of police - and also the low number of them on the road.

When driving to my first home in Germany I always marvel at the number of Traffipax radars I see (and some you don't see ...) in Germany and Austria - while here there are almost none.
So people just have to drive more carefully or pay and in the end risk losing their licence.

mawood47

Driving in Budapest the ex wife (still friends) she Lives Budapest and driving there danky years, however recent road Direction Changes by accident went the Wrong way Big Brother Camera Got Her 50,00 hf Fine, yes have to no The City digger47

scrubbedexpat142

Seeing & hearing the BMWs, Audis, Porsches etc screaming up our hill in Buda at full chat has certainly opened my eyes! I keep muttering to myself "you'll break it"!

Szeged

Forgot to mention that the night-time motorway drivers (i.e. those with RO plates) have a nasty habit of flashing their headlights at you to mean "Let me pass you in the fast lane", which might be okay but my HU GF got frustrated by this on numerous ocassions. Example:

We are in the slow lane but then need to go into the fast lane in order to pass a truck (lorry), so we speed up to 100-120Kmph because we need to overtake the truck. We stay in the fast lane because we see many trucks ahead and maintain a speed of 120Kmph. All fine so far, until you get the "boy racers" flashing their headlights and clearly passing you at 160Kmph, if not more, just because they want to get to Romania or wherever faster. Although it is more of an annoyence (the flashing headlights) it is also dangerous of course because you now have to watch out for potentially fatal accidents ahead of you.....

wolfi

Yes, Szeged, I see them too on the Austrian motorways (luckily for me I don't have to use Hungarian motorways to get to the Balaton ...) - but much less so, because the Austrians have many speed radars, unlike Hungary.

And they send you bills, when you're not living in Austria - happened to me once. They find out your address from the licence plate and at least in Germany they can enforce payment.

A bit OT but maybe interesting (I probably described this before already):

A relative of mine visited us in Hungary and his car's licence plate has an Umlaut like ö in Göttingen. So he paid for the Hungarian matrica using GOE - but should have used GO.
After several months he got a high bill from Hungary for not paying toll , but with the help of the German automobile club he could show that he had paid the toll, just given the wrong number and they accepted that ...

Szeged

Funily enough, I have never seen any police on the Hungarian motorways or motorway sidings trying to spot speeding drivers. I will assume they drive unmarked cars? Anyway, we were lucky because the above mentioned hire company covered our toll by given us 13 days toll cover. Plus my HU GF has been driving for the last 20+ years without one incident or accident and she is very focused when driving, so I know we are as safe as can be when she is at the wheel.

Peter_in_Hungary

Since all motorways in Hungary now have number recognition cameras to monitor toll fees surely it is only a matter of time before they introduce 'average speed checks' and start issuing speeding tickets based on a time between two points rather than a spot check as with ordinary speed cameras.

jetsam1

Loads of Police on the M5! I get very frustrated almost every time I use the motorways...... There are new cameras going up all the time and around the larger villages near us you do see the mbile cameras set up on a regular basis. Still doesn't seem to stop the Audi/BMW drivers.......

Apparently my Father-in-Law said I drive in Budapest very well, must be getting the hang of it!

fidobsa

I suppose when driving a hired car you are more conscious that you have to avoid getting it damaged so any potential minor accidents are more worrying. I remember one trip to UK for a funeral, I hired a car to get from London to Birmingham. I would normally go by bus but the hire charges did not seem that much more than the bus fare. When I went to pick up the car they said "You were aware that there is a 1000 pound insurance excess with this hire booking?". Obviously I was not aware of that or I would not have booked it. They offered me an extra insurance to remove the excess but that would cost more than the actual car hire fee! I did not buy the extra insurance but I drove that car very, very carefully!
I have not done much driving in Budapest but have not noticed the standard of driving to be any worse than in other big cities. The worst driving I have seen is in Germany. Road rage seems endemic there, especially amongst drivers of BMWs, Mercs and Audis. I always seem to be driving slow vehicles though, so I am the cause of their frustration.