A Locals-Approved Guide to Budapest’s Hidden History and Hip Haunts

When it comes to architecture, Budapest has a dramatic flair. The Hungarian capital’s eclectic style has long attracted the film industry, but it’s also an ideal destination for travelers who seek out cities rich with history, art, and culture. It's a compact city, and you can see the main sights over a long weekend, as much of the downtown area clusters around the Danube River. But Budapest's true charm lies in the places hiding in plain sight that can even take some residents years to discover.

It's a city that's been shaped by its complex history and isolated by a language that shares nothing in common with those spoken by its neighbors. Hungarian is unlike any European language (except, as a distant relation, to Finnish). It's a country marked by occupation, from the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburgs, and then later the scars of the World Wars, revolutions, and decades of communism. If you know where to look, you'll find its history written on the walls, from the Turkish bath houses to bullet-scarred walls left behind from the uprising against the Soviet occupation in 1956.

Tucked between the grand boulevards and palatial apartment blocks, you'll find small local galleries, bohemian hubs in dilapidated former factory buildings, and a vibrant cultural and culinary life. Whether it's history, art, food, nightlife, or a lively counterculture, Budapest has something for any curious traveler.

See: Budapest from the Danube River. Take a stroll along the embankments or take a boat trip to see the best of the city from the water.

Touch: Budapest's thermal waters. Budapest sits on more than 100 geothermal springs, each with its own mineral profile. There are more than 10 thermal baths, but the most spectacular are the Szechényi, Gellért, and Rudas baths, which incorporate a 16th-century Ottoman bathhouse. These spots are popular, so if you want to escape the crowds, try some of the lesser-known baths like the Lukács Baths or the Veli Bej, a former Ottoman bath house hidden inside a hospital.

Smell: A glass (or more) of Hungarian wine. Hungary has excellent wine, from bold reds from Eger to sweet Tokaj dessert wines. Sample some wines or go to a tasting, like with Tasting Table, which is run by a Hungarian-American married couple.

Hear: Budapest has an excellent music scene, from classical to contemporary. Try to take in a classical performance at MÜPA, a modern complex by the river with excellent classical concerts, or the newly opened House of Music in City Park. If you prefer something more modern, come in August when the famous Sziget Festival is in full swing.

Taste: "Whenever we think about a typical Hungarian dish, it's always paprika,” says Gabriella Andrónyi, a local culinary guide and the author of My Hungarian Cookbook. “The most important thing is to try gulyás soup and paprikás chicken because these are the iconic dishes we prepare at home."

Budapest offers plenty for the art lover to admire. Excellent museums are scattered throughout the city, like the Museum of Fine Arts and the Ludwig Museum, both of which are worth visiting. It’s impossible, though, to manage everything in one day. If you're looking for a mix of architecture, fine art, contemporary art, and classical music, get a feel for Budapest's vibrant cultural and artistic landscape with the itinerary below.

9 am - Grab breakfast at Kelet Gallery and Cafe. Art Nouveau architecture, independent galleries, cafés, and design boutiques characterize Béla Bartók Boulevard, and Kelet has been an institution here for over a decade. This café is known for its rich coffees made with beans from a local roaster and tasty breakfasts, and also features wall-to-wall books on the ground floor and an art gallery on the first floor.

11 am - Discover a hidden art gallery in the Castle District. Head to the Koller Gallery, a hidden spot in the Castle District that's free to visit. They deal in fine art from local contemporary and historic artists, with a selection that would fit in a museum. Visit their ivy-clad garden with surrealist sculptures and head up to the top floor for views over the Danube and the Hungarian Parliament Building.

12 pm - Enjoy modern Hungarian cuisine in a former 17th-century inn. The Pest-Buda Bistro claims to be one of Hungary's oldest restaurants, occupying a former inn dating back to 1696. The restaurant retains a Baroque tavern-like vibe and offers homey and comforting food, with a menu focused on signature dishes like gulyás, chicken paprikás, and stuffed cabbage.

2 pm - Learn about Hungarian photography in two small museums. Hungary is famous for its photographers, with emigré names like Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, and Brassaï having Hungarian roots. Head across the river and up Andrássy Avenue and you’ll find two small but excellent museums dedicated to photography. On one side of the boulevard, there’s the Mai Manó House of Hungarian Photography, residing in a house once belonging to a former imperial photographer that now exhibits photography. Across the road, you have the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center which features a permanent exhibition on Capa and temporary press photography exhibitions.

