Other Top Attractions In Budapest
Other Top Attractions In Budapest

Other Top Sights Around Budapest:


Stepping outside of the main neighborhoods in central Budapest you’ll find there are a ton of other great activities to fill your time.  Here are some of our most favorite.

 

Best Other Sights In Budapest:

1. Memento Park (Szoborpark): 40 Minute Bus/Tram Ride.  After the Soviets pushed out the Nazis in WWII Communist Rule tightly gripped newly ‘freed’ Hungary. From 1947 to 1988 the Soviet rule filled Budapest with gigantic monuments to the communist dictatorship. Then when Communism fell the citizens wanted the statues and what they represented removed. Luckily instead of destroying all of them, many were brought to the form Memento Park and give a great view into Budapest’s history. The park is often called Statue Park by locals, and although it’s 6 miles Southwest of town, it is easy to get to and extremely cool.

Hours: Daily 10am-Dusk. Cost: 1500 HUF.  Guided Tours: Guided tours in English are 1,200 HUF and are run Daily at 11:45am; May-September they add 12:45pm & 1:45pm; July-August they also add 3:45pm, & 4:45pm. Save 25% by booking on there website.  Getting Here on Public Transport: Bus 150 leaves from Ujbuda Kozpont (the corner of Fehervari ut – Bocskai ut) to the Park daily every 20-30 minutes. It takes 25 minutes and costs 450 HUF for an all day bus pass. To get to Ujbuda Kozpontro from the Pest side of town you can jump on the #47 Tram at Deak Ter, Astoria, Kalvin Ter, or Fovam Ter near Central Market Hall. From the Buda side of town you can jump on the #41 Tram at Batthyany Ter, Calark Adam Ter (Funicular), Gellert Ter. Bus 150 TimetableBus Tour Option: This is the easiest way to get to the here and is run by the park itself. It departs daily from Deak Ter Metro stop at 11am and has a second time at 3pm in July & August. This tour is easier but more expensive at 4,500 HUF including bus and entry. Save 25% by booking on there website. Absolute Tours runs the same exact bus tour that the park runs but at a price of 7,000 HUF.


2. Visiting A Bath House:
  Budapest has plenty of bath houses. The 150 years of Ottoman Turkish empire had left a significant bathing culture for us. The best Turkish bath in Budapest are the Rudas and the Kiraly baths. Both were built in the 16th century and they only have interior parts since there are scheduled days separated for males and females. There are mixed baths such as Szechenyi, Gellert and Lukacs that are also recommended.

Make sure you spend enough time to relax your muscles and refresh yourself. The best treatment is after shower to go to the warm pool for 20 minutes up to your heart level. After that dry yourself and go to the chilling room to relax for 50 minutes. Then you can go to a cold pool for a short time then to the steam bath for about 10 minutes. You will certainly enjoy the ice cold pool afterward. Kindly make sure that you go gradually inside. After the ice cold pool try to relax for about 20 minutes and repeat the last 3 steps. At the end of the Ritual” you can enjoy the pools with different temperatures and relax wrapped up in your beach towel.

The Király Baths – turkish same sex baths sexes alternate days built in1566. dome top octagonal huge pillars a lot of small round skylights mainly nude but they give you a cotton apron http://www.kiralyfurdo.hu

The Lukács Baths – The Palatinus – The Gellért Baths – The Rudas Baths – open until 4am and home to the popular Cinetrip ‘sparties’ are also held here. http://www.spasbudapest.com

The full entrance fee is about 10 Euros that covers everything but the massages and beauty treatments.


3. Elizabeth Tower Lookout (Erzsébet Kilátó):
  Elizabeth Tower sits atop János Hill which is Budapest’s highest peak with its 527 meters. The best way to get to the lookout is the Chair Lift (Libegő), starting out from the terminal of bus 158.

Getting Here: Take Bus 158 from Széll Kálmán Tér (formerly Moszkva Tér) to the last stop, ride Chair Lift (Libegő) up, Libego website.  The bus and lift run May 15th-September 15th 9am-5pm; September 16th-May14th; 9:30am-4pm.  Cost: All day bus pass is 450 HUF; Chair Lift ticket is 500 HUF each way.


4. Margaret Island (Margitsziget):
In the middle Ages the island served mainly as a hunting preserve and was known as the Island of Rabbits (Nyulak szigete). The island remained as such until the 13th Century when King Béla IV founded a nunnery there and sent his daughter Princess Margaret to it. To this day the Island bares Margaret’s name. The island was turned into a large English-style park in the 1800’s and is now one of the top weekend getaway spot for Budapest locals. The top activities at the island are jogging, picnicking, and swimming at the Palatinus Beach pool (open 800am-700pm May 1st-Sept 15th, cost 1800 HUF).

