We are visiting Budapest 12/20-23 as part of our Christmas market trip for two weeks. We will be arriving from Salzburg via train. We typically try to stay withing a couple blocks of a metro station in our travels. I've been looking around Deak Ferenc ter, Bajcsy-ZsilinszkyUt, and Astoria metro stations. I'm leaning towards the area around Deak Ferenc ter. Would this be a good chice? If not, is there a better location that I should be considering?
Cherrs!
Visiting where?
Sounds like Budapest. Deak Ferenc ter, is a metro station. That sounds like a great location to me. We stayed closer to Parlament and that was fine. I'm sure Mr. E will have a great suggestion.
Yes, Budapest. Can’t believe I didn’t put that in the post 😂! Updated it now.
Look at the hotels near the M1 Opera stop, which is right in front of the opera house on Andrassy ut. I stayed at the K+K Hotel Opera back in December and thought the location was perfect.
Technically there is no location more central to all the sights in Budapest than Deak Ferenc ter. You can reach everything but Buda in about 10 minutes from Deak Ferenc ter. It’s also very close to the two largest Christmas Markets.
Now for the downside. There are two sides of the street. The river side is tourist central and expensive and while beautiful and restored (District V) it lacks a lot of the character that Budapest is popular for. The opposite side of the street (District VI and VII), just isn’t very pretty, generally full of the cheaper tourists’ souvenir shops, etc.
Astoria is an interesting location. Not my favorite but if you stayed at the Astoria Hotel, that would be interesting, and you are on the 47/49 tram so getting around isn’t terrible. But my favorite place to stay in on or close to Andrassy ut.
There is a list of good hotels here and they are mostly on Andrassy ut. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/rs-forum-favorite-hotels-and-their-cost . That puts you on the M1 Metro line which goes to or connects to most every sight in town, including the largest Christmas Market. Andrassy ut is a beautiful area, is very "Hungarian" in character, lots to see and do in your free time, great wandering walking street.
I tend to get a bit overly ... well you know ... about hotel locations. Whereever you end up, it will be a great trip.
