Budapest Travel Guide: What to See, Eat & Know | Palace Tours

Budapest is two cities that agreed to become one. Buda rises on the western bank of the Danube in a series of limestone hills crowned by a castle and a fortress; Pest spreads flat and grand across the eastern bank, a grid of boulevards, coffee houses and apartment blocks built during the confident decades of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The two halves — along with the older settlement of Óbuda upstream — were formally united in 1873, and the river between them is still the defining feature of the city. Seven road bridges cross it inside the city limits, and the view from any of them, particularly at dusk, explains why the riverbanks are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The city sits in north-central Hungary on the Great Hungarian Plain where it meets the Buda Hills, roughly 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Vienna and about 275 miles (440 km) east of Munich — close enough that Budapest has always been a hinge point between Central Europe and the Balkans rather than an endpoint. Romans built the garrison town of Aquincum here; the Ottomans held the city for 150 years and left behind the thermal bath culture that still defines Budapest life; the Habsburgs rebuilt it as the twin capital of a dual monarchy. That layering is why the skyline reads the way it does: a neo-Gothic parliament, a Baroque palace, Turkish domes over hot springs, and Art Nouveau facades all within a few miles of one another. For travelers arriving by luxury rail, Budapest is a natural starting point — the Danube Express departs from here on journeys through Transylvania, the Alps and the Christmas market cities of Central Europe.

What to see in Budapest

• Hungarian Parliament Building — The vast neo-Gothic riverfront palace on the Pest bank, completed in 1904 and still the largest building in Hungary. Guided interior tours take in the central dome hall, where the Holy Crown of Hungary is displayed, and the gilded main staircase.
• Buda Castle District — The hilltop quarter above the river, reached by a short funicular from Clark Ádám Square. The former royal palace now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum, and the cobbled streets behind it are quiet in the early morning.
• Fisherman’s Bastion — A romantic set of white stone terraces and conical turrets built at the turn of the twentieth century as a viewing platform. It frames the single best panorama of the Parliament across the water.
• Matthias Church — Officially the Church of the Assumption of the Buda Castle, distinguished by its diamond-patterned tiled roof and richly painted interior. Hungarian kings were crowned here, including the last Habsburg coronation in 1916.
• Széchenyi Thermal Bath — The largest medicinal bath complex in Europe, a canary-yellow neo-Baroque palace in City Park fed by two thermal springs. Locals play chess on floating boards in the outdoor pools year-round, steam rising in winter.
• Gellért Baths and Gellért Hill — An Art Nouveau bathhouse of mosaic tile, stained glass and marble columns, at the foot of the hill that rises 460 feet above the river. The walk to the Citadella at the summit takes about half an hour and rewards you with the widest view of the city.
• Andrássy Avenue and the Opera House — The city’s grand tree-lined boulevard, running from the inner city to Heroes’ Square, lined with mansions and cafés. The Hungarian State Opera House halfway along is one of Europe’s finest nineteenth-century auditoriums.
• Great Market Hall — A cathedral-scale iron-and-glass market at the Pest end of Liberty Bridge. The ground floor sells paprika, sausage and produce; the upper gallery is given over to food stalls and craft.
• Dohány Street Synagogue — The largest synagogue in Europe, Moorish Revival in style, at the heart of the historic Jewish Quarter. The adjoining memorial garden and Hungarian Jewish Museum give essential context to the district around it.

What to eat in Budapest

Hungarian cooking is built on paprika, pork fat and slow braising, and it is far more varied than the single dish most visitors know. Gulyás is properly a soup — beef, onions, potato and paprika in a clear broth — while the thick stew served abroad as goulash is closer to pörkölt. Look also for halászlé, a fiery river-fish soup traditionally made with carp and served in a small kettle; töltött káposzta, cabbage leaves stuffed with pork and rice; and libamáj, goose liver, which Hungary produces in quantity and serves everywhere from market stalls to white-tablecloth dining rooms. Freshwater fish from the Danube and Lake Balaton appear on most traditional menus.

Street food centers on lángos — a disc of deep-fried dough eaten hot with sour cream and grated cheese, sometimes rubbed with garlic — best bought at the Great Market Hall’s upstairs gallery. For something sweet, kürtőskalács (chimney cake) is spiral-wrapped dough baked over coals and rolled in cinnamon sugar, and the classic pastry-house cakes are Dobos torta, with its caramel glass top, and Esterházy torta, layered with walnut buttercream. Budapest’s grand coffee houses — the Café Gerbeaud and New York Café among them — are institutions worth an hour of anyone’s afternoon. Drink Tokaji, the sweet golden wine of northeastern Hungary; the dry reds of Villány and Eger, including Egri Bikavér or “Bull’s Blood”; or a small glass of pálinka, the country’s potent fruit brandy, and the herbal liqueur Unicum.

Shopping & crafts

Hungarian paprika, sold in tins and cloth bags graded from sweet to hot, is the classic thing to carry home, along with Tokaji wine and acacia honey — all reliably found at the Great Market Hall. Herend and Zsolnay porcelain are the two great Hungarian names in ceramics; Zsolnay’s iridescent eosin glaze covers the roof tiles of Matthias Church and the Museum of Applied Arts. Embroidered Kalocsa and Matyó folk textiles, hand-painted wooden boxes, and Hungarian goose-down bedding are all traditional buys, and the antique shops along Falk Miksa Street are the place to browse for older pieces.

Best time to visit

Late spring (April to early June) and early autumn (September to October) are the most comfortable months, with mild days, long light on the river and the terraces open. High summer is hot — July and August regularly reach the high 80s Fahrenheit — but it is also when the outdoor pools, riverside bars and open-air concerts are at their liveliest. Autumn brings the wine harvest and the turning colour of the Buda Hills. Winter is cold and often grey, yet it is arguably the most atmospheric season: the Advent markets on Vörösmarty Square and around St Stephen’s Basilica fill the city centre, and there is nothing quite like sitting in an outdoor thermal pool at 100°F with snow on the surrounding stonework.

Good to know

• Currency — Hungary uses the forint (HUF), not the euro, despite EU membership. Cards are widely accepted, but keep some cash for market stalls and smaller cafés, and change money at banks or reputable exchange offices rather than at airport kiosks.
• Getting around — The metro, trams and buses are cheap, frequent and easy to navigate. Metro Line 1, opened in 1896, is the oldest underground railway in continental Europe and a small sight in itself. Tram 2 along the Pest embankment is one of the most scenic urban tram rides anywhere.
• At the baths — Bring or rent a towel and flip-flops, and note that a swimming cap is required in some lap pools. Lockers and cabins are rented separately; arrive early in the day to avoid the busiest hours.
• Language and etiquette — Hungarian is unrelated to its neighbours’ languages, but English is widely spoken in central Budapest. A service charge is often already added to restaurant bills — check before tipping again. Clinking beer glasses is still avoided by some Hungarians for historic reasons.
• Arriving by rail — Budapest’s Keleti, Nyugati and Déli stations connect the city to Vienna, Prague, Munich and Bucharest, and Nyugati’s iron-and-glass train shed was built by the Eiffel Company. Private luxury departures, including the Danube Express, use their own dedicated platform arrangements.

Palace Tours has been arranging luxury rail journeys through Central Europe for more than two decades, and Budapest features on more of our itineraries than almost any other city on the continent — as an overnight base, a departure point and a destination in its own right. To plan a journey that begins or ends here, call us in the US and Canada on 1-800-724-5120, message us on WhatsApp at +1-786-454-3555, or call internationally on +1-609-580-1372.