Almost every year it is a sweet tradition that Abba the Show comes to Budapest. The show visited our city in 2009, then in 2010, and then again in 2011. In 2012 they will do a little break, but in 2013 Abba the Show will yet again visit Budapest and you are of course all invited to come and join the party!
The venue for this upcoming Budapest event is Papp Laszlo Budapest Sportarena, located by the Stadionok metro station (red line), so it is easy to get there using the public transportation. In case you come with car there are lots of parking lots in the area, the cheapest one is to park in Arena Plaza (free parking) and then enjoy the 5-10 minute walk to the venue from there.
Abba the Show will be in Budapest on March 7th, and the event will start at 20.00. If you would like to be there on this event, then you can buy tickets using the links further down on this page. If you would be interested in any other Abba the Show event around in Europe in 2013 as well, then we recommend that you use the Viagogo link.
While in Budapest, do not miss out on all the other cool activities, programs, attractions and things to do. It is a beautiful city, so it is a waste to only come for a concert!
I am going to move to Hungary, but I am wondering where I can continue doing winter sports, as I am a big winter sport lover. Thanks for all your help!
Luxury Ski Deals
This is a good question, and we thank you for asking it. First of all it is not a coincidence that Hungarians now very little about Winter Olympics, and you will never see a winter Olympics broadcast at the normal national television in Hungary. The reason is that they are not really even there, and the results are not at all good. The main reason is that there are very few places in Hungary ideal for practicing and for winter sports in general. Still, if the Hungarians want to do some ski sports, the poor and easy version is to visit Normafa in Budapest. Here you can do some sliding and normal skiing is also possible.
For those interested in luxury ski deals we normally recommend to leave Hungary and travel to Austria. There you can find large areas and skiing opportunities. One such option is for example to visit Semmeringen. Here you can find 14 kilometres of ski runs during the day, 13 kilometres of ski runs at night, 3 kilometres Zaug adventure toboggan run, Split Park for Snowboarders and Free-style skiers, Kinderareal, Fast, comfortable lifts, FIS world cup arena and of course bars, hotels, restaurants and lots of other cool activity possibilities.
Another option only 350km from Budapest is Annaberg. There you can find different length of ski tracks (4-20km) and the alpine runs have a height difference of 600metres. It is also family friendly making it ideal for families coming with smaller children. The alpine area has a total of 9 elevators. The price for a day ticket is about 30 Euro per person, but if you come with children under 6 years they go free in company with an adult. Annaberg also has a small childrens land, making it even more attractive for the little ones.
These are just some suggestions, but for some good deals on such programs, you better go abroad, and the most luxurious and popular versions can be found in Austria.
It has only been a matter of time before this would come, and here it is. New rules concerning hand luggage, making the airlines able to make you pay more for the luggage you bring with you. The question is only when RyanAir, EasyJet and the rest of the low cost airlines follow Wizz Air’s example. But what are the new luggage, or let us say hand luggage policy from Wizz Air about? As of know when you do booking you can get one hand luggage for free, but the max size is 42x32x25cm, which is small enough to fit under the seat in front of you. Until now the size has been 55cmx40cmx20cm.
For larger hand luggage, with size up to 56x45x25cm you will now have to pay, and the price is 9 GBP or 10 Euro. This is of course if you book it as your order your flight online.
Here comes the official information from the Wizz Air homepage: (source)
Beginning October 04th, passengers booking Wizz Air seats* for travel from October 24th onwards can travel with a free small cabin bag (up to 42x32x25cm) or pay a ₤9 online fee to bring a large cabin bag (up to 56x45x25cm) on board. Goods purchased at the airport after security (an important source of revenue for Wizz Air’s 81 airport partners) will continue to be allowed in the cabin for free. This new policy does not apply to bookings made before October 04th or for flights departing before October 24th, except on the trial route London-Katowice where this policy already applies. Wizz Air believes this new ₤9 large cabin bag online fee will incentivize passengers to bring smaller bags on board the aircraft while only those choosing to bring large bags will pay for it. For new bookings on flights departing from 24th October, all Wizz Air fares will be discounted by ₤4.5 ** to share the expected cost savings with our passengers.
New cabin baggage policy from 04 October
Cabin Baggage Type
Size (volume)
Examples
Fee
Small cabin bag
Up to 42x32x25cm; (30 L)
handbag, small backpack, laptop bag, (must fit under the seat)
FREE
Large cabin bag
Larger than small cabin bag and up to 56x45x25cm; (60 L)
trolley bags
₤9 (online)
Cabin baggage policy: 1 small cabin bag OR 1 large cabin bag per pax. Goods purchased at the airport after security will also be allowed in the cabin for free!
Michael Powell, CFO of Wizz Air, said:“When it comes to low fares Wizz Air knows no half measures! Wizz Air is announcing its new and innovative cabin baggage policy after a successful trial confirmed that more onboard space and cost savings are achieved when passengers bring less large bags into the cabin. With the vast majority of passengers willing to bring smaller bags on board we are now the first European carrier to eliminate a chronic problem in the airline industry faced by all airlines, but, even more important for consumers, Wizz Air is again pioneering in delivering lower fares by passing on the cost savings in the form of discounted fares for all passengers. We leave it for high fare airlines to tackle their costs by raising fares and levying unavoidable fuel surcharges while Wizz Air passengers will continue to pay only for the services they use. Today we encourage our passengers to travel smart and bring only a small bag on board. To pass on the expected cost savings we are immediately discounting by ₤4.5 all fares available for booking under the new cabin bag policy at wizzair.com.”
