Things to Do in Budapest: 29 Places

The Guided Tour and the Holy Crown

The symbol of the city. It was completed in 1902 after 20 years of work and has 691 rooms. It is 96 metres high, a nod to 896, the year the Magyars are said to have arrived, which is also why nothing in Budapest may be built taller. The architect died before it was finished.

• Guided tour only
• 691 rooms
• Kossuth Lajos tér

Prices, Hours and Why We Did Not Go In

Opened in 1913, one of the largest thermal baths in Europe. The yellow building has indoor and outdoor hot pools, and swimming outside in the steam on a cold day is the picture everyone knows.

• Weekdays 13,200 Ft
• Mon-Thu 7am-8pm
• City Park

One of the biggest churches in Budapest. Building started in 1851 but the dome collapsed, so it was only finished in 1905. The dome is 96 metres high, the same as the Parliament, meant to show church and state as equals. Inside, the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, Hungary's first king, is kept in a reliquary.

• Dome 96 m
• Terrace daily 9am-7pm
• Lift to the top

The View, and Which Part Is Free

The bastion takes its name from the fish market that stood here in the Middle Ages. Its seven towers stand for the seven Magyar tribes, and together with the Castle District it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The equestrian statue next to it is King Stephen, who brought Christianity to Hungary.

• Lower terraces free
• Upper towers ticketed
• Castle District

The grandest building on the hill: the former royal palace, its museums and wide courtyards facing the Danube. Walking around the courtyards and looking over to Pest costs nothing.

• Courtyards free
• Gallery ticketed
• Funicular or uphill walk

Walking from Pest to Buda

The first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest. Work began in 1840 and took nine years; the parts were made in Britain and assembled here.

• Lit up at night
• Funicular at the Buda end

Paprika, Souvenirs and Food Upstairs

The biggest and oldest covered market in Budapest, opened in 1897 and still busy. You get fruit, cured meats, every kind of paprika and handmade souvenirs downstairs, and stalls selling traditional Hungarian dishes upstairs. It was one of the biggest markets we have ever seen.

• Opened 1897
• Food stalls upstairs

In the winter of 1944-45, Jews from Budapest were lined up here, told to take off their shoes, shot and thrown into the river. Shoes were valuable then, which is why they were taken. The iron shoes fixed to the embankment are their memorial, designed by film director Can Togay.

• Holocaust memorial
• South of the Parliament

We Saw Carmina Burana

Opened in 1884 and designed by Miklós Ybl: marble staircases, gold leaf and a powerful acoustic. You can see it on a guided tour of about an hour or buy a ticket for a performance.

• Opened 1884
• Guided tour or a show
• Andrássy Avenue

Built in 1896 for the 1,000th anniversary of the Magyars' arrival. A tall column stands in the middle, with statues of the great figures of Hungarian history in the colonnades around it.

• Built 1896
• End of Andrássy Avenue

The Highest View

The hill is named after Bishop Gellért, who according to legend was put in a barrel and rolled down into the Danube in 1046 for spreading Christianity; his statue holding a cross looks over the city from the slope. The Habsburgs built the Citadella fortress on top in the 1850s, and the Liberty Statue went up in 1947.

• Steps and steep paths
• Go at sunset

The nicest way up to Buda Castle: you board next to the Chain Bridge and are at the top in a few minutes, with Pest opening up behind you.

• Up in a few minutes
• Vintage carriages
• Buda end of the Chain Bridge

Coloured Roof Tiles on Castle Hill

The first church here dates back to 1255 and it changed many times before reaching its current form; it is named after King Matthias, who ruled in the 15th century. Under the Ottomans it was turned into a mosque.

• Ticketed
• Coloured tile roof
• Next to Fisherman's Bastion

The largest synagogue in Europe and the fifth largest in the world, built in 1859 with room for 3,000 people. It houses the Hungarian Jewish Museum, and in the garden stands a metal weeping willow in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

• Ticketed
• Built 1859
• Seats 3,000

City Park is a good place to slow down. In winter the lake becomes an enormous ice rink, the biggest I have ever seen. Vajdahunyad Castle on the lake was first put up in temporary materials for the 1896 millennium celebrations and rebuilt in stone in 1908 because people loved it.

