Essential
Museums & culture· Lipótváros
Hungarian Parliament Building
The neo-Gothic giant on the Danube, finished in 1904 with a central dome and nearly 700 rooms. Guided tours climb the grand staircase and stop beside the Holy Crown of Hungary.
Budapest
Castle hill in Buda, grand cafés and thermal baths in Pest.
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- Essential
Viewpoint· Castle District
Fisherman's Bastion
Seven fairy-tale turrets built in the 1890s beside Matthias Church. Its arches frame the whole of Pest, with Parliament lined up right across the river.
- Essential
Museums & culture· Castle District
Buda Castle
The former royal palace crowns the hill above the Danube and houses the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum. Its courtyards and terraces are free to wander.
Museums & culture· Castle District
Matthias Church
A Gothic church with a glazed-tile roof where Hungary's last kings were crowned. Inside, every wall and pillar is painted with Hungarian folk patterns.
- Essential
Special place· Danube
Széchenyi Chain Bridge
The first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, opened in 1849 and guarded by four stone lions. Walk it at dusk with the floodlit castle ahead of you.
- Essential
Museums & culture· Lipótváros
St Stephen's Basilica
Budapest's largest church, its dome built to exactly the same 96-metre height as Parliament's. It keeps St Stephen's mummified right hand and has a panoramic walkway up top.
- Essential
Museums & culture· Jewish Quarter
Dohány Street Synagogue
Europe's largest synagogue, a Moorish Revival hall flanked by two onion-domed towers. The compound includes the Jewish Museum and a garden with a metal weeping willow honouring Holocaust victims.
- Essential
Special place· Lipótváros
Shoes on the Danube Bank
Sixty pairs of iron shoes left at the river's edge near Parliament. They remember the Jews shot here by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944 and 1945.
- Essential
Special place· City Park
Széchenyi Thermal Bath
One of Europe's largest spa complexes, set in a yellow neo-Baroque palace inside City Park. Its outdoor pools steam even in the depths of winter.
Special place· Tabán
Rudas Thermal Bath
A 16th-century Turkish bath with an octagonal pool under a domed roof, at the foot of Gellért Hill. A hot rooftop pool looks straight out over the Danube and its bridges.
Museums & culture· Terézváros
Hungarian State Opera
An 1884 neo-Renaissance palace on Andrássy Avenue with a gilded, frescoed auditorium. See it on a guided tour or, better still, with a ticket to a performance.
Special place· Terézváros
Andrássy Avenue
A 2.5 km UNESCO-listed boulevard of mansions running from downtown to Heroes' Square. Beneath it runs the M1, continental Europe's oldest underground line.
Museums & culture· City Park
Heroes' Square
A vast square at the gates of City Park, centred on a column topped by the Archangel Gabriel and lined with statues of Magyar chieftains and Hungarian kings.
Museums & culture· City Park
Vajdahunyad Castle
A make-believe castle on the City Park lake that stitches together copies of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque buildings from across Hungary, built for the 1896 millennium fair.
Museums & culture· Terézváros
House of Terror
A museum in the building used first by the Arrow Cross and then by the communist secret police. It tells the story of both dictatorships and ends in the basement cells.
Museums & culture· City Park
Museum of Fine Arts
On Heroes' Square, with European old masters from El Greco and Goya to Raphael and Bruegel, plus an Egyptian collection and a restored Romanesque Hall.
Museums & culture· City Park
House of Music Hungary
Sou Fujimoto's 2022 building sits under a perforated roof that lets light fall through the park's trees. Inside are an interactive exhibition on music and a concert programme.
Museums & culture· Castle District
Hospital in the Rock
A secret hospital dug into the caves beneath Castle Hill during the Second World War and later turned into a nuclear bunker. Visits are by guided tour only.
Viewpoint· Gellért Hill
Citadella on Gellért Hill
The hilltop fortress beneath the Liberty Statue, reopened in 2026 after eleven years of works. It's the highest lookout over central Budapest and the Danube bridges.
Nature & beaches· Margaret Island
Margaret Island
A 2.5 km, nearly car-free island in the middle of the Danube, with gardens, medieval convent ruins and a musical fountain. The running track around it is a local favourite.
Nature & beaches· City Park
City Park (Városliget)
Pest's great park, whose lake becomes an ice rink in winter, home to the Széchenyi Bath, Vajdahunyad Castle and a cluster of new museums.
- Essential
Shopping· Ferencváros
Great Market Hall
An 1897 iron hall under a Zsolnay-tiled roof by Liberty Bridge. Paprika, salami and pickles fill the ground floor; the upstairs gallery has lángos stalls and embroidery.
Special place· Jewish Quarter
Gozsdu Courtyard
A chain of seven linked courtyards cutting through the Jewish Quarter from Király to Dob Street, packed with terraces and bars, with a Sunday antiques market.
Special place· Jewish Quarter
Szimpla Kert
The original ruin bar, a derelict building filled with mismatched furniture, plants and an old Trabant. On Sunday mornings it hosts a farmers' market.
Café· Erzsébetváros
New York Café
The 1894 writers' haunt, all twisted columns, marble, frescoes and chandeliers. Worth a visit in its own right, even if just for one coffee.
Café· Belváros
Gerbeaud
The grand patisserie on Vörösmarty Square since 1858, with wood-panelled, stuccoed salons. Try the Dobos and Esterházy cakes, two pillars of Hungarian baking.
Café· Belváros
Centrál Café
An 1887 literary café near the university, high-ceilinged with marble tables, good for a slow breakfast, lunch or an afternoon with the newspaper.
Café· Castle District
Ruszwurm
Budapest's oldest patisserie, open since 1827 a few steps from Matthias Church. It's tiny, keeps its Biedermeier furniture, and is known for its custard-cream krémes.
Restaurant· City Park
Gundel
Hungary's landmark restaurant, by the City Park zoo since 1894. It gave its name to Gundel pancakes, filled with walnuts and finished with chocolate sauce.
Restaurant· Terézváros
Menza
A 1970s-styled retro restaurant on Liszt Ferenc Square serving Hungarian classics like goulash and chicken paprikash, on a pedestrian square lined with terraces.
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Budapest is two cities facing each other across the Danube: hilly Buda with its castle and lookouts, and flat Pest with Parliament, the grand boulevards and the Jewish Quarter. We've gathered the landmarks, museums, thermal baths and old coffee houses worth your time, each pinned to its exact spot. Pick a collection, save it to Google Maps and have it ready on your phone.
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