Welcome to Budapest
Straddling the Danube with the Buda Hills as backdrop and boasting enough baroque, neoclassical and Art Nouveau architecture to satisfy anyone, Budapest is plentifully endowed with natural and human-made beauty. But the Queen of the Danube is not just a pretty face. At night she frocks up to become what is now the regions premier party town.
Szchenyi Baths CHRISTIAN KOBER/GETTY IMAGES
BudapestTop Sights
The focal point of Castle Hill in Buda and the citys most visited sight, the enormous Royal Palace contains two important museums, the national library and an abundance of notable statues and monuments.
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Budapest Top Sights
Budapests most important Christian house of worship is a gem of neoclassical architecture that took more than half a century to complete and contains the nation's most sacred object: the holy right hand of King St Stephen.
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Budapest Top Sights
'Taking the waters is very much a part of everyday life in Budapest and soaking in the Art Nouveau Gellrt Baths, with temperatures of up to 38C, has been likened to bathing in a cathedral.
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Budapest Top Sights
The centrepiece along the Danube in Pest and Hungary's largest building, Parliament is the seat of the National Assembly and contains the coronation regalia of King Stephen.
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Budapest Top Sights
Purpose built in 1847, the Hungarian National Museum houses the nations most important collection of historical relics, from King Stephens crimson silk coronation mantle to memorabilia from socialist times.
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Budapest Top Sights
Pests green lung, City Park is an open space measuring almost exactly a square kilometre and contains museums, galleries, a zoo, a permanent circus and one of the best thermal baths in the city.
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Budapest Top Sights
Containing garish statues and over-the-top memorials from the Communist period, Memento Park could be described as both a cemetery of socialist mistakes and a well-manicured trash heap of history.
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Budapest Top Sights
Built by the Habsburgs after the 184849 War of Independence, the Citadella atop Gellrt Hill is a fortress that never saw battle. Nearby is the Liberty Monument, the lovely lady with a palm frond proclaiming freedom throughout the city.
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Budapest Top Sights
Today's Budapest was settled by the Romans at the end of the 1st century AD and Aquincum, the most complete civilian Roman town in Hungary, now contains an enclosed museum and an open-air archaeological park.
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Budapest Top Sights
The largest Jewish temple in Europe, the Moorish-style Great Synagogue with its iconic copper dome is one of Budapests most eye-catching and beloved buildings.
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BudapestLocal Life
Insider tips to help you find the real Budapest
After taking in Budapest's fabulous array of sights, it's time to get behind what everyone sees in order to discover the Budapest local people know and love: the superb restaurants, the quirky shops and markets, and the bars and clubs that never say die.
Clear air
Quirky transport
They may be short on sights, but the Buda Hills are a welcome respite from the hot, dusty city in summer. Perhaps their biggest draws are their unusual forms of transport: a 19th-century narrow-gauge cog railway, a train run by children and a chairlift that will get you back down to terra firma.
Craft beers
World-class wine
Dont just follow the herd when day becomes night in this super party town. We have the lowdown on wheres the most fun with the least amount of hassle in the very heart of the nightlife area: Erzsbetvros.