Things to do in Budapest

Budapest is two cities the Danube joined in 1873: Buda's hills on one bank, Pest's grid on the other. The Chain Bridge came first. It opened in 1849, was blown up in 1945 and rebuilt by 1949.

Buda's hill, Pest's grid

Castle Hill carries the royal palace and Matthias Church. The Fisherman's Bastion beside it looks medieval but was built between 1895 and 1902, purely for the view. Pest spreads flat below, its boulevards meeting at the neo-Gothic Parliament, finished in 1902.

• Castle Hill — reached by funicular or on foot, the whole city laid out below it.
• The Parliament — river-front, floodlit at night, with tours run in timed groups.
• Great Market Hall — the iron-roofed hall on the Pest side, paprika and lace on the upper floor.
• The Jewish Quarter — the Great Synagogue, and ruin bars grown out of derelict courtyards around it.

Water, and what runs on it

Budapest sits on more than a hundred thermal springs. Two bathhouses carry the name abroad: Széchenyi, opened in 1913, keeps its outdoor pool near 38C year-round. Gellért, finished in 1918, runs cooler pools alongside the hot ones under Art Nouveau tile.

Evening river cruises pass both banks lit up, the cheapest hour most people spend on the water here.

Out along the river

The Danube Bend is the day trip booked from here.

• Szentendre — the nearest stop, an artists' town with a Serbian-Orthodox quarter.
• Visegrád — a ruined hilltop citadel over the river's tightest curve.
• Esztergom — Hungary's first capital, and its largest church, on the border with Slovakia.

Practical

• Weather. July highs average around 27C and push past 32 in a heatwave; January hovers just above freezing, with grey skies more often than snow.
• From the airport. The 100E express bus reaches the centre in about forty minutes for roughly 2,200 forints; the local bus-and-metro combination costs a fraction of that.
• Baths etiquette. Bring a towel and flip-flops or rent them there; swimming caps are required in some indoor pools.
• Ruin bars. Open into the small hours in the Jewish Quarter, quieter before ten.
• Tipping. Ten per cent is standard in restaurants, added if not already on the bill.
• Booking ahead. Parliament tours and the popular baths on weekends both sell out.