Budapest: The Don'ts of Budapest, Hungary

hey there fellow travelers mark here with wolters world today we're in budapest hungary you've got the cast up on the hill behind me you've got amazing architecture out the city you have a great thing and tons of stuff to do when you are here in budapest but you know me i like to talk about the don'ts of when you go places and so today what we have for you are the don'ts of visiting budapest and my first known for visiting budapest is don't forget to look up while you wander anyone that likes architecture it's a dream city for them this is like the secondary capital the austrian hungarian empire so a lot of the emperor's money came in i mean check out the castle behind me i mean it's unbelievable but it's not just limited to the castle and the main pedestrian streets and stuff like that no the whole city has just amazing architecture that you can check out whether you're yes going up to the castle going to san mateo's church up there and walking around the castle district or coming downtown and seeing the buildings saint stephen's basilica or saint stephens they have saint stephen's hand it's a beautiful church when you walk around you'll see architecture after architecture after architecture that's just wonderful so make sure you don't just stay on the pedestrian street and then walk across the chain bridge and then go up to the castle and that's all you do go and explore the city because the architecture everywhere you go is just so cool so make sure you're not just on your phone watching the maps just look up wander around get a little lost find some of these great buildings here and you will enjoy that and it's funny that i talk about wandering around and getting lost and seeing all the architecture when the second don't i have for you is don't be lackadaisical with your safety here in budapest now budapest doesn't necessarily have the greatest reputation for being the safest city in europe and things like that now i'll be honest with you i've been coming here for 20 years and this city has made a remarkable change especially even the last 10 5 to 10 years it's got a lot safer a lot less scams and stuff like that but you do need to pay attention you know if you're coming out late night that person wants to help you probably isn't looking out for your best interest the taxi drivers i mean i'll do a whole don'ts about them but you do need to be careful because it's a big city so when you're up there by the castle when there's a change in the garden all those people around yeah i mean that's pickpocket like that's just easy pickings there or maybe when you're on the pedestrian street you'll see that okay so you do need to be careful especially if you're gonna be here on the weekends a lot of people come here on the weekends for partying because it's a very affordable place to be lots of good drinks and clubs and stuff like that so it can be a little bit rough with some of the tourists that do come here so do have a heads up for it but honestly probably the one way you'll probably get the easiest way to get your money taken from you with you and i don't even realize you did something wrong at first is my third dome don't forget to validate your metro ticket when you get into the metro so when you go and take the metro and the public transportation here goes all over the city so they got the trams there's a tram line behind me you might see some go by there's buses you got the metro it's one of the oldest in europe i mean it's cool to take and stuff like that but don't forget to validate that ticket so you'll buy the ticket at the ticket machine and then you'll see this orange box there and you'll just stamp it and go in there's so many different tickets that you can buy and stuff like that it can get a little confusing so they have ticket people there that check do you have a stamp ticket do you have a stamp ticket and they're all over the place this isn't like vienna where you like walk on and like oh no one will catch me no they've got tons of people checking so don't get a spot on the spot fine for not having a validated ticket or you try to use an old ticket that's not gonna work so just get like the 24-hour ticket or the 72-hour ticket get something like that so you don't have to worry about you just hop on show go and you're good to go okay now my fourth don't for you is don't forget to bring your swimsuit look this city has been famous for centuries for the waters here they have all kinds of bath houses here you can go to and yes there's a big huge ones you can go to i'm sure i'm showing pictures in the background right now you have those you can go to but the thing is they're smaller ones as well so if you don't want to have you and your 200 closest friends somebody together they have smaller ones but i love those things you get massages there they have warm pools cold pools just normal pools out especially if you're here in the summer time to go to those it's just like oh let me enjoy they are really great and they're for all ages so definitely go but don't forget you gotta bring your swim trunks okay so make sure you have something to go and enjoy the bath houses here because honestly it's one of my favorite parts of the city now another one of my old favorite parts of the city was actually my next stone is don't forget to bring some going out clothes this city is famous for its nightlife for good reason no matter what you want to do they're going to have something for you if you want bars if you want clubs if you want concerts you want classical concerts rock concerts rave kind of things they've got everything for everybody at night you want to sit on a square and drink some palinkas that's the local schnapps or some of the red what the good wine they have here that they make in hungary you can do that and sit back and relax by saying stephen's basilica just watch the people go by i mean it's just awesome but there's so much nightlife and so much to do in the evening that you don't have to worry about it but i will say is you might want to bring more than just your t-shirt and a pair of shorts because you want to go out and go to some of the nicer clubs they might ask you to look a little bit nicer okay now my next stone for you has to do with the taxis and i'm just going to tell you this don't use the taxis unless you have to because there's so many issues that tourists have had with the taxis i know we came in on the train here the guy's like yeah 20 euros i'm like 20 euros where are we going like edgar or something like that what are you talking about guys like well then i guess you're not going anywhere i'm like are you kidding me it's like a three euro taxi ride we want to go you have a lot of uh frustration with the taxi drivers here sometimes my students i have students that are here right now and they've been telling me their stories that taxis are refusing to take them places so you do need to have a heads up and you'll see the taxis here another don't for the taxis is don't think all the taxes are the same okay you'll see what are called freelance taxis it actually says freelancer on the side and on