Budapest - long Review with things to do/see

[Kobe]

Budapest is a great city, I was planning on spending 6 months there and ended up spending 16 months. The city is beautiful and full of night life. There is lots of tourists (not as busy as Barcelona and some other cities but tourists are there!)

There is something going on all the time in the summer time. There is so many different attractions and things to see I’m going to try and narrow it down, and give the best things to see if you ever visit.

The Language is near impossible, I tried to learn it but I gave up, they said it is similar to Finish but the Hungarians and Finland both disagree. After 16 months I can barely count to 10. This is even after seeing a Hungarian girl. Not to worry however since everyone will speak English there.


Here are a couple words that you should learn

Hello - Szia (Cya) - It's pretty much opposite of English
Bye - Helló! (Hello in English) - It's just opposite of English
Thank you - Köszönöm (Kö-so-nom)



I’ll start off with things you should avoid however since they are the most important for a good time in Budapest.
$1 = $215HUF (was 195 earlier)
HUF = Hungarian Forint

1. Do not get in a taxi without calling ahead of time, prices will range from 1,500HUF to 20,000HUF, you won’t even know you got ripped off, the taxis will tell you they are running the meter, and it’s just rigged. A regular taxi ride around downtown Budapest should cost you between 1,000 – 2,000HUF. If you take a taxi from the airport it is fine and will cost you around 6,500-7,000HUF depending on which part of the city you are going to. They will give you a fixed price before you get into the cab and that is how much you will pay.

2. Do not go to strip clubs, do not let people tell you to go to strip clubs for free cover. The strip clubs in Budapest are the biggest downside, I have never been in one, but I’ve heard of people paying $75/drink.

3. If someone off the street seems cool and is telling you they will buy you rounds of alcohol and then tell you to come with them into this “cool” club don’t do it, they will ask you to pay for the first round and it will be around $75 a drink. They will rip you the fuck off!

4. The famous street of “vaci Utca” is a huge rip-off, and food will be 2-3X more expensive and exchange rates will be pretty awful there, try to avoid purchasing things there (Don’t go to the massage places on the street as well)

With that being said, the city is amazing in the day and probably one of the most incredible cities when it is lit up.

There is so many cool things to do from caving, relaxing in the baths, walking up to Gallert Hill or Fisherman’s Bastion.

I would highly recommend doing

1. Do the free walking tour

(http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction...l_Hungary.html) – It’s obviously free but a tip of around 1,500-2,000HUF is good to give after the tour is finished.

2. Walk over to fisherman’s Bastion and see the city light up – The entrance is free onto the castle walls after it closes and I would highly recommend going for sunset. It is about a 35-45minute walk from the inner-core of the city and I’d highly recommend trying to get there 15-20minutes before sunset. The city looks so incredible when its lit up.


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3. Szechenyi Baths - There is a few versions of the thermal baths in Budapest, I’d recommend going to the Szechenyi Baths for a day (There is 3 outdoor pools and like 20 indoors) – While you are there you should get yourself a massage – it costs around 50cents a minute. When you go to the baths make sure you get the regular tickets for 4,500ishHUF and not the VIP tickets. The yellow metro line will take you there (Get off at Szechenyi Furdo) – It’s really cool we went tons of times, you can watch older people playing chess in the water on the ledges outside, and it’s just really relaxing after a lot of travelling.
When you head there remember to bring a towel, you can rent one but you will need to receipt to return the towel and it will be a $20 security deposit. You will get a locker and can throw your stuff in there. There is a bar outside and you can buy alcohol and food. You can NOT bring it into the pool.

There is also a pool party on Saturday nights. I would recommend that you avoid it, if you are staying at a hostel they will try to sell it to you, but it is always 85%+ guys. If that’s your kind of thing than all def hit it up, but there is much cooler places on Saturday nights in Budapest.

When you leave Budapest cross the street to city park and check out the castle, then walk down 4-5minutes to Hero Square and check it out.

Baths


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Heros square


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When you are finished just take the metro back to the inner-city – You can walk Andrassy Utca all the way down but it will be about 45minutes. Just take the metro and save some time, there isn’t much to see from Hero’s Square to Octagon.


