8 nights, a Second Visit to Budapest

WHERE I STAYED: K&K Hotel (both visits)

This was particularly convenient for my night at the Opera House, a 1 minute walk. A few more steps to the M1 Metro Line that runs just below Andrassy ut up to Hereos' Square and the Museum of Fine Arts.
- The staff are very pleasant and always helpful with my requests
- Extensive European style hot and cold breakfast buffet

WHAT I DID:

During my first visit to Budapest, I went to the castle, Parliament, the House of Terror, Heroes' Square, the Great Market Hall, etc. With 7 full days for this visit, I was able to spend more time getting to know Budapest and visiting places like Margit Island and its endearing storks, the Spicery shop, taking the Great Synagogue Tour and the tour of the now-renovated Opera House, and a leisurely wander around City Park and up to the recommended Auguszt Cukrászda bakery for a time-out from the city.

Even after this visit, I have a long way to go to catch up to the experiences of James E, TexasTravelmom, Christy, christa and others, but I thank them for their trip reports and posts that helped me make the most of this visit!

These are a few things that I don't see as much written about.

Don Quixote Ballet at the Opera House - if you're thinking of seeing a performance, I was seriously impressed by the Hungarian ballet company. The leading couple were athletic and artistic! Don Quixote is an entertaining ballet, even if you're not normally a ballet fan.

https://www.opera.hu/en/programme/megtekint/don-quijote-2022/eloadas-202304151900/

Museum of Fine Arts - check their temporary exhibits! I am SO glad that TexasTravelmom discovered the world-class Renoir exhibit (Renoir - The Painter And His Models) on now through January 7, 2024, with pieces collected from the Musée d'Orsay, Musée de L'Orangerie and other museums around the world. It was incredible to see such pieces as "Young Girls at the Piano" and "Dance in the Country."

Unlike the Vermeer exhibit in Amsterdam, tickets were easily available. I gleefully bought mine within minutes of TexasTravelmom telling me about it and we went together!

https://www.mfab.hu/exhibitions/renoir-the-painter-and-his-models/

Gödöllö Palace (allow most of a day, back in the center by mid-afternoon)
• Hungarian Palace with a Princess (well, a queen actually) worthy of a Fairy Tale
• Allow time to stroll the gardens and have coffee and dessert in the onsite cafe

https://kiralyikastely.hu/

Getting there - I took the M2 to the end of its line, then the H8 (HEV) train from Örs vezér tere, direction Gödöllő, to the Gödöllő Szabadsag ter stop, which is across the intersection from the Palace.
• The palace stop is outside the Budapest transit boundary. If you have a transit pass, you must buy a 20km supplement ticket, which cost me 1000 HUF, a whopping $2.73, round trip.

House of Hungarian Art Nouveau @ György Ráth Villa
• Beautifully decorated museum house with high-end Art Nouveau furnishings, art, collectibles and period clothing reflective of the wealth of the former owners. In terms of the value of the collection, this is a step above the Art Nouveau Museum that I visited this summer in Riga.
• Lalique fans: don't miss the beautiful glass pendant, trying to go unnoticed in one of the display cases

https://www.imm.hu/hu/contents/262,R%C3%A1th+Gy%C3%B6rgy-villa

Underground Museum: a cute little museum in an old metro tunnel, takes about 1 hour to learn the history of building the Budapest metro system.
• To find it: underground in the Deák Ferenc tér metro station, find the BKK ticket office and go inside; the museum is through another glass door at the left
• The free-with-entrance audio guide gave a better description than the exhibits, which were limited in both English and Hungarian; I had to request it from the staff

https://www.bkv.hu/hu/muzeumok/foldalatti_vasuti_muzeum_budapest

WHERE I ATE:
This trip could have been all about the food because I found so many great places on this list that I wanted to try:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/restaurants-in-budapest-october-2022

These were a few of my favorites:

Pörc & Prézli Étterem: favorite surprise near my hotel
○ with live music and beyond pleasant staff

Duna Corso: favorite riverside, pay for the location, with lots of outdoor seating, I had a mouth-inspiring duck liver starter, the most memorable flavor of my visit!

