After more than 3 weeks in Serbia going out, eating well and drinking well. It’s time to resume our roadtrip to the Hungarian capital, Budapest!
Budapest is 4h30 away from Smederevo. To resume the road slowly we had planned a stop for the night and kept the crossing of the border for the next day.
Sommaire
Subotica
The city of Subotica is very close to the Hungarian border and famous for the beauty of its architecture so we chose to stop there. (and we did well!)
The city is really different from what we had the opportunity to see in Serbia, it even gives the impression of being already in another country! The facades are colorful, the city center is well maintained and many people use bicycles.
We only stayed one late afternoon and had only a glimpse of the Art Nouveau architecture (inherited from the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and the nearby Palić Lake.
It makes you want to go back and discover more of this area !
We spent the night in this apartment near the city center and very nice !
Travel time : 2h45
Distance traveled : 256km
Cost : Toll 750 RSD (6,5€)
Accommodation : 29€/1 night here
Hungarian border
A bit different from the simple border crossing in Croatia, a little more barbed wire here…
We saw in the news the days before that waiting times of several hours were expected on the main customs of Horgos. Indeed it is one of the entry points into the UE and controls are strengthened.
Our host of the day before advised us about a smaller border post, Backi Vinogradi (open daily only).
We only took 30 minutes to clear the customs and that without being searched. (Which made it easier for us giving all the bottles things we would have had to get out of the car …)
After that we rejoined the highway and drove straight to Budapest.
Be careful, an electronic vignette is necessary to drive on most of the motorways of Hungary. We had trouble finding information on the procedure to follow so we wrote a detailed article about it: How to buy the Hungarian motorway vignette ?
Budapest
Our apartment was located right in the center, a street next to Parliament, it was perfect for visiting and using public transport. The place was located in an old building and was huge, Tara loved running around the living room.
You can see pictures on the presentation page of Airbnb.
It was less fun for parking, the parking meter only accepting coins (forint) that we did not have yet. Our host helped us out for the first two hours and then we left for a coin hunt before finding an affordable underground parking!
We will talk more about this unbelievable adventure in an article dedicated to the “Pearl of the Danube” (Budapest for those who have not followed :D)
Travel time : 2h45
Distance traveled : 209km
Cost : Motorway Vignette 2975 HUF (10€) for 10 days
Accommodation : 181€/3 nights here
