What You DIDN'T Know About Budapest | 🇭🇺BUDAPEST TRAVEL GUIDE 🇭🇺

welcome to one of Europe's grandest cities do you know how Budapest God's name the city exists now is pretty young as cities go it's a sprightly 146 years old before that there were three towns here Buddha Oh Buddha and pest which were unified in 1873 today although unified in name the city is divided into two halves by the Danube River the western side of the Danube is known as Buda quiet and residential where you'll find historic sites like buda castle and fisherman's bastion the eastern side is known as pest it's lively and modern the hub of Budapest economy and culture home to the Hungarian Parliament some of Budapest most famous thermal baths ruin bars and everything in between I'm here to explore where the boundaries truly lie in this beautiful city Budapest is unified in name but divided in nature the East the West the Buda the pest two distinct identities on opposite banks of the Danube Wood crossing the river really make the city feel so different and which side of the river would get me under the skin of the real authentic Budapest we explore the hills of Buddha and the streets of pest we meet local people visit amazing places try Hungarian food and a bit of Hungarian alcohol we sample the weird and wonderful nightlife which soaked ourselves in the city and get to the heart of Budapest I came here expecting to find a city divided but what I found was so much greater and so much grander than just two parts of a whole our journey begins at Heathrow Airport and after dropping the car with a handy meet and greet service it was into a lounge for a light lunch before boarding with unlimited food and free Wi-Fi I definitely recommend a lounge before a flight you can book yours with the holiday extras app soon enough we were on the plane and after a two and a half hour flight we touched down in Budapest to get into town from the airport I'd advise pre-booking an airport transfer with holiday extras the door-to-door service really is the most hassle-free option so after a good night's sleep we were ready to start exploring the city our first stop the hills of Buda which meant crossing the river Danube say genie chain bridge is to Budapest or tower bridges to London or Brooklyn Bridge is to New York it's still a major crossing for the city but it's also an iconic a public landmark and a popular item on the tourist checklist designed by Englishman William C Annie Clark it opened in 18-49 and was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in all of Hungary in World War two it was destroyed by retreating German forces during the siege of Budapest and only the towers remained however it was rebuilt and opened again in 1949 exactly 100 years after its inauguration if you're walking across the bridge from the pasture side towards Buda like us you'll arrive at the base of the Buda vari she clove funicular railway line which takes tourists up the hill to Buda Castle you can purchase tickets at the station but be warned in peak summer season the queue can stretch back quite away and there's no shade to speak of so don't forget your sunscreen cable cars depart every 10 minutes and take just a few minutes to reach the top so I've just taken the funicular up from the sea teeny Chain Bridge up to the castle which is great because it's boiling hot and it means that we didn't have to walk it but we also get to enjoy the view from up here as well and what an incredible view it is from this height the walls of the castle grounds treat you to a spectacular look back across the eastern side of the city it's a fact that's not lost on Budapest tourist population every vantage point was packed with people hunting for the perfect photo of the city skyline don't worry though with a little patience there's plenty of opportunity to get yourself a great photo - from up at the heights of Buda Castle looking back over the Danube you can really appreciate the difference between the two sides of the city Pest is every part the modern European capital dense busy lively but Buda feels much karma easygoing and significantly less modernized like so much of Budapest the castle grounds are a beautiful mix of medieval baroque and neoclassical design and I'd recommend anyone visiting to explore fully before moving on so we just moved on from buda castle which is beautiful or you could spend the entire day here I personally wouldn't have time for that because we're just about to move on to Fisherman's Bastion we're gonna grab some lunch and yeah enjoy the architecture fisherman's bastion is one of the finest examples of the grandeur that Budapest does so well built around the Roman Catholic Matthias Church the bastion is a neo-gothic Terrace that gives you more great views back across the river and it's only a 5-10 minutes walk away from Buda Castle so you can do them both from the same day so why the fishermen's Bastion well it looks directly over an area called busy varnish or water town in medieval times this was where the city's fishermen lived and then when the bastion was complete it was placed under the protection of the fisherman's guild the bastion was built with views in mind and it never actually got used as a defensive structure it might look hundreds of years old but it was only completed in 1902 the viewpoints here give you more great vistas across the Danube to pest just like at the castle but from Fisherman's Bastion you have a much