Staggering: Vienna cheaper than Budapest

Life has become more expensive in Austria compared to 2022. Therefore, the Vienna Christmas Fair is more expensive than last year. But in Budapest, you have to pay more for food than in the Austrian capital. Meanwhile, the median salary in our Western neighbour was around EUR 2,000 in 2022, but in Hungary, that sum did not reach EUR 900.

According to telex.hu, a grill hot dog costs HUF 8,000 in Budapest (EUR 21), while it is only EUR 8 in Vienna. The local Christmas fair opened on 10 November on Rathausplatz, the city’s heart. Thus, nobody can say it is in the outer districts. Like in Budapest, advent markets are in the downtowns of both capitals.

In Budapest, it is unimaginable that average school students go to eat a lángos at the Vörösmarty Square Christmas market or the Advent Basilica. However, in Vienna, that is regular.

People in Vienna walk with mugs brought from home to drink hot chocolate or hot wine because you must pay EUR 3 for a glass and EUR 5 for a mug. There are no plastic plates, and you can buy only ‘bio’ graded foods. Restaurants serve hot dogs, lángos or French fries in paper. Stews are served in porcelaine, which you must give back after you eat.

Vienna Christmas market more affordable than its counterpart in Budapest

Prices went up a bit. A hot dog cost EUR 7 last year. This year, it is EUR 8. But not EUR 21 like in Budapest. Langos Royal, the local “traditional Hungarian lángos” is EUR 14.5, but in Hungary, you have to pay EUR 17.

Classical Viennese hot wine and punch are more expensive than their counterparts in Budapest. The average price is EUR 6 in the Austrian capital but just EUR 4.3 in Budapest.

The most expensive food in Vienna costs EUR 15.5. It is a potato salad with beef Wiener schnitzel. In Hungary, that is the stuffed cabbage for EUR 15. Interestingly, the most popular food is lángos, even in Vienna.

A Hungarian couple, Vivien and Ádám, said locals are not satisfied with the prices, and they estimated the average increase to be 20%. They work in the catering sector and said they could not afford to eat out in the Christmas market in Budapest every week like they do in Vienna.

Hot news

3 Comments

Anonymous says:

10/12/2023 at 16:12

Hungary you can thank Orban and his corrupt Fidesz party for the high prices you pay. From that 8,000 ft hot dog a lot is going into some Fidesz connected person’s pocket. My family went to the Graz Christmas market and loaded up on groceries to bring home. Hungary under Fidesz is a tragedy.
"What can YOU Do." says:

11/12/2023 at 09:51

“What can you do.”
She was in her mid twenty’s, smartly presented in a tobacco shop, as cigarettes increased in price this past week in Hungary.
The young lady’s response to the person serving her who said “Sorry price increase.”
“What can you do” was the the customers response.
This going along with – what can you do wrongful attitude that remains in Hungary, in millions of Hungarians, just sends us as a country into a deepening black hole.
We go along with, not using orderly rights of people – the “broadsheet” of rights we can use – granted afforded us through DEMOCRACY.
The lemmings following the Pied Piper – Victor Orban, not playing his whistle, but using his “mouth” and the propaganda machine of his Fidesz Party / Government, we Hungarians just “march” to his Orbans tune.
Is the former President of the United States of America – William Clintons opinion correct of Hungarians, that Democracy is to complexed difficult for Hungarians to “get there heads” around practice and understand ?
In the DNA of Hungarians – in there birth years 1939 on through to the “Fall of the Wall” in 1989, they remain “rooted” locked into a mentality that was “feed” into them, transfused into them, in those Communistic Governed years in Hungary, that they can’t un-lock or don’t wish to look that DEMOCRACY is a better or fairer way for people to be Governed, rather than what was 1939-1989 “style” under Communistic rule and is FACTUALLY happening under the present Government of Hungary led by the Prime Minister – Victor Orban.
“What can you do” – which makes me think of a famous quote(s) by Nelson Mandela and St. Francis of Assisi who said;
Mandela – “Its impossible until its done.” and
St. Francis of Assisi – “start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; then SUDDENLY you are doing the IMPOSSIBLE.”
VAT - of 27% in Hungary; says:

11/12/2023 at 10:23

Anonymous comment doesn’t surprise.
Austria and Germany in 2023 been 4 times and confirm the prices are lower, in numbers of cases substantially lower.
Comment by “What can you Do ” why are cigarettes cheaper, besides what Anonymous wrote which is correct on food but why are cigarettes cheaper in Austria ?
The reference, the importance of never forgetting that Hungary of all the European Member Country’s – has the highest VAT percentage of 27%.
Imagine if the government of Hungary, the decaying state of the Hungarian economy they have created, imagine if there VAT level wasn’t the “rip off” it is, and there received revenue/income into the governments bank account, what a bigger gargantuan mess the economy of Hungary would be in.
No voice from opposition political parties on the VAT, nor from the “body & soul” the real “get down and get dirty” hard working, just surviving in millions of Hungarians, that gets worse daily.