Author: Budablogger

Blogger who wrote a Budapest blog, but once it ceased to exist I moved my previously written blog posts to the Budapest Guide. In other words, these posts were not originally written for the guide, but the posts were moved here as I stopped updating the Budapest blog.

Fresco Café at Franz Liszt square

Posted on by Budablogger

Not long ago I got the chance to grab some pizzas in Fresco Liszt Cafe located at the Liszt Ferenc tér (Franz Liszt square) in Budapest. This square is one of the most popular places to grab a bite to eat in Budapest and with the Christmas market located at the square at the moment it gets even more crowded.

Fresco Budapest with good international food

On a nice summer day Fresco Café has a nice outdoor area where you can sit and enjoy your food while enjoying the beauty of the square, watching people run to their trams, buses and metros, listen to singing birds and maybe feel the smell of some delicious food in the making. As we visited Fresco it was -5 Celsius outside, so we moved on to the inside of Fresco to grab something to eat there. The interior of the restaurant is in fact very big, and it looks and feels good. This is a nice place to drink a hot chocolate and enjoy a chat with your best friend, and this is also a place to fill your stomach with some more serious stuff.

On the menu in Fresco Café you can find traditional Goulash soup (990 HUF), Caesar Salad with Chicken (1890 HUF), Wiener Schnitzel (2390 HUF), Rib Eye steak (5900 HUF), Beef fajitas with four kinds of salsa (3890 HUF), Beef stewed in red wine with butter dumplings (2550 HUF), Brownie with vanillia ice cream (950 HUF) and much more. This is a perfect place for families, because everyone can find something they like and if you long for a pizza they have quite a lot of those on the menu as well varying between 1500-2000 HUF.

We ate two different pizzas as we visited Fresco, one with ham and mushroom and the other one a traditional Hungarian with some spicy paprika, onion, salami and mushroom. The pizzas were large, so if you are not a big eater, then you can safely order one pizza for two persons. They tasted good and we were completely satisfied. I am not sure if this is normal or not, but when we visited Fresco they even had an offer saying that you got the second pizza at half price if you ordered two of them, so that was nice. All in all we paid less than 4000 HUF for two pizzas and two drink, and then the service fee was already included on the bill (they automatically add 12%). Not bad at all 🙂

If you walk around at the Christmas market at the Franz Liszt square, why not make a stop at Fresco? Good food, average prices, smiley service and good location!

Fresco Liszt Café & Lounge

1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 10.
Tel: (+36) 1 411-0915
Open: Monday – Sunday from 12.00-24.00

Bors GasztroBár review

Posted on by Budablogger

Yesterday I was out walking together with a group of tourists. Our walk together ended in Szimpla Budapest and since I had some spare time before my next program I though I’d grab something to eat. I kept walking in Kacinzcy utca, and suddenly on my right side I saw something that woke my interest… Bors GasztroBár. As I looked in the window it looked interesting and luckily there were quite empty as I went inside to check out this restaurant/bistro or whatever you’d call it.

I went inside Bors GasztroBár, looked at the menu and got a bit insecure. I am not so much of a gourmet (see: Mak Bistro and LaciPecsenye) so I normally prefer my food to be very straight forward with no special spices and ingredients added to them. Still, my curiosity for new tastes have grown recently, so I thought I’d grab the chance to taste something new. On the inside a smiling guys shouts out welcome (later I realised that the person saying hello is one of the two master chefs in the GasztroBár named György Rethling). I looked at the different dishes on the menu and without taking any big risk I ordered a Hungarian Dream sandwich with salami, pepper (paprika), smoked cheese and tomato on the inside. I accompanied my order with a celery cream soup and a ginger sambucus (elderberry) “juice” to drink. The soup was finished in 1 minute so I had barely found my seat before György shouted my name and told me that the soup was finished.

Inside the restaurant you will find different articles about the restaurant and some gastro magazines. In one of the articles the writer said that the quality of the soups are so high that you would gladly pay 2000 HUF for them in a normal Budapest restaurant. I think I agree. The celery cream soup was a perfect starter and I almost felt sad that I did not order a taste of all the soups, just to check them out. But, I will have to return some other time to do that.

The sandwich was served a few minutes after I finished my soup and it tasted just the way it was supposed to. After eating the soup and the sandwich I was kind of full, but since they had some deserts available on the menu I simply had to try at least one of them. I decided to go for a cheese cake with blueberry jam. Since this is a gourmet place they added some black pepper to bring forth the sweetness of the cake. The cheese cake was a success as well, though I would probably try something else if I returned as this did not become my new favorite.

Cheese cake in Bors GasztroBar

Still, the atmosphere, the kindness and great service, the “fantastic choice” comments as I ordered the different things from the menu, and not to forget the prices, makes this a place I already look forward to return to sometime in the near future. I ate a delicious soup, a large sandwich, ate a large cheese cake and drank 0,4 liter of homemade soft drink for only 1750 HUF… that is nothing. If I had skipped the dessert the price would have been only 1240 HUF which is cheaper than a Whopper menu in Burger King, and ten times better!

