Luxury hotel holidays to Hungary

Hungary - Frequently Asked Questions

Budapest is often described as one of Europe's great capital cities. What makes it distinctive, and is it worth a dedicated visit?

Budapest is distinctive in a way that takes most visitors slightly by surprise. The city is effectively two places — Buda and Pest — divided by the Danube and connected by a series of bridges of which the Chain Bridge, dating from the mid-nineteenth century, is the most famous. Buda is hilly, historic and relatively quiet: the castle district, Matthias Church, the Fishermen's Bastion with its extraordinary views over the river, and the older residential streets of the hill. Pest is the city of wide Hausmann-esque boulevards, the neo-Gothic Parliament building on the riverbank, the great State Opera House, the grand coffee houses of the Andrássy út and the faded imperial grandeur of the Keleti railway station. Together they make a city of real depth and considerable beauty, with an atmosphere — the thermal baths, the ruin bars, the Jewish Quarter, the river at night — that is quite its own. Three nights is the minimum that does it justice; four allows a more relaxed pace and perhaps a day trip on the Danube Bend to Szentendre or Esztergom. Budapest works very well as a dedicated visit, and we offer it both by air and as part of a wider rail itinerary. It also consistently surprises clients who arrive with modest expectations and leave wanting to return.

How do you travel from the UK to Budapest, and is it possible to go entirely by train?

Entirely by train, yes — and Budapest is one of the more straightforward central European destinations to reach by rail from London. The standard approach takes the Eurostar to Brussels or Paris, then continues by fast train through Cologne and Frankfurt or through Zurich and Vienna to Budapest. Travelling via Zurich and Vienna on a day train is one of the most scenic routes in Europe — crossing the Arlberg Pass in Austria before tracking the Danube east from Vienna to Budapest — and the whole journey, with an overnight stop in Zurich or Vienna, takes two comfortable days. The Nightjet overnight sleeper also runs to Vienna from Amsterdam and Cologne, and from Vienna the onward journey to Budapest is under three hours by Railjet — so a combination of the Nightjet to Vienna followed by a morning train to Budapest is a practical and enjoyable option. For those who prefer to fly, Budapest's international airport is well served from UK airports, and it is straightforward to fly one way and return by train, which is how many of our circular itineraries are structured.

Which combinations with other countries work particularly well when Budapest is included?

Budapest sits at the natural end point of several very satisfying rail tours. Vienna and Budapest is the most focused pairing — the two cities are under three hours apart by Railjet, they share a Habsburg inheritance while being temperamentally very different from each other, and the contrast between imperial Vienna and Magyar Budapest makes for a trip that is greater than the sum of its parts. An eight-night itinerary combining a night in Zurich, three nights in Vienna and three nights in Budapest, travelling all the way by train, is one of our most popular central European holidays. Prague, Vienna and Budapest is the natural extension of this — nine to eleven nights taking in three of the great capitals of the former Habsburg world, each distinctive, each connected by fast and comfortable trains. For something more ambitious, our eleven-night itinerary travelling the Arlberg Pass from Switzerland through Innsbruck and Salzburg to Vienna and then on to Budapest offers a longer sweep across the architecture of central Europe. Budapest also works well as the end point of tours that begin in Germany — Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest is a coherent if demanding fourteen-night itinerary for those who want a serious journey through the history of the continent.

Hungary is associated with thermal baths. Is that a genuine part of what a visit offers, or primarily a tourist attraction?

It is genuinely central to Budapest's character rather than an add-on for visitors. Hungary sits above one of the most significant geothermal zones in Europe, and Budapest has more thermal springs within its city boundary than any other capital in the world. The great bath complexes — the Széchenyi in City Park with its outdoor pools and yellow neo-Baroque pavilions, the Gellért on the Buda bank with its Art Nouveau interiors, the Rudas with its Ottoman dome still intact from the sixteenth century — are used daily by local people as much as by visitors, and spending a morning or afternoon in one of them is as authentic an experience of Budapest as visiting the Parliament or the Opera. The ritual of the baths — moving between pools of different temperatures, taking a steam, sitting in the outdoor pool in winter with snow on the surrounding rooftops — is something clients consistently describe as one of the highlights of the trip. We include information on the baths in the practical notes we provide with all Budapest itineraries, with recommendations on which to visit depending on what the client is looking for.

Is Budapest best in a particular season, and are there times when it is especially rewarding?

Budapest is a year-round city and each season makes a different case for itself. Spring — April and May — is when the city is at its most comfortable and the Danube embankments and city parks are at their most photogenic, with blossom along the river and the long evenings beginning to open up. Summer is warm and lively, with outdoor concerts, terrace restaurants along the Danube and the thermal baths at their most sociable; the city is busy but not overwhelmed in the way that some more compact European capitals can be. Autumn brings a beautiful quality of light and the atmospheric appeal of the grand coffee houses takes on a deeper resonance as the evenings draw in. Winter is underrated — Budapest in December, with the Christmas markets on Vörösmarty Square and the thermal baths steaming against the cold, is a particularly evocative experience, and the city is quieter and in many ways more itself than at the height of summer. The Hungarian State Opera is in full season from September through June, and booking a performance there — the building is one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe — is something we can arrange as part of any itinerary.