Stand25 Bisztro:: favorite splurge, this is the Buda-based, Michelin recommended (not Michelin star) little sister of Stand25 in Pest, with an unpretentious setting for fabulous food.
○ https://stand25.hu/?lang=en

Karavan Street Food: my favorite for Langos, perfectly cooked, this courtyard has food trucks and casual picnic tables for a cheap and fun meal.
○ https://www.facebook.com/streetfoodkaravan/
○ My new favorite is the "Classic" (with sour cream and cheese) plus red onion chutney and jalapenos to spice up the flavor

There were lots of other delightful meals, and plenty more to try for next time!

BUDAPEST TRANSIT PASS
I bought the 15 day transit pass (cheap, even for my 8 night stay) for unlimited metro, trams and buses in Budapest. Sometimes I hopped on the M1 metro just because it's so darned cute and convenient! Numerous times I rode the trams on both the Buda and Pest sides for riverside sightseeing.

https://bkk.hu/en/tickets-and-passes/prices/monthly-passes/
15 day, 6300 HUF / ~$17

I found it easiest to buy and use my pass in the BudapestGO app: one less thing to carry and lose.

BUDAPEST #100E bus to and from the airport
I am a fan of transit to and from city airports - if it's not raining and my hotel is nearby.

2200 HUF / ~ $5.96 each way

Buy tickets for Bus #100E (not covered by transit passes) in advance in the BudapestGO app
○ If you change your mind, it's easy to refund the tickets from within the app, another reason to use the app.
○ I refunded 2 train tickets in the app and received the money promptly

Or buy paper tickets at the BKK service desk in the airport arrivals hall or any BKK ticket kiosk

COMMENT ON PACKING:

With just 8 nights, I was able to see the entire weather forecast and could leave behind any "in case" items for cooler weather, though I was glad one day to have my raincoat. Even Lufthansa would have let me go carry-on and was tagging my bag as cabin luggage, but I checked both ways because I hate lugging my bag through the German airport transit corridors.

With all the lost luggage stories, I loaded up my carry-on backpack with more than the usual "in case" clothing items.

CW, did you fly all the way there for just 8 nights In Budapest or did you go elsewhere as well?
Thanks for this report. Budapest has definitely moved up higher on my travel list. We met up for 3 days with Valerie on this forum in Germany this year and it definitely made the trip more fun!

Tammy, this trip was just Budapest, quite the departure from my usual 3.5 week trips to Europe.

I traded dog-sitting with my niece for her same-length trip coming up to Guatemala - hopefully. I flew directly from San Francisco, rather than to and from Denver, as I usually do. It was a luxury of travel simplicity!

And I'm still hoping to meet up with Valerie somewhere, after we got cancelled in Warsaw in 2020 and had near-misses this spring in Bulgaria and the Baltics.

Thanks for this report, CW. Hoping to make this part of our fall 2024 trip. So many great suggestions!! Am bookmarking this for future reference. Hint: Looking forward to some pictures at the Zoom meeting.
Thanks, again!

Thanks so much for this report. So Jealous.

confused:-

BUDAPEST 100E bus to and from the airport

that sounds so expensive. Does it really cost 100 Euro?

The people on this forum really should get credit from the Hungarian Tourism Agency. You all exude such enthusiasm for Budapest! Bookmarking for my trip next year.

Haha, no Nigel! It's the number 100E bus, which cost 2200 HUF, a bit less than $6 / £5. I've clarified the post above.

Cheap and easy!

I love Budapest, too, having visited in 2015 on my own as part of a three-country trip and 2022 as part of an organized, six-country tour. After my first visit, I called Budapest one of my top-three European cities (with Amsterdam and Seville).