It might be that many people who visit Szimpla Kert somehow drop by Bors GasztroBar for a bite of food before or after the ruin pub, but making the ruin pub the main attraction. In the near future I somehow predict that people will go to Kacinczy utca because of Bors GasztroBar, and as a bonus to the program they will pay a visit to Szimpla afterwards.

Go visit Bors GasztroBár and meet the enthusiastic chef and owners Tamas Lipher and György Rethling and enjoy a meal in one of the most promising and trendy places in Budapest at the moment!

Ps: Sorry about the bad quality of the photos. Somehow I did not expect ending up in such a great place, so I only had my middle class mobile phone to make pictures with!

Bors GasztroBar seen from the outside

Bors GasztroBar information:

Opening times: Monday-Saturday from 11.30-21.00
Address: Kazinczy utca 10, 1075 Budapest
Telephone: +36/ 70 935 3263, +36/70 701 3656

Budapest in November

Posted on by Budablogger

There are three months of the year known to be very hard for everyone who works with incoming tourism in Hungary; November, January and February. That is not so hard to understand as November is a quite cold month, not much happening at all and people stay at home preparing for Christmas. Some might be planning a tour to some large European city to visit some Christmas markets and so, but the travel itself normally takes place in December.

By the end of November change is in the air, and the major reason for the change is the opening of the annual Christmas markets in Budapest. This is getting larger and larger every year, and more and more tourists keep coming to Budapest, so if you plan a visit to Budapest, why not plan it so that your arrival will be towards the end of the month. The most famous Christmas market in Budapest is the one located at Vörösmarty square and this market normally opens around November 20th. And if you first come to Budapest to enjoy a Christmas market we can warmly recommend that you do a day trip to Vienna in addition to visit the extraordinary and beautiful Christmas markets in the Austrian capital.

At the Christmas markets you need to taste the glühwein (hot wine), the chimney cake and the thing that looks like pizza, only with sour cream at the bottom (töki pompos). At the markets you will be able to buy traditional Hungarian handicraft and as you come to Budapest, make sure to see how magical the Vörösmarty square looks after sunset, almost Disney magic!

Weather in November in Budapest

The average temperature in Budapest in November is somewhere around 4 Celsius. The warmest temperature ever measured in this month was 22 degrees, but do not prepare for that, as it is not at all normal. But, if you experience temperatures around 10 degrees during daytime, that is not very special. Temperatures normally do not go between 0 degrees, but be aware of the fact that if is is 5 degrees, but with a cold wind, you will need a cap, winter jacket and maybe also gloves. The wind is the lethal part of the climate in Budapest, so check the weather forecast and maybe pay especially attention to how strong wind it is expected to be. It might be useful to know that it is very little snow in Budapest, so you do not need to prepare for snow, at least not in November. If it should snow, it is normally gone within a day or two.

November activities in Budapest

In November you need to find some nice indoor activities, and a great thing to do in this month is to visit a private SPA where you can get some delightful treatment of your body. There are lots of places offering Thai massages, Swedish massages, pedicures, manicures and other treatments, so you should easily find a place. But, be aware of the fact that the quality differs a lot from place to place, and so does the prices. If you live in a five star hotel in Budapest you should be aware of the fact that the services inside your hotel are much more expensive than if you visit a private spa somewhere else.

Another activity relaxing and cool in Budapest in November is a visit to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath. Enjoy the warmest outdoor pool with a temperature of 38 Celsius. The feeling of freezing as you walk towards the pool, and then the joy of the hot water as you step into it is extraordinary and worth a try. Of course it gets very cold as you step out of the water again, but that is part of the fun.

Special events in November

As I wrote earlier there are not to many things going on in Budapest in November, but there are some festivals and events that might be interesting to at least some of you. Here you will find a list presenting those:

St Martins Day
Budapest Fridge Festival

On November 11 St Martins Day is celebrated in quite some nations, and also in Hungary. The day is also known as Feast of St Martin of Tours, and what few people know is that this guy was born in Hungary. Normally you will find special programs around on November 10th, 11th and 12th commemorating St Martins Day, and in Hungary the goose is popular to eat then. So if you visit a restaurant, do not be surprised if they have lots of goose meals available. The legend in fact sais that if you do not eat goose on St Martins Day, you will stay hungry in the next year.

Budapest Fridge Festival

This is not Budapest Fringe Festival, this is the Budapest Fridge Festival (only 1 letter making the difference). This festival is arranged in the City Park at the ice skating rink between Vajdahunyad Castle and Heroes Square. At the Fridge festival you can enjoy live concerts and lots of crazy sports events and competitions.

There are of course different concerts and other ongoing programs available in Budapest in November as well such as folklore performances and Danube Cruises, but if you are interested in larger programs and events, the programs mentioned are probably the most important ones.

Where to live in Budapest in November?

