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Our Orangeway Bus to Vienna departs at 7am from Budapest.  That means we have to take a cab from our apartment to a stadium near Nepliget metro station at abt 6.30am.  How to hail a cab so early in the morning especially with at such an isolated part of Budapest?  Definitely my experience of being scammed by a taxi driver on my first day of arrival of hailing one on the street.

Thus I decided to reserve a taxi online at City Taxi.  I read on forums that a number of taxi companies in Budapest are quite reputable and City Taxi is one of them.  Another plus point is that their reservation forms are easy to use and most importantly they promised to reply within 15 minutes of reservation.

And guess what?  They did!  I was able to confirm my reservation in just less than 30 minutes.  I was even able to ask them to give me an approximate quote so i know i will not get scammed.

At 6.15am we crossed our fingers and hoped that our reservation really worked and a taxi is coming for us.  As I opened the lobby door to brave the cold to look outside, out of nowhere, our savior – a City Taxi switched on its engine and rumbled towards us! phew!

We arrived at the Orangeways Bus Terminal at about 6.40am.  The cab ride cost us just 1900 HUF – 300 HUF cheaper with twice as much distance covered compared to the journey from Keleti to Hollo Utca.

We are 20 minutes early but we cant board the bus yet because the check-in counters have not been setup yet.  Yes! check-in counters and they even have stewardess on the buses too.

Tickets from Budapest to Vienna were booked online at the Orangeways website.  There is an English version (just select from the top right flags)

The Orangeways bus is very cool – there is a toilet just beside the steps to the bus and also a vending machine that serves hot chocolate, coffee etc.  The stewardess will serve you the hot drinks after the bus sets off.  Not sure if you are allowed to served yourself though.  I saw someone being reprimanded for trying to serve herself drinks.

The vending machines and airplane-like tables at each seat.  The entire journey from Budapest to Vienna took 3 hours and it was very comfortable – a movie was being played too – Mystic River but it was in Hungarian with English subtitles.

If you are interested in seeing more on Orangeways buses, check out the 4-minute video below.

For those keen in knowing the location of Budapest Orangeways pick-up point:

1091 Üllői út 129.
Budapest
FTC Stadion

Related posts:

1. Public Transport and Money in Budapest – Taxi Scam
2. Mozart Madness and Public Transport in Vienna
3. Night Sleeper Train to Budapest from Krakow