Visit Budapest

A taste of Budapest

Budapest is the great Habsburg capital that doesn't act like one — less polished than Vienna, more lived-in, and arguably more beautiful at night, when the Danube reflects the floodlit Hungarian Parliament Building (the world's third-largest parliament, built 1885–1904 in stunning neo-Gothic) and the Chain Bridge linking Buda and Pest. The city is technically two cities stitched together by the river: hilly, leafy Buda on the west bank holds the Buda Castle (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Hungarian National Gallery inside), Matthias Church with its Zsolnay-tiled roof, and the photogenic Fishermen's Bastion with its panoramic terraces over the Pest skyline. Flat, urbane Pest holds the grand boulevards, the cafe scene around Vaci utca, the dramatic St Stephen's Basilica, and the haunting Shoes on the Danube memorial to murdered Jewish Hungarians. Don't miss the famous thermal baths — the city sits on 125 active hot springs, the largest concentration of any capital. Széchenyi (yellow Baroque palace in City Park, the largest in Europe) and Gellért (Art Nouveau, the most beautiful) are the must-soaks. The ruin bars in the old Jewish Quarter (start at Szimpla Kert), the brilliant Great Market Hall, and the moving Dohany Street Synagogue (Europe's largest) round out the essentials.