Better, Best, Budapest

Hello everybody,

as I already mentioned in this post I spent parts of my Christmas vacation in Budapest which I consider as one of the coolest cities in Europe (despite of all the political problems Hungary may have at the moment). It was my third visit there and I still haven't seen even half of the sights let alone all the other lovely places one may want to visit. Nevertheless I want to share my little knowledge about the city and hope you'll consider some of it useful... ;)

Living

The last two times we stayed at Art Boutique Hostel which is a really cute hostel near Andrássy út, a big boulevard that leads to Budapest's Hösök tere (Heroes' square). It's perfect if you are rather looking for a calm place. It's basically a big flat in an old building directly opposite Szent István Bazilika with two sleeping rooms (for 2 or 3 people), a cosy living room, bathroom and kitchen. The owners are really nice and will give you some good tips what to explore in the city and there are 3 metro lines within the distance of a 5 minutes walk. This was by the way the view from our room:

Szent István Bazilika

Sights

Apart from the classics such as Hősök tere, Andrássy út, the Buda Castle District (which are by the way all listed on the UNESCO world heritage list) I would definitely go see the Museum of Fine Arts as well as the big synagogue. Furthermore I highly recommend a visit of one of the many thermal baths, especially in winter. I mean, what can be better than sitting in hot water all afternoon when it's cold outside? ;) The biggest one is Széchenyi Bath close to City Park behind Hősök tere but personally I prefer Gellért Bath which was built in the early 20th century in a beautiful secession style. Another nice winter activity I can recommend is iceskating. In the city park is a big ice skating ring directly in front of Vajdahunyad castle - lovely!

Budapest's opera house

Hősök tere

Fine Arts Museum

Budapest's synagoge

entrance area of Gellért Bath

ice skating ring

ice skating

Eating and Drinking Out

dessert at Balettcipő

Budapest is full of lovely and very good restaurants, cafés and bars. These are some of the ones I've visited in the last two years and really liked. If you search for a good breakfast location I can highly recommend Briós Cafe, where they offer a great variety of breakfast and what's more cronuts. A cronut is the lovely alliance of a donut and a croissant and tastes heavenly. Interestingly enough Briós Cafe seems to import the cronuts from Vienna every morning altough I have never seen a single cronut in the city in my life before.
Another lovely breakfast location is Keksz, where you get abnormally big and very good breakfast portions. Keksz is probably also a very nice bar in the evening, although I didn't try that out. A very cool bar is however Központ, right around the corner of Keksz. 
If you are looking for something real to eat you could go to Balettcipö, a very nice restaurant where you will get among other stuff typical Hungarian dishes. Another good tip is Noir et L'Or which also serves Hungarian dishes although the name suggests something else. ;) If you like retro bars you should check out Táskáradió Eszpresszó and if you just want to grab a little something inbetween visiting sights I would recommend Hummus Bar. That's a little chain that can be found all over the city and offers really good oriental snacks. The falafel sandwiches are top!   
 

Központ

 Shopping

Ludovika

Personally I love shopping in Budapest as the city offers a wide variety of stores. Of course you can also find all the classic brands on Andrássy út but I actually prefer the numerous little boutiques and vintage shops. Here are my (so far) favourites: If you are looking for cool vintage clothes you should definitely check out Ludovika. I've been there for the first time this year and immediately felt like in vintage clothing heaven. Another nice store is Retrock where they offer a mixture of clothes by young Hungarian designers and vintage clothes. The same thing does Szputnyik which I can recommend if you are looking for extravagant hats. Another lovely young designers' shop is Printa where you cannot only buy clothes but also prints and coffee. They actually opened up a store in Vienna too some time ago.

I hope you could need some of this information. Have a great time in Budapest! :)

Yours,
Steffi