The wonderful capital of Hungary offers everything a city traveler might want - impressive architecture, vibrant nightlife, relaxing spots and amazing food. It is well worth a longer visit but if you are short on time, you're visiting as part of a longer trip, or you simply need your days off for farther destinations you can pack quite a bit in just 3 days. You don't even need that much planning - here's what we thought was a must so you can optimise your trip.
Day 1: Walking around the city
We're sure you've seen one of the many, many must-see lists and videos and as you've noticed there are quite a few sites. Our recommendation is to do a semi-planned walk around the city and see which of the attractions you want to go in.
St Stephen's Basilica
It's impressive on the outside as well as on the inside so it was well worth the 5 euro entrance fee. There is an additional option to visit the Panoramic terrace and Treasury so if you feel like doing some sightseeing but not visiting every single tourist spot this is a great option.
Buda Castle
You can see the giant castle dominating the Buda skyline as you walk along the river and it calls to you to visit. It is worth going up the hill via the funicular or just walking up (it's not too bad of a climb) so you can enjoy the fantastic views of pretty much the entire city. The castle itself however is best enjoyed from a distance. Honestly, it's pretty bad when you get close to it! The façade is not all that impressive, especially compared to just about any half-ruined building in the Jewish quarter or central Pest; it's a bit of a construction site as they're building new parts of the palace (yes, super weird although they'll probably end up looking cool); the only thing to see is a gallery which we are not interested in, so unless you are it's just not worth your time.
Our recommendation is to just skip Buda Castle altogether and when you go up the hill turn right and head over to the Fisherman's Bastion - a much better sight!
Fisherman's Bastion
One of the top places to go in Budapest! The fortress' walls and buildings must have been inspired by a fairy tale as the first thing we both thought when we went was 'this is a fantastic place to get married'. And surely enough there was a wedding going on! There are spectacular views over the Danube and the whole of the city of Pest with the Parliament building being front and center.
Pro tip: instead of paying to go up the wall go for a pint in the restaurant underneath - it's practically the same view made better by sitting down with an ice cold beer.
More things you can see in this area are the beautiful Matthias Church, the Vienna Gate and the Equestrian Statue of Andras Hadik. The status is nothing that special save for the giant golden balls on the horse which are worth seeing! You're not allowed to touch them though so try to resist the urge :)
The river banks
The Danube cuts the city right in the middle (or unites the cities of Buda and Pest, depending on how you want to look at it) and provides a wonderful opportunity to take a relaxing walk and admire the sights. The banks have nice walking paths on both sides of the river or if you're already tired you can take a scenic tram ride. It's not overly crowded with cafés and snack opportunities, so be sure to grab your cup (or can) before heading for your walk.
The Jewish quarter
This is a wonderful area to start or finish your day, or both. It's the hipster part of town full of brunch places, hipster coffee spots and bakeries, and the home to countless pubs and the city's signature ruin bars.
If you're not familiar with the concept of ruin bars, we highly highly recommend checking some of them out. They have essentially turned some of the many run down buildings in the area into bars with different vibes serving a great selection craft beers, cocktails and wine. They can be visited during the day too in a relaxing atmosphere and they gradually get more trippy as the evening progresses.
We loved Szimpla Kert the most (it's the most famous for a reason) as we thought they had done the best job in terms of decoration. It was also quite varied between the different rooms and just had a really cool vibe to it. Also the beer. They have great beers!
And if you are a beer lover you should definitely check out some of the pubs and craft beer bars in the area - they were so many, with so many different beers we loved getting lost in them.
Day 2: Cultural visits
Hungarian Parliament
A definite must visit is the Hungarian Parliament building. It's the largest gothic parliament building in Europe and the ornaments and decorations are really worth a closer look. It was inspired by the UK Houses of Parliament with the goal to clearly demonstrate Hungary's orientation towards Western Europe. Its construction started in 1885 and it was opened a mere 17 years later which is quite impressive considering its size. An interesting fact is that the government used the project as a means to boost the local economy so all the materials used in the building originate from Hungary.