As it might get cold in November, you want to live somewhere central and maybe also with nice SPA facilities, sauna and quite a lot of indoor opportunities. If that is you, I would recommend Hotel Kempinski as a good five star hotel located in the center and very near the best Christmas markets. If you want the same, but with one star less, then maybe Mercure Korona can be a good option (though a bit further away from the Christmas markets).

Be aware of the fact that due to lack of visitors to Budapest in November most hotels have super offers on their rooms, so you should be able to find some really good offers on hotels with lots of stars and high quality in this period.

Summarizing all of it

As you come to Budapest in November you should not expect it to be crowded in shopping streets or elsewhere. But, if it is possible, try to make arrangements so that you will visit Budapest sometime between November 20th and 30th, and in that way you will be able to visit the Christmas markets as well. Since hotel prices are cheap, this is a great chance to visit Budapest and live for a small amount of money in high class hotels.

Yesterday I was hacked by hacker

Posted on by Budablogger

I work with several web pages and yesterday in my process of answering email I was supposed to refer to information on one of my websites. But, as I opened the web page it was all white with this simple text visible to visitors: „hacked by hacker”

My webpage looked like this yesterday: Hacked by hacker

Never in my life have someone hacked any of my sites, so this was something new. Where do you go to find information on such things today, to Google. So I typed „hacked by hacker” into Google and within seconds I realized that I am not the only one suffering from this hack attack. This seems to be a general attack on certain server types around the world, very often united by the fact that they use the Cpanel software. My web page also had Cpanel (while all my other sites which do not have Cpanel did not suffer from similar attack), so this might be correct.

Since the web page we are speaking about uses WordPress I was afraid that the hacker-attack would harm my database with all information, texts and posts. Luckily the hacker attack did not harm these at all, but I had to do some minor work for things to get back to normal again. Step number one for me was to delete index.php/index.htm/index.html from the root directory of the web page and after that add a new index.php file from a working WordPress installation. After that the same thing needed to be done with the index files in the WordPress theme folder. So I therefore deleted the index files from the WordPress theme directory and then got hold of a working index.php to the same theme from somewhere else. After this the webpage got back to life, but no links worked at all. What happened? Somehow the attack also got onto my .htaccess file, so the permalink structure made by WordPress did not work. So I found a similar .htaccess file from another page with the standard WordPress coding for this file, and after this it all started working again.

The question is though if the page has been made any safer? Will the site stand the test if this hacker or another hacker would return… I guess not, but who knows?

I survived my first hacker attack and „hacked by hacker” is history, at least for now. If he returns I will let you know, and maybe I should consider doing some security updates to my WordPress site.

The hackers are out there!

Pizza Eataliano Budapest review

Posted on by Budablogger

A couple of days ago I visited the most central Pizza Eataliano in Budapest, located only a few hundred metres from the Christmas market at Vörösmarty square. We decided to eat our lunch there with my wife and son and entered the restaurant and enjoyed our meal in total peace as there were nearly no other guests around.

I have been to other Pizza Eataliano restaurant before in Budapest, and I also visited quite a lot of them before they turned into Pizza Eataliano (earlier this Italian restaurant chain in Budapest was named Pizza Marzano). In the Pizza Marzano days this chain was not at all a favorite, and I rather avoided the place.

I am not sure what happened to the chain with the name change, but something have taken place, because the quality is for sure better now than before. With my wife we ate pizza and she had some grilled pork with mushroom sauce as a main course. For dessert we had chocolate cake, panna cotta and some vanilla ice.

My remembrance told me that the pizza in Pizza Eataliano is a bit better than in most other Italian restaurants in Budapest. It was true. The tomato sauce used has a better taste, and that serves as the basic for a good pizza. The ingredients worked out fine and I enjoyed my pizza. If I take into the consideration that my 27cm pizza cost 2000 HUF that is quite expensive compared to most place in Budapest, but still with such a central location, nice interior and good quality, the price is not to bad after all. My wife truly enjoyed her main course, and as she has a crush on everything that has to do with mushrooms at the moment, she really enjoyed the mushroom sauce served next to the grilled pork fillets. Her main course cost 2800 HUF. The dessert was a mixture of chocolate cake, panna cotta and a vanilia ice. This costed 1000 HUF. All in all, without drinks, the price was 5800 HUF.

Kitchen in Pizza Eataliano

As I mentioned earlier the interior of the restaurant is very nice and modern. The toilets are clean and nice and this is for sure a safe place to come with family and friends to eat some Italian food while walking around in the center of Budapest. One of the challenges of the restaurant is though the location. It is good, but still the normal tourist never walk by this place as it is a bit hidden away behind two corners. Most tourists who look for Italian food while walking in downtown Budapest normally drop by La Cucina instead, and this is a very popular place. Which is the best?

Dessert in Pizza Eataliano

La Cucina has a great cuisine and a much more authentic Italian atmosphere. The decorations, the table clothes and atmosphere is better. The prices are quite similar, so if I had to choose as a tourist, I would probably dine in La Cucina instead of Pizza Eataliano. But, if you want to try something else and maybe eat your lunch or dinner in a more peaceful environment, or maybe have a business meeting with something to eat, then Pizza Eataliano is more suited for such activities than La Cucina.