It's good the opera house is getting a $30m renovation. It's cool you met another Rick Steves traveler.

My three favorite memories include one well known to Rick Steves fans: visiting the Szechenyi Baths. The others include taking a bicycle tour of the city in English. And a French tourist told me to go to the Red Pepper restaurant outside the tourist zone. I found the bus to there, managed to pay my fare and found the eatery. Once there, the wait staff spoke no English, but somehow I communicated what I wanted.

Carol, I'm so glad you'll be going to Budapest next fall. There is a lot of ground to cover; but the transit system does a really good job of connecting the sights. During my first visit, I took a guided bus tour that went to key sights in Buda and Pest, which helped me cover a lot of ground in a small amount of time, including getting us in to Parliament.

Mary, I think you're on to something. There are some real Budapest devotees who are so helpful with those of us just learning our way around this fascinating city.

And conversely, the city is easy on tourists, with conveniences like the dedicated airport bus and transit pass that make it easy to connect the sights.

It was SO much fun! VakVarju was another good one. I feel like I just gained a second 5 pounds just remembering all the good food we ate! We also rode the Budapest Ferris Wheel - if you can call me with my eyes closed an actual ride. Ha!

Craig, your comment about your 3 favorite European cities is so interesting because I've visited a few cities in the past 2 years that are candidates for my favorites, including Budapest, along with Warsaw, Lisbon and Istanbul. I'm not ready to commit myself to any of them yet.

I don't know that I'll ever have one favorite, but I like knowing that I could go back to Budapest the next time there's a great ballet or a world class art exhibit and knowing that I'll still have plenty of new things to see and new restaurants to try.

I've added Red Pepper to my "next visit" list for Budapest, which is already long enough for another couple of weeks. And I haven't even ventured beyond the city!

Oh yes, VakVarju was another great meal! And in such a fun atmosphere. I'm amazed at how many fabulous restaurants (and chefs) there are in such a small zone.

Yeah, TexasTravelmom, I have photo proof that you opened your eyes at least once. But I'm not sure you really get to say you rode the Budapest Eye 🤣

We did have a great time riding the trams back and forth along both sides of the river, stopping every so often for an illuminated photo opp.

CW and TTM, I'm so jealous you saw such a great Renoir exhibit. I became a fan when I first saw The Luncheon of the Boating Party when it was exhibited in San Francisco many years ago. That exhibit turned me into an art museum fan. I've been fortunate to see many of his paintings, and revisited the Luncheon of the Boating Party twice when in DC for work or vacation.

Oh, Barbara N, I understand how Luncheon of the Boating Party could convert a person! I had seen it once in DC years (decades?) ago, but had forgotten in which museum. So when I walked around the corner in the Phillipps Collection last year, my jaw dropped to see it again.

I'm so glad you were finally able to attend a ballet in the Budapest Opera House. Sounds like a fabulous, little trip and so fun that you got to meet up with TexasTravelmom.

Thanks, Christine!

I was barely getting over jetlag and it was time to come home. But I just went with it, having breakfast each morning at 630 and getting an early start each day. With 6pm-ish fall sunsets, I took a quick nap (not at all my norm) before connecting with TexasTravelmom for a late European dinner and even later riverside tram riding for the evening illuminations.

Oh, and the $60 ballet ticket in the perfect 12th row exact center orchestra was less than my usual home tickets to the side and back. A viewing treat!

Yes, I will add how inexpensive and nice our ballet seats were. I have now had a box twice and this floor seat once. I may prefer the center of center floor seat this time. Bought the first week of April, in case anyone reading wants a timeline. We had great choice then and it was full that evening.

Regarding the Renoir, I barely missed a Monet last year - now THAT made me sad. The Renoir was a timed entry and it wasn’t massively crowded but there were plenty of people.

Food, trams, and architecture - doesn’t get old.

TexasTravelmom, that would make me sad as well.

