Who this route is for
People moving a household from Germany to Hungary: to Budapest, Lake Balaton, Győr, Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs or a smaller town. Many leave from Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne or Vienna. The planning is related. The driving time is not.
Austria is on the way. A move from Vienna is short. A move from Hamburg is another day. We write both as a window, not as a clock time.
How long the move actually takes
Driving time Budapest–Munich is about six to seven hours, Berlin about nine to ten, Hamburg eleven to thirteen, Vienna under three. That is the truck’s driving time, not the length of your move. Packing, carrying, handover and assembly sit around it.
A full home from the north is planned so loading and unloading do not have to happen on the same night. The short run from Vienna can be one day if the lift, the zone and the keys cooperate. A no-parking zone in a German city is often applied for weeks ahead. We build that lead time in before we confirm a date.
What may come, and what may not
Ordinary household goods travel: furniture, clothes, the kitchen, books. Inside the EU a private move is generally not charged customs duty. It is still a transport with a list, not a boot without names.
Hazardous goods, weapons, larger amounts of cash, perishables and much of what falls under plant or food rules stay off the truck. Pets travel with you, not between the wardrobes. The car is its own chapter: registration and tax in Hungary once you live there. We do not load it as a piece of furniture and call that done.
Budapest, Balaton and the buildings between
Inner city
Districts V, VI and VII mean courtyards, narrow galleries and parking that fails without a loading permit. We measure the path from the truck to the door.
Buda and Hegyvidék
Houses and hills, longer carries from the gate, families moving for the German School in district XII. The school is on Cinege út. The flats are often a street away and a staircase higher.
Panel blocks
Outer districts have lifts that politely refuse a sofa. The team carries. That is in the price if we know it beforehand.
Balaton
Houses, summer traffic, sometimes a long walk from the gate. Easy to plan outside the hot weekends, and still honest in the middle of them.
Fixed price and liability
After the survey we name a fixed price for the agreed service. Tolls on the agreed route are included. If the address changes or a kitchen is added, we change the offer before we load.
International road haulage often falls under the CMR convention. Legal liability then follows weight, not the replacement value of the wardrobe. We therefore discuss transport insurance on the value you give for the inventory. What is not on the list is hard to settle later.
Arrival: registration and address
German and other EU and EEA citizens enter with an identity card or passport and may stay up to 90 days without registration. Anyone staying longer notifies residence by day 93 at the latest. The registration certificate, regisztrációs igazolás, is issued when the conditions are met and is valid indefinitely together with a valid identity document. Typical evidence is the purpose of stay, such as an employment contract, means of subsistence and health insurance.
The first Hungarian address is recorded in that procedure. The address card, lakcímkártya, is then issued and sent by post. The authority states a fee of 1,000 forint for the registration certificate. Issuing and posting the address card was last set at 5,700 forint, and postage for under-14s at 2,000 forint. Proof of payment is part of the procedure. Fees can change, so check before the appointment.
A tax identification number and a TAJ number follow once work, a business or health insurance requires them. That is the step after the address, not a task for moving day. Renting usually needs the owner’s consent for registration. Without that line the truck can be on time while the address card waits.
Official starting points: Enter Hungary, immigration authority factsheet, German Embassy Budapest.
School, pets, driving licence
Families almost always ask about the German School Budapest in district XII, Cinege út 8/c. Whether a place is free is the school’s decision, not the mover’s. We only put the question on the list early enough that the district and the school year are not working against each other. There are other international options. A look at deutscheschule.hu is not an enrolment.
An EU driving licence remains an EU driving licence. Once you live in Hungary, registering the car can become its own procedure, including a technical inspection and a registration tax. You plan that with the registration office. We plan the household.
For dogs and cats inside the EU: chip, rabies vaccination and a pet passport. The animal travels with you.
Mistakes that make the day expensive
- The new address is fixed, the owner’s consent to registration is not.
- The lift was guessed, not measured.
- The German flat must be empty at 10:00, and the truck is booked for “sometime Friday”.
- The kitchen is meant for a wall that is twenty centimetres shorter.
- Insurance is mentioned for the first time on loading day.
The checklist and settling-in support exist so these five points are done before the tape.