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| Home Page > Photos > Budapest - 2009 | ||||||||||||||
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Budapest - 2009This is the first ‘full’ Adams family outing for a while – and who chose the destination? Rebecca.The weekend break was great and the weather was certainly on our side. Everything was booked on-line, Ryanair out of Bristol and BA out of Aberdeen via Heathrow T5, where we met up with James & Marie. In Budapest, transfers, via taxi, from the airport were arranged via the hotel booking company, but there is a registered taxi kiosk just outside the airport arrivals door and the cost is about €25 to the city centre. If you are arriving into Budapest at a reasonable hour, there is a railway station at the airport and this will take you into the centre of the city for a few €. If you are arriving late, don’t rely on the train. The City Hotel Matyas was booked via www.budapesthotelreservation.hu and they provided a great deal compared to the hotel’s normal rate. The hotel looks onto the Danube but ask for rooms facing the Danube when booking. Don’t be put off by the scruffy’ish hotel entrance, the rooms are clean and a good size. Breakfast was plentiful with a good choice of hot and cold food. There are rooms with balconies and Andrew & Rebecca managed to bag the only one out of the three of us; but they were in Budapest first! The photographs are shown in the date order we were in Budapest the Buda side of the city first and then the Pest side. The city is quite walkable, although you can buy travel passes that let you hop on and off buses, trams, the tube – the tube is easy to use and very efficient. Take the tube out to Heroes Park (Varosliget) – there are some quaint stations en-route; very Victorian in character. The architecture in the City is super; however some of the more modern city centre buildings (the Marriott and Intercontinental Hotels for two) are totally out of character. Eating out was a pleasure, although on our full first night we found more of a touristy restaurant than we would have liked (Kaltenberg), but the staff were friendly and the food was O.K.; just not too sure about the wandering minstrels! For dining we can recommend Soul (www.soulcafe.hu) – very nice atmosphere, Replay Café (www.replaycafe.hu) – great food and cocktails (at half price! hic) and 80’s music; what more could you want? A couple of finds – from tripadviser (www.tripadvisor.co.uk which is worth looking before travelling anywhere) – were Menza (www.menza.co.hu) a really nice restaurant with excellent staff and the best kept secret in Budapest, Szimpla Garden on Kazinczy Uta (there is another Szimpla on Kertesz Uta – which we did not visit). Szimpla (www.szimpla.hu) is a pub come eatery, but not like anything you will have been to. Definitely don’t be put off by the entrance. The local beers are great and avoid the few Irish/UK themed pubs – expensive compared to the local bars. Nearly all the restaurants/bars shut up shop around 10.30 P.M. – well they did in March – therefore it is worth making the effort to book your preferred restaurant. A trip to Budapest wouldn’t be a visit without visiting a spa. We went to Szechenyi Gyogyfurdo at Heroes Park. The entrance fee is about £8. For the none water dwellers there is plenty to see in Heroes Park– museums, which are either free or a low entry fee. A walk back from Heroes Square along Andrassy is well worth it, just for looking at the different styles of architecture. It is well worth popping into the Opera House (which is not far from Menza). The city looks to have an active tourist board who promote various cultural festivals – the Spring Festival runs from March to April with traditional Hungarian themes enacted in the square on Vorosmaty Ter. International artists also gig in the city – Madonna is due soon. None of us had been to Budapest before but all of us would recommend it for a weekend break. The locals are friendly and none of us felt uncomfortable at any point. Reference books to purchase: AA City Pack, Dorling Kindersley their 2009 edition, Lonely Planet – Best of.
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