5 pm - Grab afternoon tea at Café Zsivagó. Café Zsivagó is a bohemian coffee house around the corner from the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center that evokes a cozy living room from the 19th century. It's a popular spot with creative locals, notably for its selection of teas, alcoholic drinks, and homemade savory pastries and pies. Sometimes there's live jazz music here.

7:30 pm - Take in a classical concert at Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music is striking architecturally, decked out with Zsolnay ceramics, stained glass, murals, and lashings of gold leaf. The academy hosts inexpensive concerts that begin at 7:30 pm almost nightly.

It can be tempting to stick to the top sights you can find in most any guidebook to this city, but Budapest's charms lie in its hidden spots. "It's pretty tempting to tick off all the touristy sites, they're beautiful, but Budapest offers so much more," says Attila Höfle from BudapestFlow, which organizes tours of the city that focus on alternative culture. "I'd recommend exploring the VIII District. Massive gentrification of the inner districts has pushed out alternative bars, independent galleries, artists, and small entrepreneurs into this part of town, and you can really find hidden and inspiring spots." This itinerary takes you around some of these spots to explore a different side of the city.

10 am - Breakfast at Lumen. This café inside a former downtown chemical factory on Horanszky utca, is popular with local bohemians, artists, and students. You'll find excellent egg dishes, granola, and Hungarian savory French toast called bundáskenyér for breakfast.

11:30 pm - Get to know some local designers at Paloma Art Space. This unique space occupies a colonnaded courtyard with boutiques and workshops selling bags, jewelry, clothes, accessories, leather goods, and art from 50 local designers. You can even peek inside some workshops and chat with the designers yourself.

12:30 pm - Grab a soup and baguette at Bors GasztroBár. This hole-in-the-wall serves excellent street food, mainly soups and baguettes made with creative flavor combinations. The menu is seasonal, and you can anticipate a line, but the wait is worth it.

2 pm - Explore the street art of District VII. "It's full of large murals, but also smaller, uncommissioned art, like stickers, paste-ups, by local and international artists, along with Hungarian political street art, like the ‘Hungarian Banksy' by the Two-Tailed Dog Party," Attila says. "It's worth slowing down and taking a closer look.” Keep a look out while walking, or you can even do a street art tour to learn all the lore surrounding these pieces.

6 pm - Enjoy dinner among the cool kids. Café Csiga is a popular hangout for young creatives in the area, so it's always packed with a lively atmosphere. On the menu, you’ll find a mix of soups, from beef gulyás to Hungarian cold summer fruit soups, international dishes, and Central European fare, like sztrapacska, a Slovakian noodle dish made with potatoes and ewes’ cheese.

8 pm - End your night with a drink off the beaten path. Budapest’s District VII is also home to plenty of watering holes that are central to its countercultural spirit. "You can find really hidden and inspiring spots, like Nyolcsésfél, an ex-communist block that was once the telephone exchange—it's a really ugly building, but it's filled with artist studios and galleries. It has a nice courtyard garden with a bar and a cool mural in the background." Alternatively, head deeper into the district to Gólya, a warren of rooms in a high-ceilinged industrial space that operates as a left-wing community space by day and a bar and party hub by night.

Hungarian food shares similar traits to its Central European neighbors, in that it's heavy on the meat and potatoes, but its signature spice—paprika—makes Hungarian cuisine stand out. However, Hungarian culinary tradition is also rich in its desserts, liqueurs, wine, and pickles. Trying to taste everything traditionally Hungarian will leave you feeling like you're going to roll home, so here's an itinerary you can do in a day that gives you the best tastes of those signature Hungarian flavors.
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9 am - Start the day with a sweet treat. Café Gerbeaud’s story began in the 1850s and still captures this old-world grandeur with its opulent interior with crystal chandeliers and silk-dressed walls. "Try their iconic Gerbeaud cake, which is everyone's favorite recipe, as it's a classic all the grandmothers make. It was invented by the pastry chef," says Andrónyi. The iconic cake, also known by the Hungarian phonetic spelling, Zserbó, is made with flakey pastry layers, apricot jam, ground walnuts, apricot liqueur, and dark chocolate.

