Christmas market at Vörösmarty square opening today

The Christmas market at Vörösmarty square had its grand opening today. In other words, the time for hot wine and delicious sausages and meat has returned. And, with the arrival of hot wine, sausages and stands at the Vörösmarty Square comes thousands of tourists!

Christmas market Budapest

It might be that Hungarians are really happy about the opening of the Christmas market at Vörösmarty square today, but what makes them even more happy is that they managed to win 1-0 against Norway in football in Oslo yesterday. This was the first of two play-off matches, and the next match will be played at Groupama Arena this Sunday at 20.45. If Hungary manage to play draw against Norway or win, they can for sure celebrate the fact that they will qualify for their first international tournament in 30 years. But, let us not celebrate that yet, but hopefully the streets of Budapest will be filled with people Sunday evening celebrating a Hungarian success in football, something they have not been able to in the last years!

Are you ready for Christmas? Why not visit the Christmas markets in Vienna which also had its grand opening today?

Are you looking for a nice Christmas present to buy in Budapest? Read our article from last year coming with some advises on what you can buy in Budapest and bring home to your home country as a Christmas present!

Do you feel like watching a good Christmas film online while in Budapest? Or maybe from home? Want to watch a nice Christmas film on Netflix? In the following article you can find suggestions for different Christmas films available on Netflix at the moment.

Its Christmas time, so have fun, enjoy life and do not forget to take some quiet moments to really enjoy life!

Follow the Hungarian Viktor Kiraly in The Voice on NBC

Viktor KiralyThe Voice is one of the leading TV series for discovering new singers with an amazing talent. It has been on display in Hungary as well, but after one season they decided not to continue with the program. However there are other nations in which The Voice is much more popular than in Hungary and one such nation is the United States.

In the United States NBC is the company broadcasting The Voice and this is a very popular show there. That is why any appearance on the screen in association with The Voice in the USA can mean a big breakthrough for any singer. And that is why it is so interesting to follow the ongoing season of The Voice in the United States, because a Hungarian guy named Viktor Kiraly is participating, and if he succeeds tomorrow or Wednesday evening he will qualify to the live show which would mean extremely much to his career.

Even though you may not have heard of Viktor Kiraly before, most Hungarians have. Quite a lot of years ago he won the Hungarian Megasztar, a program working with the same model as for example American Idol. If you want to cheer for Viktor then you can do so watching the program on NBC, but you do not have any power to actually influence the decision, because it is his mentor who will decide between Viktor and Jordan. Here you can see a clip showing one of the performances of Viktor and the one that will finally decide whether he gets into the live show or not.

If you like this and want to watch the entire show online, then you can read more about watching NBC and The Voice online at nbc.fromabroad.org.

Enjoy the show and go Viktor!!

Christmas Market 2015-16 in Budapest

Christmas fair in Budapest
Christmas fair in Budapest

The annual Christmas Market is coming up within shortly and in 2015-16 it will last longer than ever before. It will start two weeks earlier than in 2014-15 and it will last one week longer. So get prepared for a long lasting Christmas market at Vörösmarty square this season.

The opening date for the Christmas market at the Vörösmarty square is November 13th and the last day of the market will be January 7th. If you want to grab hold of some nice Christmas presents, some taste gluhwein and just eat some traditional Hungarian sausage then this is the market to visit.

For more information about the Christmas markets in Budapest, just click the link and you will be able to read more about the markets, the different locations and other useful information.

Now you can order Kindle to Hungary from Amazon

Kindle Voyage HungaryA couple of years ago we wrote about ordering products from Amazon which is quite hard when you live in Hungary, but recently we noticed a change, because it is now possible to order a Kindle to Hungary.

You can not buy all sorts of Kindle (the e-book reader from Amazon), but the newest reader which is called Kindle Voyage can be sent to countries all around the world, including Hungary. So, if you want to order a Kindle from Amazon.com or maybe from Amazon.de and have it delivered to Hungary then it can now be done. Notice that the standard Kindle can not be sent, neither can the Kindle Paperwhite, but the newest product named Kindle Voyage can be sent to Hungary, so if you order it from Amazon you will have it sent to you within a few days!

If you want to buy a Kindle Voyage and have it delivered to Hungary the cheapest store is Amazon.de, the German Amazon Store, which is now also available in English. Maybe you have ordered from Amazon.co.uk earlier, but if you compare prices you will soon notice that products in general are cheaper in the German store.

What is great with a Kindle is that you can bring it with you all across the world, and even if it might be a bit hard to get it delivered if you live in a country like Hungary, then it will be so easy once you have it, because you just buy a book in the Amazon store and you will have it on your Kindle within seconds, so no waiting at all!

Migrants, tourists, Budapest

Hungary has again turned into a city crowded with TV cameras and journalists from all over the world because of the migrants flooding the nation. Luckily we are a Budapest Guide and our task is not to discuss politics, but we do get lots of questions from visitors wondering how the migrants will impact their stay in Budapest and whether they should cancel their trip or not!

Migrants in Budapest
Migrants wanting to leave Budapest and Hungary with train from the Keleti Railway station

Whatever news channel you visit almost worldwide you will find articles from Budapest and Hungary, and the most frequent place to read about is the Keleti Railway station, a transit zone for refugees. The Hungarian politics have not exactly given the refugees a warm welcome (luckily for them the world was nicer when their Hungarians ancestors had to leave the nation back in 1956 due to the revolution), and this has caused lots of problems. Now thousands of refugees can be found in Budapest hoping to leave Hungary and get on towards other nations in the western part of Europe, but things seems to be difficult and hard at the moment. But, how will this impact you as a tourist?

Migrants by Keleti Railway station
Lots of migrants gathered before the main entrance of the railway station

Is it safe to visit Budapest now?