4. Trap – This is the puzzle game where there you have 60minutes to get out of the room, you go in groups of 2-5, I’d highly recommend going in a group of 4-5 people. It’s great team work and really tough. We did the Egyptian one and the Bomb one. You will need to make a reservation ahead of time (usually a day or two in advance) If I remember correctly it was around 15,000HUF for the team. The price if fixed and it doesn’t matter how many people you have.
http://trap.hu/index.php/en/

5. Visit Margaret Island – The 4/6 tram (runs 24/7) will take you straight onto the bridge and you can walk to the Island. It’s really nice and they have a water-fountain show ever hour. It’s nothing special but it’s really nice out there, def worth checking out. If you are into running there is a running path around the Island and its 4.9X KM long. There is usually a lot of people on it, but the eye candy and scenery is good


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6. St. Stephens Basilica – It’s free to enter (tips) – and if you want a tour you need to pay, I can’t give much info about the tour since I’ve never done it but the Basilica is incredible on the inside and outside.


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7. Andrassy ut – Walk down the road, check out all the expensive stores,(Gucci, Armani, LV.. etc etc… and see the Opera – While on this topic – You can get Opera tickets for 500HUF ($2.30CAD) – And you will be able to go inside, I’ve never been but my cousin said it was really nice. It’s def one of my regrets. On a side note other cool streets to check out are Kiraly Krt and Vaci Utca.


8. Walk up the hill to Citadella (Gellert Hill) – The view isn’t as nice as fishermans Bastion but it’s still really nice.

View of Chain bridge from the hill (First bridge to join Buda and pest)

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I’m going to take the first 4-5 posts in this thread so I can add more things – Nightlife/Hostels/Restaurants/Other – But I’m going to leave that for another day.

Any questions feel free to post here and I’ll try to answer all of them.

[Kobe]

Nightlife -

There is no real dress code in most of the bars in Budapest, we have walked around in Canada Fuck Yah Muscle shirts, Dinosaur outfits, masks. I've seen guys dressed as pimps, tigers, females.

Be careful when you are getting your change back as some of the bars might try to not give you the correct change if you pay with a big note (20,000HUF) and they think you are wasted. You do not have to tip in the nightclubs, and to be honest if you do I don't think it will make your service any better.

You do however have to tip around 15% when you get bottle service at night clubs. It's usually just included in your bill. I complained once that the service sucked and they gave me a 50,000HUF voucher to use next time.

Some of the most classy bars might have an issue with it but most of them don't care.

The two most famous tourist bars are "Szimpla" and "Instant"

Szimpla - There is no cover to enter the bar, It usually closes around 2-3am and is open every night, it is the #1 ruin pub in Budapest. It doesn't really have a dance floor but if you have a marker you can write on the walls, you can also go and buy yourself some Shisha and relax, have some drinks and enjoy the place.

From the outside it just has a small sign, but it's huge on the inside. It's not really my favorite bar as all you will meet there is tourists usually already in groups from hostels It's really cool to check out.

It's ugh different to say the least. There is a girl that walks around and sells carrots for 200HUF (Yes thats right, carrots) and it just has the most random stuff all over the walls. It's a very different bar but 99% Tourists.


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If you ever go you can try and find what we wrote on the wall. Hint: It's upstairs

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Instant - No cover - This is another tourist bar, and it's HUGE, it usually open till 6-7am and everyone get's really fucked up here. It is another strange bar. I'd assume about 80-85% are tourists and the rest are Hungarians. The bars cool and if you want to get wasted you can buy a bottle of Prosecco for around $9 - When they ask how many cups you want just say zero. We would buy the bottles and just pour them on each other since it's so disgusting but so much fun to do. There is 3 floors with different types of Music, there is also an upside down room hidden in the nightclub you can try and find it, most people do not know about it.


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If you want something more classy.

