Budapest, Hungary – May 2025
We recently returned from a long weekend in Budapest, Hungary and it was such a delight! We arrived on a Thursday night and departed early evening on Sunday. This was the perfect amount of time to spend on a first trip to Budapest. We were able to see many of the sites and have plenty of time to wander through the streets, eat, drink, and not feel rushed.
Our itinerary included:
• Arrival, check in and Liz & Chain Rooftop Bar
• Day 1 – Saint Stephen’s Basilica, city tuk tuk tour, ruin bar, dinner at FELIX
• Day 2 – Breakfast at New York Café, Danube cruise, Central Market Hall, Shoes on the Danube memorial, Hungarian wine tasting, dinner at Trattoria Toscana
• Day 3 – Searching for Kolodko’s mini statues, Buda Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, flight home
ABOUT BUDAPEST
Budapest is the capital of Hungary and has about 1.7 million residents. It is a beautiful city with a rich history, vibrant culture, and gorgeous architecture. Often called the “Queen of the Danube,” Budapest is divided in half by the Danube River. Buda, on the western side, is known for its hills and sites like Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion. Pest, on the east side of the river, is home to Parliament and the historic Jewish quarter with its famous ruin bars.
Some things we discovered about Budapest that make it a prime travel destination include:
• Beautiful architecture – Everywhere you look, there are beautiful old buildings in a mix of architectural styles – like the Hungarian Parliament building and Fisherman’s Bastion.
• Rich history – From Buda Castle to stories of the city’s time under Communist rule, there is plenty to learn about the history of Budapest and Hungary.
• Tasty Hungarian food – Enjoy the hearty tastes of Hungarian cuisine such as goulash (gulyás), langos, chicken paprikash (csirkepaprikás), chimney cakes (kürtőskalács), halászlé (fisherman’s soup), and more.
• Thermal baths – We did not go to a thermal bath on this trip, but Budapest is famous for its natural hot springs. Two famous hot springs spas are Szechenyi and Gellert Baths.
• Vibrant culture and nightlife – There are many opportunities to enjoy culture, arts, and nightlife. From music to rooftop bars, from theater to ruin bars… Budapest will not disappoint.
• Affordability – Budapest is less expensive than some other big European cities… but is no less interesting or fun.
ARRIVAL, CHECK IN, AND LIZ & CHAIN ROOFTOP BAR
We flew from Frankfurt, Germany to Budapest and it was an easy 75-minute flight on Lufthansa Airlines.
We arrived at the Budapest Marriott (more information on the hotel below) around 19:30. After checking in and getting settled in our room, we’d made reservations at the Marriott rooftop bar – Liz & Chain. We paid the extra 15 euros ($17) to get a table right by the edge and it was worth it! The unobstructed views were amazing!
We ordered dinner and drinks – a pizza and the trio of guacamole to share. The guacamole was great. The pizza was fine.
After dinner, I ordered an espresso martini. I’ve been comparing espresso martinis at different places around the world and this one was really good! It was good enough that we went back 2 nights later and ordered another one.
DAY 1: SAINT STEPHEN’S BASILICA, CITY TUK TUK TOUR, RUIN BAR, DINNER AT FELIX KITCHEN & BAR
Mike is a Marriott rewards Ambassador level, so we get breakfast free with our stays. We started the day with the hotel breakfast buffet. It was an incredible buffet with lots of options – fruit, yogurt, chia seed pudding, Hungarian options, make-to-order eggs and omelets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, beans, roasted mushrooms, Asian selections, selection of juices, an entire table of bread products, a gluten free section, and more!
Once we’d finished breakfast, we set out wandering to see some sites. We stumbled upon Saint Stephen’s Basilica and bought combined experience tickets (about $17 USD) to the interior of the church and the treasury/panorama look-out. We started by climbing up 304 stairs to get to the stone-walled terrace of the Basilica’s high dome (at 65 metres or 213 feet). It is the highest look-out point on the Pest side of the river and has a beautiful view.
