Things to do in Budapest

My husband, daughter and I recently went on a short break to Budapest. It is such a beautiful city. We were there for three nights and I think we could definitely have done with an extra day! We went in October half term and some of the attractions had closed down for the winter, but there was still lots to.

These are things we did in Budapest…

Margaret Island

Margaret Island is an island in the Danube. It can be reached by either public transport or on foot by bridge. It is about a mile long and 500m wide. There are no houses on the island. There is a water park, amazing fountain, small zoo, various coffee shops and cafes and a Japanese garden, among other things. There is also a running track which goes around the island and we would have loved to run there, but it wasn’t practical for various reasons.

Margaret Island looked beautiful with the autumn leaves. It was lovely and peaceful and I was very happy walking around it. Sadly, some of the attractions were closed and my daughter was very underwhelmed by it! It’s probably not the best place for teenagers, especially in the autumn and winter.

Boat trip

A boat trip on the Danube is pretty much essential for any trip to Budapest. There are lots of tourist boats running, so there will be pretty much one available at all times, although there’s no harm in booking in advance! The boats all go from a long dock on the Danube close to the city centre. You can take a trip in the day or the evening. We decided to go in the evening, because all of the bridges and major buildings are lit up and that is definitely worth seeing.

We booked a pizza cruise, so we didn’t have to find a restaurant to eat before or after. This included unlimited beer or soft drinks (we only managed two drinks each). Obviously not enough people had booked a pizza cruise, so we were combined with the ‘unlimited drinks’ cruise. It’s remarkable how many cocktails a Scottish hen party can drink in 85 minutes! It was quite loud with 80s music booming out and the hens singing, but it was good fun and we definitely made the right choice to go at night as the city looked stunning.

Szechenyi Spa

Budapest is home to several thermal spas and Szechenyi Spa is the most well known (it appeared on the penultimate episode of Celebrity Race Across the World recently). Opened in 1913, it is a stunning building which has three outdoor pools and 15 indoor pools. The water comes from two thermal springs and the baths attracts 1.8 million visitors a year.

Szechenyi Spa is the biggest in Europe and a must-visit attraction in Budapest. We paid about 25 Euros for a ticket, but prices seem to vary a bit online. You can pay on arrival, but it is safest to book in advance, particularly at busy times.

Szechenyci Spa opens at 9am. We arrived at 9:10am on a Wednesday morning in October and it very quickly got busy.

Very little has been modernised, apart from the lockers which are controlled by a wristband. You can pay extra for a changing cabin, but we just got changed in the open locker rooms. The locker rooms run all along the basement of the building and are divided into areas which each contain around 30 or 40 lockers and a bench.

When we arrived, the smallest outdoor pool was closed for cleaning and maintenance and only just opened as we were leaving two hours later. There is a long pool for lane swimming, then the big thermal pool where most people congregate. It is a very pleasant 38 degrees. There are sunbeds all around the pool, but nobody was using those in October!

The spa isn’t recommended for anyone under 14, but we saw a few toddlers in the indoor pools. There was also a group of Scouts from the UK aged about 12 or 13 who were over-excited and splashing people (accidentally). At least one of them got yelled at by an elderly Hungarian woman. As my daughter said, ‘it’s a spa, not a swimming pool’. People expect slightly different behaviour in a spa – mainly being quiet and calm! Apart from the kids, it was mainly either young couples, young groups of friends or elderly people, some of whom probably visit daily or weekly.

The indoor pools are small – some very small, some quite small. They are all different temperatures – varying between 20C and 40C. Parts of the building are stunning, with very high ceilings. The indoor pools were quieter than the outdoor pools, but still surprisingly busy so soon after opening.

The entrance ticket is for a full day, but two hours felt like about the right amount of time to be there. Obviously in summer, when it is warm enough to sit outside on sunbeds, you might want to stay for longer! There are also coffee shops next to the pool, so you won’t need to go thirsty or hungry.

The spa was over two miles from our hotel, so we took a taxi to get there. The majority of taxis in Budapest are Bolt taxis, which are run on an app similar to Uber. They are bright yellow and you can’t miss them.

Things to see

As I said, we didn’t really have time to properly visit many places, so instead we spent lots of time walking and just looking at things! On the first afternoon, we walked up the hill in Buda to the Castle Hill District, with the Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church.

We walked past the iconic Hungarian Parliament building on our way to Margaret Island and got great views of it in the dark on our boat trip.

There are lots of statues and sculptures around Budapest. Some of the most interesting are the Shoes on the Danube – a haunting memorial to Jews who were ordered to take off their shoes, then shot by the river, so their bodies fell in. The Shoes are close to the Parliament building.

The Statue of Liberty is on the Gellert Hill on the Buda side of the river. It is 14m high and commemorates liberation from Nazi rule. With a 26-metre plinth and high on a hill, it is visible from all over Budapest. We walked up there in the dark (slightly treacherous in places!), but couldn’t get as close as we would like due to construction work on the Citadella next to the statue. Further down the hill is another statue worth visiting – Saint Gellert Monument. Walking up to these statues wouldn’t be suitable for people with mobility problems or with small children. It is possible to take a taxi or bus.

There is a big park area close to Szechenyi Spa with lots of interesting things to see (again, we didn’t actually go inside any of them). Vajdahunyad Castle feels exactly like being in the village in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. There is a large music hall with a fantastic ceiling which looks like is made of autumn leaves. There is a museum with an incredible sloping roof which is actually a park in itself. You can walk up steps to the top. Just outside the park is Heroes’ Square, which has a collection of very impressive statues.

That’s everything we did in a couple of days in Budapest. Have you ever visited? What would you recommend?