10 reasons to visit Budapest — a vibrant and dazzling city on the Danube
Sunset Sun In Over Parliament The Budapest At
Threaded through by the Danube River, Budapest’s architecture dazzles with its range of styles.
A city vibrant with the arts and creativity, the Hungarian capital has over 60 museums to fill your cultural cup, including the newly built House of Music, as well as a buzzing nightlife, theatres and the world-renowned Opera House.
Nor will you go hungry, with everything from simple goulash establishments to seven Michelin-starred restaurants.
It’s easy enough to get around on foot, but a Budapest Card provides unlimited public transport, as well as discounted entrance to many attractions.
Certain geological conditions bless Budapest with mineral-rich thermal springs, the waters of which can be experienced in any of several bathhouses.
Rudas Bath features six baths and gorgeous design details, including Insta-worthy floor tiles; check before visiting, however, as it’s the only bathhouse in the city to hold some gender-segregated sessions.
One of the largest complexes can be found on the outskirts of City Park: with its yellow, Neo-Baroque build, Szecheyni is hard to miss and even harder not to enjoy.
18 pools, both indoor and outdoor, all feature different temperatures, and the number of locals wallowing blissfully adds an irresistibly authentic sense of downtime in the capital.
- Szecheyni entrance from 8,400 FT/ €21
The simple pleasure of wandering the streets and looking up at the buildings that make up a city hits different in Budapest, where a range of architectural details reveal a not-always-comfortable story.
Ranging from Art Nouveau, Neoclassical and Baroque to Gothic, the soup of styles is fascinating, even before you start to note ragged and pock-marked facades, all of which tell the tale of Red Army and Hungarian Revolution gunfire.
The defiance of these exteriors is even more poignant in the face of the money that’s been directed towards restoration in the capital: this is a city determined for its past to not be plastered over.
Budapest is an ideal base from which to embark on your Hungarian wine explorations, with at least 10 wineries within easy reach of the city.
The red Kékfrankos is one of the main grapes, and used in several varieties, ranging from dense and warming to light and fruity.
Because some of the wineries in the area are so small, they don’t produce sufficient qualities for export, so being in the vicinity may be your only opportunity to try them.
Although many locally produced wines are available at city venues, joining a tour to a nearby winemaking region, such as Etyek (about 30 minutes from the centre) will give a deeper insight into Bidapest’s viniculture.
- Half-day wine tour from €92
This area has been destroyed and rebuilt countless times, but for the best insights into these changes, join a guided tour, because elements of significance may go unobserved otherwise.
Look, for example, at the statues of lions at the entrance to Lion’s Court, which have been shoddily made over, with dollops of concrete patching up their damaged bodies.
Whether you choose to explore the interiors or not, the complex — certain areas of which are being reconstructed under the National Hauszmann Program — you’ll want to take advantage of the views over the city and Danube, which can also be experienced en route, if you take the funicular — in operation since 1870 — from the Chain Bridge upwards.
One of the most poignant sights you’ll ever see is The Shoes, on the Danube Promenade.
This memorial features 60 cast-iron pairs of shoes, representing just a handful of Jewish people — of all ages and genders — who were executed on the banks of the Danube; their bodies falling into the water to be swept away.
The shoes represent the fact that these victims were made to remove their footwear so that soldiers could sell them on for profit.
Just a 20-minute walk away, the Jewish Quarter combines modern vibes (the popularity of the Ruins Bars — established in the ‘ruins’ of post-WWII put this area on the tourist map) with history: indeed, the inscription outside nightlife hub Szimpla reads, simply, ‘People used to live here.’
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of Buda and Pest, and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge was the first to link these two previously divided cities.
As such, it’s become a powerful icon of unification, even though other bridges have since been built over the Danube.
Closed for a period of restoration before the anniversary it is now open only to taxis, cyclists, and pedestrians.
The views, at any hour, are magnificent: choose between architecture in all its daytime glory, or outlines picked out by night.
Summer sees Budapest — already a musical and cultural centre — come alive.
2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Sziget: the name means ‘island’ — a reference to Óbuda, the Danube island on which the festival is held.
Running over the course of six days (although tickets for fewer days are available), attendees — ‘Szitizens’ — are issued with passports, which are stamped at the multitude of arenas, tents and venues around the festival site.
Who could resist trying to collect them all, especially when there’s such a diverse range of art, culture and music on offer?
- Sziget daily tickets from €79; full festival pass from €279
Toppled statues are nothing new: in Budapest, many likenesses of Socialist leaders were torn down as the regime collapsed.
An hour’s train journey southwest of the centre, Memento Park is the — perhaps final — resting place of a number of relics from the Socialist era, including sculptures of the likes of Lenin and Marx.
One of the most remarkable things, through a modern lens, is the audacious size of some of the figures, which reflects the omnipotence promulgated by the party.
Prime example? Stalin’s bronze boots: all that remain of an eight-metre high (18 if you include the pedestal) statue erected in 1951 to mark the dictator’s 70th birthday.
- mementopark.hu, admission €7.60
Some 300 acres of green space in the northeast of Budapest — this is the Hungarian capital’s City Park, which features a number of additional attractions, such as a zoo, and a tethered hot air balloon ride, on its fringes.
This is an all-season getaway from urban life — in the winter, people take to the frozen lake on ice skates; in the summer months people simply … soak it up. Picnic with friends; doze in the grass or peer at passersby from behind the pages of your novel.
This dinky yellow tram takes one of the most scenic routes in Europe, so whether you’re footsore, or simply want to cover a number of sights in a short time, hop on at Jaszari Mari Square.
From here, the tram follows the river on its Pest side, trundling past the ornate Hungarian Parliament building and the Chain Bridge, with views of the castle over the Danube.
You’ll also travel past the Jewish Holocaust Memorial and The Shoes, as well as Elizabeth Bridge and Gresham Palace, before finishing at the National Theatre.
Having made the trip, do a hop-on, hop-off at various sites on the return.
- bkk.hu, tickets from €1.14