Vicky

Budapest?
I am looking to plan my spring trip. Budapest has been on my radar for about 3 years.
Having read a few trip reports including the recent from St Cirq I am wondering if I could give it a miss without regrets. International travel is getting more tiring as I get older; I really want to make the effort to see places I would really regret not seeing (such as Santa Margherita Ligure/Rapallo/Camogli.

I was thinking London but it will be my 7th time there. Haven't been since 2009 and I 'miss it'. But perhaps I should be going somewhere that I haven't been before.

MmePerdu

Realizing that many people love Budapest and that you won't know unless you go...I had close friends there and that's why I returned several times, to see them. I also had a utilitarian reason to visit, to search for documents in the nat'l archives. But I didn't particularly like Budapest. Were it not for the reasons mentioned I wouldn't have dreamed of returning, in fact, would never have gone. Of course you won't know unless you go but, from one senior traveler to another, these days I go only where I'm compelled to go and Budapest wouldn't be one of them.

MmePerdu

And I should add, as far as I'm concerned, one cannot visit London too many times.

janisj

Because I love London so much I return 2 or 3 times a year -- but the last few years I've often linked it w/ a visit to some other place in Europe. since London is such a transport hub you could do both quite easily.

A few days in London and a few days in Budapest w/ a short-ish flight between the two.

Over the years I've combined London w/ Venice, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona and several others. Most, but not all, have been open jaw flights.

Michael

If you like to walk a city, Budapest has interesting architecture, particularly on the Pest side:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...730601912/show

Vicky

Janisj -- I keep my trips short since I really hate leaving my cat for too long, especially since she is getting older (still healthy at 9 but....) so a multi city is out at this point, maybe one day. With London I could do one or two day trips.

KarenWoo

Both of my daughters have been to Budapest, and they loved it. They were in their 20's/30's at the time. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I have not been to Budapest yet, (I am a senior traveler) but I would love to go. Everyone is different and has their own style of traveling and choosing where they travel to. I like to go to places I haven't been rather than re-visit the same place many times over. So it's up to you, of course. But I would suggest that you go to Budapest, because you won't know if you like it until you go there.

janisj has an excellent solution: combine Budapest with a trip to London.

Or, have you been to Prague? I think you could easily combine Budapest with a trip to Prague.

MmePerdu

Maybe it would help if I mentioned why I might have found Budapest difficult if I hadn't been with local friends. Firstly, for someone traveling alone, as I often do, the language isn't difficult, it's impossible. Language usually isn't an issue for me, except in remote Asia at times, but Hungarian is unrelated to any other I know, so may as well be Asian.

And I found much of the city dingy and depressing. That may be changing but I found myself constantly wishing, the times I walked around on my own, that I was elsewhere. On 1 visit I went to Vienna for a couple of days and on my return to Budapest, felt even worse after the brightness of Vienna.

Vicky

I have been to Prague. Lovely place

StCirq

As Vicky it seems has already noted, we also found Budapest dingy and depressing, with a post -Soviet gloomy-expression "who cares?'" type of service element. I had always wanted to go there, was very excited to be going there....downer on almost all levels.

As something of a linguist I made a valiant effort to learn some Hungarian, and actually did OK on a very simplistic level, though it's hard. But that wasn't the problem. It was just the sorrowful oh-who-gives-a-damn attitude we found pervasive. People were gracious when we spoke the little Hungarian we could, but it was always little more than a furtive smile. It really reminded me of being in East Germany in 1983. And the newspapers were filled with stories about how the Hungarians are being way less than gracious about accepting refugees. They just don't come across as a welcoming people. The national face to the public is a dour frown punctuated by a fleeting smirk when you agree to buy something. It was, on the whole, off-putting and not conducive to hanging around (even though we did for 6 days because I got a bad cold and we extended our stay).

I read glorious things about St-Margrets Island in fall, for example, with foliage and lovely walking paths and fountains and all. Nope. We stumbled along the rutted quais of the Danube to find our boat, spent a half-hour listening to a terribly infantile commentary (in several languages) as we approached the island, were dumped off on another treacherous quai and walked up thinking we'd at least have a nice afternoon in some gardens and parks. Nope. Construction all around, one fountain where 60s American rock 'n roll was being played. Long paths (no foliage) all over that led past youth gym facilities and playing fields and some rather sketchy people sitting on lonely park benches. Nothing like the guidebooks had depicted.

Buda was ever so more interesting than Pest, but only in that 1950s pretentious way that they wanted to impress you with the fact that they had The Geller Spa, which btw is very overdone IMO and has hideous inexplicable egg-shaped fountains on the backside of it where the taxis pull up, and has seating for only maybe 12 in its interior café, which you'd think would be quite popular and draw a crowd. Then there are all the sort of beatnick cafés, which are inexpensive and I suppose fun, but which seem desperately to be trying to recreate Paris of the 50s or something.

The main public baths were cheap and fun, but also a bit derelict, and I'm not fussy. The footing was slippery and the towels thin, the attendants snippy. We had a good time.