• Courtyard free
• Huge ice rink in winter
• Museum closed Mondays

From the Opera to Heroes' Square

One of the grandest streets in Budapest, often compared to the Champs-Élysées, with the luxury brands lined up. Wealthy families once lived here, which is why the doorways are so big: carriages drove straight into the inner courtyards.

• UNESCO listed
• M1 runs underneath

Continental Europe's Oldest Underground

Opened in 1896, the oldest underground railway in continental Europe, and on the UNESCO list together with Andrássy Avenue. The yellow line runs just below the avenue, with small tiled stations, wooden details and low ceilings, like a museum you ride through.

• Opened 1896
• Regular ticket
• Yellow line

A Car-Free Park in the Danube

A green island in the middle of the Danube, closed to cars, with walking paths, cycle tracks, ruins, a Japanese garden and a musical fountain.

• Car-free
• Musical fountain

The Budapest Underneath Budapest

This is the place from the start of our video, "what if I told you there is a hidden place under Budapest?". The cave was carved by thermal water thousands of years ago and is the longest in the city, like a second Budapest underground.

• Guided tour only
• Formed by thermal water
• Steps and narrow passages

River cruise boats leave from the pier opposite Vigadó Square. The day boats from here start at 11am and run until the evening; most other companies run night cruises.

• Day boats from 11am
• Lights at night
• Vigadó Square

The Bus That Drives into the Danube

Our last tour in Budapest: an amphibious bus that starts as a city tour on land and then drives into the Danube. It combines a sightseeing tour and a river cruise in one ticket, and the splash into the water is great fun.

• From 11,500 Ft
• No tours Tue and Thu
• Széchenyi tér

Where Locals Go

One of the oldest baths in Budapest and a favourite with locals: indoor and outdoor pools, saunas and steam rooms, with water said to help with rheumatism and sore muscles.

• Weekdays 7,000 Ft
• Quieter
• Buda side

An Ottoman Corner of Buda

On the way up, read the street signs: Mecset utca means mosque street and Török utca means Turkish street. Gül Baba, whose real name was Cafer Efendi, was a Bektashi dervish who came to Buda with the Ottomans in 1541; people called him the father of roses because he always wore a rose on his headdress.

• Steep lanes and steps
• Buda, Rose Hill

The Main Shopping Street

The busiest pedestrian shopping street in the city, lined with restaurants, cafés and souvenir shops; one end opens onto Vörösmarty Square.

• Busy pedestrian street
• Souvenirs overpriced

Market Stalls and Gerbeaud

The square where Váci Street begins. When we were there, small market stalls were selling local food and souvenirs. The historic Gerbeaud café is on the corner, and we stopped in for cake.

• Christmas market square
• Top of Váci Street

Go Just for the Ceiling

The interior that impressed us most for its architecture; we liked it so much we went back once more before leaving. Today it is a hotel, with a restaurant and a café inside the arcade and live music in the evenings.

• Free to walk through
• Book the restaurant
• Ferenciek tere

A Library Inside a Palace

The central branch is a former palace. Inside you get painted ceilings, wood-panelled rooms and huge chandeliers, like a film set. Even if you are not there to read, go in and sit for a while.

• Working library
• Keep quiet
• Off the tourist trail

A Passage of Courtyards

We saw the crowd and walked in. It is a long passage of connected courtyards with souvenir stands, restaurants, cafés and play areas for children; walking from one end to the other took us about five minutes.

• Five minutes end to end
• Jewish Quarter

A glass building by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, opened in 2022, with a perforated roof that lets the light fall through the trees. Inside there are interactive exhibitions, workshops and concerts.

• Opened 2022
• Architect Sou Fujimoto
• City Park