Book nowBook the Parliament tour for Friday: English tours sell out a week or more ahead in summer.
Hours, prices and coordinates are from general knowledge; re-check them on the official sites the week before you fly.
One night a year when Budapest's museums stay open until late with concerts and talks, for one ticket.
🔗 official page muzeumokejszakaja.hu
Dates from general knowledge — check the official site
Three days: the Jewish Quarter and the river on arrival, Parliament, the castle and the Széchenyi on the full day, the market, the hill and the Rudas before the flight.
Land at 11:00, bags into storage until the 15:00 check-in. The Great Synagogue, the basilica dome and the river at sunset; Szimpla Kert after dinner.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →2,200 Ft each35 min
From outside arrivals, every 10–20 minutes. Buy the special 100E ticket at the purple BKK machines, which take bank cards; ordinary city tickets are not valid on it. Then 10 minutes on foot to Kazinczy utca.
2,000–3,000 Ft a bagbook online
Bounce and Radical Storage keep bags in shops round Király utca; book four bags for 12:30–15:00.
3,000–5,000 Ft each
A yard of food trucks on Kazinczy utca, picnic tables in the shade. Lángos, fried dough with sour cream and cheese, is the Hungarian thing to eat; goulash in a bread bowl the other.
The largest synagogue in Europe, built in 1859 in a Moorish style, with the Holocaust memorial garden and its metal willow behind it.
about 10,000 Ft eachclosed Saturdaysshoulders covered
Five minutes' walk. The ticket includes a 30-minute guided tour in English and the Jewish Museum; men are given a kippah at the door. The silver willow in the garden carries the names of Hungarian Jews killed in the Holocaust. Allow an hour and a half.
Budapest's largest church, finished in 1905, which keeps the mummified right hand of Hungary's first king, St Stephen.
about 2,500 Ft each
Twelve minutes' walk. A lift and then 40 steps go up to the open walkway round the dome, with the river and the castle to the west. The Holy Right is in a side chapel; a coin lights it up.
A memorial of sixty iron shoes at the water's edge, for the Jews shot into the river by the Arrow Cross militia in 1944–45.
free
Ten minutes west to the river. The shoes are on the embankment just south of Parliament; walk north from there along the water as the building lights up. Sunset is about 20:45.
6,000–9,000 Ft eachbook ahead
The streets round Király and Dob utca have bistros cooking modern Hungarian food: chicken paprikash, duck leg, túrós csusza, pasta with curd cheese and bacon. Book a table for four.
The ruin bar that started the genre in 2002: a condemned building filled with junk furniture, rooms of bars, and a car you can sit in.
free to entercard at the bars
Two minutes from the flat. Walk all the floors before you settle: every room is a different bar. Pálinka, the fruit brandy, comes in small glasses; a beer is 1,500–2,000 Ft. Busy from 23:00.
Parliament at a booked 10:00 tour, over the Chain Bridge and up to the castle hill. The Széchenyi Baths in the evening, when the day crowd has gone.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The 1904 neo-Gothic Parliament on the Danube, the largest building in Hungary, which keeps the Holy Crown under guard.
about 12,000 Ft eachbook aheadID needed
Tram 2 or 20 minutes on foot. Be at the visitor centre under the square 15 minutes early with ID for the security check. The 45-minute tour takes in the staircase, the Holy Crown and the old upper house.
The first permanent bridge across the Danube in Budapest, opened in 1849, guarded by stone lions at each end.
free
Fifteen minutes along the embankment, then across. On the Buda side the funicular climbs to the castle, about 4,000 Ft each, or take the stepped path beside it, 15 minutes.
5,000–8,000 Ft each
The streets behind Matthias Church have Hungarian restaurants in old houses; the cheaper places are on Fortuna and Úri utca, away from the square. Ruszwurm, the 1827 cake shop, does the dessert.
A 1902 terrace of white turrets above the Danube, built as a viewpoint, beside the coronation church of Hungarian kings with its patterned tile roof.
lower terrace freeday's highlight
The lower terrace is free; the upper turrets charge a few euros and show the same view. Parliament sits directly across the river.
Matthias Church charges about 3,000 Ft; its walls are painted floor to ceiling. Then walk the length of the castle hill to the Royal Palace, 15 minutes, and down the steps to the river.
Bus 16 back across the Chain Bridge to Deák tér, then five minutes.
