Month: September 2012

May I pay for your airport transfer service in Euros or must I convert to Forints?

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Thank you for the question! It is possible to pay our drivers in Euro, but normally recommend arranging with the payment in the local currency, the Hungarian Forint. The reason is that on the fly our drivers will always say a higher Euro fee than the actual HUF fee, making it better to pay with Forint. Since you anyway need HUF to pay in shops and restaurants elsewhere in Budapest, you should just as well arrange with getting the local currency at once, thus being able to pay our drivers as well with Hungarian Forint.

If you still want to pay with Euro, ask the drier for the current rate.

Related questions:

Tons of Lufthansa flights cancelled today

Tons of Lufthansa flights cancelled today

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Lufthansa Strike BudapestWe wrote about the Lufthansa strike earlier this week, and it caused some cancellations of flights on both Wednesday and Thursday. But, until today it has only been a soft strike, but today they are hitting it heavily and tons of Lufthansa flights are cancelled today. This means that travellers flying with Lufthansa today should be very careful to look for information on their flights, because it will most likely be cancelled. So also for travelers flying between Budapest and any of the German airports today, as flights between Budapest and Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf are mostly cancelled today. You can find updated information on the matter at the following Lufthansa page.

Cancelled Lufthansa flights from Budapest Airport today

This list is from 7.35 this morning. Check updated information from the link above to stay updated on your flight and more cancellations.

LH1343 Frankfurt 06:10 2A Cancelled
LH1685 Munich 06:50 2A Cancelled
LH3063 Dusseldorf 09:15 2A Cancelled
LH1335 Frankfurt 09:35 2A Cancelled
LH1677 Munich 13:05 2A Cancelled
LH1339 Frankfurt 15:00 2A Cancelled
LH1681 Munich 17:05 2A Cancelled
LH3069 Dusseldorf 19:55 2A Cancelled

What do do during a strike in Budapest?

Fortunately it is only one company striking at the moment. During the volcano cloud all air traffic was stopped, and it was very hard to get back. Now you can choose other airlines flying to other airports in Germany and you can of course find buses if it is very urgent to get back home. Hopefully everything will get back on track from Saturday morning again, though flights will probably be packed with people not reaching their destination today. Still, Lufthansa is a serious company normally very good at taking care of their customers, so we guess they will fix this problem as well within hours/days.

If you have extra time at Budapest Airport, but not able to check in, we would rather go back to the city, because the airport is extremely boring if you are not able to check in and get into the SkyCourt.

Still, if you are stuck in Budapest… go swim in the Széchenyi Fürdő, come visit us for a wine dinner and enjoy your extra hours in Budapest with some great Goulash and have fun!

Where are the best places to change Euros to Florints in Budapest. Or, can I just use Euros?

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Thank you for the question and we hope you will find our answer satisfying. There are several articles dealing with this matter on the web, and in our own Budapest Guide you can also read about this in the following article. The first question is where it is best to change Euro to Forint (not Florint) in Budapest. Probably the best way to change money is by using an ATM. Thus you get the best exchange rate, which is the actual rate, and the only fee added is the fee of withdrawing money from your account using your card abroad. There are lots of ATMs in Budapest, so that should not be so hard to find. If you still need to change money, what to do then?

There are quite a lot of exchange offices around downtown Budapest, and our advice would be to check out 3 such offices before changing money for the first time. Compare the exchange rates, and pick the one that is best. There are some offices known in Budapest to be very good places to change money, and one of these are located just opposite the New York hotel (on the other side of the Grand boulevard), near Blaha Lujza square in Budapest. That would be our recommendation. A good sign of quality and great exchange rates is that if you change Euro to Forint the sale and buy price has very little difference. For example you can buy Euro for 286 Forint and sell Euro for 283 Forint. If you see such small difference, that is a good sign. In the very city center you will probably not find such good rates, but if the difference is 4-6 Forint between buy and sell, that is still quite good.

Can I pay with Euro in Budapest?

Yes, in many situations you can, but let us say that one Euro is currently worth 285 Forint. When you walk into a shop to pay with Euro they have normally a set Euro value, meaning that you get somewhere between 250-275 Forint per Euro, far less than what it is actually worth. It doesn’t mean to so much if you are only eating a meal in McDonalds, but if you use Euro in a lot of places you will in fact lose a good amount of money in the end. Therefore it is much better to grab hold of some local Forints instead of running around paying with Euro everywhere.

Hope this answer will help you. You can find more info about the Hungarian currency in this article as well.

Ask your Budapest question!

Lufthansa strike affecting Budapest

Posted on by Budapest Guide

There has been quite some words about the strike of the Independent Flight Attendants Organization (UFO) lately, causing cancellations among Lufthansa flights from and to Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. Currently there are no flights connected to Budapest suffering from the strike, but there are reported to be new cancellations coming up on September 7th, due to a new 24 hour strike from the flight attendants.

There are quite a lot of flights leaving from Budapest to Frankfurt and Munich daily from Budapest Airport, so if you need to visit those cities, especially on this upcoming Friday, make sure you check your flight schedule and with your local Lufthansa office before driving of to the airport.

For updated information you can also check arrivals and departures at www.bud.hu or you can visit the article by Lufthansa dealing with the same matter. Find it here.

If you want more information about Budapest Airport, check out this brand new article from the Budapest blog about Budapest Airport.

Hungarian contemporary design - Magma Gallery

Hungarian contemporary design – Magma Gallery

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Magma Gallery offers a whole palette of Hungarian contemporary creativity, covering the world of interior design. The gallery is to be found in the heart of Budapest on a huge surface area over two floors.

Magma Gallery
Magma Gallery in Budapest

In Magma Gallery you can find high quality Hungarian design works:
· glass
· ceramic
· textile
· jewellery
· design object
· graphic
· painting
· interior decoration

Contact information

1052 Budapest, Petőfi Sándor utca 11.
Phone: +36-1-235-0277
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.magma.hu/

Opening times
Monday – Friday: 10:00 – 19:00
Saturday: 10:00 – 15:00

September Fest Budapest 2012

Posted on by Budapest Guide

The festival celebrates the coming autumn and it is organized in on of the largest poplar park sin Budapest: Népliget. The duration is three days: from the 7th of September to the 9th of September. Ideal festival for all generations, programs for everyone.

During the day, you can try different Hungarian traditional competition, for example: Stew Making Competition. Those who would not like to participate on it, can taste the brilliant Hungarian traditional foods at the stew show, or can visit goulash-making competition, where people prepare the most popular Hungarian soup: Goulash. However,there are a lot more choices for everyone, begins with fish to desserts like pancake.

At the center of the park, huge stage will be standing performing the greatest Hungarian music in different styles: pop, rock and jazz. Every year has a star guest, this year Billy Cobham and Morgan Workshop, the American jazz drummer are going to play at Saturday’s concerts night.

The festival offers programs with a plenty of choice for children as well. Little ones will love tale games, playhouse, handcrafts, funfair, stroking the animals and pony-riding. For those parents who have little children the nappy-changing tent makes easier their day.

Budapest is waiting for those who would like to spend their weekend outside, knowing better Hungarian traditions and welcoming autumn.

September Fest

7th-9th September
Budapest, Népliget