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Budapest 8 days Location Help Please

Posted by on

Hi all, I will be visiting Budapest in a few weeks for 8 nights, traveling with my 2 young adult children (20 and 23). We will be arriving around noon and have a 6AM flight back to the US on our return. I am really torn on how many nights to spend in Budapest with possible side trips as an option for a few nights, as 8 nights seems very long for one city for us. I visited Budapest about 5 years ago with a friend and loved it, but this is now as a family. Please help with the following decisions:

  • Should we rent an apartment for our entire trip (I see many nice and affordable 2-3 bedroom ones still available) or just the 1st 4 nights, and then check out a different destination not too far away for a few days before returning to Budapest for one more night for our super early flight? Thinking that not lugging our bags around mid-trip would be nice. Is 8 nights too long in Budapest if we just stay put?
  • I am looking at staying either near the Palace District near Kalvin Ter Metro or Radey Street, or closer to the Opera. While being close to lots of restaurants, cafes etc is preferred I do not want to stay in the "party district" since I'm a very light sleeper. I am leaning towards the Palace District because the airport bus dropoff is right nearby the places I am considering (at least for the first 4 nights) and it is still within easy walking distance to District VII and V.
  • My kids are not into the party scene but more underground music (jazz\indie) and street art, cool speakeasy bars\cafes etc. Is the Palace \ Joszefvaros district a good fit? I would like them to go out on their own without having to worry...although I am not too worried about safety, as we are from Baltimore, but still :)
  • If we do take a side trip, it needs to be affordable and within a few hours max (Vienna seems too pricey for my budget), any suggestions? We also like hiking, or I was considering Lake Balaton as an option. Any suggestions for either 1 or 2 night cities\towns?
    Many thanks in advance!
Posted by
23137 posts

The short-term rentals are so inexpensive that renting for 8 nights isn’t a bad idea, even if you do an overnight trip or two. You lose $75 but you don’t have to carry all your luggage, pack, unpack and repack. At least its what I would do. The airport is 40 minutes away by taxi, no great advantage of moving closer to the airport for the last night. You just lose your last night in Budapest.

Unless you have some reason to want to stay by Kalvin ter I would choose along Andrassy ut. Doesn’t have to be really close to the Opera, anywhere along Andrassy, clear out to the park is well connected by the M1 or a beautiful walk. Because the 4/6/47/48/49 all cross (or near cross) Andrassy ut and because the M1 connects to the M2 and M3 at Deak Ferenc ter there are few better connected places to stay.

Your kids will like District VII as you pointed out. And it too is convenient to Andrassy ut. As for safety, this is among the safest cities in among the safest countries in Europe according to some recent polls. To be honest in 20 years I have heard of one incident, but involved two tourists that knew each other.

Side Trips to research

  • Tihany (Balaton)
  • Pecs
  • Eger
  • Gyor and the Archabbey at Pannonhalma
  • Szentendre (day trip)
  • Esztergom (day trip)
  • Vac (day trip)
Posted by
2 posts

Thank you Mr. E for your quick reply! I think we will just book one place for the entire time. I am seeing some nice apartment options in the area between the Oktogon, Opera and Arany Janos metro stops which seems very central and close enough to the party area and Basilica (Zichy Jeno ut is where one of them is located), or another by Blaha Lujza metro off of Rakoczi ut. I guess for either of these options, is it better for us to take an airport taxi instead of the 100E airport express bus? Not seeing anything great in my budget directly on Andrassy ut. for our dates.

Definitely will do some research on the list of towns you recommended for day trips. Appreciate your assistance!

Posted by
23137 posts

The bus works good for the first option. Nothing works real good for the second option.

Posted by
9868 posts

I can't help you with most of it, but I will be in Budapest in early October, and have an early flight back home, so I've booked a room at the ibis Styles Budapest Airport Hotel. The location looked very good, the rooms looked nice, ibis generally has a good reputation and I don't have to worry about getting to the airport at the crack of stupid. :-)

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