My husband and I had a wonderful, fast paced stay in Budapest for two nights in November 2025 before our Viking Danube River cruise.
Our flights went smoothly from Lincoln, NE, O'Hare, Frankfort to Budapest. It was very easy to find the taxi stand outside of the airport in Budapest. I think in less then a minute we were in a taxi heading to Hotel Medos. We loved the location and price of this hotel.
We walked to see Vajdahunyad castle, then the pretty Danube river and sights in the already dark early evening. Then to Cork, for a delicious first meal in Budapest.
Friday we walked to the Lion's Locker for a delicious breakfast. We walked towards the Danube and found a memorial to the Jews in Liberty Square. We then crossed the trolley tracks to see the Shoes on the Danube memorial.
We were close to our next stop, the Parliament building. We made our way to the North side where the visitor's center was located. We found the downstairs visitor's entrance; there was a line forming for the 10am tour. At our advance ticket time at 10 we were given audio guides then followed two guides and a guard through this beautiful building.
Next we made our way to the Dohany Street Synagogue. We made it a few minutes before the noon English tour. Another outdoor memorial is the Tree of Life, a Weeping Willow tree constructed with golden leaves, each etched with a Jew's name who died in the Holocaust. Part of the underground ghetto was made into a museum with many stories and pictures. This was very well done. Also outside of the Synagogue were pictures and biographies of famous Hungarians including scientists/inventors and artists. Then there was a Jewish museum to go through!
We were hungry by now and had already decided we would eat lunch at the Christmas markets that we quickly walked through on our way to the Synagogue. By the time we entered the next Christmas market we were ready for a raspberry chimney cake then coffee to go. We then went to the House of Terror.
This was a well done museum about the political terror the people of Budapest endured. A memorial where people were detained, tortured and murdered during WW II and communist dictatorships. The building was used at a meeting place of the Arrow Cross from the late 1930's then later as their party headquarters then taken over by the communist secret police in 1945.
It was dark when we finished this museum. We walked to the Danube River to the Legenda boat dock and hurriedly bought tickets for their next one hour cruise. This was all enclosed. There was a video explaining history and what we were seeing and an English audio guide as well. We were also each given a glass of champagne. It was a beautiful evening cruise.
Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel. With our backpacks and carry on suitcases we walked to the Viking dock to drop our luggage off at the ship. The front desk manager put our labeled luggage behind her desk. We walked to St Stephens then bought our entrance tickets across the street. This was a beautiful cathedral!
The only other advance tickets we bought ahead besides the parliament was for the opera! We then walked the couple blocks to the Hungarian State Opera, which we had passed several times a day. We arrived early and had time to admire the foyer. The opera was called The Little Sweep. Thankfully we had English subtitles to understand it. We enjoyed this 1 1/2 hour children's opera.
We walked back to our ship to begin our cruise portion. We were happy we could have a little time in Budapest before our cruise. We did cross the chain bridge that afternoon to see the Buda side and went back Sunday morning with our tour to see and learn more. I definitely recommend visiting Budapest!