Is Budapest Still a Low-Cost Destination?

and two shots of apricot palinka coming right up  oh we've left the dock and it's a beautiful day   to be out here there are two pools in here one  is 36 and the other one is a hot and steamy 40   degrees celsius I think if you want the best view  you really need to come maybe seven seven thirty   in the morning have this whole place to yourself  we don't normally eat a lot of sweets but if we're   gonna have a piece of cake we're gonna go all in  I honestly think that our impression of Budapest   was maybe 10 years out of date of course this city  is absolutely beautiful we've been totally floored   by seeing one gorgeous building after another  and it sure is Lively there's no doubt about   it we've been staying in the famous Jewish  quarter and it's definitely Party Central still the low-cost way to experience Europe  well based on the amount we paid for our   Airbnb I'm not so sure let's find out we're  sharing our highlights from a month here in   Budapest so that covers what we did where  we ate where we stayed and very importantly   how much it all cost and we're gonna give our  totally honest unfiltered opinion is Budapest   still a low-cost destination or is it just as  expensive as everywhere else in Central Europe   before we get too far ahead of ourselves if  you're new to our Channel let's do some quick   intros so I'm Julian this is Stephanie  we've got little Jasper and Huxley down   there the four of us are traveling the world  full time and sharing it as we go [Music]   a little construction going on yeah I  don't know if we're able to walk across [Music] thank you well that was probably the shortest bus ride I've  ever had I think it was less than 30 seconds from   one end of the bridge to the other but we made it  we're on the Buddhist side of the city so we're   staying over on the Press side of the city but  today we wanted to come to the Buddha side because   it's just jam-packed with amazing sights including  the famous Buddha castle which is right at the top   of this hill and I think most people will probably  take the funicular to the top which is just behind   me but because it's us you know we just have  to hike our way to the top I wasn't expecting   this it's like a lovely little green space over  here and we're already starting to get some View it was a relatively small hill to walk  up but I can see why people take the   funicular because it does look like a lot  of fun even if it is a very short ride oh my it's quite something already so I think  this is an indication of what we're going to be   treated to this morning with every step that  I take it's just getting more and more Grand so this impressive building here is  Buddha castle and today it houses the   National Gallery and it looks like it's  got a whole lot of great artwork inside [Music] how can you not feel like a princess  when you get to walk upstairs like these [Music] you can just imagine  how nice it would have been   for royalty to stand here and  soak in these gorgeous views we came here bright and early to avoid the crowds  but guess what so did a lot of other people foreign [Music] I'll be honest there is  a lot of construction happening here it's   fine you still get the experience but  if you're looking to capture certain   Beauty shots you just have to be aware  that there may be some scaffolding up oh wow it is this church is just wonderful  I think it's in a Gothic style and it's   just spectacular I mean this whole area  they've done an amazing job keeping it   well preserved and I guess that's what  all the construction is going on for so what we're looking at is the Matthias  Church which is very old it's actually   from the 13th century and it was actually  used as a mosque for a quick 150 years   and I think what I love the most is the  remarkable colorful tiles on the roof it's   really something we haven't seen in too many  places in Europe and it's absolutely beautiful   along with all the other tourists we are  concluding our visit here to the whole castle   district with the view out of the fisherman's  Bastion now you can buy a ticket and actually   walk along the top of the Bastion and presumably  get an even better view but I think I'm going to   be satisfied with the free view that we're going  to have on the staircase over here it's really   amazing so you do get a really wonderful view  of the Parliament building just over there it's   a really spectacular building but I think if you  want the best view you really need to come maybe   7 7 30 in the morning have this whole place to  yourself well all of that was very hungry work   but fortunately in Budapest you are never far  away from a cafe and a piece of cake foreign so we don't normally eat a lot of sweets but if  we're gonna have a piece of cake we're gonna go   all in we have come to the cafe that is the oldest  in all of Budapest apparently this one used to be   a favorite Empress TC and we're gonna have a think  a very decadent little snack ooh yes please thank   you well this is very exciting so we're splitting  these so 2K is two people but I'm gonna try them   both this one is the very traditional dobos cake  or drum cake which has some layers I believe   of buttercream and then the top is kind of a  hard shell and then the whole thing has been   rolled in some chocolatey bits the hard shell  resists me I'm gonna try the cakey portion first I mean you can't go wrong with that it's  a very chocolatey tasting layer it's very   moist because it's predominantly just kind of an  icing in between and then this is something that   is hard to break okay using my fingers oh it's  like a it's like a very hard caramel topping on   kind of like a wafer and it's really good it's  really sweet the whole thing is quite lovely   and then over here this is the cake that is most  popular from this Cafe and it is really just   cream with a lovely kind of a wafer topping  and the cream is supposed to be very light it's so delicious so it's it is light it's  not too sweet and it's definitely something   that I'm really enjoying because I could  probably eat this whole thing quite easily we saw just how beautiful the city looked  from way up on Castle Hill now we want to   see it from the water so today we're  heading down to the fairy dock area   to take a cruise along the Danube  [Music] okay an underpass perfect down there there's a crossbow come on Jasper well it's not the most