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.
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.
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!
If you are coming to Budapest in October there are quite a lot of nice programs waiting for you. In this month you can join in as the Hungarian celebrate their national day on October 23rd, you can check out the Palinka and Sausage festival (October 4-7), run in the biggest marathon of the year in Budapest (October 7), visit the CAFE festival (October 5-14) and do quite a lot of programs.
The average temperature is about 13 Celsius, but it can get much warmer, so bring both a t-shirt and a jacket.
This is a short article about Budapest in October, but if you want a much more informative and detailed information you should read the following article: Budapest in October by Budapest blog
From September 20th – 23rd in 2012 there will be a Chocolate and Sweets Festival in the Castle of Budapest. During the festival you can get to know more about how to make and prepare cakes and chocolate, but first of all you can taste lots of sweets from different manufacturers in Hungary. If you are hungry you will also find good food and drinks inside the festival area.
If you would like to get more information about the chocolate and sweets festival, visit this page.
Is there a hop on hop off bus in Budapest ? And if, what route does it go.
First of all, thank you for the question. Of course there are hop on-hop off buses in Budapest, in fact there are several companies arranging such tours. The largest companies are Program Centrum (Hop on – Hop off tours) and City Tour Hop on Hop off Kft (Giraffe Hop on Hop off). The newest on the market in The Big Bus Company with their Big Bus tours.
The companies have somewhat different routes, but the main stops are all the same. This means that they all stop at the Gellért Hill, the Castle Hill (Disz tér), by the Elisabeth square, Parliament, State Opera, Synagogue, Heroes Square, Citypark and so on. You can find more information about the different companies at their respective homepages, but in general all three companies work fine and should be pleasing to most visitors. What makes the difference is sometimes what kind of extra services they include if you buy a ticket for their hop on-hop off service.
Good luck!
If you want a private tour in Budapest or maybe an excursion to Szentendre visit our page about Tours and fun where you can see all the different private tours in our register.
He was born in 1949, was a founding member of Dire Straits and played in the band until it dissolved in 1995. He did not fall into despair after Dire Straits ended, but he kept on going solo and has enjoying even greater successes than ever since then. Mark Knopfler is the guy and in June 2013 he will come to Budapest again to perform in Papp Laszlo Budapest Sportarena. The concert will start at 20.00 on June 22nd.
The last Mark Knopfler concert in Budapest was arranged on July 4th in 2010, so almost three years later the Hungarian fans will get a new chance to see Mark as he returns to our beautiful city. If you would like to be there at this concert in June 2013, you can order your tickets online today using any of the links further down on the page. On those pages you can also find information and tickets for the other Mark Knopfler concerts in 2013.
Mark is known to be one of the best guitar players in the world, and he is also an excellent song writer who has written quite some film music as well, and he also has an enjoyable voice, so if you are a fan of Mark Knopfler and live in Budapest or plan on visiting Budapest on June 22nd next year, then this is the place to be. If you would rather listen to Mark Knopfler as he comes to Bratislava one day later, then why not travel to Budapest anyway and do a day trip to Bratislava on the 23rd to enjoy the concert there.
While in Budapest, check out the wonderful attractions and if you look for more information about what is going on in Budapest at this time of the year, check this page with information about the months in Budapest.
From August 2nd until October 14th visitors to Budapest are invited to visit the Art Hall in Budapest and their latest exhibition dealing with the subject; what is Hungarian?
At the exhibition you can see paintings of painters of the day, and most of the pieces exhibited are created within the last years. The exhibition will try to display what is Hungarian and through this also deal with the national identity of the Hungarians through the different things displayed. So, if you as a tourist would be interested in finding out more about what is really Hungarian, then you better check out this exhibition, because it is truly interesting. Of course locals should check it out as well 🙂
The Art Hall is a beautiful museum in Budapest located at the Heroes square. So while walking in the City Park or if you travel with a hop on-hop off bus in Budapest, then why not hop off at the Heroes Square and enter into the museum to visit the exhibition. After visiting, why not write a comment sharing your thoughts on this interesting exhibition?
What is Hungarian – exhibtion in Art Hall Budapest
Almost every year it is a sweet tradition that Abba the Show comes to Budapest. The show visited our city in 2009, then in 2010, and then again in 2011. In 2012 they will do a little break, but in 2013 Abba the Show will yet again visit Budapest and you are of course all invited to come and join the party!
It has only been a matter of time before this would come, and here it is. New rules concerning hand luggage, making the airlines able to make you pay more for the luggage you bring with you. The question is only when RyanAir, EasyJet and the rest of the low cost airlines follow Wizz Air’s example. But what are the new luggage, or let us say hand luggage policy from Wizz Air about? As of know when you do booking you can get one hand luggage for free, but the max size is 42x32x25cm, which is small enough to fit under the seat in front of you. Until now the size has been 55cmx40cmx20cm.
