Budapest: The Best of Hungary
Rick Steves' Europe: Episode # 311
Budapest, once Vienna's partner in ruling the Austro-Hungarian empire, feels like the capital of Eastern Europe. It's actually two cities — busy Pest and noble Buda — straddling the Danube and laced together by mighty bridges. Capitalism has taken hold with gusto as shopping boulevards thrive and stone Lenins and cast iron Stalins litter a theme park at the edge of town. Today Roma (Gypsy) orchestras feature smoking violins, venerable mineral baths are the rage, and 19th century coffeehouses enjoy a renaissance.
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Travel Details
Széchenyi Baths
The Széchenyi Baths are an ideal way to reward yourself for the hard work of sightseeing and call it a culturally enlightening experience. You'll soak in hundred-degree water, surrounded by portly Hungarians squeezed into tiny swimsuits, while jets and cascades pound away your tension (Állatkerti körút 11, district XIV, M1: Széchenyi fürdo, tel. 1/363-3210).
Hungarian State Opera House
This sumptuous temple to music is one of Europe's finest opera houses. You can drop in anytime the box office is open to ogle the ostentatious lobby, or take a tour to see the lavish auditorium. Consider taking in an opera by one of the best companies in Europe, in one of Europe's loveliest opera houses, for bargain prices (Andrássy út 22, district VI, M1: Opera, tel. 1/332-8197).
Folk Concerts
Hungária Koncert offers a wide range of made-for-tourists performances of traditional music in two historic venues: the Budai Vigadó ("Buda Concert Hall"); or in the former Budapest Ritz, now called the Duna Palota ("Danube Palace"). The most popular options are Hungarian folk music-and-dance shows and classical "greatest hits" by the Danube Symphony Orchestra (booking office in the Danube Palace at Zrínyi utca 5, tel. 1/317-2754 or 1/317-1377).
Art'otel
Bem rakpart 16-19
tel. 1/487-9487
budapest@artotel.hu
House of Terror
The building at Andrássy út 60 was home to the vilest parts of two destructive regimes: First the Arrow Cross (the Gestapo-like enforcers of Nazi-occupied Hungary), then the ÁVO and ÁVH secret police (the insidious KGB-type wing of the Soviet satellite government). Now re-envisioned as a "House of Terror," this building uses high-tech, highly conceptual, bombastic exhibits to document the ugliest moments in Hungary's difficult 20th century (Andrássy út 60, district VI, M1: Vörösmarty utca, tel. 1/374-2600).
Memento Park (a.k.a. Statue Park/Szoborpark)
When regimes fall, so do their monuments. Throughout Eastern Europe, people couldn't wait to get rid of these reminders of their oppressors. But some clever entrepreneur hoarded Budapest's and now has collected them in a park just southwest of the city — where tourists flock to get a taste of the communist era (6 miles southwest of city center at the corner of Balatoni út and Szabadka út, district XXII, tel. 1/424-7500).
Updated for 2010.