Winter and Christmas in Budapest

We stayed at the Parisi Udvar hotel, and it was absolutely stunning. Located on the "Pest" side of the city (but really close to the Danube River), the hotel is a historical landmark and, despite being a fantastic place to stay, is also a bit of a tourist attraction. We used Hyatt points for the stay and got upgraded to the corner suite, which just had an insane view. The bathroom window opens right up to the corner of a street.

While our main motive for visiting Budapest over the tail end of December was to enjoy the city's many thermal baths and spas (which I unsurprisingly am pretty sure I wound up getting COVID at on our final day), there was also a ton of sightseeing and walking to do in Budapest.

There's an amazing viewpoint of the city just over the Erzsébet Bridge that was walkable across right from our hotel and had great views of Castle Hill and the infamous Parliament Building in the background.

Super glad I hiked up here this particular night. The rest of the trip was cloudy and hazy, so this was unfortunately my only chance to get some semi-clear shots of the city from a distance.

Castle Hill itself is a must-visit part of Budapest as well, and the Buda Castle funicular is a really unique for getting up and down.

I was shocked as well with how robust Budapest's public transit was. We taxied a few times when it made sense, but the city's subways, trams, and buses were often more than enough. Some of the cars and routes have some pretty cool vintage vibes as well. I didn't really expect this from Budapest.

Hungarian food and the restaurants we tried in Budapest were phenomenal as well. Goulash was the perfect dish for winter, and I had multiple servings of it every day. Tons of mulled cider at the Christmas markets, as well as sharing a Langosh or two. I thought the chimney pancakes that are so popular were pretty underwhelming, though.

We had drinks at some great places, too. Including Szimpla Kert, more commonly known as the ruin bars. This is a cluster of really interesting bars that make up the interior of a warehouse-type building.

We chose Vienna and Budapest for this trip (in addition to Halstatt) for a few reasons, one of them being the Christmas markets both cities seem to do super well. While we did most of the main ones in Vienna first, by the time we got to Budapest, we were a little burnt out on them and spent more time elsewhere, which is fine by us. But they were full of fantastic (but overpriced) Hungarian food.

While visiting during Christmas was no doubt amazing, there was an absolute clusterfuck of people there. Even more so than Vienna, I thought. Seemed like every family in Europe wanted to be in Budapest from the 27th to the 1st.

Another one of my favorite and one of the more popular areas in Budapest was Fisherman's Bastion and the area around it.

The Parliament Building is also considered somewhat of required visiting while in Budapest. While we weren't able to secure tickets for a tour of the interior (make sure you give yourself plenty of time to book), the exterior, in my opinion, is what makes this building so special. The building is probably the most infamous in Budapest due to its size and unique look right on the Danube.

If you're going to Budapest, you no doubt know about the spa and thermal bath culture. With the weather being what it was in late December, we were planning on spending plenty of time in them. The most popular is Széchenyi Thermal Bath, which is very large and has tons of indoor baths, saunas, steam rooms, as well as a large outdoor space. I liked this place but felt it was too crowded. I think it's worth experiencing, but was not my favorite.

We hit up Gellért Thermal Bath on our last full day and I think this wound up being both of our favorites. Big enough, but not too big, beautiful architecture, and an overall good vibe. Much calmer than the Széchenyi monstrosity. In addition to Széchenyi and Gellért, we also Rudas. It's relatively basic on the inside, but it's really known for the open air rooftop tub. That was cool, but overall, pretty tame I'd say. If I were a Budapest local, you'd find me at Gellért pretty much exclusively.

I was really taken aback with how much I liked Budapest. It really felt like the perfect city to "travel" in in my opinion, and this is coming from someone who almost vastly prefers to spend time in Asia over Europe. I really felt like Budapest had it all when it comes to things you want when visiting a new city, plenty to see, solid food, great architecture and natural beauty, and solid public transportation. I'd love to come back when the weather's warmer and see the rest of the country.

-G