Budapest
Buda on its hill and Pest on the flat, Art Nouveau palaces turned into hotels along the Danube, the New York Café on the Grand Boulevard, and formalities done in a terminal of their own at the airport.
- Arrival
- Budapest Ferenc Liszt International · BUD
- To the city
- About 40 minutes to Deák Ferenc tér by the 100E
- Private jets
- General Aviation Terminal, customs round the clock
- Best time
- May to September
The city
Two banks of the Danube.
The Gresham Palace has faced the Chain Bridge since 1906, its Art Nouveau front looking straight across the river at the castle hill. Downstream, the twin Matild palaces of 1902 stand by the Elisabeth Bridge, and on the Grand Boulevard the New York Café still serves under its frescoed ceilings.
From May to September the afternoons run from twenty-two to twenty-seven degrees and the rain is light. Stand, with two MICHELIN stars, cooks Hungarian produce in a glass-walled kitchen at the edge of the Jewish Quarter; six more tables in the city hold a star.
Arriving
Liszt Ferenc, east of Pest.
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International lies about twenty-one kilometres from the centre, on the Pest side of the river.
- Munich 1 h 05
- Frankfurt 1 h 25
- Riyadh 4 h 50
- Cape Town 12 h 00 long-range jet
- Los Angeles 13 h 10 long-range jet
When to go
May to September.
Continental: hot summers, cold winters and a dry spring. July and August reach twenty-seven degrees; in January the afternoons stay close to freezing, and June brings the most rain.
- 2° J 34
- 5° F 32
- 11° M 29
- 17° A 40
- 22° M 56
- 25° J 66
- 27° J 54
- 27° A 49
- 23° S 39
- 16° O 39
- 8° N 55
- 3° D 44
What to see and do
Days in and around Budapest.
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Landmark
The Chain Bridge
The bridge between the castle and Pest, with the Gresham Palace at one end and Hotel Clark at the other.
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Landmark
Andrássy út
The boulevard of the State Opera House, with the Drechsler Palace facing it across the road.
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Landmark
The Castle District
The hill above the river, reached by funicular from the foot of the Chain Bridge.
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Opera & music
Hungarian State Opera
Miklós Ybl's neo Renaissance opera house, inaugurated in 1884 before Franz Joseph, reopened in March 2022 after almost five years of renovation.
Official site -
Opera & music
Liszt Academy
Founded by Franz Liszt in 1875, the music academy gives concerts in its Art Nouveau building of 1907, redeveloped in 2013, and runs guided tours with mini concerts.
Official site -
Opera & music
Müpa Budapest
By the Danube, this arts centre houses the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, with acoustics by Russell Johnson, home of the Hungarian National Philharmonic.
Official site -
Culture
Museum of Fine Arts
Egyptian antiquities and Old Master paintings fill this 1906 museum on Heroes' Square, reopened in 2018 with its restored Romanesque Hall.
Official site -
Wellness
Széchenyi Thermal Bath
Győző Czigler's neo Baroque bath of 1913 in City Park has 18 indoor and outdoor pools, open daily all year.
Official site -
Wellness
Rudas Thermal Bath
Under a 16th century Ottoman dome sits the original bathing hall, while a rooftop pool on the modern wing looks over the Danube.
Official site -
Culture
Visegrád Royal Palace and Citadel
Up the Danube Bend, Charles Robert's 1320s palace, rebuilt in Renaissance style by King Matthias, lies below Béla IV's 13th century castle.
On the calendar
A date to plan around.
Dates as published by the organisers. Runways, hotels and slots fill early around these weeks: the sooner we know, the more choice you have.
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30 Jul – 1 Aug 2027
Formula 1
Hungarian Grand Prix
Round 13 of the 24-round 2027 Formula 1 World Championship, held at Hungaroring.
Hungaroring
In 9 months
Where to stay
Palaces on both banks.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace The Art Nouveau palace of 1906 at the Pest end of the Chain Bridge, 179 rooms, with an infinity pool in the spa on the top floor.
- Anantara New York Palace On Erzsébet körút, 185 rooms and suites above the New York Café, which has been open since 1894.
- Párisi Udvar Hotel A listed shopping arcade by Ferenciek tere, a hotel since 2019, with Zsolnay ceramics, Miksa Róth glass and a dome over the passage.
- Verno House A former apartment house on Október 6. utca, near Szabadság tér, with the Flava restaurant downstairs.
- Kozmo Hotel Suites & Spa A protected building of 1910 that once housed a telecommunications centre, with two pools in the spa.
- Aria Hotel Budapest Next to St Stephen's Basilica, with rooms such as the Liszt Studio and the Opera Suite, live music in the garden each night and the High Note SkyBar on the roof.
- Corinthia Hotel Budapest A hotel on Erzsébet körút since 1896, whose restored Art Deco Royal Spa covers more than a thousand square metres.
- Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest Home to Nobu Budapest, and its 525-square-metre spa won Hungary's Best Hotel Spa at the 2025 World Spa Awards.
- Áurea Ana Palace Two buildings on Akadémia utca, a neoclassical one of 1847 and one of 1894 built for the Austrian delegation, now 107 rooms with a spa of pools and saunas.
- InterContinental Budapest On the Pest river front, where some rooms look across to the Royal Palace, with Lebanese cooking at ARZ.
- Pullman Budapest The former Hard Rock Hotel in the theatre street of Terézváros, reopened by Accor in 2024 with 136 rooms and a 280-square-metre rooftop lounge.
- Matild Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel Twin palaces by Giergl and Korb, built in 1902 for Archduchess Maria Klotild, with Spago by Wolfgang Puck and The Duchess on the roof.
- Dorothea Hotel, Autograph Collection Three nineteenth- and twentieth-century buildings joined by Piero Lissoni and opened in 2023, with 216 rooms and a garden restaurant.
- W Budapest The Drechsler Palace on Andrássy út, directly opposite the Opera, now 151 rooms with penthouse suites named after swans.
- Hotel Clark At the Buda foot of the Chain Bridge, with the Leo Rooftop high above the river and the funicular up to the castle close by.
- Kimpton BEM A nineteenth-century palace on the Buda side remade by Marcel Wanders, opened in 2024, with the feNNen Skybar on top.
- Al Habtoor Palace, Budapest The former Adria Palace on Elizabeth Square, once The Ritz-Carlton, now run by the Al Habtoor Group.
Where to dine
Two stars at Stand.
From the MICHELIN Guide Hungary 2025, the latest published selection, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- Stand Two Michelin stars Modern Hungarian €€€€ Székely Mihály utca
- Babel One Michelin star Modern €€€€ Piarista köz
- Borkonyha Winekitchen One Michelin star Modern €€€ Sas utca
- Costes One Michelin star Modern €€€€ Ráday utca
- essência One Michelin star Modern €€€€ Sas utca
- Rumour by Rácz Jenő One Michelin star Creative €€€€ Petőfi tér
- Salt One Michelin star Modern €€€€ Hotel Rum, Királyi Pál utca
Flying to Budapest?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.