Europe's largest medicinal bath, opened in 1913: three outdoor pools and fifteen indoor ones fed by hot springs, in a yellow palace in the City Park.
about 12,000 Ft eachbring flip-flops
Metro M1, the little yellow line under Andrássy, to Széchenyi fürdő, 15 minutes. Buy tickets online with a cabin or a locker. The outdoor warm pool is 34–38°C; the whirlpool ring in the middle pool runs every half-hour. Open until 22:00; allow three hours.
5,000–8,000 Ft each
M1 back to Opera or Deák. Late kitchens on Kazinczy and Király; then Instant-Fogas, the multi-floor ruin bar on Akácfa utca, open until dawn.
Out of the flat by 10:00, bags into storage. The Central Market Hall, Gellért Hill and the Turkish dome of the Rudas Baths before the airport bus at 18:15.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →2,000–3,000 Ft a bagbook online
The same storage shop as on Thursday, booked until 17:45.
Budapest's great covered market of 1897, under a tiled roof, with food on the ground floor and stalls of lunch and embroidery upstairs.
freeSaturdays until 15:00
Tram 2 along the river to Fővám tér, 15 minutes. Paprika in cloth bags and salami are the things to take home. Upstairs, eat a lángos standing at the counters.
The 235-metre hill on the Buda bank, crowned by the Liberty Statue and a 19th-century Habsburg fortress.
freesteep path
Across Liberty Bridge, then the zigzag path up from the Gellért Baths, 30 minutes and about 3,000 steps. From the top every bridge is in view. Come down the other side past the St Gellért statue, towards Rudas.
4,000–7,000 Ft each
The Rudas has its own restaurant with a river terrace; the Tabán streets behind it have plain Hungarian eateries with set lunches.
A thermal bath built by the Ottomans in 1566: an octagonal pool under a domed roof with coloured glass, plus a rooftop pool over the Danube.
about 10,000 Ft eachmixed at weekends
The Turkish part is men-only or women-only on most weekdays and mixed at the weekend, so Saturday suits a group. The rooftop hot tub looks across the river to Pest. Allow two hours.
2,000–3,000 Ft each
Bus or 20 minutes on foot over Elisabeth Bridge to Deák tér. A drink at a terrace on Gozsdu udvar, the passage of bars by the flat.
Tickets cover the metro, trams and buses; the BKK machines and the BudapestGO app take bank cards.
Buy in the BudapestGO app or at the purple BKK machines, which take cards. Paper tickets must be stamped in the red or orange box on the tram or at the metro entrance; app tickets are activated before boarding. Inspectors check often and fine on the spot.
Bring swimwear, flip-flops and a towel, or rent them at the desk. A wristband opens your locker or cabin. Swimming caps are needed only in the lap pools. Most pools are 34–38°C: stay 20 minutes at a time and drink water.
Hungary uses the forint, about 400 to the euro. Cards work almost everywhere, including ruin bars. If a card machine offers to charge in euros, choose forints. Check whether service is already on the bill; if not, tip 10–12%.
A flat has nobody to keep the bags before check-in or after check-out. Bounce and Radical Storage keep bags in shops round Király utca, booked online, about 2,000–3,000 Ft a bag for the day.
For four, 3 days and 2 nights in Budapest, staying in the Jewish Quarter. Covers the flat, the tourist tax, transport, bag storage, tickets, both baths, every meal, the bars and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat on Kazinczy utca, 2 nights | 100,000 Ft | 170,000 Ft | 50,000–85,000 Ft a night for four |
| Tourist tax | 6,000 Ft | 8,000 Ft | A percentage of the room price |
| Transport | 26,000 Ft | 40,000 Ft | 100E both ways, day tickets; comfort takes a taxi back |
| Bag storage, two days | 20,000 Ft | 24,000 Ft | 4 bags × 2 days |
| Synagogue, basilica, Parliament, Matthias Church | 110,000 Ft | 110,000 Ft | About 27,500 Ft each |
| Széchenyi and Rudas Baths | 88,000 Ft | 110,000 Ft | Comfort takes cabins |
| Lunches | 60,000 Ft | 90,000 Ft | 3 lunches for four |
| Dinners | 60,000 Ft | 100,000 Ft | 2 dinners for four |
| Ruin bars and drinks | 60,000 Ft | 100,000 Ft | Two nights out |
| Buffer | 30,000 Ft | 60,000 Ft | Paprika, pálinka, a taxi |
| Total | 560,000 Ft | 812,000 Ft |
Realistic figure: About 640,000–720,000 Ft for four (€1,600–1,800), without flights
Cards work almost everywhere. Keep 10,000–20,000 Ft in cash for market stalls and small bars; use a bank's cash machine, not a Euronet one.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