the top of the yellow cab it just says taxi like black sign with taxi on it what i recommend is use one that actually has a company name on the top and a company logo on the side those ones tend to be more on the up and up also those ones you can get an app on your phone and just do it that way okay so you can use that to get around okay because don't think all the taxis are the same also i know a lot of people think well i don't use taxes anymore i use uber well don't expect to use uber when you're here it's actually not in the city anymore even though you wish it would be the uber is not here there's no lift none of those things right now so just get the app for the taxis and use that if you do need to use them or if you're going to be going places from your hotel or coming from the airport maybe a range with your hotel transport to make life a lot easier because they probably are going to do they'll have better luck finding a good respectable taxi for you then probably you will now one of the little things that some people like to point out to me when i'm here is you know i keep saying budapest budapest budapest that's how we say it in english but the thing is don't call it budapest to the locals because for the locals it's budapest like an sh at the end budapest okay so just letting you know for that one if you want to be like cool with the locals it's one of the things you can do and i guess kind of going along with that silliness is don't confuse bucharest which is in romania with budapest which is here in hungary where i am now i've been to both places budapest is way better for tourists than bucharest no offense romania there's some cool stuff in bucharest but budapest is definitely definitely a much different city than bucharest and the locals won't really be like too happy with you if you do call it bucharest so remember you're in budapest not budka rest all right now another thing with this budapest kind of thing is what you need to realize is over there on the hill that's buddha this side of the river is peshed okay and the thing is well the donut i have for that is don't think they're the same though they're one city now there's definitely a different vibe in each one over there on the castle in the buda side yes you have the castle the church over there seems like nicer hotels and things like that but there's very little shopping there's a lot fewer restaurants and stuff like that but it is kind of a much more calm setting over there whereas here on the pesh side man this is where the pedestrian streets are the shopping streets are a lot of the clubs and bars and stuff like that this has got more of the action over here so it's more like during the day you're kind of enjoying over there and then tonight you come over to pest okay so just want to give you a heads up for that as that could influence where you stay and where you pick your apartments and stuff like that or your hotel now my next stone for you is if you're going to be going up the hill you'll notice that the castle's way up there and you're like do i have to walk up there no you don't have to walk up there there's a funicular that goes up and my dope for the funicular is don't worry about the weight yes it takes some time to wait for the funicus to come up and down and take people up and there probably will be a long line but it takes you right up there drops you off right at the castle and you're good to go so don't worry it's worth the wait now if you don't want to do the weight you'll see there's like golf carts like extended golf carts that will offer you like oh hey we have a hop on hop off service we'll take you up there we'll bring you back my don't for that is don't expect to get up and down as quick as you think you would hence why i recommend taking the funicular okay because when you go up they leave when the golf cart's full they take you up there and they go every five to ten minutes kind of and the thing is though if you're here busy season yeah there's like 30 people waiting to get that next mini golf cart kind of thing to go back down you might wait for two or three or four turns before you can actually get on one and i did see quite a few tourists getting upset with each other on there so do have a heads up for that also if you're going to take the little golf cart thing up there or you know the little shuttle up there if you're sitting on the back don't freak out because the cars are coming up with you like this you're like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die and then they pull over to the side so just have a heads up now when you are up there on the castle there are museums up there all kinds of stuff my next jump for you would be don't feel that you have to go to all the museums up on the castle hill okay up by the castle or in the castle because some of them i mean they're good but some of them are a little bit too extensive if you know what i mean so have a heads up for that but definitely you want to make sure you go over to matthias's church and you see the look out there it is gorgeous that's your instagram budapest kind of thing because from there you can look over and remember i talked about the architecture the coolest architectural feature of the city is the parliament the hungarian parliament looks like it's straight out of some like old batman movie it is so cool probably one of the coolest definitely the coolest parliament i've seen in the world but it is awesome you get a great view from up there so definitely maybe just use the cass area to explore but it is kind of a neat place to go so definitely go up there another museum i definitely say to don't skip i guess i would say is don't skip the house of terror now the house of terror i know when i first say it i'm like no no no it's not a halloween thing the house of terror is actually kind of a museum of terror in terms of the fascists the communists when they ran hungry what are all the horrible things they did and so you start to understand more about hungarian history and what went on here and you really learn a lot when you're there i've been there a few times it can be very moving and really informational they got all kinds of stuff to help you out in english and hungarian if you want hungarian too but it is really really an amazing museum so if you're going to go to one museum here that's the one you don't skip go to the house of terror okay now my next stone for you is when you come to budapest most people just kind of stay in this historic area like i said they go from the castle to saint stephen's basilica and that's about it maybe walking on the pedestrian street my don't for that is you know i said don't forget to wander but don't forget to explore outside of budapest itself there are some pretty cool day trips you can go to agar and which is about two and a half hours on the train i know it seems long but it's not that long if you got your own car it's a lot faster to get out there and you can see the the castle ruins there and the cute city the good cute village town i don't know it's about the town size kind of thing to see another place also there's roman ruins just outside