What about the other Pizza Eataliano restaurants?
I have not eaten in all Pizza Eataliano restaurant in Budapest (there are 4 or 5 of them), but in general the menues are very much the same, prices are the same and the ingredients are the same. Therefore if you see a Pizza Eataliano sign that is a safe haven for those wanting to eat some pizza, a salad or some typical easy main course. You can eat lasagne as well in Pizza Eataliano, but a general problem in most restaurants is that they are totally unable to make good and tasty lasagne, and the same is the problem in Pizza Eatliano (meaning: skip that).

Pizza Eataliano restaurants in Budapest

Budapest, V. Vécsey utca 5.
Budapest, VI. Andrássy út 41.
Budapest, I. Batthyány tér 6.
Budapest, V. Dorottya utca 6.

RyanAir in Budapest

Posted on by Budablogger

Since the bankruptcy of Malév earlier this year RyanAir returned to Budapest and Budapest Airport and at the moment they have more than 30 destinations available from Budapest. As of today that makes up a very large percentage of all flights leaving and arriving to Budapest, making them very important when it deals with tourism in Hungary. Lots of people have a determination never to fly with RyanAir, while others fly regularly enjoying low fares and some not too comfortable stuff. Here comes a RyanAir in Budapest wrap up, at least the way Budablogger sees it!

Waiting outside for boarding unto RyanAir flight earlier this year!

As Malév threw in the towel Budapest Airport lost about 2 million passengers a year. Many of these passengers where transfer passengers only landing in Budapest and traveling on to the next destination within hours, spending hours and money at Budapest Airport. Since then Vienna Airport has taken over the role as leading transit airport and they for sure enjoy the benefits of the Malév bankruptcy. Only days after Malév went bankrupt RyanAir announced the fact that they will open their Budapest base flying to more than 30 destinations in Europe. Great stuff! The goal of RyanAir was to bring 2 million passengers to Budapest each year, thus filling the hole after Malév. The airport taxes paid to Budapest Airport per passenger flying with Malév is though less than what they in general get from a RyanAir passenger, so the part suffering in all of this is Budapest Airport. At the same time increased taxes makes it harder to operate the airport and that has also led to the increased fees for Budapest Airport parking.

Recently RyanAir has received some extra media attention in Budapest and Hungary due to two facts. The first is the fact that they always let their passengers walk to the flights, meaning no bus connection at all from the terminal building to the flights. Adding onto this is the fact that recently Budapest Airport set up small tents in which RyanAir passengers have to wait outside for their flights; with no toilets, washes or other similar facilities. The second reason just came to media as RyanAir announced that they will stop flying to 10 of their current destinations due to increased taxes demanded by Budapest Airport. So, what’s up with RyanAir in Budapest?

Personal RyanAir experience

The last year I have been traveling 4 return trips with RyanAir (all in all eight times). I must say that everything has worked out perfectly all travels. Of course, you might feel some fear if your hand luggage exceeds the allowed hand luggage size (do not try that). They might be strict if your paid luggage exceeds the kg amount you have paid for (15kg or 20kg). They might not let families with children enter before others to the flight (you will to pay extra to use the priority line), but still in quite some situations the crew at the airports have been nice and let us use the priority line even without paying for it… (thank you RyanAir)! In general I must say that if you follow the RyanAir rules, watch out for your luggage size and weight, and get to the airport and to your gate in time you should be able to enjoy your flight and hopefully also enjoy a real good price for your ticket.

Walking under roof from flight to terminal at Budapest Airport

Budapest Agent recently wrote an article complaining about the fact that passengers have to wait in tents at Budapest Airport. In my eyes this sounds much worse than it really is. First of all… before the tents where set up passengers had to wait outside in open air waiting for boarding their flights (done that a couple of times earlier this year). Luckily the weather was nice all times. Now they have set up tents and even built some kind of covered street to the tents, making it possible to get to the tent and almost all the way to the flight totally dry, even on a bad day weather in Budapest. I think that is a nice thing, at least compared to the fact that earlier this year no such thing existed at all!

Still it all sounds quite cruel. But, it is worth knowing that RyanAir only starts calling you to your gate 30-40 minutes before flight departure. This means that they check your boarding pass inside the terminal building and then send you out onto a short/long walk before finally arriving to the tent. As you arrive to the tent you do not have to spend hours there at all, but in general we are speaking of 5-15 minutes. Not the best, but compared to waiting outside in front of the plane (where there are no toilets either), I think this is no.

If you long for more luxury and no walking and waiting in tents or outside at all, skip both RyanAir, EasyJet and WizzAir, but if you want to fly very cheap, then this is what you get!

