questions answers Archives - Page 7 of 8

Is there a hop on hop off bus in Budapest?

Posted on September 14, 2012June 4, 2021 by Budapest Guide

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.

My flight arrives after 11:00 PM. Is there a Euro/Forints exchange kiosk open that late at Budapest airport?

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Budapest Guide

At Budapest Airport Terminal 2A and 2B you will find an InterChange office, a place where you can change most available currencies to and from Hungarian Forints. In Terminal 2A this change office has the following opening times: 06.00 – 24.00 (sometimes until 02.00) and at Terminal 2B the exchange office is open from 09.00 -24.00. This means that if you arrive at 23.00 and get your luggage quite fast, you will be outside ready to exchange money before 24.00. We must though admit that it is not recommended to change money like this at the airport, and you will do far better using an ATM or changing money someplace else in the center of Budapest, with far better exchange rates than at the airport. So good luck, and hope you will enjoy your stay at Budapest Airport and of course in Budapest

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

Posted on September 7, 2012June 4, 2021 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:

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

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

Posted on September 6, 2012June 4, 2021 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.

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Do you have the dates for the 2013 Budapest Wine Festival?

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Budapest Guide

Thank you for the question. As we received your question we did not really have the answer to your question, but after digging around and writing to the people arranging the Budapest Wine Festival we got an answer. In 2012 the Wine Festival will be arranged from September 12th to 16th, and according to the information we have been given it will be arranged from September 11th-15th in 2013. So, if you have the chance it is just to make ready, order your flight tickets and the hotel, and get ready for a wonderful wine festival in Budapest in 2013 as well.

The International Wine Festival is in fact one of the most popular festivals arranged in Budapest and Hungary every year. You can not compare it to a festival such as the Sziget Festival, which is an event with live music and concerts and with a totally different focus, but as a inner city festival with champagne and wine in focus, this is far larger than similar festivals such as the Palinka and Sausage festival and other cool festivals.

For more information about the wine festival, we suggest you visit the festival we have dedicated to the wine festival which can be found at the following page.

The wine festival is normally arranged in the Castle area of Budapest, on the terrace in front of the castle looking towards the Danube and on the backside of the Castle where you can find the Buda hills. This is also the area leading into the main entrance to the Szechenyi Library and the Budapest History Museum.

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What is the price of a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt in Budapest?

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Budapest Guide

I am going to Budapest and would like to buy a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt while there. How much does it cost?

There are quite a lot of products you can buy in the Hard Rock shop in Budapest, but if you want to buy the traditional short armed Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts with white or black color the price is 7700 HUF per t-shirt. If you are new to Budapest and do not really know how much this price is in other currencies, then we can tell you that with the actual exchange rates of today this is:

6500 HUF is in American Dollars about 31USD. If you come from Great Britain and London then the price is about 20GBP (Sterling). For those located within in a country with Euro the price is approximately 25 Euro. This may of course change from time to time, but currently the HUF is very strong, but that can change within days, and then the price of the Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt will feel cheaper to people arriving from abroad.

Most people buy Hard Rock t-shirts because they collect. If you don’t then you should probably not buy one in Budapest, because the price is really high. If you go to other stores you will find normal t-shirts at much lower prices, so you can probably buy 2 t-shirts for the same price as the t-shirt from Hard Rock Cafe. But if you collect, then money is not a question, and of course you should buy a t-shirt!

Good luck, and we hope this answer can help you!

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How much time does it take for a postcard to get from Budapest to Rome?

Posted on August 10, 2012November 30, 2022 by Budapest Guide

Thank you for the question! If you buy a postcard in Budapest and send it as air mail (Priority) a postcard should reach its destination in Rome within 2-3 working days. This is at least the normal version. Sometimes we have experienced delays, but in general it always reaches it goal within 3 working days. We have not sent that many postcards to Italy, but at least to other nations in Europe this is our general experience.

It is though very important to send it with air mail as a priority postcard. If not, it can take several weeks before your post card reaches in destination in beautiful Rome with all its magnificent attractions and sights, and you will for sure get back home long time before you postcard gets to its destination.

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Ps: If you visit Oslo or Belfast, you can send online postcards instead from our partner sites at WorldCityGuides. These are free and reach the inbox of your friend or enemy within seconds after you send them!

Is Budapest an expensive city?

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Budapest Guide

How much money should I expect to bring with me if I am travelling to Budapest from the UK for 4 days on a holiday? Is it expensive?