Trafiq - This is where the students hang out on Thrusday night and it is mostly Hungarians - It's smaller but lots of really good looking girls here, and they usually have DJ's -

You can buy bottle service for around $150cad

This bar is not open during the summers, and the best night to go is most def in Thrusday nights. You won't really have to dress up but wearing black shoes and a half decent T-shirt won't hurt.


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Fröccsterasz - They just renewed this and it's an outside patio where most of the Hungarians go to the park beside it to drink or to the MASSIVE patio bar to drink.

This was one of my favorite places to go out and chill and have a couple drinks - It get's really busy so if you want a seat get there earlier, It's free and mostly Hungarian's.


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If your goal in Budapest is to try and pick up a Hungarian girl I'd recommend going to this place to try your luck.


Akvarium Klub - This is right by Froccsterasz and its 3 nightclubs underground. They usually have DJ's playing. and there will be cover at some of the bars.


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From the photo you can see the nightclubs are actually under the swimming pool (which you can only dip your feet in, in the day) and you can see up from the inside. It's pretty cool and mostly Hungarians here as well, We went to a couple drum N bass groups here, but it's not really my style. But just sitting out on the grass here (Deak Ference Ter) in the day is fun as it's a huge hangout from Hungarians.


Otkert - This is probably the business club in Budapest on the weekends and if you don't have bottle service expect to wait awhile in line.

You can skip the line and get bottle service by making reservations online. The Bottle service is simple, each head that gets VIP has to spend 15,000HUF (Minimum) - We have gone here a bunch and got 4.5L bottles of grey goose for around 210,000HUF ( $980cad) - and just split the costs. The bars pretty big and it gets REALLY busy around 1am. Don't waste your timing going before midnight as it will be dead, unless you want to get in and pay cover without having to wait in line.


The bar is also more classy, not sure how much cover is usually but around 2,000HUF for guys.

The bar is pretty classy, but I guess when you buy 4.5L bottles you can still do whatever the fuck you want.


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Website: http://www.otkert.hu/en

[Kobe]

Restaurants -

Since this thread is mostly guys, it's not classy but the girls working are WOW, This was pretty much everyone's favorite place that I took in Budapest for food..

HOOTERS: - I'm not kidding, the girls here are sooo hot and the food is pretty good, it's americanized and the prices will be the same as Canadian prices but <3
All the girls in the video actually do work there!



Menza - This is a fancier resturant that is pretty famous as well, you will need a reservation for weekends, the food is reasonably priced and pretty good.

website: http://www.menzaetterem.hu/


KNDRY - Steak houses are pretty tough to find in Europe and finding a good steakhouse is pretty difficult, prices here are pretty expensive, expect to spend around $100-$150 a person for dinner but the foods really good. I think the most expensive bill we had here was like $1,600CAD for 13 people, so it adds up for sure...

Website - http://www.knrdy.com/

PRIME - Located a block away from KNDRY this steak house is even better, but more expensive, I think the most expensive dish they have is $250 (It's 4 different peices of steak)

http://www.primerestaurant.hu/

La Pampa Steakhouse - This one is cheaper than the other two and still really good, I'd highly recommend getting wings as an appetizer here as they might be the best ones I've ever tried. Good is still really good here.

http://www.lapampa.hu/

[Kobe]

Hostels -

If your ever travelling and looking for hostels visit - www.hostelbookers.com or www.hostelworld.com - they are the two main websites with great reviews on all hostels, here are the ones I would recommend in Budapest.


I think davidI Should do a review on Tiger Tims hostel the first time I met up with him in Budapest. If he writes it (It will be hilarious) I will post it in here! (if he remembers anything from it, since he never saw a damn thing 1st time he made it to Budapest, He had to go back another time and I had to show him around...


Anyways, the hostels in Budapest are great, they are usually a lot smaller and located in apartment buildings.

RETOX - This is a MASSIVE party hostel, if you want to be drunk non-stop playing drinking games and not remembering anything this is the place to be! I honestly feel sorry for the guys that work here, they are wasted all the time.

Tiger Tims Hostel - This hostel is smaller located in a small apartment building, it's really friendly and where I stayed before I found a place in Budapest, David has stayed here as well, and well he couldn't make it home at night. They have drinking games every night and a free pubcrawl starting at 10PM.

