Budapest by Train
This is the second part of our train trip that covered Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. To start from the beginning of our trip, you can go here.
Our train ride from Vienna to Budapest took approximately 3 and a half hours, and we arrived at the Keleti Station a little after noon. We started the 40 minute walk toward the Danube, and our hotel, but after a few blocks decided that it was a bit too ambitious with our luggage. We decided instead to catch the Metro train at the Blaha Lujza station. From there, it was a short two stop ride to the Vorosmarty station, and from there an easy 5 minute walk to our hotel. We could have taken a cab, but several Youtube videos, and other reviews about cabs at the train station ripping you off dissuaded us from doing that. One last note about the train station… don’t assume that you’ll always have elevators and escalators. If you’re packing big heavy bags, just assume that you might need to carry them up several steps when you’re at the train station. We needed to haul our luggage up at least one flight of stairs in Budapest.
I don’t usually devote multiple paragraphs to our hotel, but I’ll make the exception. The Mariott Budapest is a fantastic hotel. It is situated right on the Danube, and it is constructed so that all of the windows face the river. We had friends who were nice enough to get us an employee discount so we took advantage of that and booked a room on the executive floor.
The Budapest Marriott has all of their room windows facing the Danube
The executive lounge served breakfast, and light dinner items along with various soft drinks and beer and wine. Half of the lounge space is indoors, but there is an outdoor area where you have a great view of the Danube, and of Buda Castle on the opposite bank. While we wanted to try as many restaurants as we could, we definitely made use of the lounge for a few meals when we were too tired from site seeing to go out to eat. We were also able to stop back at our hotel for a break, snacks and drinks in the middle of some days before we were off to the next site.
As mentioned earlier, the Marriott is also only a 5 minute walk to the Vorosmarty Metro station, which is a major hub for several of the metro lines. A few blocks behind the Marriott, you’ll find Vaci Utca, or Vaci street which is one of the main pedestrian streets, featuring many restaurants and shops. Yes, it caters to the tourist market, but you’ll still be able find souvenirs at reasonable prices.
Vaci Utca tourist shopping street is right behind the Marriott
The Sites
Before wandering out, note that in Budapest they don’t use Euros, they use the Forint (HUF). We didn’t have any problem exchanging for local currency at the hotel. You don’t need much since most places take Visa.
From the Marriott, it is a 15 minute walk across the Chain Bridge to the Funicular that will take you up the hill to Buda Castle. The Funicular is a short ride and only costs 6 Euros. It will allow you to save your energy avoiding the walk up the hill.
Funicular will take you up to Buda Castle and the Fisherman’s Bastion.
When we went, Buda Castle was closed for an event, so we walked over to the Fisherman’s Bastion. The Fisherman’s Bastion got it’s name because that’s the area that the guild of fishermen of the city were responsible for defending in the middle ages. At least that’s what we were told.
The Fisherman’s Bastion
From Fisherman’s Bastion, you’ll have some of the best views of Budapest and the Danube river. You have a beautiful view of both sides of the river, and can clearly pick out famous places such as the parliament building on the opposite bank of the river.
Beautiful views of both sides of the river from the Fisherman’s Bastion
The following day, we visited St. Stephen’s Basilica. This is a Roman Catholic Basilica named after Stephen, the first king of Hungary. The Basilica is beautiful and is decorated with gold and marble throughout the interior of the church. It is located in the center of the city and was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel.
St. Stephens Basilica
The only guided tour that we took while we were in Budapest was through their Parliament building. This 45 minute tour cost around $20 per person and we booked it online before taking the trip. The tour was interesting, and probably worth the hour that we devoted to it. The Parliament building sits right on the Danube and is a 20 minute walk from the Marriott. Note that Tram 2 is the yellow tram that runs regularly along the Danube river. Hopping on board this tram is an easy way to take in much of Budapest’s scenery along the Danube.
Budapest Parliament tour
If you choose to walk back along the Danube, you will come across the Shoes on the Danube Bank. These shoe sculptures, erected in 2005, are a memorial to those killed at the river during WWII.
Shoe sculpture memorial on the bank of the Danube
The Central Market Hall is the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest. It sits right off the Danube and was a 15 minute walk, or a short 5 minute tram ride from our hotel. It’s worth seeing if you have some extra time.
You can find almost anything at the crowded indoor market
The one “must do” while in Budapest is to try their thermal baths. There are a few places in the city where you can try the famous baths. After doing some research, and looking at pictures, we decided to try the Szechenyi baths. The baths were pretty far, about an hour walk from the hotel, so instead we decided to take the yellow M1 metro up to the baths. We exited the Metro at the Hosok Tere station, and walked through Heroes square and the park. We had researched a place to eat in the park called Robinson’s, so we stopped there for lunch.
One of the statues at Hero’s Square
Robinson’s was a great place to grab lunch on the way to the baths
We got to the baths and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. As it turned out, they knew what they were doing and the set up was very comfortable for guests. We were able to get a private room or “cabin”, tiny yes, but private nonetheless. You could also just get a locker if you want to save some money, and don’t mind changing in a crowd of strangers.
You can get a private changing stall that fits 1-2 people
The changing stalls are pretty small.
The baths are a sequence of giant pools. The place was packed, but it’s also so big that you can easily find some personal space to soak in the sun, or to wade around in the pool. The water flowing out of the fountains is very warm, so standing under them was very relaxing. Coming to the baths gave us a stress free day, and a nice change of pace to the hectic daily site seeing.
The pools at the Szechenyi baths are huge
Large areas around the pools give you plenty of room to find a spot to relax
The Food
We had heard about the New York Cafe so we wanted to try it at least once. The interior was visually stunning and was as beautiful as the pictures that we had seen of it. Live music was played as we ate adding to the amazing ambiance. Yes, there were plenty of Tripadvisor reviews that the place was overpriced, and that the staff was rude, but we didn’t notice any of that. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch there.
Beautiful ornate interior of the New York Cafe in Budapest
Amazing entrees and desserts at the New York Cafe
In general, if you love beef, then you’ll love the food in Budapest. There are always great steaks and other meat dishes on the menu, and of course, as we found in Vienna, you can always get Schnitzel.
We had Schnitzel several times during our stay in Vienna and Budapest
We had a great time in Budapest and we were sad as we made our way back to the train station. We knew that we still had a big part of our vacation in Prague left to go so we were excited about that.