Less RyanAir destinations from Budapest

As of January 10 the 5 RyanAir flights flying from the base in Budapest will be decreased to three. The 30 destinations will be decreased to 20 and the RyanAir flights to the following destinations are supposed to be terminated: Baden-Baden, Birmingham, Bologna, Dusseldorf, Lubeck, Krakow, Malaga, Munich, Oslo and Thessaloniki. According to RyanAir this will also make 800 people lose their jobs as these destinations disappear. In addition the remaining 20 destinations will be visited less frequently (nine of them). This is a real tragedy, both for tourism in Hungary and Budapest and for Budapest Airport itself. But, who is to be blamed? Is it Budapest Airport who somehow had to increase the taxes? Or was Budapest Airport forced to do so by the present leaders of the nation? That is a good question and who really knows (see: Hungarian politics). What I know for sure is that RyanAir brings lots of tourists to town and 800,000 tourists not coming to Budapest means less hotel nights, less transfers, less people spending money on shopping and eating Goulash soup in restaurants… a pity!

Have you had good or bad experiences with RyanAir in Budapest? Would you like more RyanAir flights from Budapest, or would you rather see these Irish anti service people get out of the nation?

Budapest in October

Budapest in October

Posted on by Budablogger

Budapest in October is a great city to visit in most situations and you are most likely to get great weather and some nice temperatures, even though things are a bit more uncertain than in Budapest in September or the main summer months. Still many people prefer October to the other months, especially if they are satisfied with temperatures around 20 degrees and consider everything above that as too warm. Read this article to get more information about the weather, recommended activities, festivals and good hotels in Budapest in October.

Weather in Budapest in October

The average temperature in Budapest in October is somewhere around 13 Celsius. Still, it will normally get quite a lot warmer during daytime, and in the hottest October Budapest has had an average temperature around 16 Celsius. It gets quite a lot colder in the evenings, but it is still a comfortable weather.

If you wonder what clothes to bring, you can in general bring some typical autumn clothes with your t-shirt and shorts available, but you should also be prepared with a jacket somewhere. The most important is to check the weather forecast a few days before arrival, that will probably give you some last advices on how to pack your suitace. On a bad October day with strong wind, you might need your jacket, but in general October is a nice month when a sweater should be more than enough.

Activities in Budapest in October

As a great autumn month, Budapest has some great activities and programs available in October month. Most of your time should be spent outdoors and you should prepare for some long and nice walks in the central areas of the Hungarian capital. October is also a great month for wine tasting and a great month for visit the magic city of Szentendre. Here you can walk around in nice weather, eat good food and shop traditional Hungarian handicrafts. There are some organized tours going to Szentendre as well, some of them including wine tasting which we can warmly recommend in this period of the year.

Knowing that the winter is approaching you should enjoy the last days of the year when restaurants have outdoor areas available, so if you can, drop by an outdoor cafe or restaurant instead of hiding inside a basement or some other inside restaurant somewhere. A great area for such outdoor restaurants and cafes are Raday Utca (by Kalvin square) or Liszt Ferenc square (near Októgon). If you look for a popular indoor restaurant in this area Sir Lancelot is a good example of such a restaurant. That is though a very special restaurant, so if you look for a more typical kind of restaurant in the central Budapest area, why not read the article about good restaurants near the St Stephens Basilica?

October is also a month with quite a lot of concerts, so if you are lucky one of your favorite artists might be performing in some popular Budapest concert venue. The most popular of them all for indoor concerts is Budapest Sportarena, located by the metro station (red line) Stadionok.

Hungarian national day – October 23rd

October 23rd is one of three national days in Hungary. On this day the people of Hungary celebrate their revolution against the Sovjetian army in 1956. Their fight was not in vain and inspired people around the globe to fight the Communist reign. The revolution started as a success and the communists had to leave the country, but less than two weeks later they returned stronger than ever, and the revolution was stopped. On October 23rd in Hungary today there are some special programs going on in front of memorials, by the Parliament and flowers are placed at important locations in the city, but except from that this is not a very special day. All shops are closed, while restaurants and cinemas stay open.

Festivals in October

There are some festivals in Budapest in this month, and though there are not at all as many as you can find in Budapest in September, there are still some things worth checking out.

Palinka and Sausage festival

The Palinka and Sausage festival is one of the highlights in the October month in Budapest. It was arranged for the first time in 2009 and has since then been a great success. The location is in the Castle area and this is the place to taste lots of different sausages and drink some of the Hungarian fruit spirit named Palinka.

Café Budapest festival

Café Budapest is a new name for a baby we have known for a long time, the Budapest Autumn Festival (founded in 1992). This festival celebrates contemporary art featuring today’s progressive art and artists. During the festival there are loads of concerts arranged, so if you are into some contemporary concerts with alternative sounds, noices, accoustic and electric concerts… this festival might be interesting for you!

SPAR Marathon in Budapest

The most popular marathon in Hungary throughout the entire year is arranged in Budapest in October. The full name of the marathon is SPAR Budapest International Marathon, and they have arranged this marathon soon 30 times. More than 30,000 people participate, though not all in the full marathon (43km). There are also shorter distances available, so that everyone will find a length suitable for their shape and legs. The marathon is normally arranged in the start of October, first or second Sunday.

