An Unexpected And Entirely Enjoyable Stay In Budapest

Hello everyone! We spent almost a week in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. We originally had planned on spending one full day in Budapest on our way from Lake Balaton to Nagymaros, a little town on the Danube in Hungary. Unfortunately, the Nagymaros rental property was a disaster and we decided to go spend our remaining four days somewhere else. After some on-the-fly decision making (we had to get out of that other place), we decided that it would be super fun to go back to Budapest and enjoy city life for a few days!

Budapest is a super lively city! We loved it when we first visited in 2015, and we fell in love with it even more this time around. The city is full of cafes, restaurants, historical sites, churches, museums, parks and lots of playgrounds.

One amazing thing about Budapest is how easy it is to get around. There are bus, tram, and metro stations everywhere, and they’re well signed and easy to use. We bought an inexpensive 72-hour all-transit ticket and could easily move around the city on public transit. We basically could get anywhere in the city with only two trams, or two buses, or a metro, or a mix of these. We think Budapest might be the city with the best public transit of all the places we’ve visited!

Here’s what we did during our time in Budapest:

• We visited Buda Castle twice. The first time we visited in the late afternoon, hoping to see the sunset from atop Fisherman’s Bastion. The view from the castle is spectacular! You can see the Danube river, the Parliament, the iconic stone bridge, the basilica, and a lot more. It looks even better at sunset when it all is lit up in warm orange light. We did see the sunset, along with what felt like thousands of other people. On that visit, we also walked around Buda Hill, found some cannons and artillery guns and had a blast playing on them. Our second time visiting the castle, we were there around 8am to avoid the crowds and it was a totally different experience! There were almost zero people up there and we could freely explore the area without worrying about the kids running around. The light was also beautiful because of the low morning sun. We would recommend visiting the castle early; by the time we were leaving the grounds around 9-9:30, the first tour buses had rolled in.

 

• We walked along the Danube and enjoyed watching Budapest’s iconic yellow trams go by. Along the river there are statues, with the most famous being the “Shoes on the Danube Bank,” which honors the people who were killed on the banks of the river during World War II. We visited this memorial in 2015 and didn’t get to it this time. We did find the sculpture of a boy sitting on the railings next to the train tracks and Hugo really enjoyed looking at it!

• We went to Margaret Island—a pedestrian-only island in the Danube, which is all green space—to visit the Palatinus Strand, which is a kid-friendly bath. Budapest has many thermal baths, some of which are designed to provide more of an adult spa-type experience. The Palatinus Strand is more like a giant waterpark with many different pools and a few water slides. It is super fun!

• We visited Szimpla Kert, one of the initial “ruin pubs” of Budapest. We learned while we were there that “ruin pubs” are a big hit in the city—they are trendy or artsy bars tucked away inside ruined factories or buildings. Szimpla Kert is a must-see in our opinion—it was inside an old factory without a roof, had maybe six different bars, and was filled with room upon room of crazy funky art. It was an awesome place to grab a beer and the kids were totally entertained checking out all the imaginative and wild art everywhere.

• We went up the Budapest Eye ferris wheel, which was fun for everyone.

 

• We visited Vajdahunyad Castle, which was built in 1896 for an exhibition. It contains elements of 1,000 years of Hungarian architecture and was a really neat place to see (we didn’t go inside; the interior currently houses a museum on agriculture).

• We stopped by a great children’s bookstore in the area of the city where we had stayed in 2015. In fact, we kind of retraced our steps a bit from our last visit and even ate at a delicious restaurant we had eaten 3 years ago—the waitress LOVED hearing this and seeing a picture of Hugo from that visit!

• We visited the Citadel, which is some impressive statues and walls high up on a hill. It is quite a hike to the top of the hill, which overlooks the city. The view is spectacular, but we had forgotten how many stairs it takes to get to the top. We went on a hot afternoon when the kids were already tired, so it was quite the endeavor to get to the top (we ended up with kids on our shoulders for much of the uphill!). On the way up, though, we discovered an awesome brand-new playground with tons of long slides built into the steep hillside. (Meaning our kids spent all their remaining energy on the playground and we had to carry them after that!)

We also just spent time checking out and enjoying the city. It’s just a fun city to experience. We really like Budapest and would highly recommend it!