Budapest: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Until 1873 these were three separate cities: Buda on the hill, Óbuda beside it, and Pest on the flat opposite. This bank is the old, steep one — a castle, a church with a tiled roof like a carpet, and a bastion built to look beautiful rather than to defend anything. Go up by funicular or on foot, and come down to the bridge that joined the two cities.
A short history of Budapest
The Romans founded Aquincum on the Danube. In 1241 the Mongols destroyed the settlements, after which the palace and castle on Buda Hill were rebuilt. From 1541 until 1686 the Ottomans ruled the city. In 1849 the Chain Bridge was opened, the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, and in 1873 Buda, Pest and Óbuda were united into a single city. In 1860 Theodor Herzl was born in Pest, in a house next to the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe, which had been inaugurated a year earlier. In 1944 tens of thousands of Jews from the city were murdered or deported. In 1956 the uprising against Soviet rule broke out here.
The ten best sights in Budapest
1ParliamentSix hundred and ninety-one rooms, and the crown is inside
2Chain BridgeThe first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, 1849
3Buda CastleBurned, rebuilt and burned again — now two museums
4Fisherman’s BastionSeven towers for seven tribes, and never a fortress
5Matthias ChurchA tiled roof like a carpet, and two coronations
6Gellért HillThe best view, and a bishop was rolled off it in a barrel
7St Stephen’s BasilicaThe king’s mummified right hand is in a chapel
8Heroes’ SquareSeven chieftains on horses, and an empty plinth
9Andrássy AvenueTwo and a half kilometres, with the metro underneath
10Széchenyi BathsEighteen pools, and men playing chess in the water
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Budapest →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Budapest:
Free walking tours in Budapest
Buda
Until 1873 these were three separate cities: Buda on the hill, Óbuda beside it, and Pest on the flat opposite. This bank is the old, steep one — a castle, a church with a tiled roof like a carpet, and a bastion built to look beautiful rather than to defend anything. Go up by funicular or on foot, and come down to the bridge that joined the two cities.
- Buda Castle · Destroyed and rebuilt at least six times — by the Mongols, the Ottomans, the Habsburgs and the Red Army. Each time it came back in a different style, so what stands is nobody’s original.
- Fisherman’s Bastion · Seven towers for the seven Magyar tribes, built in 1902 purely as a viewing terrace — it has never defended anything. The fishermen’s guild had held this stretch of wall in the Middle Ages, and the name stuck.
- Matthias Church · The Ottomans turned it into a mosque for a hundred and forty-five years and whitewashed the frescoes. The roof is covered in glazed Zsolnay tiles laid in a pattern taken from a Persian carpet.
- Hospital in the Rock · Ten kilometres of natural caves under the hill were turned into an emergency hospital in 1944, then into a nuclear bunker. It was a state secret until 2002 and is kept exactly as it was found.
- Gellért Hill · Named for a bishop whom pagans put in a barrel and rolled off it in 1046. The statue on top was raised by the Soviets in 1947; after 1989 the city kept the statue and quietly removed the soldier beside it.
- Chain Bridge · The first permanent bridge between the two banks, finished in 1849, and the reason the cities could merge. The Germans blew it up in 1945 and it was rebuilt on its hundredth birthday, to the day.
Pest and the water
Budapest sits on a hundred and eight thermal springs, and everyone has used them since the Romans. The Ottomans built domes over several in the sixteenth century and those domes still stand. This walk is the flat bank — the parliament, the basilica, the baths, and the shoes at the water’s edge.
- Parliament · Built for the millennium of Hungary in 1896, with six hundred and ninety-one rooms and forty kilograms of gold on the inside. Its height, ninety-six metres, is the year the Magyars arrived — and no building in the city may exceed it.
- Shoes on the Danube · Sixty pairs of iron shoes in the styles of 1944. The Arrow Cross made people take off their shoes — they had value — and shot them at the edge so the river carried them away.
- St Stephen’s Basilica · Fifty-four years to build, and the dome collapsed once on the way. In a chapel on the left is the mummified right hand of the first king of Hungary, who died in 1038 — it is carried through the city every August.
- Dohány Street Synagogue · The largest in Europe, seating three thousand. In its garden is a cemetery — not normally allowed beside a synagogue — because two thousand people died in the ghetto here in the winter of 1944 and had to be buried where they fell.