Chimney Cake festival

In 2013 the Chimney Cake festival will be arranged in Budapest for the first time. Here you can taste different kinds of Chimney Cakes, listen to popular Hungarian music at one of the many concerts and partake in competitions of different kinds. More information about the festival here.

Chimney Cake in Budapest

Good hotels in October

A good hotel is a good hotel in all seasons of the year, still there are different requirements you have to a hotel depending on the month. In October you should expect nice weather, meaning you will spend most of your time outside the walls of the hotel, which means that you do not need a whole lot of extra services inside your hotel. Instead of staying in an expensive hotel with large SPA you can save some money and stay in a cheaper hotel, and rather visit on of the outdoor thermal baths like Széchenyi Fürdő instead. Air-condition is not that important anymore either, but since most hotels have that service anyway, that does not influence the price so much. A cheap and central 3 star hotel in this season can be Cosmo Fashion Hotel. If you want four stars we would say Eurostars Budapest Center. This is a central four-star hotel with good prices, but not to much extras, meaning ideal if you plan on spending more time outside the hotel than on the inside of it. If you yearn for some extra luxury and five stars, why not choose Marriott and enjoy the beautiful view towards the Danube in the evenings.

Report from Chocolate and Sweets festival

Posted on by Budablogger

For the second time in history the Chocolate and Sweets festival was arranged in Budapest this year, and this year I finally got the chance to visit the festival. Since this is a family friendly festival I went together with my wife and my 1 ½ year old boy to check it out. A general advice is that the area near the Castle of Buda is not very found of baby cars (strollers); it is a real challenge to push the stroller on all the cobblestone. But, that has nothing to do with the festival, only with the area itself!

Chocolate festival in Budapest 2012

After buying the entrance ticket of 2000 HUF per person we walked into the Hunyadi courtyard and started our visit to the festival there. I am not sure what I expected before I arrived, but as we entered the festival area I soon got the picture of what the festival was like. The Chocolate and Sweets festival is of course about sweets and chocolate, and here you can get to buy lots of different kinds of chocolate and you can also find stands from local confectioneries where you can buy cakes and Hungarian specialties. Here you could taste and buy the national cake of 2011, the traditional chimney cake was available at two spots inside the area and at some stands you can find different pralines and chocolate bars with different ingredients and special touch to them.

According to the official brochure there were to be some stands in the Lion courtyard, but nothing was there, except from the main entrance to the Budapest History Museum (entrance to the historical museum and the National Gallery is included in the entrance fee). No problem, it was anyway a nightmare to push the stroller around in the area.

On the Savoyan terrace there were lots of other stands and also a stage with live music. There were quite some places where you could take a seat and drink some wine, buy cheese and some food, which felt very nice in between all the sweet stuff.

After walking around at the festival area looking towards the Danube for a while we felt finished, and walked back to where he had entered into the festival area, found the parking lot and our car, and went home…

Chocolate and Sweets Festival judgment

This was the first time I have visited the festival, and I got kind of what I expected. Lots of chocolates, sweets, macarons and some cakes here and there. I guess I should not compare the festival with the Beer festival and the Wine festival, but since I recently visited both places the memories are still strong in my head. This is a family festival where you can bring children and have fun together, which is very good. At the wine and the beer festival it was easy to spend hours, and even return on some other day to keep enjoying the festival. It is not so with the Chocolate and Sweets festival. After some hours at the festival you have kind of been there and done that, and it is hard to eat only sweet stuff for more than 1-2 hours. You get very full, and if you stay even longer at the festival and keep on eating, your stomach might get angry.

The Chocolate and Sweets festival is more the place you come to look around, taste one-two cakes and some chocolate, and then you buy whatever you like and enjoy the chocolate bar, macarons and cake at home. Most of the confectioneries, restaurants and chocolate makers presented are from the Budapest area, making most of the products easily available on a later time. Therefore it is a good place to taste, find a favorite, and then get the name of the place which will supply you with your favorite bites throughout the entire year afterwards.

The Chocolate and Sweets festival is ideal if you look for some special kind of chocolate. Maybe you have diabetes and look for chocolate without any sugar, or you might look for a special praline, spicy chocolate or a cake formed as a Coke… you have it all in the festival area. If you are into sweets and would like a small energy kick, this is the festival to visit. The Chocolate and Sweets festival is not my new favorite festival in Budapest, but I am glad to have visited it, and hope they will keep it going in the future years. Yesterday evening it was crowded with grown ups and children in the area, and there were also quite a lot of tourists around. When speaking to people they generally like the sound of a festival specialized on chocolate and sweets, so I think this is a good project and a festival with a positive function on the cultural life in Budapest and also the rumor of the city among foreigners. Go for it and see you again in 2013!

What is the problem with the taxis in Budapest?

Posted on by Budablogger

Budapest is not the only place in the world to be known for tricky taxi drivers, but when you come as a tourist to Budapest you will for sure do good to have some basic knowledge about the taxis in town. This article will therefore give you advices on how to deal with the taxis in Budapest and information which will hopefully help you avoid overpayment and other sorts of taxi scams.