We tried really hard with the food, which isn't the most important thing for us, but it was hard.

I'm really glad we went. As I said I always wanted to go, but I won't go back. Bratislava, on the other hand, which was a huge surprise, captivated us.

MmePerdu

As it seems is often the case, StCirq and I agree. With more places in the world than most of us will have time & money to see, I'd suggest finding an easier & happier place to leave your money and take memories from than poor old Budapest. I've liked every other place I've been in Europe more. Even some I didn't like at first.

StCirq

Don't get me wrong. I live in Europe and spent almost my whole life trying to get here permanently to enjoy this wonderful continent, and I do. I have the luxury of spinning off to places for a few days because they are close and cheap, but if you have to do transatlantic flights to make it somewhere, that's a big commitment.

You'd have to say what types of places enthrall you in Europe before I could make suggestions. Prague would certainly be one, though in truth I haven't been there for 15+ years, so I can't say. I did love it, though.

In the past 8 months or so we have been to the Netherlands and Belgium for 10 days, San Sebastián and Bilbao and St-Jean-de-Luz for 8 days, Budapest and Bratislava for 10 days, and Toulouse and Milan and Venice for 11 days. It would be hard to say which was the best, so I'm not sure I could help you pick one, but I think I would say San Sebastián was my favorite. In February we are thinking of going to Morocco, and in May we are going to England. We don't take expensive trips, BTW. The absolutely fabulous thing about living on this continent is being able to move inexpensively from one place to another.

We have Polish friends here in the Dordogne who want us to viist Krakow with them, which I'd very much like. Maybe you should check that out. It looks beautiful to me.

kja

Wow!! Budapest must have changed a lot and very much for the worse since I was there (solo) -- which was, admittedly, some time ago (1995, I believe). I remember some lively cafes and lovely promenades along the river, fascinating architecture in and around the Old Town, and a few worthy museums. There were some sadly evocative glimpses of bullet holes in the walls of the upper town, but everyone I encountered was welcoming, and I certainly saw no signs of forlorn impoverishment. And I had a few absolutely scrumptious, and memorable, meals. Too, it felt like a very "real" city, even in the historic core -- something that I greatly appreciated.

MmePerdu

Kja, I don't actually see any conflict with your description and the less cheery of us. I did have some good food, there are some nice walks along the river and in Buda. And who else has mentioned "forlorn impoverishment"? The main issue for me is one of getting the best possible for one's money & effort. I simply found that, where it not for friends, I'd consider it less worthwhile than many other places I've been. Simple enough.

Michael

I found Budapest changed for the better: many buildings were cleaned up, there is a large pedestrian only section close to the Danube in Pest. I found their ethnological museum to be excellent. I have been in the city three times: 1975, 2003 and 2016. I have not been disappointed.

kja

@ MmePerdu: The "forlorn impoverishment" phrase came from another recent thread about Budapest by another contributor to this thread (although it does, I think, bear a certain similarity to "dingy and depressing"). Phrasing aside, I found Budapest to be a delightfully engaging, beautiful city that I am very glad to have visited. Language was, admittedly, a bit of a challenge (particularly because the ONLY word I remember having learned was "thank you," and I think I said that quite poorly), but people were remarkably welcoming and helpful -- far more so than my experience of (say) Parisians in those years. It's certainly possible that Budapest has changed since I was there -- although Michael's comment makes me think that it might be more about preferences and unique experiences.

I think you know that I strongly believe that it is perfectly understandable, and even inevitable, that different people have different experiences of places -- we are, after all, individuals! I wasn't trying to challenge your experience, and I trust you weren't challenging mine.

And just to illustrate another difference in experiences -- not one of yours, but another that came up on this thread: I am, apparently, a rare traveler who was disappointed with San Sebastian. (If you've read this far, StCirq, read on!) I found it nice enough, but sadly beyond its prime (IMO) and with little to keep this particular solo traveler's interest. To be clear -- I'm glad I went, had some delightful moments, ate some delicious meals (but that was, of course, also true elsewhere in Basque Country), and I didn't <b>dis</b>like it. But I, for one, would happily return to Budapest. As for SS, been there, done it.

Again, to each his / her own!

Vicky

What drew me to Budapest was the coffee houses, embroidery and architecture. I am not a foodie and more into arty than history. That said I loved Prague and Vienna so was thinking along those lines.

Except London, Paris, New York where there is so much to do, I am more relaxed in a smaller place with charm and scenic beauty

kja

Oooh, I loved shopping for embroidery in Budapest -- and I hate shopping! Such beautiful craftsmanship!

IME, Budapest lacked the Bohemian flair of Prague (but then, Prague is at least someone unique in it's Bohemian flair!), and IME, Budapest lacked the stately (and rather formal) grandeur of much of Vienna. I thought it had a fascinating mix of architectural styles, and I also enjoyed Budapest's art museum, even though it doesn't hold a candle to Vienna's Kunsthistorisches or other art museums.

JMO.