Comments on: Budapest, the Beautiful Danube, and Expensive Hungarian Food

By: Tips for Planning a Successful Trip | Have Pack, Will Travel

Tips for Planning a Successful Trip | Have Pack, Will Travel — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:49:21 +0000

[...] I went to Budapest last year I was surprised to find that prices for nearly every restaurant were double what was [...]

By: Jen Laceda

Jen Laceda — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:28:18 +0000

$10 for a turkey sandwich? That’s travesty! Thanks for the head’s up regarding food prices in Budapest. Food is always a big expense/big priority when we travel, as we like to mix and match more upscale restaurants with street food. Well, you can be sure I’m skipping that $10 6″ sub.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:10:46 +0000

I love Budapest, especially the centuries-old baths and the grand, eclectic architecture. I noticed that you visited the Szechenyi baths (it is beautiful but very touristy). Forget the Gellert baths as well (absolutely stunning but a tourist trap in my view). A great alternative is the Rudas bath near the white suspension bridge. Built by the Ottomans in the 17th century, this bath is absolutely gorgeous, especially the central dome.

Yes, food is quite expensive in Budapest but that’s if you choose the “Western-style” places. The local Hungarian cafés are cheaper. Anyhow, the food is certainly not one of Hungary’s prime attractions (in my book!). I must say that it has improved dramatically in the past ten years with lots of foreign restaurants (e.g. Italian) opening, creating more competition for local food (which has been forced to refine itself).

By: Chelsea Bond

Chelsea Bond — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:22:33 +0000

Thanks for posting this, Jeff. I’m looking forward to seeing Budapest, although now I’m a bit weary of the price of food, but I can survive on bread and water pretty easily :)

By: Jeffery Patch

Jeffery Patch — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:11:18 +0000

Todd – Glad (most) of your trip was great. It’s sure funny how things change in just a handful of years isn’t it? Scams and thiefs exist everywhere but I should note how safe I felt in Budapest at all times of day or night. Even a late night that led us to a sketchy bar with sketchy pimps and prostitutes felt safe! That sounds odd, but you know what I mean :)

I very much wanted to make it to Statue Park but got lost on the bus system despite how simple it was to use. I can manage to get lost anywhere. It began to pour rain the next day and I opted not to visit but I regret it now.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:52:01 +0000

Though it was 10 years ago this summer, I definitely remember my first trip to Budapest – I had much less luck with the hostels (there were only a handful then and hard to find), but much better luck with the food – one of the best and largest meals of my traveling life for under $5 USD including beers, at a place that made its way to a guidebook after that and probably lost some magic.

My travel partner and I ran right into a funny scam as well, when two ladies approached us and feigned interest in joining us for drinks, only to lead us to a bar where the “special” drinks they ordered were about $300 USD each – fortunately we stood our ground and refused to pay for their drinks (despite the Hungarian henchmen lurking in the bar shadows) – then dropped a couple thousand forints to cover our beers and booked it for the door.

Two other good spots that, if they still exist today, might be worth a stop:
1) Communist Statue “Graveyard” – just out of town one can visit the remnants of the Communist Era, the gigantic statues that once stood in town – were collected and setup as an outdoor museum of sorts
2) PKP Club – nightclub in the basement of a university building (think it was the school of Economics) – cool scene with cheap drinks, randomly found as we were cruising around one night – apparently only goes off on weekend nights