We are travelling to Budapest for a five day stay and are unsure which side of the river to stay. I stayed in the Castle area 20 years ago and remember it as being somewhat reserved. We are looking for an area with an interesting street life in terms of cafes, restaurants, points of interest etc. Any advice?

While I don't recall seeing any hotels nearby, the cafes and outdoor dining on Liszt Ter would probably delight you. It's perhaps 1/2 mile northeast of central Pest. It's not on the normal list of must-sees, which will doubtless follow this post.

The Castle area in Buda is indeed more reserved than Pest. My hotel was close to Deak Ferenc Ter. This is the square where all metro-lines connect. It's close to the Andrassy boulevard, Vaci Utca and a 10 minutes walk to the Dunabe.

I have been to Budapest several times. Personally I prefer to stay on the Pest side because, for me, it seems to have more life and activity to it. However, with that said, with the excellent transportation system in Budapest, perhaps it does not matter as long as you are in the center of either Pest or Buda.

Can't make up your mind which side to stay on, stay in the middle. There is a fantastic SPA on Margaret Island. The Thermal Hotel Margitsziget. The bus stops 10 yards from the hotel and takes you to Buda or Pest in less than 15 minutes. We are going for our 2nd trip in 3 years and will stay 3 weeks on Margaret Island.

We just returned from Budapest and stayed on the Pest side at the Hotel Cloister Inn which is right behind the Four Seasons. The hotel was clean and our room was nice and reasonably priced given the location. We were looking for the same types of activities "an interesting street life in terms of cafes, restaurants, points of interest etc." and it worked out great. We toured around the city on a hop on hop off bus that we picked up just a couple minutes walk from the hotel.

If you want a really spectacular dinner, you have to try a restaurant called Tom George. We also ate dinner one night at the Four Seasons and the meal at Tom George was half the price and twice as good.

We we were in Budapest about three weeks ago. We stayed on the Buda side very close to the Fisherman's Bastion (but not at the Hilton). We really enjoyed being on that side because we love the historic areas and the wonderful views. However, it was much quieter than the Pest side in terms of restaurants and night life so I think that you would be better off on the Pest side in that regard. We had an absolutely fabulous dinner at Spoon one night which is the restaurant permanently moored on the river just near the Chain Bridge.

I have been to Budapest several times for both business and pleasure. I recommend staying on the Pest side for the quality of restaurants and night life. Buda is wonderful to visit but Pest is by far the best side to stay.

Thanks everybody for your generous advice. It looks like Pest wins (although the middle is intriguing). We are looking now at the Queens Court Hotel which is an apartment hotel close to Liszt Ter. We like the idea of a full kitchen that the hotel offers although, with so much good value with restaurants in the area, the kitchen may not get much use. Does anyone have any experience with the Queen's Court Hotel?

Just got back from Budapest & Vienna. We rented an apartment on Vaci Utca. It was 58 euros/night. I found it on

http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacat...tals/8977.html

With my family we are back now from your Eastern Europe tour. At first we thought about hotels, but somebody from Fodorites recommended book an apartment instead of relatively expensive hotel-room.
Almost for a 1 week we lived on Pest-side completely in the Heart of Budapest. We booked spacious 5* Golden Stars Apartments from http://www.budapest.hoteltargets.com only for 75 EUR for four of us (in hotel with a similar location would be at least double)!
The apartment was just PERFECT and location was FANTASTIC! We really do not needed to use the public transport, everything (attractions, Danube, SPA's, boats etc.) was within walking distance.
Most important thing about Pest-side (I think its only valid for 5-th district): there is life going on till 2-3:00AM, so its really safe at night hours!

I stayed on the Pest side at the wonderful Marriott, right on the Danube, with my balcony facing Gellert Hill and the castle district at night-gorgeous. I could walk to everything, the opera, or over the bridge to Buda if I wanted, or just hop on the tram in front of the hotel. There were great coffeehouses and restaurants all within a few minutes walk, as well as the pedestrial shopping district -the vaci utca- two minutes from the Marriott.

Stayed at Sofitel on the Pest side. Although the Castle side has lots of historical sites, all the energy is on the Pest side. The Castle side is so easy to access that I don't think that it is necessary to stay on that side at the expense of the liveliness, variety of accomodations and restaurants on the Pest side.

My daughter and I were in Budapest last week (she is 13yo) and we are first time travellers. If you are looking for lively, stay in Pest. We, however, stayed in the art'Otel on the Buda side--very near the Chain Bridge, and we loved it. It was quiet at night, the view was unbelievable, the staff was friendly, the room was clean and the entire experience was lovely. I pricelined that hotel and got it for $67US a night too--great deal!

We also stayed at the Art'otel. You got a better rate than we did! We liked the hotel very much but the Pest side of the river definitely has more action.

We were at the hotel July 10-13, 2007.

We overlapped each other then. We were there July 11-15. Too bad we didn't realize. It would have been fun to see someone from the board and known I was seeing them!

This thread is several years old, but I hope it's still getting traffic for a follow-up question.
So, to those who advocate the Pest side for the "action" and liveliness, shopping, etc., I would like to ask:
What's wrong with staying on the Buda side for the quiet and serenity it affords and visiting the Pest side for the food & bars/clubs?
Isn't it easy enough to travel back & forth?

I'm planning to visit in April and was initially thinking to stay on the Pest side but then I thought why not have the best of the both worlds?
Thanks.

We stayed in an apartment in Pest that was very near the "action" but in a nice, quiet residential neighborhood. It afforded us close proximity to lots of fun stuff to do, good transportation options and without the travel time involved. Yes, walking over the bridges and buses are options to get back/forth. But, it takes time. It was great to be able to sleep at night and yet be 5 min walk from a cafe or coffee house.