The answer to this questions is definitely yes! In most parts of Budapest you will not really even notice that there is a refugee issue at the moment, and if you should see some migrants here and there, they will not cause any problems or any harm. It is therefore just to come for you and enjoy Budapest!

There might however be some things you should check out! If you have booked a hotel near the Keleti Railway station you might want to change that, at least if you want to forget about the migrant issue while in Budapest. If you do not mind, and in fact would like to see whats going on and maybe even bring some refugee something to eat, then don’t think about this, but if you want to stay away from this, then you should maybe change your hotel if you have booked yourself in near the Keleti railway station. Some of the hotels located close are Best Western Hotel Hungaria and Golden Park Hotel.

 

Two important days for Hungarian football

Hungary vs RomaniaYesterday we wrote about the upcoming wine festival, but if you are a football fan then something way more important is about to come up. We are speaking about two football matches which will give a strong pin point about whether Hungary is worthy of a spot in the Euro 2016 or not.

The first match will be played in Budapest at the Groupama Arena on September 4th against Romania. Earlier as they two teams met Hungary was lucky to grab 1 point after a Dzsudzsak Balazs goal on a free kick, but now they will play in Budapest which should give a small advantage to Hungary. For Hungary a win would mean a lot and be a giant step towards at least a qualification spot for the Euro 2016, but this match alone is not enough, because three days later they will play against Northern Ireland in Belfast, another team with whom they fight to qualify to the Euro 2016. Last time they met Hungary wasted their chances and ended up loosing 2-1, but maybe they can get a revenge in Belfast and bring three points home?

One more interesting thing is that Hungary will now play without Pal Dardai, who led Hungary in triumph in their previous matches, but who no longer was allowed by Hertha Berlin to continue his double work as the leading coach of Hertha and as the main coach of the Hungarian national team.

We will for sure sit in front of our screens to watch the matches. If you want to watch these matches to you can watch them on pubs and bars in Budapest or on M4. If you are located outside Hungary you can read more about watching the matches online at the linked sites.

Wine festival coming up in nine days

Wine festival coming upIt is only nine days left before the kick off for the annual Budapest Wine Festival arranged in the Castle Area. The event will take place from September 9th until September 13th and it is one of the biggest wine festivals in this region every single year.

As you come to the festival you can taste many of the best wines from all of Hungary, and you can also get to taste wines from Italy, so lots of reasons for us all to come and visit Budapest and the Wine festival. If you want to know more about the upcoming wine festival, visit the following article.

If you want to enjoy other cool programs in Budapest as well besides the wine festival, do not forget that we can help you out with brewery visits, wine dinners, guided tours, airport transfers and more, so read on and contact us if we can help you with anything!

Formula 1 weekend approaching!

Hungarian Grand PrixThe Formula 1 weekend is approaching, and as with everybody else who works with tourism, we notice the increase of requests for transfers and other touristic programs as the weekend approaches.

Are you coming to Budapest for the Formula 1 race? You can read more about the F1 race and Hungaroring in the following article. If you want to watch the Formula 1 race from Hungaroring and maybe also the practices then there are still tickets available, but you better hurry up. There are normally people selling tickets also outside the venue itself, but you will probably feel safer if the tickets are in your hand before arriving to the arena.

If you can not come to Budapest and Hungary for the race itself, then you can still watch it online as there are lots of broadcasters who broadcast the Hungarian Grand Prix on their national TV stations. In Hungary the race can be seen on Duna TV, a classic channel everyone has on their TVs and which you will also find in your hotel room.

If you live in another country you can read more about which TV channels will broadcast the Hungarian Grand Prix in the following article.

If you need any other help concerning your stay in Budapest with airport transfers, rivers cruises on the Danube with dinner, or maybe you want to do a day trip to Vienna or Bratislava while in Budapest, read around in our Budapest Guide and find the information you are looking for!

Tasty burgers in Burger House

Would you like to eat a tasty burger in Budapest, but in your mind McDonalds and Burger King is everything else than tasty hamburgers? Why not visit the Burger House located next to Nyugati square, just somewhere between the WestEnd Citycenter and Sir Lancelot.

I visited Burger House not long ago to grab a hamburger with my family. We ordered quite a lot of different burgers, and for some reason making the order and getting it right seemed to be very hard, so the waiter came back several times to fix the order. After quite some waiting we manage to get almost what we ordered, but those who got what they ordered were really satisfied and the taste of the burgers was for sure among the best in Budapest. What was a nice plus was that the chef preparing the burgers noticed that we had a pregnant person in the group, and automatically he prepared the burger so that even the pregnant lady could eat it without fearing meat that has not been well enough prepared.

Burger House in Budapest

The prices of the burgers are between 1500-2500 HUF in general, but if you are crazy then you can also go for the giant burgers with 2x450g meat in them and lots of cheese. Of course the prices for these giant burgers are much higher, but if you want to try, then go for it!

All in all we were not completely satisfied with the overall experience because of the mess making the order and so on, but the food that we were served was great, so we would have no problem returning to Burger House in Budapest another time to grab some more burgers.

[stbpro id=”info”]There are several other Burger House restaurants in Budapest. You can also find one in Lurdy Haz, in Duna Plaza and in Óbuda. But the one near Nyugati is for sure the one with the best location.[/stbpro]

We just lowered our prices on guided tours in Budapest!

For a long time we have not made any changes to our prices for guided tours in Budapest, but now we thought it was about time to make some changes, and to be nice we decided to lower our prices on guided tours in Budapest.

If you want to check our new prices you can just check them out in the tours section, and if you want to book a guided tour with us, just contact us using the contact forms on the different pages here in our Budapest Guide.

We look forward to meeting up with you in Budapest and have a beautiful summer!