Hungary

Budapest is really two cities joined across the Danube. On the hilly Buda side, the Castle District holds the Royal Palace, Matthias Church and the white turrets of the Fisherman’s Bastion, with views across the river. Pest, on the flat side, has the neo-Gothic Parliament, the great boulevards, the opera house and the Jewish Quarter with its ruin bars in old courtyards. The Chain Bridge, opened in 1849, was the first permanent bridge to link the two.

Budapest sits on more than a hundred thermal springs, and bathing is part of daily life. The Széchenyi and Gellért baths are the best known, one neo-baroque and outdoors, the other Art Nouveau. In our programme you can take a Budapest city break, a private guided walk, a luxury sightseeing tour or a photo shoot at the Chain Bridge or Matthias Church, and day trips run to the Etyek wine region and to Bratislava. Hungary is also part of the Golden Triangle with Prague and Vienna, by rail or private van.

Food and drink

Paprika defines Hungarian cooking. Goulash is a soup here, not a stew, and chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage and lángos, a fried dough topped with sour cream and cheese, are all worth trying. Chimney cake and Dobos torte cover the sweet side. Tokaji, the sweet wine from the north-east, has been prized for centuries, and Egri Bikavér, or Bull’s Blood, is a robust red.

How to travel

Three or four nights in Budapest gives time for both sides of the river, a bath and an evening cruise on the Danube. Rail links Budapest directly with Vienna and onwards to Prague and Berlin. Private van and self-drive tours through Eastern Europe include Budapest alongside Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.