I'm starting to do more searching for "events" to drive my travel timeframes. I haven't gone so far as to travel "just to see" an exhibit or a performance, but it's fun when I can make the timing work for somewhere that I want to (re)visit anyway, such as this Budapest trip.

The Spicery / Fűszerész

I had such a good time shopping for spices at Fűszerész. The young clerk was very helpful answering questions about their wide selection of paprikas, salts and chili powders, to help me take home some of the flavors of Budapest.

The Spicery wasn't easy to find, even with Google Maps and having been told that it's in a courtyard, so here are a few more directions.

• the nearest metro station is Astoria
• navigate to The Spicery

You will see storefronts for Budapest Panorama Central, Emporium (*a clothing store) and beyond that Mon Cheri coffee shop.
Budapest Panorama Central has a second, blue sign that says "Global Suites Budapest."
The doorway and short hall into the courtyard is under that blue sign.

Alternatively, if you had crossed Károly street at the nearest crosswalk and continued walking straight ahead, you would enter the courtyard.

Entering the courtyard, The Spicery is the shopfront immediately to your right.

House of Hungarian Art Nouveau @ György Ráth Villa

For some reason this report wandered back to the top of the forum - and in re-reading I felt the need to say how much I enjoyed this small gem and I am so glad you found it! It is actually one I would go to again, not because I missed anything - it was just a delight to my eyes. And it makes me really impatient for the re-opening of the large Museum of Applied Arts (a year past their original projected re-opening date), whose auspices it is under.

This also sent me down a rabbit hole and I now have a list of 5 more buildings for my next trip.

I was waiting for the applied-arts museum to reopen before revisiting Budapest, but I'm going to be in that general part of Europe next summer, and a friend is interested in tagging along for a while. She mentioned Budapest, so I may not be able to wait until the museum reopens. I'm glad to hear that it isn't relocating, though. I understand the interior of the building is wonderful.

And I almost didn't find it. I had read that it was part of the Museum of Applied Arts. It took me a while to realize that it's not physically part of the closed-for-renovation Museum building, but rather in iits own Art Nouveau villa, a few blocks off Andrassy ut.

I'm glad I didn't miss it because, after the Don Quixote ballet in the now-renovated Opera House, and the Renoir Exhibit in the beautiful Museum of Fine Arts Building, it was my favorite place. And also one that I would go back to.

There was a lot of art - in beautiful buildings - to love in this Budapest visit!

And now I've wandered down the rabbit hole of the Museum of Applied Arts and found the "Nagytétény Mansion" for another visit.

The mansion houses an exhibition, which has been running since 2000, called ""Furniture Art from Gothic to Biedermeier"

the exhibition introduces European furniture art from the period 1440 to 1850 approximately...in 27 of the mansion's rooms. The arrangement, which is tailored to the mansion's architecture, follows the history of European furniture ... presenting the various stylistic periods, and thus the history of applied arts... Other furnishings - tiled stoves, tapestries, carpets, chandeliers, and paintings - complement the exhibition.

The mansion is about an hour out of the center by public transit, so a nice half-day trip, perhaps for my 3rd visit.

ETA: I guess that depends when my 3rd visit is. The Nagytétény Mansion is also closed for renovation, with no projected re-opening date.

acraven, it would be lovely if it reopened by next summer! I did a TINY bit of research and in 2017, they estimated 5 years. It’s been 6, so next summer would be nearly 7. I do hope it isn’t stalled due to funding.

Edit: re Nagytétény Mansion - yeah Google reviews don’t make that sound promising….. as in it’s been closed for 5 years and no work appears to be going on.

A quick check online didn't turn up a projected reopening date for the Applied Arts Museum, so I have to be pessimistic. It's wonderful that so many beautiful, historic buildings in Europe have been repurposed as museums, but it seems that when renovations are needed, they take a very long time.

So perhaps my 5th visit 🤣