to ask where you shouldn't miss in Budapest?

[PeacesofAte]

DP and I love spas, architecture, cocktails, dancing, junk and antique shops, good food...has anyone spent any time in Budapest and can recommend where we might like to spend some time for a long weekend on his birthday?

Szimpla bar. It's fab, I can't tell you much as it would spoil it but it's a 'ruin bar'- it's very interestingly decked out and a lot of fun.

A ferry down the Danube by night is lovely & good fun

Thank you both. A ruin bar - will be googling that right now!!

Central synagogue, the parliament building, the thermal baths, the furnicular to the castle district, St Matthias cathedral and surrounds. The hop,on hop,off bus was good value. Hero's square, the shoe sculpture. A stunning city with so much to see and do.

Széchenyi Baths are amazing! Massive place, utterly incredible architecture, I slept so well after a day in the hot hot water that I've never forgotten it.

Take slippers or flip flops for the mad, freezing, sprint between the outdoor pools.

The covered market is amazing and there are some good cafes and restaurants down that way too

The Opera House, the markets and the Torture Museum.

Just been googling ruin bars and flea markets...think I'm going to find lots to do :-)
The Szechenyi baths look incredible, are there loads of great spas or that the one that is unmissable?

I enjoyed going to Gellert Baths. No one inside spoke English though they are good at miming directions! It was segregated male and female when we went though, but that was a few years ago. Make sure you sample the amazing cakes at a cafe.

The terror house
Grand central market although the upstairs is a tourist trap

I would say Széchenyi are the most elaborate and have the greatest number of different baths, from freezing plunge pools to the boiling outdoors one.

You must go to Memento Park, it's an amazing open air collection of Communist statues. I think there's one or two buses a week that take you there from the centre. It's amazing. Not many people have heard of it.

And you can buy weird Communist stuff from the odd little shop there. Definitely our highlight!

Yes, two thumbs up for Szechenyi baths. That was such a lovely day that DH and I spent there. The castle district was nice to amble around. We also enjoyed getting the tram out to memento park. We loved Budapest, its our favourite city break so far

We went to Széchenyi twice in the 5 days we were in Budapest, we loved it and the spa treatment I had was excellent as well.

I would second the recommendations that you have had above especially the hop on and off bus as it gives an excellent tour, we loved the National Museum (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) and when we were there in June they did a night at the museum event on all local museums which was amazing

We went on a walk around the city at night and found the Memorial to the victims of the German invasion (next to the Iberostar hotel at v kerület) it's very controversial and had a lot of aetifacta placed around it with individual stories, it was fascinating as well as heartbreaking in the same was as the terror museum.

We found the most amazing restaurant in the Jewish section I'll try and find the name as the found was amazing and the piano player was great, the cherry brandy was far too drinkable enjoy your trip!

Deryne Bistro is a must for supper and cocktails. Gorgeous place. If you're up for it, walk up the hill to the Citadella fortress and have lunch with an amazing view. Ride the funicular up the to castle. Have a beer in the little bar at the top of the Fishermens Bastion. Walk everywhere, as much as you can. It's such a beautiful place, some of the most amazing architecture. One of my favourite places in the world. Enjoy!

This is all so useful, thank you everyone!

I think PP have already mentioned all the places we enjoyed visiting. The funicular to the castle and the market get another thumbs up from me.

And our favourite place to eat was this restaurant [[http://www.szazevesetterem.hu/eng/ 100 year old restaurant]] Great atmosphere

Swimming hats! The baths are quite strict (other than szchenyi). Take towels with you as hire was expensive and towels were tiny.

Great hungarian foods not to be missed...
-Obviously real hungarian goulash is a must!
-Pörkölt with Nokedli. Pörkölt is a meat dish in a paprika sauce.. almost stew like and the nokedli is kid of pasta dumplings. So good and should definitely be on any decent hungarian menu.
-Lángos. Deep fried kind of like pizza dough topped with sour cream and cheese
-Kürtőskalács. Think its translated as chimney cake. They have wee stalls dotted about. Its sweetened dough which is wrapped around a large wooden pin and cooked over a barbecue type oven then sprinkled with sugar or glazed. So delicious eaten fresh and hot!!
Lot of pastries have poppy seeds.
If I think of anything else I will come back.. Im sure there will be more.. everytime I go to Budapest I have a list of things I want to eat while we are there!

Walk across the bridges. It is lovely. St Stephens is stunning and a must I loved the Gellart baths, was there in the snow last month was amazing.

Be warned Buda is more or less closed the first and 3rd Monday of the month. Still worth wandering around though even if you can't go in to buildings.

I second the baths and ruin bars!

We also booked a tour of the Hungarian parliament which was very interesting- best to present-book as it can get busy. A stunnning building, inside and out.

Also, the 'House of Terror' museum- super interesting if you like history. Tells you all about Nazi/Communist rule in Budapest.

And the castle district area-catch the cable car up as it's high!

• pre-book not present-book

I would have to recommend

• Escape Rooms - they're timed team games where you have to work together to solve a series of clues and escape the room within an hour. Similar things do exist in the UK, but Budapest is where they started and they're quite affordable (and great fun, even if there are only two of you!)

• Fisherman's Bastion - free, and lovely views. There's a church next door if you're into that sort of thing.

• Chain Bridge - you'll see this anyway at some point, but it does bear a rather striking resemblance to a well known British bridge

• Parliament Building - you can go on English language tours. While you're there, pop down to the river and see the rather haunting Shoes on the Danube

• Hospital in the Rock - if you like your history, plus it's underground architecture of sorts!

• We really enjoyed doing a bike tour of the city at the start of our trip, as it helped us to orientate ourselves and work out where we actually wanted to go during our few days there

• Ruin bars - there are lots around, but Szimpla Kert is perhaps the most famous and worth a visit

FWIW I've found that AirBnBs are the way to go in Eastern Europe - much cheaper than a hotel, and you get a whole flat or house to yourself. We stayed in a very traditional house that had once been part of the Jewish ghetto, for a very reasonable price (less than £20 per night, from memory)

Lotz Terem Is the most amazing cafe in a bookshop - have a look at the pictures on the Tripadvisor page, it really does look like that. Fab coffee and cakes too.

Getting around on the Metro is brilliant, and the M1 line is the oldest. One of the stations, Opera, has barely changed since it was opened in the very late 1800s - I loved it.