Budapest on a Slow Travel Budget
We spent just over a week exploring beautiful Budapest before we boarded our Avalon Waterways Danube River Cruise. This was our first time in Budapest, and in Hungary, and we were impressed! It has beautiful architecture, great public transportation, and is incredibly pedestrian friendly, all of which are very important to us. There is also so much history here to learn, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire (aka the Hapsburgs) to the World War II occupation, to the dark communist years, and then as a modern democratic state. We explored it all over our time here and would definitely recommend this as a vacation destination!
Logistics
A few logistics to consider first:
Weather: We were there at the end of August and first week of September, and let me tell you, it was HOT! Daytime highs were in the mid nineties most days. We made sure we had plenty of water and tended to avoid going out in the heat of the afternoon. A month later and the weather would have been delightful I’m sure! As with many places in Europe, the ideal time to visit would be April-June and Late September-October.
Language: Hungarian is hard. But we found that in the tourist areas, everyone at restaurants and attractions spoke English and we had no issues. Certainly anyone under 50 spoke very good English. And we’ve mastered how to make it through a grocery store without speaking to anyone, so no issues there!
Money: Hungarian is not on the Euro and uses the Forint. One US Dollar = 330 Forint. That makes for some fun math! We found that pretty much everywhere accepted credit cards so we never took out any cash from an ATM.
Tourism: Budapest is definitely growing as a popular and relatively affordable European travel destination. We commented several times that it feels like Budapest is the “new Prague”. But it we found it very manageable to navigate the tourist areas. It certainly didn’t have the crush of tourists that we found in London in August!
Navigating the City: The wide Danube river flows through the middle of the city, separating it into two sides: Buda and Pest. Most of the commercial parts of the city are on the Pest side and the castle district dominates the Buda side to the west. The heart of the tourist parts of city on the Pest side run from the Parliament district in the north to the Great Market Hall in the south.
Public Transportation: We definitely took advantage of public transportation in Budapest! There is a great network of metros, trams, and public buses that are easy to navigate, clean, and affordable. Eric’s parents were with us in Budapest and they travelled free on all the public transportation in the city! Anyone over 65 can travel for free. Eric and I chose to purchase a 15 day unlimited travel pass just to avoid having to think each time we took a trip, and we are confident that we got the value out of it. We recommend researching bundles like this when traveling to major cities. For Budapest, we downloaded the Budapest Go app on our phones to purchase the pass. It was $18 for 15 days and got us access to the metro, tram, and bus systems. They have a lot of different durations, so can find something for trips of any length! Occasionally workers will board the bus/tram and ask to see your pass, and you can just pull up the barcode in your app to prove your ticket. For Eric’s parents, they were occasionally asked for their ID to prove that they were over 65.
Lodging: We stayed in a great Airbnb near the Market, and we enjoyed the location. There are a lot of Airbnbs in Budapest, and for our budget they are very affordable compared to the major cities in Western Europe like London, Paris, Rome, etc. The Jewish Quarter is full of them, and while this is a beautiful central destination, it is also the party area. We’re glad we stayed to the south where it was a bit quieter, but still very easy to access the main sites of the city. There are of course all the major hotel brands in Budapest as well as boutique hotels. We’d recommend staying on the Pest side for better access to restaurants and shopping.
Groceries: Since we primarily stay in Airbnbs, grocery stores are important to us! Compared to other major cities where we have stayed, we found the grocery stores in the city center to be a bit lacking. We had an Aldi and a Tesco Express near our apartment. The quality in the Aldi was not great, nor was the cleanliness. The Tesco Express had better quality and was cleaner, but it was more geared to convenience shopping. That said, food shopping was affordable.
Top Attractions
As is our typical style, we don’t pay to enter all the attractions in a city. Sometimes we just view them from the outside. We try to prioritize free or low cost experiences, and walking! But we found plenty to fill our days!
Buda Castle District
The castle district is on the Buda side atop a hill over the banks of the Danube. There are several ways to access this area. We chose to take the city bus, #16 which drops you off up at the top of the hill. You can also take the funicular up ($15 for a return ticket) or you can walk! We found the bus to be simple and quick, but it isn’t well advertised or reflected on Google so it took a bit of investigating! The district contains 3 major sites: Buda Castle, Mattias Church, and Fisherman’s Bastion. All are very walkable and easy to see in a morning or afternoon.
Buda Castle has existed in some shape or form since the 13th Century, but the buildings have been torn down and rebuilt numerous times. There was massive destruction to the castle area during World War II. Much was rebuilt in the 1950s, but there is currently a LOT of restoration happening in this area, with scaffolding and cranes everywhere! Today, the area houses several museums and is the home to the Hungarian Prime Minister.
Mattias Church, according to history (aka folklore) was founded by the first king of Hungary in 1015. Nothing remains of that church however, and the current structure dates back to the 15th Century. It is a beautiful gothic church with a fabulous tiled roof.
Fisherman’s Bastion was built in the 18th century along the fortifications of Buda Castle. Walking along its arches and stairs, you can see incredible views over the Danube, Parliament, and the Pest side of the city.
Heroes Square and Naporzórét Park
In the northeast of Pest you’ll find Heroes Square, Napozórét Park, and Széchenyi Thermal Baths. This is a great area to explore for a few hours. In the park you’ll also find Vajdahunyad Castle, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Ethonography, and the House of Music. Lots of beautiful architecture, interesting sculptures, and a great lake with paddleboats. This is a wonderful shaded area to enjoy the sites. Oh, and the zoo is here too!
Since we’d already experienced thermal baths on our trip to Iceland, we decided to skip it here in Budapest. But there are several large bathouses throughout the city and it is certainly a top attraction!
