Budapest tips

terley

terley

terley

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Anyone been Budapest?

Heading off there for a few days next week, staying pretty much smack bang in the center.

Got a few things planned, mainly eat, drink and wander..

If anyone has any tips, or advice on what to do without breaking the bank.. it'd be great :)

Thanks
 
Use the metro, it's great and fairly cheap.

Go to a few ruin bars for a drink - Szimpla Kert is the most well known and definitely worth a visit.
 
Don't get on a tram without first buying a ticket. My friends and I made that mistake and, after the conductor(local mob) brought it to our attention, we exited at the next stop: travelling a total of 1 stop. The conductor got off the tram with us and heckled us for about 500m along a street while he was on his mobile to his buddies. He wanted us to pay a fine of £40 each! We spotted a parked police car and when we spoke to the officers they couldn't care less and told us to just pay it. They never even got out the car. Fair enough, we should've spotted the signs informing us to buy a ticket before we took the tram but it was an honest mistake: we were were too busy chatting and all though that we could pay on the tram.
 
I went in February 2013 and it snowed, walking everywhere in an effort to "explore"; ended up killing my feet thanks to inappropriate footwear. Definitely do not do this! Get as much public transport as you can. There is a Budapest card that you can get that gives you entry/discount entry to places as well as travel - https://www.budapestcard.org/

Definitely go one of the baths, only one I've been to is Gellert and it was excellent.

The House of Terror is worth a visit if you have an interest in war time Hungary. If you want to keep things lighthearted, then give it a miss.

There's some caves to explore in the old town, if that's your thing they were mildly interesting.
 
Friend of mine has lived there for about 18 years.
He says one bit of advice he has for tourists is that all the usual scams are present, like tourist prices in restaurants, snatch-theft, fake merchandise, fake beggars, rigged taxis, fake ATMs and currency exchange scams, but tend to be a bit more prevalent in Hungary and scammers can get quite pushy about it.

But the main thing to watch out for is the light-fingered Gypsy types, especially the children - They'll swarm you and you'll have twenty small hands in your pockets all at once, and are so persistent to the point where you have to beat them off, quite literally. The cops won't even bat an eyelid if they see you smacking a bunch of kids away. If you're having difficulty, and they can be bothered, they might step in to lend you a hand.

However, the traffic cops (who are armed) WILL take a dim view of speeding... more so if you're doing over 100mph on one wheel as you go past them, as the aforementioned friend found out (and is why he doesn't have a Fireblade any more).
 
Not sure if this is your thing, or you're going with a bunch of lads....but DO NOT ask any taxis to take you to a club or Strip club.....they take you to clubs run by the Ukranian mafia...charge you ridiculous money for a drink or a dance and if you dont pay, they march you to a cash machine to draw out all of your money...I found this out the hard way and subsequently found out its very common.
 
Spent 9 days here with the Mrs (who is from Budapest) in May - to be honest it just feels like your standard big European city to me. One thing worth noting is that once you get outside of the tourist center you'll find that peoples ability (or willingness) to communicate in English drops off a cliff. Hungarians can be pretty rude by our standards, my Mrs spent the entire trip moaning about how they're a bunch of rude, miserable gits - but then again when you see the state of all the stag dos that go out there that isn't really a surprise.

Depending on where your staying I think pretty much everything can be seen by foot. We stayed just north of Oktagon and aside from a couple of tram rides and a taxi ride when she was drunk we mostly spent our time walking around and exploring - although we're both pretty active people. Take a stroll along the Danube, visit Margaret Island, Fishermans Bastion, Parliament, Prague Castle and if you're feeling particularly energetic you can climb hells own hill and see the "Statue of Liberty" as she told me it was called. There is a really nice craft beer place in Blaha whos name I can't think of - not particularly cheap but lovely beers. There is a bakery type place with orange signage on practically every damn corner, check out their cheese scones and chocolate swirl things, both a lovely little snack. If you smoke its worth knowing that tobacco can only be bought from certain shops in a bid to cut down on smoking, but these shops are absolutely everywhere so it won't be hard to find one.

I know one of the Metro lines was undergoing refurbishment work when we were here so was only running up to a point and then was replaced by a bus service which actually wasn't all that bad.
 
Did a 3 day break about 7 years ago, did the Gellert Spa (absolutely bloody amazing for relaxing) and the Citadella and both were extremely good.

My only issue, and it's the same with a lot of Eastern European cities, is that as a non-smoker going into pubs is like going back to 90's Britain with heavy smoke everywhere and I just couldn't stand it after an hour or so. It was so bad I had to leave my clothes hanging out the hotel window as the smoke smell was off the chart. However that didn't spoil the trip in any way, just a minor annoyance.
 
I've been a few times over the years and have a few friends over there, originally went over because one of my mates was looking after a team over there in work and had never met any of them. Have been a few times for Sziget festival too.

I guess some recommendations might depend on the context of the trip - are you going over as a couple? Or group of friends etc..?

you mention you're staying in the centre - I'm assuming you mean on the Pest side? Like district 5? If so lots of stuff is within walking distance (at least from a nightlife perspective) - the castles are on the other side of the river though.

The ruin bars are worth a visit as already mentioned above, "Simpla Kert" is the most famous one - there was another we wandered into on one of my first trips over called "Instant" - we'd arrived late in the evening, mid week for the festival and the town was dead - Instant on the other hand was still crowded at 3am and is open 24 hours a day....

It is worth visiting a Spa too - Szechenyi Baths are a short journey on the metro system - if you're staying at a Hotel or Serviced apartments then you can buy tickets from reception and skip the queue when you get there. On Saturday nights they turn them into an open air nightclub. If you want to check out one of the older baths built centuries ago when the Turks had invaded and conquered the place you need Rudas or Kiraly baths.

I've never had any problems with scams aside from getting in a in taxi the middle of town on the first trip and watching the meter spin at some ridiculous setting, there are established firms - it is the independent ones that tend to rip you off. (you don't need to worry at the airport though you tell the woman in the booth by the taxi queue where you're going and they give you a print out with the fare to give to the driver).

Someone mentioned certain establishments that might be mafia run and not to ask a taxi driver to take you to such establishments - that is sound advice, there are certainly clip joints over there where people find a door locked behind them and a demand to pay some ridiculous made up bill. If you do want to go to such a venue do some research first - Hallo bar is safe for example. (I've not been there on a stag do so this sort of thing wasn't really a priority but we did check out that bar on one trip and it was fine)

The opera house is quite nice too - wasn't something I'd have chosen to go to but on one trip some of the people we know over there decided that we needed to do something more cultural so we were told to pack suits and they'd bought opera tickets.
 
ianh said:
My only issue, and it's the same with a lot of Eastern European cities, is that as a non-smoker going into pubs is like going back to 90's Britain with heavy smoke everywhere and I just couldn't stand it after an hour or so. It was so bad I had to leave my clothes hanging out the hotel window as the smoke smell was off the chart. However that didn't spoil the trip in any way, just a minor annoyance.
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You can't smoke inside anymore there either, the ruin bars are bit complicated as they can be deemed neither inside or outside but I've been yelled at by big angry Hungarians multiple times for smoking in them too
 
Although Rids' Mrs thinks they are rude miserable gits, by central and eastern European standards most Hungarians are a ray of sunshine.
I spent four months on a project in EEUR, energy-sapping is how I would describe it. Hungary were by far the most buoyant of the lot (although that really isn't saying much)
 
Another vote for the Gellert Spa.

And if you go to an off licence for a beer to enjoy in your hotel room, learn the Hungarian for alcohol free. :/
 
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