Budapest: Travel Details
This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in "Budapest and the Best of Hungary" show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Eastern Europe guidebook.
Széchenyi Baths
To soak with the locals, head for this bath complex — the big, yellow, copper-domed building in the middle of City Park. Széchenyi Baths (SAY-chehn-yee) is the most local-feeling and fun of Budapest's many bath experiences. Relax and enjoy some Hungarian good living. Magyars of all shapes and sizes stuff themselves into tiny swimsuits and strut their stuff. Housewives float blissfully in the warm water. Intellectuals and Speedo-clad elder statesmen stand in chest-high water around chessboards and ponder their next moves. This is Budapest at its best.
The sliding entry-fee scale covers thermal baths, the swimming pool, sauna, and a changing cabin (2,000 Ft if you arrive before 15:00, 1,800 Ft if you arrive by 16:00, 1,500 Ft if you arrive by 17:00, 1,200 Ft if you arrive after 17:00; you also get money back later if your stay is short; no discount with Budapest Card). If you want a locker instead of a private changing cabin, you'll save 300 Ft. There's also a wide array of massages and other special treatments — find the English menu in the lobby (make an appointment as you enter). You can rent a swimsuit, towel, or robe (500 Ft. each with deposit).
The Baths are open May-Sept daily 6:00-19:00; Oct-April Mon-Fri 6:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 6:00-17:00 (last entry 1 hour before closing, Állatkerti körút 11, Budapest XIV, M1: Széchenyi fürdo.
Hungarian State Opera House
Consider taking in an opera by one of the best companies in Europe, in one of Europe's loveliest opera houses, for bargain prices. The Hungarian State Opera performs almost nightly, both at the main Opera House (Andrássy út 22, Budapest VI, M1: Opera) and in the Erkel Színház (not nearly as impressive, near the Keleti Train Station at Köztársaság tér 30, Budapest VIII, tel. 1/333-0540).
Be careful to get a performance in the Opera House — not the Erkel Színház. Ticket prices range from 800-6,500 Ft, but the best music deal in Europe may be the 300-Ft obstructed-view tickets (easy to get, as they rarely run out). If you choose to buy one of these opera-tickets-for-a-buck, you'll have a seat, and won't be able to see the stage — but you'll hear every note along with the big spenders. If a full evening of opera is too much for you, you can leave early or come late (but buy a ticket ahead of time, as box office closes when performance starts).
To get tickets, call, fax, or visit the box office at the main Opera House, or order online (box office open and phone answered Mon-Sat 11:00-19:00, Sun 16:00-19:00, box office tel. 1/353-0170 or 1/472-0447, fax 1/311-9017, www.opera.hu). If you reserve by phone, fax, or online, pick up tickets at the Opera House two days before the performance (Andrássy út 22, Budapest VI, M1: Opera). You can pick up tickets 30 minutes before a performance by request. There are generally some tickets available at the door.
Folk Concerts
Concerts include Hungarian folk music and dancing by various interchangeable troupes (4,600-5,600 Ft, May-Oct almost daily at 20:00), classical "greatest hits" by the impressively-named Danube Symphony Orchestra (the best group, 6,400-8,100 Ft, 15 percent discount with Budapest Card for this concert only, May-Oct Sat at 20:00) and organ concerts in a Baroque church (3,600 Ft, June-Sept Fri and Sun at 20:00, May only Fri at 20:00). While highbrow classical music buffs will want a more serious concert, these shows are real crowd-pleasers.
These concerts are all run by Duna Palota (main office Zrínyi utca 5, call or visit for tickets daily 8:00-20:00, open later during concerts, shorter hours in winter, tel. 1/317-2754, http://ticket.info.hu).
Art'otel
Art'otel impresses New York City sophisticates. Every detail of the 164-room Art'otel — from the breakfast dishes to the carpets — was designed by American artist Donald Sultan. This big, stylish hotel (part of a German chain of upscale theme hotels) is a fun, classy splurge. The location on the Danube embankment, close to the Batthyány tér Metro stop, is another big plus (rack rates: Sb-€198, Db-€218, bigger "executive" rooms-€20 more, deluxe "art suites"-€100 more; rates drop as low as Sb-€114/Db-€134 during slow times, which are often Aug-Sept; you'll save lots — often Db-€120 — by booking online; non-smoking rooms, elevator, free Internet access, Bem rakpart 16-19, Budapest I, tel. 1/487-9487, fax 1/487-9488, www.artotel.hu, budapest@artotel.hu).
House of Terror
An overhang casts the shadow of the word "TERROR" onto the building. The museum's atrium features a Soviet tank and a huge wall covered with portraits of the victims of this building. The modern, stylish, high-tech exhibit (starting on the top floor and spiraling down) is designed for Hungarians, but the English audio guide (1,000 Ft extra) and free handouts offer tourists the same powerful experience.
The museum has many memorable exhibits — including rooms featuring gulag life, social realist art and propaganda, a labyrinth of pork-fat bricks reminding old-timers of the harsh conditions of the 1950s (lard on bread for dinner), and religion (joining the church was a way to express rebellion). This is a powerful experience, particularly for elderly Hungarians who knew many of the victims and perpetrators and have personal memories of the terrors that came with Hungary's "double occupation."
The last section begins with a three-minute video of a guard explaining the execution process, which plays as you descend by elevator into the prison basement. In the early 1950s, this basement was the scene of torture; in 1956, it became a clubhouse of sorts for the local communist youth club. It's renovated today circa 1955. During the 1956 Uprising, 250,000 fled to Austria and the West during the two weeks of chaos before the USSR pulled a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown. The Hall of Tears remembers 25,000 who died in '56. The last two rooms — with the only color video clips — show the festive and exhilarating days in 1991 when the Soviets departed, making way for freedom. Scenes include the reburial of local hero Imre Nagy; the Pope's visit; and walls of "victimizers" — local members and supporters of the Arrowcross and ÁVO, many of whom are still living, and who were never brought to justice.
The museum does an admirable job of conveying its story. But some locals believe that it's confusing and a little misleading to combine information on these two regimes (who hated each other, and came from opposite ends of the political spectrum) in the same building.
The museum costs 1,200 Ft to enter (cash only, café, bookshop, Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-19:30, closed Mon, Andrássy út 60, Budapest VI, M1: Vörösmarty utca, tel. 1/374-2600, www.terrorhaza.hu).
Statue Park
When regimes fall, so do their monuments. Just think of all those statues of Stalin and Lenin — or Saddam Hussein — crashing to the ground. 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. Though it can be time-consuming to visit, this collection is worthwhile — even more so for those fascinated by the Red old days.
To enter Statue Park costs 600 Ft (daily 10:00-sunset, six miles southwest of center at the corner of Balatoni út and Szabadka út, Budapest XXII, tel. 1/424-7500, www.szoborpark.hu).
Back to the Budapest and the Best of Hungary script
Excerpted from Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe 2005