I like to give back to forums I learned from by posting travel reports.
This was the first leg of a 10 day (Budapest/Vienna/Prague train voyage) as a mom and two kids (20 and 17). This was my first time to Budapest since my only visit in 2004 and we devoted the largest time to this stay. Both kids have decided it was their favorite city and would hope to return.
We were delayed due to a initial hiccup of a delayed flight (5+ hours) from the US to Munich. Bouncing back from this, our family arrived late in the afternoon on Sunday and took the Airport 100E into the city. I appreciate that the signage was good to find the bus and no time was wasted finding it. We purchased the tickets in advance on the app and it was an easy and inexpensive journey. That night we just walked around the area from Liberty bridge to the Chain bridge enjoying the atmosphere. The next morning we bought 72 hour passes so we did not have to think about transport logistics. I would recommend the city's excellent and inexpensive transportation system and it was one of things that impressed my kids the most. We were stopped for validation a few times at metro exits and never on buses or trams other than when entering the 100E bus.
I was extremely happy with Hotel Memories in the 5th district which was 2 minutes by foot off the 100E stop at Kálvin tér. We had an attractive triple room at a good price and it included an excellent breakfast buffet. The staff were polite and professional. There was a skybar which we did not visit but could have booked there dinner to watch the fireworks. My kiddo enjoyed the hot tub in the basement next to the historical city wall. I found the area around the hotel nice for dining, sightseeing and transportation access and general wandering/people watching. I did not feel that we were in an inconvenient place for sightseeing. Again, another recommend.
Our late arrive meant we could not do our planned Pest walking tour on our arrival night and generally we had a fairly loose itinerary with only a few fixed items. We ultimately rebooked the free walking tour and did another one on the Buda side, visited the Central Market at different times of day to see what was open, walked Gellért hill, and two of us went to the Rudas bath and soaked in discounted end of day rates (same as student rate all day). The kids thought the wax figures at the Hospital on the Rock were both weird, creepy and hysterical. I thought the tour was fine but kind of rushed. We enjoyed a prebooked small group cooking class where we made Chicken Paprika and a mushroom version for my vegetarian kiddo. Happy to share the vendor info to anyone interested. Other food highlights were the chimney cakes cooked on coals at the Jewish Quarter karavan, langos of different varieties, sour cherry strugels, and food market at Fisherman's Bastion on August 20th where we ate delicious potato pancakes, sausages and other delights. We chose to visit the interior of Parliament on August 19th and avoided the crowds vying for free entry on the 20th and enjoyed watching preparations for the holiday in the city in and around that day. This included our River Cruise where we got a preview of the following night's incredible projection.
My one grave disappointment was my kids's choice to visit the Zoo on the 20th on the one truly hot day of our visit. The animals were snoozing in the shade and it truly was uncomfortable. I tried to encourage a visit to the free and air conditioned museums afterwards but sadly no they were not interested. We instead did laundry in the afternoon so we had sweat free clothing to visit the Folk art event in the Buda castle area. We also did not see the fireworks. We were at the Liberty bridge end of things and enjoying the atmosphere but I didn't have it in us to wait. Maybe a miss on my part.
Our final morning was an easy metro ride to the Kelenföld railway station to take our RJ train to Vienna.