clearer view of the beautiful gigantic Hungarian Parliament building you're gonna get the best views from on top of the wall but there are mines there's gonna be a small charge at the turnstile on the way out there the bus Tunes seven towers each represent one of the Magyar tribes that settled the area that would go on to become the country of Hungary in 895 AD the grand statue is of one of Hungary's most important historical figures since Steven the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians and the first king of Hungary serve a lovely time here at fisherman's bastion and now we're going to round off a lovely evening day one by heading to the Parliament building and what we're going to get there is by catching a bus back into town so before we do that here's a couple of tips on the public transport in Budapest public transport in Budapest is handled by the bus tram and Metro which one to use depends on your journey and in all honesty we found it best to just use Google Maps to pick the best route in general the tram was good for short hops across town whereas the metro and bus were quicker for longer journeys the same tickets work across all three of the bus metro and travel and you can pick them up from vending machines at any metro station my recommendation is to pick up a cost-effective book of ten singles at the start of your time in Budapest and then use them as you need them make sure you validate your ticket before taking any form of public transport in Budapest as if you get caught with a none validated ticket then you will be fined tickets are validated using machines on board buses and trams and at the entrance to metro stations remember each ticket is valid for a single one-way journey only if you transfer you only to validate a new ticket and while we're talking about buying tickets a word on money in Budapest although it's part of the EU Hungary doesn't use the euro the currency here is the Hungarian forint and prices are generally much lower than they are in London for example a point of local beer will cost you around one pound thirty most places accept card but it's always good to have a bit of cash to to get your travel money head over to the holiday extras web site or check out the app our journey from Fisherman's Bastion didn't take long when we arrived at the Hungarian Parliament building I was in awe it was one thing to see this fantastic building as part of the cityscape from the other side of the river but getting up close was an entirely different experience this is the largest building in Hungary and the tallest in Budapest it said that the sheer surface area and endless intricate detailed handiwork means that the building is under constant renovation to sustain its beauty it was inaugurated on the 1000th anniversary of the country in 1896 but tragically enraged and ill the architect went blind before the building was finished in 1904 and never saw it completed basking in the scale and detail of the building was breathtaking and the cherry on the cake the weather was so hot when we visited the water was being misted up from the ground to help visitors cool down just what I needed after a long day's exploring so it's the end of day 1 the weather's been lovely the time has flown by and Budapest is already blowing me away it's been amazing but now the head back have some dinner maybe a beer and I'll see you guys tomorrow so having explored Buda and seen some of the city's most breathtaking architecture I was ready to dig deeper into the modern-day character of the city coming up in day 2 I take a dip in the Cecchini public baths and experience Budapest of vibrant nightlife but before all that we'd arranged to meet Nora from Budapest Food Tours calm to explore some of Hungary's most iconic dishes and the best places in Budapest to find them now we hate to spoil the tour by showing you everything but Nora took us to some amazing places rich in history we tried some of Hungary's national beverages única man pálinka in green cingi Barroso a traditional wine bar in the center of pest and what trip to Hungary would be complete without sampling goulash which we tasted in a beautiful central cafe where Budapest's intellectual class used to catch up and share ideas one of the most interesting spots on the tour was a shop a little off the beaten path where we tried one of Hungary's favorites it has a little bit of orange flavor and chocolate outside yeah this is the third favorite candy bar of the Hungarian children it looks amazing smells it as well yeah delicious something then I think everyone has in the fridge yeah just for a quick snack yeah yeah but I have to say my favorite part of Nora's food tour was Budapest's great Market Hall it's a huge building full of energy and from the moment you're inside you're struck by the smells of fresh food and the noise of the lively crowds it was the brainchild of the first mayor of Budapest Carolee comma mayor who had been inspired by similar structures in both Paris in London and believed that such markets were important in sustaining a rapidly growing population the construction was completed in 1897 and today the great Market Hall is a busy hub for both souvenir hunting tourists and locals to buy cooking ingredients such as their ever-popular paprika which is a staple of many of Hungary's national dishes and let's be clear hungarians love paprika they consumer in vast quantities using it for flavor and color in