BUDAPEST · HUNGARY
Grand river, hot springs, late nights.
Danube cruises and the great thermal baths, the Castle Quarter and the ruin bars. St. Stephen’s, the Parliament, the Jewish Quarter and the day trips up the river.
Only here
The three things that are pure Budapest.
Cruises and walking tours run in every city. Bathing in a thermal palace, the river panorama after dark and a night in the ruin bars belong to Budapest alone.
Built on hot springs
The Thermal Baths
Budapest sits on a fault line that pushes up more than a hundred thermal springs, and the city has bathed in them for two thousand years. The Romans started it, the Ottomans built the domed baths in the 1500s, and the grand Széchenyi and Gellért houses followed. You soak outdoors in steaming water while the snow falls and the chess players keep playing.
- 1 Budapest: Széchenyi Spa Day Ticket with Optional Upgrades
- 2 Budapest: Full-Day Gellért Spa Ticket
- 3 Budapest: Mandala Day Spa & Luxury Pool Experience
The Pearl of the Danube
The River at Night
The Danube splits the city into hilly Buda and flat Pest, and the whole riverfront, the Parliament, the Castle, the Chain Bridge and the Bastion, is a UNESCO panorama that turns gold after dark. There is no better way to take in both banks at once than from the deck of a boat, drink in hand, as the lit-up bridges slide past.
- 1 Budapest: City Highlights Cruise with Welcome Drink
- 2 Budapest: Nighttime or Daytime Sightseeing Cruise
- 3 Budapest: 1-Hour Evening Sightseeing Cruise with Drink
A Budapest original
The Ruin Bars
In the crumbling pre-war courtyards of the old Jewish Quarter, derelict buildings were turned into bars in the early 2000s, furnished with whatever was lying around: mismatched chairs, fairy lights, an old Trabant in the corner. Szimpla Kert opened the first in 2002, and the District VII back streets have been full of them since. Nowhere grew its nightlife quite like this.
- 1 Budapest: Bar Crawl with a Local Guide
- 2 Budapest: Ruin Bar Pub Crawl with Entry Tickets
- 3 Budapest: Guided Tour to Ruin Bars with Games and 6 Shots
Start here
Where most Budapest trips begin.
More travellers begin a Budapest trip with this one than anything else on the list.
The classics
Budapest's Most Popular Tours
The Danube cruises, the thermal baths, Castle Hill and the basilica. The days most people come to Budapest for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Budapest trip is built around.
The Danube cruises, the thermal baths, the ruin bars, the Castle Quarter, the food markets and the day trips up the river. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
On the water
Which Danube cruise?
A cruise is the one thing nearly everyone does in Budapest, but there are three of them. Same gold-lit riverfront, very different evening, depending on whether you come for the views, the dinner or the drinks.
The city of spas
Steam off the water, snow on the ledge.
Széchenyi is the grand one: a neo-baroque palace in the City Park with steaming open-air pools where the regulars play chess right through the winter. Gellért is the elegant one, all art-nouveau tile and stained glass. Between them the city keeps a couple of dozen more, each fed straight from the hot springs below.
Read the guide: the best thermal baths in Budapest →At the table
Paprika, pastry and the Great Market.
Hungarian cooking is hearty and unembarrassed: goulash, chicken paprikash, chimney cake turning over the coals. The cathedral-like Great Market Hall stacks it all under one roof, and the food tours work the strudel counters, the cellar wine bars and the ruin-bar kitchens in between.
See the food tours →The river
Gold on the water, both banks at once.
After dark the Parliament, the Castle and the Chain Bridge switch on and throw their reflections across the river, the panorama UNESCO lists as World Heritage. The Danube cuts the city in two, hilly Buda on one side, flat Pest on the other, and the lit bridges stitch them back together.
See the river by night →Castle Hill
Turrets, terraces and the whole city below.
Up on the Buda side, the old royal palace, the Matthias Church and the white stone turrets of Fisherman’s Bastion line the ridge above the river. Walk up, ride the funicular or take a guided loop, and the reward is the same: the finest view in Budapest, straight across the water to the Parliament.
- 1 Budapest: Buda Castle Cave Tour
- 2 Budapest: Buda Castle District Vampires and Myths Night Tour
- 3 Budapest: Buda Castle Walk with Saint Stephen’s Hall
After dark
The city’s other half starts after sunset.
Budapest does nights better than almost anywhere. The ruin bars of District VII fill their courtyards, the pub crawls work the back streets, and the dinner boats and folklore shows run late along the water. Pick the tempo: a quiet wine cellar, or a courtyard full of strangers.
See all 18 evening experiences →By place
Both banks of the city, and out past it.
Castle Hill for the view. The Parliament for the grandeur. The Jewish Quarter for the synagogues and the ruin bars. St. Stephen’s for the dome. City Park for the baths. And the Danube Bend for the day you head out of town.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
A cruise if you want the river. The baths if you want to do nothing at all. Walking tours for the history, food and wine for the table, bikes and segways for the ground in between.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
Just added