Budapest, booked properly.
Which Danube cruise is worth the extra twenty dollars. Which bathhouse to choose when Széchenyi is full. Which ruin-bar night is a pub tour and which is a shot marathon. Every tour in Hungary, reviewed.
The cruise-and-bathhouse shortlist everyone books first.
Every review →A sightseeing cruise, a spa day and a basilica ticket carry more travellers than anything else in Hungary. Here they are in order, with what each costs.
1
City Highlights Sightseeing Cruise
One-hour Danube cruise in Budapest with a welcome drink, great photo decks, and killer night views of Parliament and castle lights.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
Széchenyi Spa Day Ticket with Optional Upgrades
from $51
3
Nighttime or Daytime Sightseeing Cruise
from $14
4
By Night Sightseeing Cruise with Welcome Drink
from $15
5
St. Stephen’s Basilica Entry with Options
from $12
6
1-Hour Evening Sightseeing Cruise with Drink
from $29
7
Budapest Danube Cruise and Dinner Options, Live Music and Dance
from $54
8
Evening Cruise including Drink Options
from $21
The days a Budapest trip gets planned around.
The river after dark, a morning in the hot water, the castle ridge on foot, the wine, the ruin bars, dinner with a folk band going past the Parliament. Six ways in, and the best booking for each.
A Budapest evening ends up on the Danube sooner or later.
Between Margaret Bridge and the Liberty Bridge the whole city is on show at once: the Parliament floodlit on one bank, the castle above the other, the Chain Bridge in the middle. An hour on the water costs less than dinner.
Budapest sits on hot springs and bathes in them daily.
Around a hundred and twenty springs come up under the city. Széchenyi is the yellow palace with the chess players in the outdoor pool, Rudas the Ottoman octagon with a tub on the roof, Gellért the art nouveau one with the tiled hall. Buy the ticket first, queue never.
All 44 bathhouse tickets →
What a day in Budapest actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. This is one of the few capitals in Europe where a good evening still starts under fifty dollars.
Cruise tickets, bath entry, walking tours and the ruin-bar crawls — most of the city, most nights of the week.
Dinner cruises with live music, cooking classes that start at the market hall, half-days out to the wine country.
Private guides, a car and driver to Eger or Hollókő, and the long countryside days with lunch included.
Three Budapest habits no other capital has.
Every European city has a river cruise and a food tour. The bathhouses, the ruin bars and the caves under the hill belong to this one.
The Bathhouse Day
The city sits on a fault line that pushes up mineral water hot enough to bathe in, and it has been used that way since the Turks built the octagonal pools in the sixteenth century. Széchenyi is the grand one — outdoor pools steaming in January, old men playing chess in the water. Rudas keeps the Ottoman dome and adds a rooftop tub looking down the Danube. One ticket covers the whole day.
- 1Széchenyi Spa Day Ticket with Optional Upgrades★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 23,911 reviews
- 2Mandala Day Spa & Luxury Pool Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,604 reviews
- 3Budapest Széchenyi Thermal Spa Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 2,178 reviews
The Ruin Bar
The old Jewish quarter emptied of residents and landlords, and its tenement courtyards sat derelict for decades. In 2002 a group took over one on Kazinczy Street, filled it with junk-shop furniture and a bathtub sofa, and called it Szimpla. The formula spread across the district: no design budget, mismatched rooms, a courtyard open to the sky. Crawls start around ten and use the side doors.
- 1Guided Pub Tour to Ruin Bars with Games & 6 Shots★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,641 reviews
- 2Ruin Bar Pub Crawl with Entry Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,028 reviews
- 3Budapest Original Ruin Pub Crawl Including 5 Shots★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 519 reviews
The Caves Below
The same thermal water that fills the baths hollowed out kilometres of cave under Buda. Part of it is a lit walkway beneath the castle; part of it is a boiler suit, a head torch and a squeeze that guides call the Sandwich. Both hold a steady eleven degrees all year, which makes the caves the dependable answer to a wet afternoon.
- 1Buda Castle Cave Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,677 reviews
- 2Adventure Caving Tour with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,331 reviews
- 3Adventure Caving Experience in Budapest★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 339 reviews
North of the city the Danube turns hard, and Hungary goes quiet.
Forty minutes upriver the water swings between the hills below Visegrád. Szentendre is the cobbled town on the way up, Esztergom the basilica at the far end of the bend. Boats run through the summer, coaches all year.
- 1Full or Half Day Danube Bend Cruisesfrom $21
- 2Danube Bend & Szentendre Tour with Lunchfrom $128
- 3Danube Bend Day Trip in Englishfrom $91
How far Hungary gets you in a day from Budapest.
Budapest does not really get going until ten.
All evening tours →
Guided Pub Tour to Ruin Bars with Games & 6 Shots
Read our review →
Sparty – The Ultimate Late-Night Spa Party Ticket
Read our review →
Candlelit Dinner River Cruise with Live Music
Read our review →Book these before you land in Budapest.
Most of the city can be arranged the night before from your hotel. These cannot: they run on timed slots, fixed calendars and doors that are shut on the day you were going to turn up.
- 01Parliament Building Entry Ticket and Audio GuideInside is timed guided entry only, in set language slots. The English ones go first and there is no walk-up queue.
- 02Sparty – The Ultimate Late-Night Spa Party TicketThe late-night bath party runs on fixed dates in season and is capped by ticket.
- 03Classical Music Concerts in St Stephen’s BasilicaConcert dates are set weeks ahead, and the nave seats fill long before the gallery ones.
- 04Budapest Jewish Heritage Memorial Walking Tour & Synagogue EntryThe Dohány Street synagogue closes on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, so the visit has to fit the week rather than the day.
A wet Budapest afternoon belongs in the thermal water.
The city turns grey and damp from November through March, and it barely matters. The outdoor pools at Széchenyi feel best when the air is coldest, the caves under Buda hold eleven degrees whatever the sky is doing, and the market hall has a roof on it.
Out of the city — one day each
Szentendre & the Danube Bend61 tours
Gödöllő14 tours
Lake Balaton & Tihany34 tours
Eger13 tours- Everything in Hungary →
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