Our 3 favorite things on the island are visiting the 13th Century Convent ruins on the south side of the island, stopping by the really cool Water Tower (Viztorony) on the east side of the island and Virág, a flower shop at the foot of the Margaret Bridge on the Pest side of the river which is open 24 hours, seven days a week.

Getting There: From the East, take the Blue M3 Metro line to stop Nyugati Pu and from there bus #26 will take you right to Margaret Island. From the West, take the M2 Metro line to stop Margit Hid and hop on either tram 4 or 6 right to the Island.


5. Aquincum:
20 Minute Train Ride North.  Ruins of a 2nd Century AD Roman City. While smaller, it’s remains have been turned into a great open-air museum. Their are excellent ruins of baths, a market, and even a complex heating system. Just past Aquincum is the town of Szentendre which is the first stop on The Danube River Bend. Szentendre is well known for its hatch-roofed homes and open air museum  Getting Here: From Batthány Square (on M2 Metro Line) take the H5 HÉV suburban train 20 minutes north to the Aquincum‎ Stop. Trains leaves very often, timetables here bkv.hu/en.

Hours: April-October, Tuesday-Sunday around 09/10am to 5/6pm


6. Holocaust Memorial Center:
Following the journey from deprivation of rights to genocide, the Holocaust Memorial Center can be a moving experience. The main purpose of the Center is to recount and present the suffering, persecution and massacre of those Hungarian nationals – mainly Jews and the Roma – who were condemned to annihilation in the name of the racial ideology. The dominant motif of the exhibition is the relationship between state and its citizens. 1938 marks the beginning of the process where the Hungarian state deprived a specific group of its citizens from all that makes a man a man: from their rights, property, freedom, human dignity, and in the end, their very existence. This process accelerated fatally in 1944, after the German occupation. Accordingly, the exhibition does not present the events in a chronological order; it is based on units that present the different phases of the persecution: the deprivation of civil rights, property, freedom, human dignity, and existence. These topics are introduced and concluded by two adjacent rooms, the former presents the Hungarian Jewry and Roma people, and the latter discusses the liberation, the questions of responsibility, and the answers to the persecution. A central element in presenting the topics is a series of real family and personal accounts, which are placed on a wall that runs through the entire exhibition. By the time we reach the final room, the lines on the wall representing individual lives run out, and the personal objects introduced in the first room disappear. The wedding music from the first room, which reminds us of the times before the destruction, is still audible. From here the visitor is led to the synagogue, the room of remembrance and mourning. The portraits on the glass pews keep the memory of the destroyed communities, the demolished synagogues and houses of prayer, and the murdered individuals. Those foreign diplomats and fellow Hungarian citizens who, in the darkest hours of our history, risked their own lives to save the persecuted are also honored here. The exhibition closes with a glass meditation space on the balcony.Within each thematic unit, the visitors can view films, photographs, and original documents with the help of touch screens. Computerized data storage is available on the balcony, where the entire material of the exhibition is open for research.

Getting Here: Take the M3 Metro Line to Corvin Negyed‎ and walk two blocks South.  Address: 39 Páva St.  Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm; Closed on Mondays.  Cost: 1400 HUF, students 6-26 & Seniors over 62 pay half price.  Museum Website: (HERE).


7. Millenáris Park:
  Annual World Juggling and Stilt walking Competition in Millenáris Park which was once the grounds of a street-car factory. Gimmicky cans of air sold as souvenirs—”the last breath of communism in Budapest.”

Marxim Restaurant, a cellar pizzeria in located at Millenaris Park, has been serving up communist memorabilia and cheap pies with names like the Gulag and the Siberian Dream for over ten years. Fence and barb wire interior, and great atmosphere. Kisrókus utca 23.


8. Museum of Applied Arts:
Main attraction is the beautiful building with its extensive green tiled roof. Especially if you’re going to the Holocaust Memorial Center, this stop is worth a peak.  Getting Here: Take the M3 Metro Line to Corvin Negyed‎ and walk one short block North.


9. Pálvölgyi & Szemlőhegy Caves:
http://www.caving.hu under the Hills of Buda. We had to crawl – climb in the routes in overalls, had to climb up on the cliff and climb down to the deep.


10. The Sziget Festival:
Huge musical festival with the biggest stars from around the World takes place at Óbudai-Sziget Island (Old Buda Island) the beginning of each August and gathers 300,000 people.  Getting there: Take HÉV train from Batthyány Tér and get off at Filatorigát stop. Follow the crowd when you get there. www.sziget.hu


Free Guided Tours
:
There are a number of guided walking tours in Budapest but only one good one that is free. We definitely recommend every traveler to Budapest to check out Trip to Budapest, www.triptobudapest.hu, for free guided walking tours. Their free tours consist of the city walk, communist walk, and free Jewish heritage walk. Tour is free as the guides work on a tip only payment so you know they are going to do a good job.