- Gellért Baths · Opened in 1918 in full art nouveau — Zsolnay tiles, stained glass and a wave machine from 1927 that still works. The spring under it was already known to the Ottomans as the magic spring.
- Great Market Hall · Built in 1897 with a Zsolnay tiled roof and a canal underneath so boats could unload inside. Paprika hangs on the ground floor; the balcony sells lángos, and that is the reason to climb it.
Andrássy and the park
One avenue two and a half kilometres long, with an underground railway from 1896 beneath it — the first on the European continent, still running with the same stations. It starts by the basilica and ends at Heroes’ Square and the City Park, where a castle built of plaster for one exhibition was kept, and where men play chess in hot water.
- Andrássy Avenue · Laid out in 1872 and a UNESCO site, together with the metro line under it. The rule was that no building on it could be higher than the width of the street, which is why it still feels open.
- Opera House · The emperor paid for it on condition it would not be bigger than Vienna’s. It is smaller — and has better acoustics, which is said to have annoyed him considerably.
- House of Terror · The Arrow Cross used this building as a headquarters, and after the war the communist secret police took it over and used the same cellars. The museum ends in the cellars, reached by a slow lift.
- Heroes’ Square · Seven chieftains on horses and fourteen kings in the colonnade. Two plinths once held Habsburg emperors; they were removed in 1919 and replaced with Hungarian leaders, and the gaps tell the century.
- Vajdahunyad Castle · Built of wood and plaster in 1896 as a temporary exhibit showing twenty-one Hungarian buildings in one. People liked it so much it was rebuilt in stone and left standing.
- Széchenyi Baths · Eighteen pools fed by a spring seventy-four degrees hot, drilled in 1868. The outdoor pool runs all winter, and the men playing chess on floating boards in the steam have been doing it for decades.
Getting to Budapest and getting around
- Ferenc Liszt Airport · The 100E bus runs straight to Deák tér
- Keleti Station · Trains to Vienna, Prague and Belgrade
- Deák Ferenc tér · Where all three old metro lines meet
Museums in Budapest
- House of Terror · The same cellars, two regimes
- Museum of Fine Arts · The Spanish collection is the best outside Spain
- Hungarian National Gallery · Inside the castle, and the dome is the view
- Memento Park · The statues, moved rather than destroyed
- Hospital in the Rock · A state secret until 2002, kept as it was found
Parks and gardens in Budapest
- Margaret Island · No cars, a running track, and a musical fountain
- City Park · One of the first public parks in the world, 1813
- Normafa · The Buda hills, reached by a children’s railway
- Gellért Hill · The view everyone photographs, and it is free
Things to do in Budapest with kids
- Budapest Zoo · Art nouveau animal houses from 1912
- Children’s Railway · Run by children, except the driver
- Széchenyi Baths · Warm water outdoors all winter
Cheap eats in Budapest
Seven counters where Budapest eats standing. A deep-fried bread the size of a plate sold on a market balcony, a sausage counter with no chairs since 1869, and a canteen in a courtyard where you take a tray and a worker in an apron shouts at you kindly.
- Lángos, Great Market Hall · On the upstairs balcony, 2,000 forint
- Belvárosi Disznótoros · Point at the sausage, they weigh it, you stand
- Kádár Étkezde · A Jewish-quarter canteen, cash only, closed at weekends
- Hungarikum Bisztró · Goulash as it should be. Book, it is small
- Rétesbolt · Strudel pulled by hand in the window
- Karaván · Food trucks in a bombed lot beside Szimpla
- New York Café · The keys are in the Danube. Coffee is 4,000 forint
Nightlife in Budapest
- Szimpla Kert · The first ruin bar, and still the one
- Instant-Fogas · Seven floors of bars in two joined buildings
- Jewish Quarter · Where every ruin bar is, within three streets
Frequently asked questions about Budapest
What is there to see in Budapest?
The top sights in Budapest are Parliament, Chain Bridge and Buda Castle. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Budapest?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Budapest without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Budapest?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Budapest, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Buda.
How do you get to Budapest and get around?
The main ways are Ferenc Liszt Airport, Keleti Station and Deák Ferenc tér. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Budapest, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Budapest that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Budapest for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.