We then climbed back down and entered the church. Construction on St Stephen’s Basilica was started in 1851. In 1868, the dome crashed and a redesign was started. The church was dedicated to the first Hungarian King Saint Stephen in 1897. All works of art in the church were done by Hungarian sculptors and painters. Consecration of the church took place in 1905. And a complete renewal of the building was completed between 1983 and 2003.
It is an absolutely gorgeous church!
We then stopped for lunch at the Iconic Gulyás Lángos Restaurant (or Iconic Lángos Restaurant). We wanted to try the traditional Hungarian Lángos so ordered the “Hungarian” one off the menu. Lángos are a popular Hungarian street food – deep-fried flatbread often topped with garlic butter, sour cream, and cheese. They are made from a simple yeast dough and are eaten warm. The one we ordered had sour cream, cheese, bacon, and red onions. It was delicious!
While we were having lunch, we enjoyed the music from a band inside the restaurant and a very good and very entertaining street musician.
We’d booked a private 2.5 hour tuk tuk tour, through Budapest Tuk Tuk, to get an overview of the city sites. The tour cost 98 euros (or $111) per person and included a 75-minute boat cruise on the Danube. We met our tuk tuk driver, Peter, at the hotel. He was a great tour guide – knowledgeable about Budapest history, sites, and very engaging.
Note: We’ve done open top sightseeing buses in many cities around the world – so considered doing this… but there were so many people on the buses that some people had to sit downstairs and there were lines at most of the bus stops. Given this, we opted for the private tuk tuk tour. It was much more relaxing as it was just us and the driver. We highly recommend this experience!
Peter first took us to a map of Budapest and explained the growth of the city, the floods, and other general information. As we toured the city, we drove by Budapest sights such as Central Market Hall, Gellert Hotel and Thermal Baths, Liberty Statue, a Budapest viewpoint from up high, Chain Bridge, Elisabeth Bridge, Margaret Bridge, Fisherman’s Bastion, Matthias Church, Buda Castle, Parliament Building, and the Dohany Jewish Synagogue (3rd largest in the world).
After our tour, Peter dropped us off in the Jewish Quarter at the ruins bar Szimpla Kert. Budapest’s ruin bars are one of the city’s big attractions. These bars are in old, abandoned buildings, courtyards, and warehouses. They are eclectic and one never knows what they will see as decorations. Ruin bars started popping up in the early 2000s, particularly in the Jewish Quarter, and have since become an integral part of Budapest’s nightlife.
Szimpla Kert is the original and most famous ruin bar. It is in an old building and courtyard filled with multiple places to buy drinks, mismatched furniture, and quirky decorations. While the drinks were overpriced and not great quality, we wouldn’t have missed experiencing a ruin bar!
From the ruin bar, we went back to the Marriott, got dressed for dinner and enjoyed our M Club benefit (see more on this in the hotel section below).
Our dinner reservations were at FELIX Kitchen & Bar. I selected this restaurant based on internet reviews and we were not disappointed! The restaurant is beautiful. The staff is incredible. The food was delicious.
FELIX Kitchen & Bar is named after Miklós Ybl’s (one of Europe’s leading architects in the mid to late nineteenth century as well as Hungary’s most influential architect during his career) only son, Felix. The building is the former water pumping station for Buda Castle. In addition to fabulous food and drink, it has also become a gallery for beautiful contemporary art.
To start, we ordered Oscietre caviar (one of my favs!). I got a glass of champagne to go with the caviar and Mike decided to try the local liquor – pálinka. Pálinka is a Hungarian fruit brandy, a strong spirit that is traditionally distilled from various fruits like plums, peaches, apricots, and pears. The one Mike got was made from sour cherries. It is a popular drink in Hungary, with a high alcohol content, typically between 37% and 55%, and is often enjoyed as an aperitif or digestive. Pálinka has a protected designation of origin, meaning it must be made in Hungary from Hungarian fruit to be called pálinka. I thought it tasted like pure grain alcohol and I couldn’t taste the fruit flavor at all.
