Boasting an expansive fleet of well-maintained Trabant cars, GoTrabiGo has been offering fun-filled rides in Budapest and beyond since 2007. Anyone who signs up for time-transcending trips with this distinct tour company can discover the Hungarian capital by driving in communist-era Trabant cars, the Eastern Bloc’s most iconic type of vehicles – these unpretentious cars were produced for the masses with plastic bodies and 26-horsepower engines, and remained in production for almost three decades.
Besides organizing a selection of surreal city-sightseeing trips in the Magyar metropolis, GoTrabiGo offers several tour packages that take travelers out of Budapest, and thanks to the company’s recent affiliation with a couple of semi-hidden destinations just outside of the Hungarian capital, fresh itineraries are now being introduced for daredevil clients. A recently launched program provides riders with the chance to combine a visit to a state-of-the-art Driving Camp in the city of Zsámbék followed by a guided tour around the Korda Studios in Etyek, all with their rented Trabant cars. This new tour package is currently available for team-building activities and group bookings, but select elements of the program are already open for booking by individuals. GoTrabiGo recently organized a comprehensive presentation day, where the entire program was introduced to the press and to tour companies, and We Love Budapest was also invited to join this event.
Our trip started just about 30 kilometers west of Budapest, where we visited a modern extreme-driving camp found just left off road number 102 leading to the city of Zsámbék. We arrived there from the Hungarian capital in our own cars, but by request, anyone can cover this first leg of the journey by a rented Trabant from downtown Budapest. The Driving Camp features an expansive training circuit complete with six high-tech modules that help imitate real-life conditions that drivers can encounter under varied circumstances in traffic, including wet roads or sharp turns. We tried our driving skills while zooming around the circuit with a variety of vintage vehicles that were available as part of this specific event, including a 1973 convertible Mercedes and a robust Barkas, a communist-era van from East Germany.
Unfortunately, the Trabant cars are not allowed on the training course, but in the meantime we could prepare for driving this quaint automobile as trainers helped us develop a specific driving technique that’s required for operating these unique vehicles – the gearshift of the Trabant is right next to the steering wheel, and the gears are shifted by pulling and pushing this lever. We also tried slaloming with a human-powered Trabant that was powered by pedaling instead of a motorized engine, and we could also try assembling a complete vehicle with its dismantled parts.
GoTrabiGo can install some of these playful facilities around the Driving Camp in case of a group booking, but those arriving here individually by Trabant instead of in their own cars are provided an option to try the establishment’s off-road track, where a skilled driver takes visitors in a jeep through rough terrain – during the adrenaline-boosting ride, we can experience how the vehicle handles high-incline uphill paths and steep slopes while side-tilting amid our cruise over the elevated landscape.
After this intrepid escapade, we left our own car behind to hop into a Trabant that was delivered to the scene by the rental company, and we bade farewell to the driving range with a cacophonous two-stroke engine sound to head for the bucolic village of Etyek, just a 20-minute drive away from Zsámbék. Etyek is best known for its sprawling vineyards and fine libations that are available for tasting at varied cellars across the village, but since Hungary has a zero-tolerance policy toward drinking alcohol and driving, we instead headed for a different adventure that was equally intoxicating: we visited the renowned Korda Studios, a fully functioning facility for creating modern motion pictures, with many international and Magyar movies being filmed at this institution.
We reached the expansive studio’s grounds around lunchtime, where we were offered a selection of tasteful treats from Etyek, including a platter of smoked hams and sausages by Sonkamester, alongside refreshing (but alcohol-free) ice cream made of wine grapes by the Recefice Jégműhely. Trabant drivers who visit Etyek independently can pop into Sonkamester’s rustic wine cellar found on the village’s Újhegyi Road to enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner – the eatery is open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 7pm.
After the delightful feast, our group was guided around the studio’s interactive exhibition hall, where varied filmmaking tricks unfolded before our eyes, including a series of optical illusions that are regularly used in moviemaking, while this exciting viewing hall is complete with display elements of various films. After experimenting with a few of the tricks – like motorcycling inside the studio with a changing outdoor scenery in the background – we jumped back into our Trabant cars, where we literally went to the movies by rolling into a New York street set that was originally created for the American flick Hellboy 2. This lifelike setting includes an entire Brooklyn street block with four-story facades, a movie theater, a bank, a restaurant, a repair shop, freight-loading docks, and fire escapes.
However, our amazement soon turned into an action-packed astonishment, when our group was suddenly part of a movie shoot featuring dancers flooding the scene to present a joyful musical act inspired by the multiple-Oscar-winning film La La Land, all performed around our communist-era cars that also became part of the set. After this high-spirited urban jamboree, we embarked on a time-transcending journey and drove into a Renaissance-era set constructed with medieval-style buildings and scenes that was set up for The Borgias – the TV drama series starring Jeremy Irons – where our journey around the Korda Studios concluded. A comprehensive guided tour around the studios of this kind is also available in English.
From the surreal scenes of this countryside motion-picture studio, we headed back to the driving range in Zsámbék to retrieve our cars, but those who arrive by a Trabant from Budapest can take a slow but raucous journey directly back into the city center. We definitely recommend this new tour route of GoTrabiGo for larger groups or for company team-building activities, but anyone can request a tailor-made package that contains elements of this adventure. Nonetheless, hurry up if you want to experience what it is like to drive a Trabant car, because this rudimentary vehicle is set to be banned from traffic in 2020 due to the high level of pollution this old-timer imposes on the environment.