Wombats Hostel - New hostel located on Kiraly Krt, it just opened like 2 years ago and it's the biggest hostel in Budapest, it's really clean and nice inside and the rates are really reasonable (It used to be a hotel) - Great Location and great atmosphere, this is usually where a majority of the females travelling to budapest stay... Just saying....

Carpe Noctem Vitae Hostel - We became good friends with one of the managers here and would go party with the hostel a bunch. There is lots of girls that stay here and they do nightly pubcrawls as well, located in an apartment complex on the main road it's def one of the better ones for sure. The staff is great and seemed everyone that stayed there loved it.

[Kobe]

Other -

If you need more tips on Budapest there is a great English website that has a ton of pointers and reviews for tons of the places.

www.welovebudapest.com

There is an article we did for the website

[Kobe]

Just in case -

[FixedGear]

Good review. I've been there and it's an awesome city. City park is great, also that island in the river - rent one of those2 person bikemobiles and you can cruise around on it drinking beer LOL

[idriveabox]

Awesome review, heading there in April (and Croatia).

[davidI]

Nice work! I still haven't done a blog post about Hungary either so I may "borrow"some of your material.

I'll work on a review of Tiger Tims and Hooters for you. Fröccsterasz looks sweet - can't believe I get there (was it open when I visited?)

[BMDUBS]

Awesome post! Being Hungarian and having been to Budapest I can pretty much vouch for all the city sights etc...

Unfortunately the last time I was in Budapest was in 2007 and never really got a chance to do any of the night life/night club stuff. Budapest has some really beautiful women so that's a huge regret.

Maybe one day I will get a chance to head back there with some friends and experience the night life...

[Feruk]

Great review. Budapest is by far my favorite city in Europe. It's too bad when people think of Europe that Budapest isn't on top of their list. Actually... it's not, let them go to shitty Italy or Prague instead and cut down on dumb tourists in Budapest.

You should add something on the outdoor back alley bars in the Jewish district.

Mmm I miss goulash.

[adamc]

Oh boy, I had many, many drunken nights at Szimpla.

Lived in Pest for a couple months, wonderful city. Great thread, thanks for posting.

[Kobe]

Originally posted by davidI
Nice work! I still haven't done a blog post about Hungary either so I may &quot;borrow&quot;some of your material.

I'll work on a review of Tiger Tims and Hooters for you. Fröccsterasz looks sweet - can't believe I get there (was it open when I visited?)

Haha, No it opened up afterwards, I think it was getting renovated when you where there. Let me take care of hooters I'm def going to do that one today..

Originally posted by Feruk
Great review. Budapest is by far my favorite city in Europe. It's too bad when people think of Europe that Budapest isn't on top of their list. Actually... it's not, let them go to shitty Italy or Prague instead and cut down on dumb tourists in Budapest.

You should add something on the outdoor back alley bars in the Jewish district.

Mmm I miss goulash.

Yah it's has really picked up in the last year, and the prices have also really gone up. You could really tell the difference from the 1st summer and second that I spent there on tourists + prices.

Yah I loved Goulash but wasn't a big fan of Langos.

[Perceptionist]

Maybe not for everyone, but I did a caving adventure tour when I was there that was really fun. There is a huge network of thermal caves under the city and it was quite the experience climbing all inside them.

I also think Great Market Hall is worth a visit. It's a massive indoor market built in the late 19th century with tons of different food and gift shops.

[Kobe]

Originally posted by Perceptionist
Maybe not for everyone, but I did a caving adventure tour when I was there that was really fun. There is a huge network of thermal caves under the city and it was quite the experience climbing all inside them.

I also think Great Market Hall is worth a visit. It's a massive indoor market built in the late 19th century with tons of different food and gift shops.

Yah Caving was one of the best things I did in budapest, I did it in Slovania as well, and the Budapest one was 100X better. The market is pretty cool, I would go there and buy meats a lot (since the ones in the stores sucked)


I'll try to update a few places today but I realized it's taking a ton of time so I might just post some links + some info on each place.