The largest groups of tourists coming to Budapest arrive from England, Germany, USA, Italy and Scandinavia. For these groups Budapest is normally said to be a cheap city and that is true. One of the activities said to be cheap is to use the local taxis, but that is only true if you get in a real and nice taxi taking paid as he should, and not more than that. Before coming up with our advices let me start with some typical stories I have heard from lots of tourists I have been speaking with in Budapest.

Bad stories about taxis in Budapest

Some nice gentlemen I once guided lived in Hotel Astoria and traveled with taxi from their hotel to Szechenyi Furdo. They ordered the taxi to the bath via their hotel and the trip to the thermal bath costed 2000 Forint. Once they finished their swim in the refreshing springs of the bath they left the building and jumped in a taxi waiting outside. Once arriving to their hotel the taxi driver told them to pay 10,000 Forint for their return trip. The guys only had a 20,000 Forint bill so they paid with this and got 10,000 back. Later they went to the shop to buy something and wanted to pay with the 10,000 bill. They then got to know that the bill they received from the taxi driver was not 10,000 Forint, but 10,000 Romanian Lei (an old bill). They took the case with a smile, but compared to the transfer to the thermal bath they paid 18,000 Forint for more the return transfer (about 65 Euro).

Some reporters from national television once jumped in a taxi outside WestEnd CityCenter pretending to be tourists. They asked for a trip to the Hungarian Parliament (about 1,5km from the shopping mall). Their driver took them on a nice city sightseeing driving them a distance of 7km before arriving to the Hungarian Parliament where he asked them to pay 7000 Forint. They then asked for a formal bill and told the driver to write it to the name of the TV channel (in Hungarian). He then threw them out of the car, and they did not have to pay!

Earlier this year some other guys I guided had to pay 6000 Forint for a small distance trip. Heavy overpayment, but okay. They paid with a 10,000 Forint bill. The driver gave them back 2×200 Forint bills. The tourist was aware and told the driver that he had given them back wrong. The driver said sorry, and said it was a big mistake, and gave them 2×2000 Forint bills. Speaking with the guy the day after I told him that the 200 bills are not in use in Hungary anymore (and hasn’t been for a while), so again this was a typical way a local taxi driver tried to trick a tourist.

Last week I spoke with four nice men. One guy had went to a night club while the other three guys went to Szimpla Budapest. Around 2.00 the three guys wanted to see if everything was okay with the last guy, so they jumped in a taxi on a street and told the driver to take them to the night club where the last guy spent his night. Well, they tried to, but since taxi drivers know where to bring people (against money), the driver didn’t at all want to take the group to the night club, but always tried to bring them somewhere else. In the end they kind of ended up there, but still they had to fight hard to get there!

One of the safe taxi companies – City Taxi

Advices on how to enjoy Budapest taxis

I guess you would like some advices on how to enjoy Budapest taxis and how to avoid stories such as these mentioned earlier. Here comes some advices which hopefully will help you, though one can never be 100% sure.

1) Walk on foot!
This is the cheapest and safest, but of course, there are times when you need a taxi and then you can forget this advice

2) Do not use taxis waiting on the street
There are lots of taxis standing at busy places in Budapest waiting for people to jump into them. These are typically around night clubs, in the vicinity of Vaci utca, close to shopping centers, in the City Park area and mostly all around Budapest. To jump into one of these is risky, at least if you do not want to be tricked. If you still want to try this, look for a taxi with an official name (City taxi, Radio Taxi, Fő taxi etc…), a telephone number and maybe a list of prices on the doors of the car. If the taxi only has a taxi sign on the top and maybe a taxi name on the side, but nothing else… skip it!

3) Call and order a taxi yourself
There are quite a lot of taxi companies in Budapest which can be trusted and who send nice taxies who do not trick you around. The most praised taxi company is City Taxi and their phone number is +36 1 211 1111. They allow you to pay with card in the taxi and I have not yet heard any complaint on their services. Another company is Fő Taxi. This is the same company which is responsible for the taxi transfers from Budapest Airport to the city center. Their phone number is +36 1 222 2222. Both companies have English speaking operators, so wherever you are in Budapest, give them a call and they will normally have a taxi waiting for you within 10 minutes.

4) Ask for help from your hotel or restaurant
If you live in a nice hotel or have eaten at a nice restaurant in Budapest they can normally help you order a nice taxi. They have an agreement with a company, meaning that they receive some money for every guests they order a cab for, and thus it is important for them to use a company trustworthy and offering good service. In most cases (90%) this works perfectly. If it doesn’t then you should report it to the hotel, and if you have the guts to do so, ask for the name of the driver and write down his license plate number so you can give that information on to the hotel/restaurant as well.

These were just a few advices which will hopefully help you and make your stay in Budapest even more enjoyable. A last piece of advice is to never ask your taxi driver for advice on where to go, especially not if you are looking for a night club. This advice is not only valid in Budapest but lots of other places around the world as well, but since they know where to deliver you against money, they will in most cases take you to the most expensive places and often the quality is not as high as what you pay for.

