Budapest is the perfect City Break destination where you can get a great balance of luxury and budget. There are so many things to do in Budapest and places to visit. The food and drink scene in Budapest is tasty and fun and best of all, you can easily visit Budapest in 2-3 days which is why it works so perfectly for a long weekend in Budapest!
Weekend in Budapest Guide
How to get to Budapest.
I flew with Jet2 from Manchester, they are a low-cost British airline however in comparison to other low-cost airlines out there they didn’t feel that low cost at all!
They fly from many UK airports to Budapest so they are a good airline to fly to Budapest with for your weekend in Budapest!
Where to Stay in Budapest.
I stayed at the Hilton Budapest for 3 nights and wow, is this hotel incredible, it’s one of the best, if not the best, hotel in Budapest so you should look to stay here on your long weekend in Budapest!
The public reception, restaurant and bar areas are impeccable with staff that are only too keen to help you out, and the bedrooms, well they are something else entirely, so much thought has gone into them and little things that you didn’t even know you needed in a hotel room they have thought about, like having multiple countries plug sockets, USB sockets, lower lights in the bathroom so you don’t blind yourself when getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
And then, of course, there’s the amazingly comfortable bed and river-facing rooms which benefit from possibly the best view of Budapest that there is with big windows overlooking the River Danube, the iconic Parliament building and fisherman’s bastion!
The hotel also benefits from being on the Buda side of the city (the city is split into Buda and Pest by the River) so its nice and high on the hill within the castle district and surrounded by pretty, quiet streets where you feel like you’ve just walked back in time! The beautiful St Matthias church is just next door and the Castle is just down the road!
Things to do in Budapest
A City Break is all about exploring and in Budapest there are a few options, you can head out into the city and explore yourself, you could take a free walking tour which is what I did on my first trip to Budapest or you could take a guided tour of Budapest.
We took a guided tour with CityRama where we were picked from the hotel in a minibus and driven around the main sights for 3 hours and this included stops where we got out and walked too.
I particularly enjoyed this method during our weekend in Budapest as it was pretty cold so it felt lovely to have a walk and time to explore and then have a comfy bus to get back into to get to the next stop.
Not only was our guide very knowledgable he also had some banter which we all liked! The main places we stopped at were the Castle, St Gellets Hill, (note that this hill is very high and isn’t really walkable by yourself unless you fancy a hike!) and Heroes Square, we also drove around the Jewish District which was really interesting, and we stopped at the Parliament building so we could see the huge impressive building up close.
We then ended in the centre of the Pest side so we could explore a little further by ourselves (and because we were there in December we headed to the Christmas markets!)
I would 100% recommend that you do in Budapest is going to one of its Thermal Baths as the city is very famous for them and it will be a highlight of your weekend in Budapest!
We visited Szechenyi Baths which is the largest medicinal bath in Europe and therefore the most famous with its bright yellow building and 18 pools! After entering you can relax in the indoor and outdoor pools for as long as you want!
Now that Budapest has become a popular city break destination, there are lots of popular Budapest Instagram spots so look out for these too!
Where to Eat and Drink in Budapest.
One thing Budapest is known for is its Ruin Bars, these are ‘hole in the wall’ type of bars, perfect for some fun on your weekend in Budapest!
We visited one of the most popular ones called Szimpla Kertmozi in the Jewish area and it was very cool, although it was most certainly nothing fancy! It was one big room with lots of side rooms coming from it and it was decked out with the most bizarre items. Drinks were cheap in there and although we went at about 6:00 pm on a Friday night it wasn’t too busy, I can imagine it gets a lot busier later though and is a great place to party on a weekend in Budapest!
If you wanted to combine your sight-seeing with a river cruise then you can do this too!
We did a Danube Dinner Cruise on the Europa, we boarded at 7:00 pm and for the next 2 hours, we took in the sights of the city in the dark, including seeing the Parliament building up close and all lit up, listened to some Hungarian music and most importantly ate as much as we could at the buffet that was served up!
For more idea’s on what to eat in Budapest, check out this Budapest Food Guide.
If you fancy something even fancier then we were told that Budapest has a few Michelin Star restaurants which they are very proud of so that’s an option if you want to splash out!
Or you could grab some food at a Hummous Bar if you want good food on a budget in Budapest!
This post was written by me and brought to you by Jet2CityBreaks but all thoughts and opinions are my own.