Budapest is an enigmatic city, beautiful but from my personal experience with some small problems that can be easily avoided, even by following these little tips.
I think that Budapest is an enigmatic city of Eastern Europe very poised between past and present, with its wounds still uncovered and its modern beauties to boast. There are things, created for tourists, that I do not recommend doing or visiting. They are the ones to absolutely avoid if you have little time to dedicate to the city: if you are passing through or if you go there for just one or two days, it is better to avoid wasting time and being disappointed!
Transfer to the airport
- The city airport transfer do not do it with the shuttle bus. Wizzair offers you a comfortable and organized bus to book at the same time as the purchase of the plane ticket, or in any case before departure, at the modest cost of 10 euros each way. Let's face it: they are a bit of a lot! I had spent 20 euros a / r from Madrid so I asked myself and looked for alternatives directly on the Budapest airport website. There is city bus number 93 that with just over 1 euro takes you to the Kobánya-Kispest metro terminus to which you have access with the same ticket (I opted for the day ticket for less than 5 euro). Take it at the shelter in front of the T1 exit, wait a handful of stops, no more than five or six and change to the train that arrives directly at the central station of Deák Ferenc Tér and the square of the same name in Pest.
The funicular
- The Funiculare, whose name reminded me mentally of the ascent to Mont Juic in Barcelona, is a total fiasco (obviously according to my personal experience). The route up to the Buda hill is very short, the transfer takes less than a minute, the cost of the ticket is approximately 5 € and it is totally disproportionate to the costs of city transport, the queues for access to the ticket office and to the lift cabins are endless and not justified by the subsequent experience. Better to take the pedestrian path that, through the park, climbs to the Buda hill and arrives directly at the Royal Palace.
Fishermen's Bastion
- The Fishermen's Bastion. This is one of the monuments I liked most in Budapest: a mix of oriental temples and a white marble city fortress. It is a place of direct view from the Buda hill to the underlying center of Pest and the long Danube, offers a wonderful view and panoramic, but it is absolutely not worth buying the entrance ticket to the walk on the upper level of the bastion. At times the bastion is freely accessible, some loggias and many times they are open to all; moreover, a bar is present on the last tower and has no access restrictions, as well as the last terrace which belongs to the same bar; from there a short upper section is even practicable.
Hungarian National Gallery
- The Hungarian National Gallery, located in the Royal Palace of Buda, hosts numerous Hungarian works of art from the Middle Ages to today, but, unless you are great fans of the national artistic path or particularly interested in knowing in detail the works of local artists even if they have not had national prominence, you can safely avoid visiting it. You will reinvest the time and money saved here in visiting the nearby Matthias Church, therefore always in Buda near the Fishermen's Bastion, or consider entering the Great Synagogue, third in the world for size and cultural emblem of the city.