Good luck and enjoy your ride!

Budapest Airport parking

Posted on by Budablogger

For many people coming to Budapest the place of arrival is Budapest Airport. The airport has two terminals, terminal 1 and 2, but earlier this year the owner closed down terminal 1 due to few passengers, a natural consequence of the bankruptcy of the Hungarian airline Malév earlier this year. Even though RyanAir immediately launched more than 30 new destinations from Budapest, it still seems that the passenger amount decreased so much that they had to close down terminal one a few months later. This all lead to the closure of Budapest Airport Terminal 1 in the end of May 2012, and since then only terminal 2 has been in use.

A few weeks ago the news was given that the parking lot in front of Terminal 1 would be turned into a P+R parking lot, in which people coming from outside Budapest can park their cars and continue towards the city center of Budapest using either the train stopping at the Ferihegy stop next to the airport, or traveling with bus 200E from the airport towards Köbánya Kispest. From that stop travelers can travel on with metro towards the city center. This is of course nice, but what is going on at the parking lots in front of Terminal 2?

One of the fears of many tourists coming to Budapest deals with the taxi drivers of the city. Can we trust them? Will they trick me? Will they add additional fees for luggage and so on, thus giving me a far higher price than I should pay if I got a “normal” taxi? As a solution to this Budapest Airport Zrt. continuously try to make it harder for the unofficial airport taxi’s to operate at the airport, and so helping Fö Taxi (the official airport transfer company with set prices) to get more passengers. Until now there are lots of drivers approaching you as you arrive in the terminals, claiming to be official taxi drivers, offering you transportation to your Budapest hotel. Their cars have been parked outside the terminal and they simply get some passengers and drive on towards the city. Many warnings have been given against these so called official airport taxi drivers, but they still seem to get a lot of transfers, because they can still be seen.

New parking rules at Budapest Airport from August 8th, 2012

For the last years it has been impossible to park in front of the arrival terminal at Budapest Airport for anyone else than the official airport taxi’s and the airport mini bus. This means that even large tourist groups with buses ordered needed to walk up one floor to the departures part and walk out there, and then they could find their bus. This has been a really stupid solution and none really liked it. Since August 8th there have been changes, and now anyone can drive up in front of both the arrival and the departure part of Budapest Airport, thus with some heavy price changes.

If you want to park in front of the arrival or the departure part of Budapest Airport Terminal 2 they have introduced the so called Premium Parking since August 8th. The price for parking there is 2000 HUF for 30 minutes, but if you leave within 5 minutes the parking is free. It is though interesting that many workers with quite normal wages (500 HUF per hour) will need to work for four hours to be able to park for 30 minutes in front of the terminal. Of course those people with such salaries normally don’t fly so much, but still, this needs to be taken into consideration when setting a parking fee. If you walk outside the terminal building and down some stairs you will get to the big parking lots, and there you can park for 800 HUF if you leave within thirty minutes. If you leave within 10 minutes the parking is free.

I have been outside Budapest Airport several times since the new parking fees and rules were introduced, and it is interesting to see that there are almost no cars to see in front of the arrival and the departure part of Budapest Airport, the so called Premium Parking. In general there have been 3-4 cars parked in the parking lot, and everyone else just drive through picking up their passengers already waiting for them, or dropping of the passengers from the car, and then leaving within 5 minutes, thus not paying any parking fee at all. The question is if this is good for the airport, or not? An empty parking lot where everyone just drivers through, thus making no money, or a full parking lot with lower fees, but still making more money?

With the new system it has gotten much harder for pirate taxi’s to operate at Budapest Airport and that is for sure positive, but they are still there, so if you arrive at Budapest Airport, you should still look out for them, and just walk pass them as you arrive. It is possible to order private airport transfers before arrival, but if you have not done that, then you should walk by the drivers offering their services, and walk towards the official stand of the Airport Taxi or Fő Taxi outside the terminal building. The price of an airport transfer in Budapest with your own taxi driver should probably be between 6000-10,000 HUF, of course depending on where you stay, but if your hotel is in Budapest, it should fit into this price category.

If you would like to park your car at Budapest Airport for a longer period this can easily be done (so called long-time parking), as the airport has protected long time parking available, and at quite nice prices. This summer they have an offer giving you parking for 8 days costing only 9990 HUF, so this should be considered if you would like to leave your car at the airport.

Ferihegy, Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport or Budapest Airport

The airport in Budapest has two terminals, and earlier these have been known as Budapest Ferihegy Airport terminal 1 and 2 (A & B). Terminal A and B are located next to one another, so you can walk between the two terminals in one or two minutes. Not long ago it was renamed (as was lots of other squares, streets and so on in Budapest) to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport or as we know it in Hungarian “Budapest Liszt Ferenc Nemzetközi Repülőtér.” In Hungary many people still use the name Ferihegy Airport, while others use the new name and call is Ferenc Liszt Airport. A third group simply call it Budapest Airport… What is important for you if you arrive to the airport is to know that it is the same airport they speak of, no matter which of the three names they use.