We advise you to plan your visit ahead of time as they sell a limited number of tickets and entry is only allowed as a guided tour at pre-defined times. They guide however is an audio device on which you can choose any language available so don't feel limited by the language of the group. For example they would sell tickets to a tour in Italian for 11 am and one in English for 4 pm but it doesn't actually matter so just choose the time that's most convenient for you.
If like us you have failed to understand this detail you can buy a ticket on site and while you wait for your scheduled tour you can fill your time with a walk to Margaret Island.
Margaret Island
This is the big island you can see in the middle of the river and it's awesome. It's been turned into a lovely park with lots going on inside it. Some of the more remarkable things on the island are:
The musical fountain which has a performance every hour to different types of music - classical, pop, house, and our personal favourite, Disney songs! At night the fountain is lit so there's another visual element to the show. It's right at the entrance of the island from Margit Bridge (the one close to the Parliament building) so you can't miss it.
The runners highway which circles the island and is so tempting we regretted not bringing our running shoes. The locals really took advantage of it so the path did in fact resemble a highway. Even without running it was still so nice to watch.
The Japanese garden wasn't the best we've seen but it was still a pretty cool part of the park. There were lots and lots of koi fish and turtles swimming in the ponds and it did have the distinctly different plants you can expect in a Japanese garden.
The mini zoo was probably our favourite discovery here. It's a branch of the Budapest zoo and they have brought some sweet animals like deer, hares, small birds and (unfortunately) some eagles to live in the park. You can see them without entering or if you're willing to engage with the animals you can also go in and pet some of them. We thought the idea was pretty clever and something we didn't expect at all. It would have been even better if we were travelling with our baby.
The water tower is one of the tourist spots in the park. It's used as an exhibition place from time to time but the main feature is to go up the tower for the view. We didn't do it on this trip but it's on our list for next time.
Palatinus Strand Baths are also located on the island so it's a nice opportunity to take advantage of Budapest's thermal springs. We just hope this isn't water coming from the Danube :)
THE best chimney cake we found in all of Budapest was also on the island. It's just across the street from the baths so be sure to try it, it was amazing!
New York Café
The iconic café is just a short tram ride away from the Parliament, or about a 20 min walk. It usually has huge lines outside so it's hard to miss. We waited for about 30 mins to get seated and when we joined the queue we were at about the entrance to the hotel. So it's not too bad of a wait. It is quite pricey of course but it was nice to spend some time in there as it's quite a different experience with its live classical music and fancy décor. The cocktails are quite nice too!
Day 3: Relaxing in the city
Thermal baths
This is probably the number one recommendation on what to see when visiting Budapest with Szechenyi Thermal Bath being the largest and most popular one. We decided to spend most of the day there relaxing in the hot pools and saunas.
The place is huge - there are more than 20 pools with different temperatures and about 10 different saunas and steam rooms. We were most keen on the outside heated pool, the aroma sauna, and the scented steam room. We spent most of our time alternating between these after having an initial discovery tour of the baths. There are many hidden gems so exploring was quite fun as we kept stumbling upon new things every time we went around.
Be careful with the Volcano Sauna which heats up to 80-90 degrees. We went out after less than 30 seconds as it hurt to breathe in there. Kiril also managed to burn his back by leaning on the upper bench. Basically have in mind that it's insanely hot!
There is also a 50 meter swimming pool (Olympic size) which was awesome because there was hardly anyone in it. The reason - you have to wear a swimming cap to go in but they don't sell those on premises. Come prepared if you want to use that pool.
City Park
The Bath is located in City Park which gives a nice opportunity to walk around either before or after the spa. It sounds a bit boring but there are a couple of super cool things to check out.
Vajdahunyat Castle and its surroundings is another fairytale part of Budapest. There is a museum, a church and even a moat and it's really fun to see.
The children's playground was probably the most spectacular thing we saw in all of Budapest! It's the largest, most intricate and (seemingly) most interesting playground we've seen. There were entire 3-storey castles you can climb and then go back to ground level via a winded dark slide. There were canals where you can manage the water flow through some levers and turn entire pathways and functions on and off. There was a giant 'balloon' which you can climb on the inside. There were swings and climbing walls and sand pits and lots and lots of other things to play with. We loved Budapest anyway but we are definitely coming back here so we can play here with our kid once he is old enough!
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