View of Budapest from the Citadel on a gray day..
Here is the breakdown of our visit to wonderful Budapest. I loved the fact that prices were reasonable enough. There is nothing better than a great vacation that is not too costly :-). I am breaking down our costs here so you can use it as a gauge if you find yourself on a trip :-) .
Our bus ride from the airport was €5 each, then a short walk to the flat. You might want to get a door to door shuttle from the airport. In hindsight, it would have been just €2 more and would have saved lugging our luggage through the streets. On the plane though, they plug their own shuttle, and not knowing better, we fell for it!. The flat rental was €30/night, and it was in an excellent location in District 5, very close to the parliament building. It had a well equipped kitchen, even though we didn’t really cook, save for coffee. We were lucky because she let us leave our bags in the flat for free as our flight back to Malta was very late in the day. We ate a lot of gyro, kebab, because we love them and they cost €2 each for the most part. Our most extravagant dinner was €70, at Restaurant Kheiron which included:
Bottle of great Hungarian red wine
2 starters, (Hungarian sampler plate & goulash soup)
2 main courses (roasted duck breast & Game stew with dumplings)
2 desserts (flambé pancake and white chocolate mousse)
I highly recommend that place if you get a chance to go there. The atmosphere was romantic and classy and they had live music which added to the experience.
We walked everywhere when we were not on the hop-on-hop-off bus. The only other transportation expense was a cab to the airport which cost €18. That would have been 0 had we not missed our prepaid return bus ride (my fault! I forgot the flight time). So to recap the costs:
Return flight for 2 €220
Airbnb €90
Food €210
Bus Tour €30 (hop on, hop off)
Transport €38
Souvenirs and postcards €8
Total: €596
Parliament House Budapest, one of the most beautiful government offices l have ever seen! I can just imagine their views from the offices. I wouldn’t get any work done :-)
A very goth building on the Buda side of Budapest. Amazing architecture.
View from the Danube
Night view of the Chain bridge.
It’s quite easy to use the Metro, and also, some of the streets are very wide. It is prudent to use the underground hallways to cross to the other side than risk getting hit ;-)
This little restaurant had the most awesome goulash stew, and was reasonably priced.
This pates were so delicious, especially the one with the duck. It was awesome, and l could have that for dinner all by itself.
You can never have enough of Hungarian Goulash :-)
I had the duck plate. It was fabulous, absolutely freaking fabulous. This was at Kheiron restaurant. You should go if you are in the fifth district. The food and ambience are awesome.
Pancake dessert stuffed with some sort of walnut paste then a flambe with rum
His dessert was great too.
and my dessert was set on fire! It was fantastic!
We just loved this car, has nothing to do with the blog. It costs €250,000! I think there is a lot of money in Budapest. It certainly wasn’t lacking in nice cars. It sort of felt like Rodeo drive in some parts.
Yeah.. I wouldn’t mind one.
Viewing the Buda side from the Pest side.
A castle that we spotted while sailing down the Danube. Only accessible by all those stairs from what l could understand.
Have you been to Budapest? If so, did you love it as much as we did? Did you think the prices were reasonable? How does our cost relate to yours?
The food looks so yummy! My favorite Hungarian dish is chicken paprikash! So good! http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-paprikash-23169
Gotta try and make that as we didn’t get to eat any! We are so trying to squeeze in another visit soon!
This is great. Makes me want to go back. I recall the food there being very good and hearty.
Was the flambe an entree or dessert? Gotta watch your eye brows on something like that!
It was definitely yummy! We had really good Argentinian steak as well, but we ate it before thinking of taking a photo..lol..so much good food. Well, once you’re in Spain, it will just be a hop and skip away!!!
P.S. The flambé was of my dessert, the pancake thing above
Oh yeah. So makes me want to go back to Budapest again. :) I like your black and white photographs. It has a sort of dangerous theme to it as if at any moment, soldiers would come spilling out. Gulp!
I also like the statue photo on the bridge with your husband (I guess) and the lovely, lovely food. The prices are reasonable too. That is one of the reasons that I really like Eastern Europe. The region is full of history, isn’t over-run by hordes of coaches(buses), and the prices are practical!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the compliments Victoria! I passed them on to the Mr. Yes, that’s him on the bridge. That was exactly the feeling he was going for in the black and white and he was thrilled to bits that someone picked up on that. He loves statures and details. I refused to let him bring his big lens to Budapest, ‘cos guess who has to carry it in their handbag..lol! It sounds like it’s time for you to visit again! I can’t wait for Poland reports so l can bookmark it for us! Maybe l can find 10 more reasons not to visit Poland (brilliant post btw).
:) :)
How does everyone do those smiley faces???
p.s. I found out from the bride that the make-up artist is Africa based.
Ah, that was why the make up was so good and the colours were vivid. I had to have my gay best friend do my wedding make-up because I didn’t have to encourage him to use strong colours LOL! He went all out.
I like all out, not flat boring colours.
:)
I’d love to see some pictures from your wedding! I tend to wear muted colors, boring l know..lol!
Send me an Email and I’ll show you a few pictures: victoria@thebritishberliner.com
Will do!
Wow, that photo of the bridge… that looks like a contest-winning photo, really great! Glad to hear that you had a great time there!
Thanks C! I told him that was my favorite one of the lot too. That was done free hand without tripod from a moving boat, through the glass..lol! He drives me crazy sometimes, but l must admit l like seeing good images.. :0)) I ‘me already trying to convince him to go back in 2 months..so far no luck, he wants to go to Prague or Poland first..