For dinner, I ordered the beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes and Mike ordered a local Hungarian beef with fries. Both were fantastic! For dessert, we ordered something they described as a typical Hungarian dessert straight from Grandma’s kitchen. It was a warm golden pastry with walnuts, vanilla sauce, and salted caramel ice cream. And it was delicious!
Throughout dinner, we talked wine with the sommelier, Bence, and asked where we could do a wine tasting to learn about Hungarian wine. He offered to do a wine tasting for us if we returned the following day between lunch and dinner service. See Day 2 for more details on this experience.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for the night. What a great first day in Budapest!
DAY 2: BREAKFAST AT NEW YORK CAFE, DANUBE RIVER CRUISE, CENTRAL MARKET HALL, SHOES ON THE DANUBE MEMORIAL, HUNGARIAN WINE TASTING, DINNER AT TRATTORIA TOSCANA
New York Café is well-known in Budapest and has been called the most beautiful café in the world. I’d tried to make reservations ahead of our trip (only available after 18:00), but apparently you need to make them at least a month in advance to find availability – so it was a no go on the reservations.
I’d read online that going early was the easiest way to avoid really long lines. Since we were up early on Saturday morning, we got ready and headed out to see if we could get in for breakfast. We arrived at about 07:30 and there was no line! We were the 6th table seated. By the time we left, the restaurant was full and a line was beginning to form – so getting there early paid off.
New York Cafe is a beautiful building decorated in regal colors of gold and deep red. You feel like you are in a palace while dining there.
For breakfast, we ordered the 24 carat gold ice coffee with vanilla ice cream & whipped cream (complete with gold and sprinkles), Croque Madame, grilled Ham & Cheese, Irish coffee (Jameson, brown sugar, espresso coffee & whipped cream), and Hungarian coffee (Tokaji cuvée, honey, whipped cream). The drinks were yummy. The food was ok. But the experience and the company were worth the trip there!
Here is the New York Café menu if you’d like to check it out. The New York Café also has the White Salon Restaurant on their balcony level in the Anantara Hotel. Here is the White Salon Restaurant menu if you’d like to check it out.
After breakfast, we’d booked the boat tour that came with our tuk tuk tour. It was a 75-minute cruise on the Duna Bella that left from Dock 7, right in front of our hotel. On the cruise, we went up the river past the Statue of Liberty then turned around and headed the other direction under the Elisabeth Bridge, past the Buda Castle, under the Chain Bridge, past Fisherman’s Bastion, past the Parliament Building, under the Margaret Bridge, around Margaret Island, then turned around and cruised back to the dock. They had headphones at each seat and shared historical and other important information about the landmarks and Budapest as we were cruising. The cruise came with one drink on the outbound (beer, wine, soda, soft drink, water) and one glass of sparkling lemonade on the return. It was a really nice way to see the city from a different vantage point.
Note: The double-decker sightseeing buses also come with a boat cruise. Like the bus traffic vs the tuk tuk traffic, our boat had lots of space and we were not fighting for seats like the boat tours that came with the sightseeing buses.
Once back on land, we wandered over to Central Market Hall. This is an indoor market with a combination of fruit/vegetable/meat/cheese vendors, shops selling local liquor, shops selling everything paprika, restaurants, and stands with very touristy items. We’ve been to many local markets in a variety of towns around the world and were a little disappointed with this one. It was far less interesting than we’d expected and was full of very touristy chachkis.
After the market we wandered through town and found a place for lunch. We ended up outside on a cute little street at the Made In Hungaria Restaurant. My goal was to try more Hungarian food, so I ordered the Chicken Paprikash and Mike ordered Spaghetti Bolognese. Both were quite tasty.
Another food goal for the day was to get a chimney cake! Yum! So we wandered back towards the hotel and checked out the options. We decided on the Pichler Chimney Cake & Coffee Restaurant. It was a fabulous choice. Their freshly made, warm, and tasty cinnamon chimney cake (takes 8 minutes to cook) was amazing! We got one more chimney cake the following day and it was not even close to as good as the one from Pichler.