almost everything Nora was keen for me to try some Hungarian salami before we moved on and I was only too happy to oblige Hungarians makes salami from a variety of meats including pork game horse and mangalica which is a type of hairy Pig unique to Hungary I got to try a wide variety of salami and they all tasted fantastic especially the ones with a paprika it really added a nice kind of smoky flavor to it Nora's tour was a fascinating insight into how Budapest food culture intertwines with its recent history if you'd like to take a tour with Nora and I highly recommend that you do then make sure to visit her website at food tour Budapest com Budapest is known as the city of sparse there are well over a hundred here and thus a teeny thermal baths is the largest oldest and most famous of the lot and I really didn't feel I could say I'd experience the city without a dip in the naturally heated waters myself the water ranges from 18 to 38 degrees and contains minerals that are said to help in curing ailments such as joint pain arthritis and post traumatic injuries the baths are absolutely beautiful and a true experience unique to Budapest I'm told they're even more striking in winter when you can sit outside in the heated water as snow falls around you one thing I would say is the say Chaney baths are incredibly popular with tourists and you can see it will get very busy during peak times I'd say avoid the weekends in particular as you can end up shoulder-to-shoulder in some of the indoor pools if I'm honest it felt a bit more like a tourist attraction than the relaxing thermal bath experience I was expecting so we've just finished up with the say teeny thermal baths which was busy it was great it was really relaxing and lovely and warm but it was shoulder to shoulder there were so many people there now we're heading over to a shop in terror which is heroes square where we'll soak in the sights a bit then we're gonna head into town and spend the evening at a lovely bar 5 to 10 minutes walk from the baths through the beautiful city park is her shock terror or heroes square the square serves as a memorial including the seven Maggio tribe leaders Singh Stephen the first king of Hungary and finally the Giant Millennium Monument built to commemorate the thousand year anniversary of Hungary these days the square hosts large public events serves as a meeting spot for locals and of course yet another item on the tourist trail as evening drew in we headed for the final stop of our time in Budapest in the old Jewish quarter in the city's 7th district is Budapest's oldest and most famous ruin bar simpler Kurt in contrast to most of our previous locations the ruined bars are a relatively recent addition to Budapest popping up in the early 2000s they began life is temporary bars in abandoned spaces in fact the current location of simple occur is not its first it opened a few blocks away in 2002 before moving to its current address in 2004 as you can see the bar is decorated in this haphazard eclectic kind of style that wouldn't look out of place in East London Brooklyn or even some of Berlin's trendy neighborhoods the building was honestly like nowhere I'd have a drunker beer before everywhere I looked there was something new and strange to pick apart something new to see the nightlife is an unmissable part of the city's experience proven by its popularity with overseas stag news and whether your bar hopping or looking for somewhere to spend your night but a pester Bruin bars are a must visit so our time was coming to an end but I still had one more place that I wanted to visit earlier in the day I'd mentioned to Norah that we were due to visit simple occur and she tipped me off to Street food Caravan an open-air food court just next door it's a small space but it's filled with all kinds of street food vendors people sit together and eat all kinds of cuisine from all over the world there was a great energy here and the sounds and smells of the food really were an assault on the senses it was the perfect companion to simple occur and a great place to finish our time in Budapest end of day two and it's just been such a great trip it's so exhausted but I'd do it all again in a heartbeat if I had one top tip oh it would be you should come here for longer than we did so we had about two days here and I think that you can easily spend three or four and still not even scratch the surface of everything there is to do here in Budapest so I'm gonna get back to my noodles have fun on your Budapest trip have you visited Budapest before if you think we missed out something special then let us know in the comments below we'd love to hear about your trip but for now I hope you enjoyed this guide to Budapest and if you haven't been yet you are in for a treat see you next time [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Holiday Extras Travel Guides

Views: 257,940

Keywords: holidayextras.com, holiday extras, budapest, budapest travel guide, budapest guide, budapest hungary, budapest travel, travel guide, travel, Buda Castle, Fisherman's Bastion, Ruin Bar, SZÉCHENYI CHAIN BRIDGE, BUDAVARI SIKLO FUNICULAR, Hungarian Parliament Building, Széchenyi, Hösök Tere, Szimpla Kert, budapest 4k, budapest nightlife, buda, hungary travel, london to budapest, travel the world, discover budapest, budapest city break, budapest city guide, city guide

Id: _NfdBrDQF6k

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019