Tatra Mountains Steam Express
June 13-23, 2008
Friday 13th June
Budapest Tour and Evening Dining Train
Our London Heathrow mid-morning departure is a scheduled flight to Budapest. After checking in at the Mercure Hotel there is a tour of the city including the Opera House and Gellert Hill from where we have an incredible view of the city including its many bridges over the Danube and its beautiful buildings. It ends at the imposing Nyugati station where our evening train will be waiting, hauled by an Austrian 4-4-0 No. 204.
We enjoy a special welcome dinner on our journey through the Hungarian countryside to the Danube Bend. (L D)Saturday 14th June
Locomotive Festival in Bratislava
We transfer to the Royal Waiting Room at Nyugati station to drink a glass of champagne and to meet our hosts. Our train, the Royal Hungarian Express, will be hauled by a Hungarian Railways 424 class 4-8-0 to Bratislava passing through Gyor and Rajka on the way. There we will go to a railway festival at the locomotive depot, where there will be visiting steam locomotives from other countries. At least eight locomotives should be in steam. Following this visit we transfer to our hotel for dinner and overnight accommodation. (B L D)Sunday 15th June
Parallel running on the Main Line
The Royal Hungarian Express will be waiting for us at Bratislava Hlavna station hauled by Albatross 4-8-2 498-022, painted blue. This is one of the finest looking locomotives in the world, built by Skoda in the late 1940s. We depart at the same time as a steam special to Prague hauled by a 475 class stream locomotive and we race each other on parallel lines for over 35 kilometres to Kuty. Here our train reverses and 486-007,
Green Anton, takes us westwards along a very scenic cross country line through Trnava Leopoldov and Topolcany to Trencin, where we check into the Hotel Tatra. We will visit the magnificent Trencin Castle before dinner in the hotel. (B L D)Monday 16th June
Trencin to Krakow
We rejoin our train at Trencin station and depart steam hauled again. Our train heads northwards through Zilina and Cadca before we cross the Polish border and enter Zwardon. A mixed-traffic locomotive 0l49 100 of PKP, the Polish State Railway, will take us through Zywiec and Katowice to Krakow. Dinner will be served on the train.
We check into our four star hotel for overnight accommodation. (B L D)Tuesday 17th June
Krakow
This morning we have arranged a sightseeing tour of the city, well known as one of the most beautiful in Eastern Europe. This historic city is situated on the Vistula River and its palaces, churches and mansions display a richness of colour, architectural details, stained glass, paintings, sculptures and furnishings.
Krakow’s 10-acre Grand Square is the hub of the city and the largest of all Europe’s medieval squares and is one of the world’s most beautiful. After our tour we enjoy lunch in a local restaurant before embarking on a different tour, on a chartered vintage tram around Krakow’s fascinating tramway network. Those that wish to explore the city on foot may do so. Dinner and overnight accommodation will be in Krakow.
(B L D)Wednesday 18th June
Chabowka and Zakopane
Rejoining the Royal Hungarian Express at Krakow station we depart south hauled by a huge Polish 2-10-2T locomotive, OKz 32 No. 2, built in 1934. When it arrives in Chabowka we visit the railway museum, which has around forty steam locomotives on display, as well as diesel, electric and other rolling stock. Following our visit the 2-10-2T locomotive takes us up steep gradients, past pretty farmhouses and fields, to the holiday resort of Zakopane, deep in the Tatra Mountains. Lunch is served on the train on departure from Chabowka. We stay two nights in this charming mountain resort. (B L D)Thursday 19th June
Zakopane
After breakfast we take a tour of Zakopane and into the Tatras by open horse drawn carriage, a super adventure! After lunch, the remainder of the afternoon is free to explore. There is a funicular to Gubalowka Hill where there are plenty of little shops and restaurants to potter about in, and a splendid view of the Tatras. Dinner and overnight
Friday 20th June
Zakopane to Poprad
Our steam 2-10-2T takes us back down the gradients to Chabowka. We depart Chabowka hauled by a 2-10-0 class Ty 2, a locomotive built and operating in Germany until the end of the war. It heads for Nowy Sacz along a very scenic line, one of the best in Poland, which has just reopened. From there our train continues to climb to the Slovak border at Muszyna where we say goodbye to our Polish 2-10-0 locomotive.
A Slovak locomotive will now work our train to Poprad Tatry where we join our specially chartered vintage electric train for our journey into the Tatras, this time on their southern side. We have dinner in our hotel in Starry Smokovec, a pleasant spa resort. (B L D)Saturday 21st June
Steaming through the Tatras
After descending the rack railway by a very modern service train to Strba, the Royal Hungarian Express will be waiting for us, hauled by 4-8-2 475.196, built by Skoda in the late 1940s for mixed traffic duties. Our train leaves the mainline at Margecany to follow the scenic secondary line, including a spiral, to Brezno.
Here we leave our train to take a steam ride on the narrow gauge forestry railway to Cierny Balog, a very pleasant journey of about seven miles.
Our locomotive will be either a 0-6-0T, built 1948, or a smaller 0-6-0T, built by Smoschewer, in 1921. We continue to Banska Bystrica where we have dinner and overnight accommodation in the Hotel Lux. (B L D)Sunday 22nd June
Banska Bystrica to Budapest
We depart aboard the Royal Hungarian Express, again hauled by 4-8-2 486.007, named Green Anton, one of nine built in the late 1930s.
Our route runs northwest over high viaducts and through long tunnels to Horna Stubna before heading south through the mountains to Zvolen. We continue to Lucenec and the Hungarian border station of Somoskoujfalu. A Hungarian Sudbahn 4-6-0 class 109, built in 1917 in Vienna, will take us along the attractive branch line to Hatvan from where it is a run along the main line back to Budapest. We will enjoy a farewell dinner on the train. As we pass through the suburbs of Budapest we will perhaps have a glass of wine in our hands and nostalgic music being played in the piano car, a surreal experience in the 21st century! On arrival we go to our four star hotel in Budapest for overnight accommodation. (B L D)Monday 23rd June
Railway Museum and return Home
After breakfast we visit the Hungarian Railway Museum, where all the working steam locomotive fleet in Hungary is maintained. There is a huge collection of locomotives and rolling stock kept here and hopefully the 4-4-4 streamlined tank locomotive will be present, a unique sight anywhere in the world today. After our visit we transfer to the airport for our flight back to London Heathrow. (B)
Tour Cost:
£2,175 per person, double occupancy (U.S. $4,459*)
£1,975 excluding flights from London (U.S. $4,049*)
£225 single supplement (U.S. $461*)
*Rates provided in U.S. dollars are estimated using a 1£=$2.05 rate. U.S. dollar rate is subject to fluctuate based on the value of the dollar when final payment is made.Click here to download our tour booking form.
Deposit required: £100 per person
Click here for complete tour terms and conditions.
Price includes:
* Return direct flights from London Heathrow to Budapest (optional)
* 10 nights hotel accommodation and breakfast
* Lunch every day with wine on the Royal Hungarian Express
* 5 dinners on the Royal Hungarian Express
* 6 dinners in the hotels
* All visits and rail travel as described in the itinerary
* The services of a tour manager
Please call us with questions, bookings:
800-478-4881
www.irtsociety.com
Click here to send us an e-mail
Send us e-mail with comments or questions