Gellért Hill Hike
On the Buda side, south of the castle is Gellért Hill and a variety of monuments and incredible views. We walked (hiked) up there one afternoon to see the sights. It takes about 20 minutes to walk up the 700ft hill, but there are numerous lookout stops along the way. At the base is Gellért Hill Cave, which has been a monastery, a WW2 field hospital, and is now a chapel. As you walk up you pass Szent István Király statue, which commemorates the first Christian king of Hungary. At the top of the hill is the Citadella which commemorates the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Finally, on the north side of the hill you will find the statue of St. Gerard Sagredo, an 11th Century monk (we nicknamed him Zeus though). This was not too strenuous, but on a hot day like we had you’ll want to take lots of water!
Margit Island
For another day in the park, we enjoyed Margit Island. It is in the middle of the Danube, just north of Parliament. You can take the tram here, it stops on the bridge and you can take the stairs down to the south end of the island. There island is mainly for recreation, and is pretty much one giant park. You can rent pedal carts to explore, or you can do it by foot as we did! Heading north along the trails you come across the Music Fountain. Every hour on the hour a musical fountain show begins. We saw two shows on our way into and out of the island. One was popular music and another was classical. If you’ve been to Las Vegas and seen the Bellagio show, this is similar. Lots of fun to watch on a sunny day! Also on the island you’ll find a large rose garden, a japanese garden, the ruins of a medieval convent, a
Food, Drink, and Art
I’ll be honest, Hungarian food wasn’t our favorite. We tried a few of the local specialties while we were there. Langos is their version of pizza, but with a fried bread as the crust. There are lots of dishes featuring paprika, like Paprika Chicken, and traditional Goulash (basically stewed meat in a sauce). There are traditional Hungarian sausages to be found everywhere. When we dined out, it was often at tourist restaurants for convenience. Typical entrees were $15-20, with beer and wine from $3-5. Perhaps to cater to a more tourist palate, there was a wide variety of international cuisines to be found throughout the city. We had some fantastic Thai food in a hole in the wall type place. There is a lot of Greek and Lebanese food to be found, including tons of kebab stands.
The Great Market is a fun building to wander through. If you are in search of paprika, traditional Hungarian liquors, or souvenirs, this is the place to go! We found the prices for produce and sausages to be a bit high compared to grocery stores, but we still love wandering around a market!
We did enjoy sampling a Chimney Cake. There are stands all over the city in the tourist areas. We found this similar to something we had along the Rhine in Germany years ago, although that one was more of a pie crust consistency instead of the cake in Budapest. Filled with vanilla and chocolate soft serve ice cream, a chimney cake is quite a treat on a warm evening.
We also enjoyed Hungarian wine! This was our first time trying wine from this part of the world. We found the whites to be crisp, dry, and tasty. And affordable! A bottle from the grocery store was around $6 for a decent wine!
Another great stop in Budapest are the ruins bars in the Jewish Quarter. We stopped in Szimpla Kert a couple of times but there are others throughout the area. It is a multi level space between two buildings filled with different bars, plants, graffiti, canopies, you name it. A pretty cool spot to seek shade and a pint of pilsner on a hot day!
There is a lot of interesting art through Budapest. Street art, statuary, ferris wheels and of course architecture. As you wander the streets it is fun to find!
Budapest by Night
We’re early birds, there is no doubt about it. Most days during our long stays, we’re in our apartment by 4pm and don’t venture out again! However we knew that Budapest was a place that we had to see at night. Thankfully we were there in late summer, and the sun (and temperature) was down by 7:30 so we could head out to see the lights of the city.
The Hungarian Parliament is a beautiful building. We didn’t buy tickets to tour the inside, but it is a very popular attraction in Budapest.
Just south of the Parliament Building is the scuplture Shoes on the Danube Bank. This is a memorial to the thousands of Jews who were murdered during World War Two. They were told to remove their shoes and jewelry before they were shot, their bodies falling into the Danube.
If you’re not a night owl, I’d recommend getting a nap and then going out at night to see this beautiful city lit up! Several nights we even stopped at the neighborhood Irish Bar (checked off our list!) for a pint or a glass of wine! Who are we????
House of Terror Museum
We did pay to go into one attraction! That was the House of Terror Museum, which is located in the former headquarters of the Secret Police. The museum is spread over 4 floors of the building, and documents the history of the Nazi and Communist regimes in Hungary. Pro Tip: Get the audio guide. We didn’t, and while there are information sheets in English in many of the rooms, most of the displays and content is in Hungarian. It was a very informative (and sad) telling of the terrible conditions the Hungarian people faced for almost 50 years, but I think it would have been enriched by the audio guide.
I appreciate that the city doesn’t shy away from the atrocities of its past. It was especially poignant at the end of this museum where they have a long cooridor filled with the names of the conspirators during these 50 years of terror; those local citizens who turned on their neighbors and supported the regime that drove fear into so many people.
Final Thoughts
Throughout Budapest, you see reminders of the hard past. The communist era apartment blocks and commuter trains. The park filled with the toppled statues of the soviet leaders. But you also see that it is a very young, vibrant city. The trams are filled with 20-30yr olds. It is a city building a new story of prosperity and democracy after a thousand years of monarchy and 40 years of communism. The future looks bright for Budapest.
While we were there for 9 days as slow travelers, its definitely a city where you could see all the major sites in 3-4 days. It would be great combined with a trip to Vienna and Prague! Budapest ticked off many of our must haves: walkable, affordable, public transportation, ability to use English, and full of parks and beautiful architecture.
We’d definitely recommend adding it to your list!