Danube River - scenic cruises?

Sorry, I just saw this. As of two days ago they were still running and I was on one on the 20th. I willl be back down at the river later today and will look.

I had to go to Home Depot today and the tram to get there follows the river from the Chain Bridge downstream beyond the tourist zone. At sbout 11:30 am and again at 12:30 pm on my return not one boat of any description was on the river except for two from the Mahart Line. Those are the guys that do the river taxi service to the Danube Bend towns.

If they are running, we were very happy with our evening cruise with Legenda. And a beverage is included.
https://legenda.hu/en/danube-legend
I hope you can do this. It was one of the highlights of our trip to Budapest.

Thank you everyone. Legenda allowed me to reserve a day & time and will collect payment 30 min prior. Fingers crossed the river rises. Also, there is a Rick Steve's discount too!

Tomorrow I have an appointment in Buda so I'll be crossoming the river. I will look. The other concerning news was a plan to turn off the building lights to save money on electric. I dont know if they did it or not. Our reactor is either off or slowed down because of a shortage of cooling water and the russian gas has pretty much fizzled out. Electric prices here are almost as high as California.

I didnt see any boats on the river. I saw something on the news about Switzerland, Italy and France getting some pretty bad weather, rain and wind and hail. It is supposed to continue today. The Dunube watershed runs up to Switzerland so maybe some will end up in the river. Once can hope. Beautiful here, but I would welcome rain (Friday, after I am safely in Montenegro).

kmkwoo—thank you for the recommendation. I booked it for our November trip.

mikliz97, make sure you book one for after it’s dark and be sure the building lights are being turned on at night. The beauty of it is the lights on the gorgeous buildings at night.

Someone on the forum mentioned that the lights were going to be turned off becasue of the energy challenges the country is facing. I suggested that idea wouldnt last long. Sure enough it took them 10 days to decide they had enough energy to turn them back on. I havent seen this myself, but its been in the paper.

Here is a consolidator. Not a bad place to start because there are so many different boat options. https://budapestrivercruise.com/ and another: https://www.budapest-river-cruises.com/

As for the boats, I have done Legenda and Silverline and they were both very, very good. I did the dinner boat both times. The food was actually pretty good and the service was more than acceptabe.

Legenda Boats
https://budapestrivercruise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Budapest-2pm-Cruise-on-River-Danube-Duna-Bella.png
https://www.budapest-tourist.info/w/assignables/maxi/duna_legenda_7-47565992968.jpg

Silverline Boats
As near as I can tell, they all look like this: https://silver-line.hu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/night-cruise-budapest.jpg

Notice that they both have you sitting inside ... but with great windows and mabye a little deck outside fore and aft. This works well for the dinner cruises.

Then 10 days ago I did Floating Lotus ... geeeeze I hate the name. I sprung for VIP tickets which for a normal evening are 55 euro. I wouldnt do it any other way. The VIP half of the roof wasnt at all crowded. Plenty of room to move around. As for service, these guys were nothing short of amazing. While on the others you are under a roof with large windows, on the Floating Lotus (I cringe each time I type it), we were on the roof of the boat. Best possible view this time of year. Its an older boat but the roof deck is this: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcgoY1Ejyrr/ Its a bit younger crowd, but at nearly 70, I fit in fine. Hard to beat. I will do it again. https://tickets.floatinglotus.hu/en

TTM—I did! Can’t wait):

I noticed that the boat companies were still selling tickets, for tonight even, so my not seeing any boats had to have a reason.

I noticed that one of the companies usually made a stop on Margrit Island but that had been cancled because of the water level. Hmmm, I have been looking between the Chain Bridge and Margrit Island.

Maybe downstream for the Chain Bridge? So today I took a roundabout way home from lunch at Fioka and I crossed on the 47/49 tram further downstream. I counted 6 tourist boats between the Chain Bridge and just downstream of the Liberty Bridge.

Life goes on. 🥳

Thank you Mr É, I’m a long time lurker on the forums, but signed up to thank you for all the help you’ve given me planning my trip! Here’s hoping the night sightseeing cruise on the Floating Lotus is still on in 2 weeks, when we’ll be in Budapest

debbim7, thank you. That means a lot. Have a great trip. Feel free to write or call if you need help.

debbim7, it just occurred to me. If you saw my trip report on tge 20 August celebration and the floating Lotus (cringe name). That was a bit, lot, more elaborate than a typical cruise. But read their website. Enjoy.

mikliz97, you will love the Legenda boat cruise. We planned our cruise so that it was dark. The illuminated buildings, especially the Parliament building, were stunning!!!

mikliz97, I hope you have a wonderful trip! For the cruise with a complimentary drink we all found our seats, the boat started, and staff came around for drink orders which came back promptly. It was efficient. :)

@ arkftaylor and debbim7, have fun!

kmkwoo--We have done the Seine river cruises at night and love seeing the city lit up, so I am imagining that this will be similar.

TTM--I had not even paid attention that we get a drink! We are doing this the first evening, so it will be a nice introduction to the city.

kmkwoo--We have done the Seine river cruises at night and love seeing
the city lit up, so I am imagining that this will be similar.

I've done both. Good news is they are both beautiful. For me the Seine was a more intimate experience and that worked so well with Paris. The Danube in Budapest, for me, was more dramatic in the way an Empire would be. So, again for me, both equally as beautiful but very different.