From there, we wanted to see the Shoes on the Danube memorial. This is a haunting memorial on the east bank of the Danube River not far from the Parliament Building. It was inaugurated on April 16, 2005. The memorial consists of 60 pairs of shoes (adult and children’s), cast in iron, to represent the Jewish victims that passed away here during World War II. The story says they were marched by soldiers to the edge of the river, told to take off their shoes (as leather was expensive at the time), and then shot – falling into the river. It’s definitely a very somber experience being there.
Next, we headed back to FELIX Kitchen & Bar to meet up with Bence, the sommelier, for a Hungarian wine tasting. We had a great time learning about the regions, grapes, and history of wine making in Hungary. We knew nothing about Hungarian wine so it was very educational! They have grape varietals we’d never heard of. In our opinion, their wine is not as good as other regions we’ve been to – but was fun to try something new and learn about the Hungarian wine industry.
Then we went back to the hotel, got dressed, and hung out at the M Club before heading to dinner.
Dinner was at Trattoria Toscana. Mike’s favorite food is Italian so I’d searched the internet for best Italian restaurants and selected this one that was a short walk from the hotel. It felt very authentic Italian. We had a lovely Tuscan appetizer plate with meats, cheeses, olives, and bruschetta. For our main courses, I ordered the home-made spaghetti with fresh seafood and Mike ordered the Ventagli pasta filled with buffalo mozzarella in a San Marzano tomato sauce. Both were very good! We were too full for dessert, but they did bring us some limoncello on the house as a digestif.
I’d been wanting to see the Parliament Building lit up at night so we grabbed a cab back to the hotel and asked the driver to take us to a location on the way where we could take Parliament Building pictures. It was beautiful!
When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the Liz & Chain Rooftop Bar again for one more yummy espresso martini as a night cap. And enjoyed some more beautiful views!
It was a busy and fantastic day in Budapest!
DAY 3: SEARCHING FOR KOLODKO’S MINI STATUES, BUDA CASTLE, FISHERMAN’S BASTION, FLIGHT HOME
On our last day, we started with the big hotel breakfast buffet again. We had a 19:05 flight out later this day, so we had plenty of time to do some more exploring.
The night before, I’d read about Kolodko’s mini sculptures. We decided that we’d spend our last day wandering around looking for the sculptures and sightseeing. This was such a fun way to see the city! And another great day!
Check out this blog post for the details: Searching for Kolodko’s Mini Statues.
We definitely got lots of steps and enjoyed more of Budapest! After the 8.8 miles (and over 23,000 steps) we walked searching for mini statues, we headed back to the hotel, changed into dry clothes and headed to the airport.
WHERE TO STAY IN BUDAPEST
We made our travel reservations last minute and on a European-wide holiday weekend so prices were a bit high and many hotels were pretty full. After reviewing our options, we decided on the Budapest Marriott Hotel, which was an excellent choice. It was at capacity for the weekend and there was only one room type available when we booked – but the room was great and the hotel did not feel overly busy.
We booked private transfers from the airport to the hotel and back, through the Marriott concierge (165 euros or $187 roundtrip) – which worked out great. When we’d gathered our luggage and left baggage claim, there was a nice driver waiting for us with our name displayed on his iPad. The ride from the airport to the hotel was easy and took about 30 minutes.
Upon arrival at the hotel, we received the most amazing greeting from the Marriott team. Mike is Ambassador level at the Marriott but can’t say that we’ve had quite the same level of welcome at other Marriott properties. They made it clear that they were very happy to have us there.
The Marriott is right on the Danube River and all of the rooms face the water. Regardless of your room type, you will have a water view. Our room was an Executive View King room with a water view. Since the hotel was full, they couldn’t upgrade us to a different type of room, but they ensured we were in a hotel location where we had a nice view of the Buda Castle hill.
The Executive rooms come with access to the M Club Lounge, which was a very nice perq at this Marriott. And the hotel’s breakfast buffet was fantastic.
