BUDAPEST · HUNGARY
Thermal baths, ruin bars, a river full of light.
Two cities on two banks of the Danube: hilly Buda with its castle and bath houses, flat Pest with its grand boulevards and candle-lit ruin bars. River cruises, thermal spas, walking tours and the day trips up the Danube Bend.
Only in Budapest
Three things you can only really do here.
Plenty of cities have a river, a spa and a late-night bar. Almost none let you soak in a five-hundred-year-old bathhouse, watch a floodlit Parliament drift past your boat, and drink the night away in a building left for ruins.
A capital built on hot springs
Bathe Where the City Bathes
Budapest sits on more than a hundred thermal springs, and has done its bathing in public for two thousand years. Spend an afternoon in the lemon-yellow Neo-Baroque palace of Szechenyi, the Art Nouveau halls of Gellert, or a low Ottoman dome at Rudas where the water has run hot since the 1500s. No other capital soaks like this.
- 1 Budapest: Széchenyi Spa Day Ticket with Optional Upgrades
- 2 Budapest: Full-Day Gellért Spa Ticket
- 3 Budapest: Mandala Day Spa & Luxury Pool Experience
When the lights come on
Sail a Floodlit Parliament
After dark the Danube becomes the best seat in Budapest. The Parliament, the castle and the Chain Bridge all light up gold and slide past the deck of an evening boat, one bank Buda, the other Pest. The riverfront here is a UNESCO panorama, and the water is where you see all of it at once.
- 1 Budapest: City Highlights Cruise with Welcome Drink
- 2 Budapest: Unlimited Prosecco, Beer and Aperol Spritz Cruise
- 3 Budapest: Nighttime or Daytime Sightseeing Cruise
Bars in the ruins
Drink in a Crumbling Courtyard
In the old Jewish Quarter, condemned buildings were filled with flea-market furniture and string lights and left to become bars. Szimpla Kert started it; now whole blocks of District VII drink in candle-lit ruins among bathtub sofas and a Trabant turned into a booth. The night out Budapest invented.
- 1 Budapest: Unlimited Prosecco, Beer and Aperol Spritz Cruise
- 2 Budapest: Unlimited Prosecco, Beer & Aperol Spritz Cruise
- 3 Budapest: Bar Crawl with a Local Guide
Start here
If you book one thing in Budapest.
The single most popular experience in the city right now. If you only lock in one thing before you fly, this is the safe bet.
The classics
Budapest's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
Bath-house entries, Danube cruises, Parliament tours and the food halls. The things most travellers book before they land.
Where to begin
The experiences a Budapest trip is built around.
The baths, the river, the ruin bars, the castle hill, the wine and the day trips up the Danube. The handful of things most visits are planned around, and the best of each.
The first question
Buda, or Pest?
They were two separate cities until 1873, and Budapest still feels like it. The hills, the castle and the baths sit on the Buda bank; the boulevards, the basilica and the nightlife on the Pest bank; the Danube runs between. Here is how the two halves differ, and what each one is for.
A city you can soak in
Spend an afternoon in the water.
Hot springs rise under the whole city, and Budapest has bathed in them for two thousand years. Float in the steaming outdoor pools of Szechenyi while old men play chess on the surface, sink into the Art Nouveau halls of Gellert, or duck under the centuries-old Ottoman dome at Rudas as the light falls through coloured glass. Bring a swimsuit and lose a couple of hours.
Read the guide: the thermal baths →After dark in District VII
The bars built in the ruins.
When the old Jewish Quarter emptied out, its condemned buildings filled with flea-market sofas, string lights and a Trabant turned into a seat, and reopened as bars. Szimpla Kert was the first; now whole courtyards of crumbling District VII drink late into the night. A pub crawl is the easy way in, a local guide the better one.
See the ruin bar & pub crawls →One river, two cities
The Danube runs straight through the middle.
Stand on the Chain Bridge at dusk and you can see the whole of Budapest line up: the castle and the Bastion lit on the Buda hills, the Parliament glowing on the Pest bank, the river carrying the reflection of both. Eight bridges hold the two halves together, and the finest way to take it in is from the water.
Browse Danube cruises →The Hungarian table
Tokaji, paprika and a cellar tasting.
Hungary has been making wine for a thousand years, and Budapest is where you taste it: sweet golden Tokaji, the deep reds of Eger, a glass of fizzy fröccs on a terrace. Pair it with a food tour through the cast-iron Great Market Hall, a bowl of goulash and a slab of chimney cake still warm from the spit.
- 1 Countryside Half-day Gastro-Wine Tour from Budapest Meal & pickup
- 2 Budapest Centre Food Tour with 10+ Tastings, Wine & Street Food
- 3 Budapest: Wine, Cheese, and Charcuterie Tasting
When the lights come on
The Danube is the best seat after dark.
As the sun drops, the floodlights come up and the riverbank turns gold: the Parliament, the castle, the Bastion and the Chain Bridge all lit at once. Drift through it with a glass of wine on an evening cruise, a candle-lit dinner sailing, or a prosecco boat that keeps going long after the views. The whole UNESCO panorama, from the middle of the river.
See all 93 Danube cruises →By landmark
Pick a corner of the city.
Buda Castle Hill for the history and the view. The Parliament for the riverfront. The baths for an afternoon in the water. The Jewish Quarter for the great synagogue and the ruin bars. St Stephen's for the rooftop, and the Danube Bend for a day out of town.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
A cruise if you want the river. A bath house if you want to do nothing at all. A walking tour for the history, a cellar for the evening. Plus food halls, ruin-bar crawls, opera nights and the caves that run under the Buda hills.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Budapest? A long weekend that takes in both banks, an afternoon in the baths and a trip up the river.
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