We didn't visit the parliament, although if I went again, it would be on my list. Walk over the Chain Bridge and take the funicular up to the castle district. It's a nice area with a beautiful view of parliament and the Pest side of the river.

We also very much enjoyed the Terror Museum on Andrassy Ut. Although there wasn't much English, it's a powerful story of the fascist and communist reigns in Hungary. I learned a lot from it. Andrassy Ut is also a lovely, wide boulevard, good for a relaxing stroll.

The opera (also on Andrassy) is another place you might want to see. We took a dinner cruise which was relaxing. We loved Budapest - enjoy!

And dont forget a trip to the baths!
http://www.filolog.com/what_to_doBaths.html

www.eurocheapo.com/budapest

budapest without breeaking the bank

baths and caves were my fav...

careful with dinner drink scammers and

do careful homework there are more than any other city

travel.state.gov for a heads up insuremytip.com wise

There are several free walking tours in Budapest. We took the "Orientation" tour and found it very helpful in getting around on the rest of the trip.

Try to have dinner at the Gerloczy Cafe. Their food is great and they have a good selection of wines, including both a good house red and white. And try the creme brule for dessert.

Try to find one of the so-called ruined pubs. What a hoot. The free walking tour of the Jewish quarter takes you to one during the day where you can take a break and have a drink.

And an ice cream at Gerbeaud (sp?)

Pjk

We did the Parliament tour and really enjoyed it but I seem to recall it took a little effort because you had to line up to get tickets for a tour and then come back later in the day or the next day for the tour itself.

You have to be careful. People queue up for tickets and it may take an hour to get to the front of the line by which time the tours may be sold out. They don't post this information nor does anyone walk down the line telling people. The tours are in several languages and it seems as though the ones in English go the quickest. If you can get there just before they open this shouldn't be a problem. IIRC 9:00 a.m.

Pjk

thank you all for your advice! i dont fancy standing in a line for hours when thentime could be better spent sightseeing.
saw some tour companies offering visit to the Parliament. it is definitely more expensive. Do you think it is worth it?

Parliament depends on personal taste: if you'd like the us Capitol bldg, you'd like Budapest's. It's orangish vs DC's whitish.

Kitty korner from it is the Ethnology Museum, if you're interested in Hungarian history/folk culture/folk clothing.
We found it interesting way to kill time waiting for our tour to start

I really enjoyed the Hungarian National Museum. If you go, don't miss the "Coronation Mantle", it's an unbelievable work of art.

http://www.hnm.hu/en/fooldal/mainPage.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_National_Museum

You can get an Enlgish audio guide in the gift shop. The guide is for a certain number of hours (believe it is 4 or 6 hours). If you go over the designated number of hours, there is an extra charge. However, it wasn't until I was done with the visit that the lady in the gift shop informed me that I could have taken the audio guide back to her, take a lunch break, and then resume the tour and not have the lunch break time charged against the total hours.