M Club Lounge – The M Club Lounge is off the lobby on the ground floor with indoor and outdoor seating and a view of the river. They are open all day and offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is a buffet that is served in the main hotel restaurant. It had a huge variety of options – fruit, yogurt, chia seed pudding, Hungarian options, make-to-order eggs and omelets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, beans, roasted mushrooms, Asian selections, selection of juices, an entire table of bread products, a gluten free section, and more! We never ate lunch there so not sure what was offered at that time of day. In the evening, there were 3-4 hot dishes (rotating menu), as well as charcuterie, bread, dessert, salads, wine, liquor, beer, soft drinks, and more. While we didn’t eat our meals there as we chose to eat out at restaurants, one could have easily eaten dinner for free every night in the lounge.
Some M Club Lounge photos…
Some more breakfast buffet photos…
TICKETS & OTHER TIPS
Here are some tips if you are planning a trip to Budapest:
Book tickets to major attractions in advance – There are some attractions (and restaurants) that sell out early. If going to Budapest, you may want to book tickets in advance for the Parliament Building tour (when I tried to get ours 4 days in advance they were already sold out), Buda Castle, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Opera House, etc. Also, New York Café reservations go quickly so if you want reservations (after 18:00 only), you’ll want to book early.
Best views of the city – For the best views of the city, visit Buda Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, and the dome at Saint Stephen’s Basilica. Rooftop bars are another way to get great views. We really enjoyed the views from Liz & Chain Rooftop Bar at the Marriott.
City tours – There are lots of options for tours to see the city. Budapest offers a couple of different double decker bus tours. These are a nice mode of transportation, with informative recordings, between major sites. There are also walking tours, biking tours, segway tours, and more. We opted for a private Tuk Tuk tour with Budapest Tuk Tuk, which we loved. (see Day 1 above for more details).
Try the local food – While we didn’t get to try all of these as we weren’t there for enough meals, consider trying:
– Gulyás (Goulash) – Hungary’s most famous dish, a savory beef stew with paprika, potatoes, and vegetables
– Lángos – A deep-fried flatbread, often topped with sour cream, cheese, and garlic
– Kürtőskalács (Chimney cakes) – Unique spiral shaped traditional pastry made from sweet, yeast-based dough and rolled in sugar, then roasted over an open fire or baked in an oven. Often topped with cinnamon, cocoa powder, ground walnuts, or shredded coconut
– Halászlé (Fisherman’s Soup) – A spicy fish soup made with paprika, traditionally cooked over an open fire
– Chicken Paprikash (Csirke Paprikás) – A creamy chicken dish flavored with paprika and served with dumplings
– Hortobágyi Palacsinta – A savory pancake stuffed with meat and topped with a rich paprika sauce
– Töltött Káposzta (Stuffed Cabbage) – Cabbage leaves filled with minced pork and rice, cooked with sour cream and paprika
– Somlói Galuska – A decadent dessert made of sponge cake, chocolate sauce, walnuts, and whipped cream
Great public transport system – While we did not take public transit, we read and heard from others that it’s a great option. They have efficient metro, tram, and bus systems. There is also the option to get a Budapest Card for unlimited travel on public transport and discounts on attractions.
Always carry some cash – While cards are widely accepted, in most places in Europe you’ll come across smaller stores and markets that only take cash. The local currency is the Hungarian Forint (HUF).
OTHER THINGS TO SEE & DO IN BUDAPEST
• Admire Budapest’s street art
• Tour Hero’s Square
• Visit the House of Terror Museum
• Visit the Cave Church
• See the Hungarian Opera House
• Tour Dohany Street Synagogue
TAKEAWAY
Budapest was so much fun! The people are warm, kind, and friendly. There is plenty to do to fill a long weekend, or an even longer stay. The architecture, history and sites are amazing. A private tuk tuk tour is a great way to get an overview of the city and its major attractions. Searching for Kolodko’s mini statues was a fun way to see more of the city on foot. Make sure to spend some time tasting the hearty Hungarian dishes.
We still have some things yet to see so we will definitely keep this on our list as a “return to” destination.