First of all thank you for your question. Considering the fact that you will arrive from the UK Budapest will seem quite a lot cheaper than what you are used to, but not at all super cheap. One of the big differences is the hotel prices, as you in Budapest can get a room in a five star hotel for around 100 Euro per night, much, much cheaper than in large UK cities such as London, Dublin (ops… not in UK, but in Ireland) and so on. If you go for a hotel with three or four stars you can get even prices around 50-70 Euro per night.

For a service such as an airport transfer you should plan to spend around 25-30 Euro for a normal taxi from the airport to the city center. Taxi in the central parts of Budapest is also cheap, just make sure to order the taxi from your hotel or restaurant, not just jump into one in the city.

Restaurants in Budapest are fairly cheap, and you can find daily menus in quite a lot of Budapest restaurants costing around 1200 HUF (about 4 Euro). A menu in McDonalds cost 1300 HUF (4,5 Euro) and the same prices are valid for Burger King. If you plan on eating in nicer Budapest restaurants you should estimate spending 20-30 Euro per person, that price including 1-2 courses and some drinks. You will of course find cheaper places as well, and also more expensive, but that is a quite average price for a kind of nicer restaurant.

When you visit museums in Budapest several of them have a permanent exhibition free to citizens in the European Union, but if you want to visit the temporary exhibitions you need to pay for that. These entrance fees normally vary between 1000-3000 HUF.

The public transportation in Budapest is also fairly cheap and if you plan on using it quite a lot you should buy a one week pass costing 4600 (Hetijegy is the name in Hungarian). For those planning to shop a lot Budapest has quite international prices, so shopping in Zara or H&M in Budapest costs just as much as it would cost to buy clothes in the same stores in the UK. If you want to buy quality wine that is though cheaper here, at least if you buy the local wine produced in Hungary. A fine bottle of Hungarian wine can cost 10-15 Euro in a winestore.

All in all Budapest is a fairly cheap European capital, but you can spend a lot of money if you would like to. It is hard to answer and tell you exactly how much money is worth bringing, but hopefully this answer will help you calculate yourself how much you would like to bring!

Comments? Agree or disagree? Write it in the comment field!

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Are there any performances in the Hungarian State Opera during summer?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Budapest Guide

I will travel to Budapest in August this summer and wonder if there are any performances taking place in the Hungarian State Opera in that period?

Thank you for your question. During the summer months the Hungarian State Opera is only available as a tourist attraction and unfortunately not as a cultural place. This means that there are guided tours in the building daily at 15.00 and 16.00, but there are no events taking place in July and August. The first performances normally start by the end of September, so also in 2012 when the first event will be happening on September 24th (a classical concert) and then continuing with the opera Hunyadi Laszlo from September 28th.

Sorry about that, but do not forget that BUdapest has lots of other cool activities and programs to offer visitors, so we hope you will not be bored even though the Opera is standing still in this period.

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Is everything closed during Christmas in Budapest?

Posted on August 6, 2012September 8, 2023 by Budapest Guide

We are wondering about the opening hours for museums, different attractions, shopping, and restaurants, etc. Is everything closed during Christmas?

Thank you for the question. We have our page dealing with Christmas in Budapest where you can find a fairly good answer to your question. We also try to keep that page up to date with information about open restaurants and so on. The page about Christmas Markets in Budapest can also be interesting in dealing with the subject.

In general, the answer to your question is as follows! All shops are open until 12.00, 13.00, or 14.00 on December 24th, but then they close and reopen on December 27th, meaning there are few shopping opportunities on these days.

If you would like to go to the cinema instead they normally have a break on December 24th, but from December 25th or 26th you can find the cinemas open again and you can enjoy the good films coming for Christmas. Budapest has quite a lot of attractions 100% free, such as Gellert Hill, Heroes Square, and so on. Most museums have opening times similar to the shops, though some of them might close from December 23rd and not open at all on December 24th. The museums, when they are open, are normally open from 9.00 or 10.00 in the morning until 18.00 in the evening, though this also vary from museum to museum.

If you want to grab some food around Christmas in Budapest, you better check out opening times before. In our page about Christmas in Budapest you will find information on some restaurants open on December 24th, 25th and 26th. Except for those dates most restaurants are open all the time, but in general, other restaurants stay closed on those three days. Some restaurants are only closed on December 24th, but then stay open from December 25th. Since there is no general rule it is important to find out what’s up with the restaurant you are interested in. If you want to do a booking of a table for a restaurant on December 24th, you better hurry up, because restaurants get packed up and fully booked very quick for that day, as most restaurants are closed, and therefore everyone try to get a free table in those restaurants who decide to stay open.

The Szechenyi Furdo, the most popular thermal bath in Budapest and Hungary, is open every day throughout Christmas, but it closes earlier on December 24th.