11 am - Try the fried Hungarian dough at Retro Lángos. Once a kiosk outside the entrance to the Arany János utca metro stop, Retro Lángos gained such a cult following with both locals and tourists that they moved into a bigger, more comfortable spot across the road. Làngos is best described as a savory deep-fried dough topped with sour cream and cheese. It’s calorie-dense but so delicious! Best to share.

12 pm - Sample fresh sausages at Belvárosi Disznótoros. This is a standing-only place with tasty pork sausages. "The name means ‘pig-killing dinner in the downtown,'" says Andrónyi. "These are what we eat when we kill the pig. The sausages with paprika and the sausages with rice and liver are typical of what we eat in the winter. I always recommend trying them with freshly grated horseradish and mustard."

1 pm - Explore the culinary offerings at the Central Market Hall. This site occupies a striking cast iron and red brick building with cathedral-like proportions. Head to the basement for pickle stands and kiosks selling game meats, while the ground floor is known for its vibrant fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry, charcuterie, and cheese stalls. While here, grab some culinary souvenirs like paprika powder or a bottle of Pálinka, a traditional local fruit brandy.

If you’d prefer a less-crowded alternative offering a similar experience, hop on the metro to Újbuda Központ and check out the Fehérvári Market. It’s set in a brutalist building left over from communist times and the first floor is packed with seasonal vegetables, fruit, and even stalls from small vendors like mushroom inspectors.

3 pm - Learn the history of Hungary's famous bitters. You'll find these orb-shaped bottles in every Hungarian bar. Unicum is a bitter liqueur intertwined with the history of the Hungarian-Jewish Zwack family. Legend says it was invented by a physician to the Habsburg court when the emperor had digestive issues. "There are 40 kinds of herbs and spices inside, and we don't know what they are exactly because it's a secret recipe," says Andrónyi. Explore the story of unicum at the Zwack Unicum Museum, where you can tour the factory cellars and (of course) get a taste for yourself.

7:30 pm - Feast on Hungarian-Jewish cuisine at Rosenstein. Take tram 23 to Keleti Palyaudvar, and you'll be close to this family-owned restaurant serving excellent Hungarian and Hungarian-Jewish dishes. Definitely book ahead and try their acclaimed matzo ball soup or any of the duck or goose dishes on the menu.

W Budapest ($$$$)
Opposite the Hungarian State Opera in the former Ballet Institute, the W Budapest revived this landmark that had stood abandoned for decades. It blends the building's architecture with modern design inspired by chess and the hotel's ballet heritage. The basement features a luxury spa resembling a hall of mirrors, paying tribute to Harry Houdini. There's on-site dining and a hidden cocktail bar serving drinks inspired by different eras and buildings of the city, with a speakeasy vibe.

Mystery Hotel ($$$)
Set in a former masonic lodge, the Mystery Hotel embraces its quirky past with surrealist decor and original Egyptian-style murals left behind. There's also a beautiful spa, with a hot tub enclosed in a glass conservatory and tropical foliage. In the summer, enjoy a rooftop bar with views overlooking the city. Inside, the main bar and restaurant occupy the former masonic ceremonial hall.

Brody House ($$)
This boutique hotel in the Palace District overlooks the Hungarian National Museum and occupies an old townhouse that once belonged to a famous doctor. Brody House embodies a shabby chic aesthetic, with exposed brick end chipped walls combined with work from local artists. There's an ivy-clad courtyard that’s home to the Garden Cafe, a Turkish brunch café and bar.

Budapest has excellent public transit, with a network of trams, metros, and buses. It's best to get a pass, as you can travel without limits within the time your pass is valid. However, if you get a single ticket, validate it before getting on the metro, tram, or bus. A single ticket costs 450 HUF, a 24-hour pass is 2500 HUF, and you can buy tickets from ticket machines and counters or get a digital ticket on the BudapestGO app.

Hungary used the Hungarian Forint (HUF), roughly 370 HUF to the dollar.

Hungary uses the standard continental European plug with two prongs, so if you’re bringing a generic European adapter, that will do.

The shoulder season is a good time to visit, as it's less busy than the middle of August during the Sziget Festival or December during the Christmas market season. Anytime is good to visit; it just depends on the weather, crowds, and what you'd like to do.

Budapest has hundreds of caves carved out by thermal water. You can even go spelunking in the Buda Hills, but if you're a licensed cave diver, you can dive the world's largest known thermal water cave right in the city center opposite one of the thermal baths.

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