Budapest: The Most Underrated City in Central Europe

Budapest is currently one of the best-value major European capitals for visitors. The Hungarian forint has weakened against the euro and dollar over recent years, which means good restaurants, thermal baths, and accommodation that would be expensive in Vienna or Prague are comparatively cheap here. This situation may not persist indefinitely, which is a reasonable argument for going now.

The city divides along the Danube into two distinct personalities: Buda, hilly and residential with the castle and the quiet streets of the first district, and Pest, flat and urban with the Parliament, the great museums, the markets, and the ruin bars. They were officially merged into a single city only in 1873. The difference in character is still noticeable.

The Thermal Baths

Hungary sits on a geological hot spot and Budapest has approximately 125 natural thermal springs. The Ottoman occupiers (1541-1686) built the first bath houses; the Austro-Hungarian era added the architectural spectacles. The Széchenyi Thermal Bath in City Park is the most famous: a neo-Baroque complex from 1913 with 18 pools across indoor and outdoor sections, geothermal water ranging from comfortable to near-scalding. The outdoor pools in winter, with steam rising into cold air and chess boards floating in the water, produce exactly the photograph you’ve seen a hundred times. Entry costs around HUF 5,000-8,000 (approximately €13-22) depending on day and services.

Gellért Baths is the architecturally superior choice: an Art Nouveau spa hotel building from 1918 with elaborate tilework, marble pools, and a thermal outdoor wave pool in summer. Entry is comparable to Széchenyi.

Buda Castle and the Castle Hill District

The Castle Hill District is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Parliament building and the Danube banks. Buda Castle houses the Hungarian National Gallery (free for permanent collection, temporary exhibitions charged) and the Budapest History Museum. The castle’s medieval core has been rebuilt several times, most recently after extensive World War II damage.

Matthias Church, adjacent to the Fisherman’s Bastion, has 13th-century origins and a 19th-century neo-Gothic redesign. The interior is covered in Zsolnay tile decorations in a pattern that looks unlike any other European church interior. The Fisherman’s Bastion terrace gives the best panoramic view of the Parliament building across the river.

Parliament Building

The Hungarian Parliament is the country’s most iconic building and one of the most elaborate neo-Gothic civic buildings in the world. Built 1885-1904, it has 365 spires (one per day of the year), 691 rooms, and the largest building footprint in Hungary. The central dome covers the Hungarian Holy Crown, which has a story involving theft by US forces at the end of WWII, decades in Fort Knox, and a 1978 handover by the Carter administration. Guided tours of the interior run daily in multiple languages; book at the visitor centre on Kossuth Square (around €15-20 for foreigners).

Ruin Bars

The ruin bar phenomenon began in the early 2000s when Budapest’s Jewish District had large numbers of abandoned buildings. Entrepreneurs moved into them without fully renovating, turning derelict courtyards and collapsed interiors into bars with mismatched furniture, outdoor spaces, and a deliberately improvised aesthetic. Szimpla Kert on Kazinczy Street is the original and still the most interesting; it operates as a Sunday farmers’ market in the mornings and a bar from afternoon. The neighbourhood around Kazinczy and Dob Streets has a density of good bars and restaurants that makes it worth an evening of wandering.

Where to Eat

Great Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok) at the Pest end of Liberty Bridge is the best place to eat like a local while being obviously a tourist. The ground floor has food stalls selling lángos (deep-fried dough with sour cream and cheese, a genuinely good street food), smoked meats, and market produce. Upstairs has a more expensive restaurant section and craft stalls.

Borkonyha (Wine Kitchen) on Sas Street is a Michelin-starred restaurant that is not priced at Michelin-starred levels by Western European standards; this is a consequence of the exchange rate and worth taking advantage of. Hungarian wine pairings are excellent and the local grape varieties (Furmint, Kékfrankos) are largely unknown outside Hungary.

For cheap eating, the district canteens (étkezde) in the Pest business districts serve three-course set lunches for around HUF 2,000-3,000 (€5-8), unchanged from how Hungarians have eaten lunch for decades.