the city you can see when you're here do you know there's actually underground caves thermal caves underneath here yeah you can go down there and see the caves i mean it's just really a cool thing and so just make sure you don't just see you know the things you see from outside going to see more outside the city and speaking of little hidden things if you're walking around and you get a chance to peek in some of these buildings like just going into the entryway you are going to see some of the coolest architecture inside just like the waiting area kind of thing like oh man look at that look at that because it is such great architecture outside of the buildings but also inside so if you can see some of those like atriums and stuff definitely go check it out totally cool the foyers totally awesome now my next couple donuts actually deal with the food when you're here one donut is don't be anti-paprika okay don't be anti-peppers okay look the hungarians love peppers they love paprika they love that spice you'll see a lot of your food in a lot of your sauces a lot of your soups will have a red tinge to it that's because of the paprika and more paprika and maybe a side of paprika that you can put in two more put out more paprika they love it here and it's in not all of the hungarian foods here but a lot of them okay don't be surprised now there is great food and you want to have some so make sure you have the goulash you have the chicken paprikash okay you're going to have all this really good meat with a cream based paprika sauce and pepper sauce and you'll have that but the thing is it's really good but i will say this don't feel bad if you get burned out of it because it can be a bit much okay don't be shocked if you think you see more italian restaurants here in budapest then you see hungarian restaurants here and it is crazy there's italian places all over the place so if you do get tired of the paprika you have other options okay but don't get tired of it go and enjoy the local food because it's so good and if you don't want that get the pancakes with meat inside that's so good oh and another don't don't skip dessert oh man the sponge cake oh my god the sponge cake it's like a trifle kind of thing with a sponge and cream and sponge oh it's so good so good i ate it too fast i didn't get the picture so i'm sorry for that but i did get pictures and video of the stresses i had that's here they make awesome strudel when you're here it is so good so don't skip out of the desert okay and what's cool is you don't have to worry about skipping down the desert because don't think you're gonna bust your budget when you come here to budapest now i'm not saying budapest is super cheap no like the rest of hungary that's pretty super cheap but here in budapest it's an affordable place i find the price is very fair especially for such a cool city with so much to do you actually do your money goes pretty far here so just this matter of like paying attention to the bill to make sure what you're getting is honestly we've had a great time here we haven't spent hardly any money when we've been here so it's been great and that's why i understand why so many tourists come here for a weekend away i see a lot of backpackers here you know like college kids coming to backpacking and buddies coming for their weekend parties and stuff like that because it's cheap there's lots of stuff to do there's a great nightlife all these kind of things it's really great and you don't have to bust your budget so that's awesome and my last note for you is don't expect to use your euros look here in hungary they have the hungarian foreign okay so they have their own currency and though you'll see prices in euros a lot of places not every place takes euros here okay so you're gonna have to get some money out all right now also you may say well i'll just pay with credit card again and i guess that would be another don't don't expect to be able to use your credit card everywhere now a lot of places you can okay but not everywhere so do have a heads up and get some money out and i guess i should probably talk about the don'ts with the money to finish off for real is one don't expect all the exchange houses to do the best job for you make sure you're looking at the exchange rates and the commission to see what gives you the best exchange rate overall that's gonna be important another don't i have for you is don't take the conversion at the atm when you go and you go to the atms you'll put your card in they'll give you these crazy amounts you're like no no other amounts to get them out that you really will actually use like you know take out like a hundred euros worth of stuff instead take that out and then they're gonna what they're gonna do is they're gonna say hey do you wanna have that converted to your local currency because you can take it out and we'll charge you in euros for it or we'll charge you in dollars for it do not do that always decline the conversion don't do the conversion because they will totally rip you off we're talking like 10 to 20 percent difference in the exchange rates so let your bank back home let them do that not the atm okay so don't mess around with that because that can make this relatively cheap vacation a bit more expensive all right so i hope this helps you know a little bit more about coming to budapest what you don't do when you're here but what you don't not do when you're here as well huh we like to keep it positive here in walters world anyway i got to take off i've had a great time here in budapest i hope you do too if you want to learn more we got a video on the mistakes of budapest that people make we've got a video on what to eat when you're here we've got what you should know before you go to hungary all kinds of stuff on our website at waltersworld.com we're also on twitter facebook instagram youtube and we really appreciate your like subscriptions we hope you have a great time here in budapest but we know you will even if you're anti-paprika like my dad oh my god i can't bring my dad here because he hates peppers and i'm just like i ain't gonna deal with that anyway bye from budapest oh hey if you like travel videos like this why don't you hit that subscribe button we put out new travel videos every wednesday and saturday and we really appreciate all the likes and subscriptions and comments and stuff like that and if you've got other don'ts for budapest definitely put in the comment section below so we can help out other travelers all right so thank you very much and a special thank you to our patrons on patreon who make travel videos like this possible if you want to figure out how you can or find out how you can help us keep making honest travel videos go to patreon.com walters world to find out more and i'll say bye from budapest or sorry budapest bye

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 122,835

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Keywords: travel, europe, wolters world, travel advice, tourist attractions, travel vlogger, honest travel, Walters World

Id: WTwma8Nb0kk

Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021