What Travelers Say About Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary and one of the great cities of Central Europe, strung along both banks of the Danube. It is really two old towns joined into one: hilly, historic Buda on the west bank, with its royal castle and panoramic lookouts, and flat, busy Pest on the east, with grand boulevards, the riverfront Parliament, and most of the nightlife. The two sides, along with old Obuda, were only formally united into a single city in 1873, during the golden age of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that gave Budapest much of its grand architecture.
The city sits on a geological fault line, which is why hot mineral water bubbles up beneath it. People have bathed here since Roman and Ottoman times, and the great thermal baths, Szechenyi and Gellert above all, are still a real part of daily life rather than just a tourist stop. After the fall of communism in 1989, the run-down old Jewish Quarter slowly filled with ruin bars, eclectic drinking dens set inside crumbling buildings and courtyards, which became one of the city signatures.
For visitors it is also one of Europe's best-value capitals. A soak in a century-old bath, a hearty plate of goulash, and a long night in a ruin bar still cost a fraction of what you would pay further west. It is generally very safe, with pickpockets on busy trams and the odd overpriced tourist bar the main things to keep an eye on.