pedestrian  friendly section of the waterfront that's for sure thank you so this is definitely a  pretty touristy activity but we're   gonna take the first boat of the  day so hopefully it won't be too   crowded anyway I think it's going  to be a whole lot of fun foreign gate number one oh thank you oh [Music] my goodness hello well this is definitely no Hop On Hop  off bus this is a very nice boat it's   very fresh and new and clean  and it feels almost luxurious   and I can't believe how dog friendly Budapest  has been I mean I was a little worried about   the dogs but we just sauntered on in and  everyone had just huge Smiles for them   we've left the dock and now we've begun our tour  of Budapest from the water from the Danube the   sun is shining the water is sparkling and it's  a beautiful day to be out here oh thank you   wow and I'll take this one thank you our ticket  for the cruise also includes a glass of sparkling   wine and I would say that this is pretty nice  way to start the morning off let's give it a go you know it's not as bad as you  would think for being a freebie   with a cruise ticket it's actually not  bad for for a breakfast wine cheers not bad for a Monday morning Prosecco [Music]   I know that we just saw the castle up  close but seeing it from a distance   like this you can really see  what spectacular building it is   and how amazing is this view of the  parliament buildings from the water   well I think we're arriving at Margaret Island so  this is the main stop on the tour it's a little   island that sits in the the middle of the river  between Buddha and paste and we get to stop at the   island and we can spend 45 minutes or even longer  wandering around and seeing what it has to offer well this is just lovely so this seems  to be a very extensive Parkland with all   kinds of recreational areas I mean people  are biking they're running they're hanging   out just enjoying the space and I  really don't know if we would have   come here if it wasn't for that cruise so  I'm giving top marks to that cruise we saw   the city we had a little Prosecco and now  we get to enjoy this beautiful Green Space it's been very interesting staying in the Jewish  quarter on one hand we're learning some of the   history but on the other hand it is the party  district with all kinds of restaurants and bars so   right now we're on our way to have a bite to eat  and we'll just see what we get up to after that I am very excited about this meal we're about  to try so we've had some snacks since we got   here we had the language that you saw us  have on the very first day we've had some   cakes but now we're about to tuck into a  proper traditional Hungarian meal [Music]   okay thank you [Music] so dog friendly there are some ceiling fans and Jasper is  terrified of fans so he started screaming   right away they have parked us in a lovely  little table far away from the fans and we   can now enjoy a beautiful meal all right  cheers to eating locally oh wow thank you   looks so good so this is a bowl of the famous  chicken paprikash and I have been so excited   to try it so we have a couple beautiful pieces  of chicken here in this quite a deep sauce and   then these beautiful little noodles and they look  like they're gonna go really well dunked right   in this sauce [Music] the sauce is quite subtle  it's really it's quite tasty it's not hot at all   I wasn't really sure what to expect but I think  this is from the sweet paprika instead of a spicy   paprika and then the chicken is so tender look at  all of that sauce and then of course sour cream   we've been learning that you can't really have a  dish without sour cream here oh wow that's so good   so pickles are a and accompaniment to a lot of  the traditional foods here and this is a beautiful   spread of pickles we have some peppers we have  some little cucumber-based pickles and then we   have a little coleslaw and I'm just wondering  what these Peppers May taste like [Music]   they're hot there's a hot pepper that's  good it's not too hard I can manage   foreign coming in strong though you guys know  that we're not really nightlife people but we   figure we should probably go check out one of  the ruin bars that Budapest is so famous for   so that's our next stop we're heading to  actually the most famous Rune bar of all   so here we are at the number one tourist  attraction ruin bar and we are here to   unfashionably early hour but I think that  many people here are really comfortable   with day drinking so it's perfectly fine oh my and  we're not the only tourists with a camera [Music]   sure yeah this is perfect and and the  chair is like perfect okay [Music] two shots of apricot palinka coming right up I always enjoy having a taste  of the local Spirits this one   I'm sensing already it's totally pretty strong yeah it's got that fire water feeling on the  way down but a sweet finish so apricot very nice   foreign [Music]   's a little but uh it tastes really nice even  though it's so early I'm actually glad that we're   here in the daytime instead of the nighttime  because you can really see all the details   someone has done an incredible job taking just an  abandoned worn out run down space and turning it   into this incredible meeting place for people  we've got a band playing drinks are flowing   there's all kinds of creative stuff everywhere  it's very inspired as a as an environment going   to thermal baths is a huge part of the culture  in Budapest and we had quite a few bath houses   to choose from in the end we decided to go with  one that's supposed to be the most beautiful   it's the Gellert baths from the early 1900s and  it's done up in a really spectacular arnugo Style   the Gellert fast right over there [Music]   I feel like I'm going to be properly  inducted into Budapest culture today I feel like I'm in an opera house  it's so ornate in here foreign [Music] there we go I decided to go for the full experience  and get a little cabin for changing in   this place is huge and it's just the  changing room okay this is our cabin   so it's like a little closet so technically  this is supposed to be for one person but   I understand that even families will use them  so I think it's definitely enough room for two wow just look at this place this is super neat oh and  they've got the roof open too now this is really impressive there are two  pools in here of two different temperatures   one is 36 and the other one is a  hot and steamy 40 degrees celsius   maybe I'll warm things up with a 36  and then dip a toe in the 40 degree   closer and here we've reached the outdoor baths  and I have to say this has got to be the most   beautiful outdoor pool that I've ever seen  there's definitely enough here to keep us busy   for the day so we hope you enjoyed our tour and  now it's time for us to Jump Right In The Water next up is our Airbnb and to be honest I still  haven't decided whether it was a really great idea   to stay in the center of the city or if it was  a really bad idea so on one hand we have really   great access to all of the sites around town it's  very easy to walk anywhere we want to go and there   are lots of great restaurants around here on the  other hand this really is Party Central so it's   quite busy it's quite noisy and when we go to  walk the dogs at say 6 30 in the morning we're   often seeing a lot of leftovers from the night  before this is our building here and I would say   it's pretty representative of the buildings in  the area it is a little run down and I feel like   there are not a lot of purely residential units  I think that a lot of the spaces are actually   for short-term rentals so there's a lot of  traffic going in and out all the time hello   thank you I do like to have a positive  attitude about all of the places that   we stay in but I don't really think there  are two ways about it with this place it's   not very well maintained so everything is a  little falling apart dirty just in rough shape unfortunately the inside is completely  different story come on guys now this I think is not bad at all it is  a brand new renovated space it's been put   together with a lot of care a lot of attention  to detail we've got this great big living room   space here there's tons of natural light and of  course we've got this app absolutely enormous   couch that looks like it was made for Giants  the kitchen is pretty compact but it does cover   off all the basics certainly everything we  needed to do some cooking while we were here   there's a nice little bedroom in the back and one  of the things that we really appreciated when we   arrived were all the small touches so the host  had left some treats in the fridge including some   wine there were some little chocolates on the  bed so those are the little things that really   get those five star reviews now if you want to  see the complete tour of this Airbnb including   all the little quirks and little details you can  check out our first day in Budapest video where   we go through the whole thing all right down to  business let's talk cost for our month in Budapest   of course the reason we came here was to get out  and see the city so we'll kick things off with   entertainment so for entertainment we did that  really fun Cruise which I thought was a very good   price it was I went to the synagogue and then the  two of us went to the bath so all of that added up   to 115 U.S well that's not bad for mine of course  we rounded that out with a lot of free activities   like going to Castle Hill going to Central Market  so On a related note our transfer rotation this   came in at 65 USD and that actually included  our train ride all the way over from Bratislava   which was just thirty dollars for the two of us we  also took a few cab rides and used public transit   but generally we were able to walk to most of the  places we want to go to because of course we have   this wonderful central location okay dining out  this is really to me another form of entertainment   it sure is so we tended to have a snack or a meal  out every couple of days we definitely didn't go   out every single day because I think that would  really add up here yes we did have some local food   but we also found we got into Middle Eastern  food there are some excellent Middle Eastern   restaurants here so all of that added up to 325  for the month okay and then of course we spent   money on groceries yes so that's another 3.95 for  cooking our meals at home and I'd say the price of   groceries was just a little cheaper than what we  saw in Prague Indiana but not really by much no   no really by much okay so the next category our  Airbnb this is I would say a very nice apartment   and it is in an extremely central location even  so was it worth a whopping 2400 us a month I mean   that seems incredibly steep to me in fact it's  the highest amount we've paid anywhere in four   years of travel that is both true and extremely  shocking and mostly because we came here thinking   that Budapest was really going to be a low-cost  destination it was going to help us balance out   the amount that we were spending in Prague and in  Vienna it didn't turn out to be the case at all   yeah now of course we would have paid less if we  stayed in a less nice apartment or if we weren't   in such a prime location or maybe if we were here  in the shoulder season or possibly if we weren't   traveling with these two dogs but you know here we  are and I think that helps answer the question of   whether Budapest is still a low-cost destination  not really so if you are coming here for a cheeky   weekend and what you really care about is the  price of beer and the price of street food sure   yes maybe it can be a lower cost alternative to  Vienna or to Prague but otherwise between the huge   amount of Tourism here and all the inflation  it really isn't the place to come if you're   looking to save money not at all so our total  for the month came in at a really substantial 3   300 and of course a lot of that was the cost of  the Airbnb it was now if you're looking for an   alternative to the bigger cities in Central Europe  I think we could recommend giving brass lava yes   absolutely it's a lot quieter than Budapest but I  think that's the charm of the place although I'll   say we were a little worried about it being too  quiet when we first arrived but you can see for   yourself by checking out our next video right over  here having been to the old towns of Prague and   Vienna just in the last few weeks I have to say  this little town acrosava it's a refreshing change [Music] so I'm definitely getting that Europe  Springtime kind of vibe I definitely want to be   spending my days on a patio soaking in  all this gorgeous architecture foreign

Channel: Our Freedom Years

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Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023