Budapest and Prague - Too Similar?
 

Hello! My husband and I are planning a trip to London and Prague in May. We have 3 days between the two cities and we do want to go somewhere else (not just tack on more time in England or the Czech Republic). We finally decided on Budapest but now we're starting to think the cities might be too similar.....the castle, the Jewish Quarter, the river running through it....I know that is a simplistic view but for whatever reason that is the sense we're getting. Any opinions on this? Thanks in advance!

A little extra info in case it's helpful - we're both in our early 40s and have traveled a decent amount in Europe. Our last trip was in September to France, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia. We loved all 3 of the former Yugoslav countries. We're not into bars or "nightlife" but we love to just walk around a new city exploring different neighborhoods, eat pretty much anything and everything, shop, and tour museums and some churches.

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There are also churches and restaurants in both cities.

Like Chicago and NYC : big towers and large avenues and in one case the sea the other a lake.
And McDo's at every corner.

Same.

We spend two months vacationing in Europe every year.

We visited Prague and Budapest a few years ago and though that they were entirely different. Prague is like a Disneyland/museum. Everything is "neat" and "in it's place". Budapest felt more like a real city - beautiful architecture, a little rough in a few places that hadn't fully recovered from the Nazi & Communist occupation yet. It felt like a real/livable city to us. We enjoyed both cities immensely.

I'm not much of a Rick Steves fan - but his Budapest book is superb.

Stu Dudley

I didn't think they were similar at all! The architecture is different, their histories are different, their cuisines are different...

I see very few similarities, overall, between Prague and Budapest. Yes, you can extrapolate similarities on a very general platform, but in reality, on the streets, two very distinct places, and Prague wins out big time, IMO.

Stu Dudley- that makes sense. We kind of felt like the contents (i.e. the types of sights to see) of the guidebooks for each city were very much the same but it sounds like the vibe of each city is very different. I had already checked out the Rick Steves Budapest guide from the library - glad to know it will be helpful.

StCirq - I've always heard great things about Prague but very mixed opinions on Budapest. Why do you think that is? What made Prague stand out for you?

"I know that is a simplistic view"

Extremely.

Budapest and Prague are completely different, shaped by their histories both pre-20th Century and their vastly different treatments under the Nazis and Soviets. Budapest has far deeper scars from the Nazis and Commies than Prague does. That's part of why visiting Budapest is interesting. Another is that it has been called, with some justification, the Paris of Central Europe.

St Cirq has pumped Prague at Budapest's expense on this board for years. Budapest is less developed than Prague because the latter was the first major city in the Warsaw Pact that had a flood of Westerners (especially from the Anglosphere) charge in and help reinvigorate the place.

Unlike the Hungarians (Magyars), Czechs are Slavic as are Russians so the Czechs and Slovaks were not treated like a redheaded stepchild during the Warsaw Pact years. The Hungarians were also run by a Nazi-collaborator government in WWII (until 1944, when the Nazis took over) and Russians notoriously treated Nazi collaborators like Nazis treated . . . Russians.

Completely different feel.

Prague - - warm hues, charm, walkable, very touristy in the center (too touristy?), easy, dreamy.

Budapest: Grey, intriguing, alienating geography & language, still many nice highlights, but in a sober, sometimes austere, post-Soviet frame.

<<..the castle, the Jewish Quarter, the river running through it...>>

Are you talking about London?

ha ha tons of cities have castles in them and rivers, so does Paris for that matter (and a Jewish Qtr).

I don't think they are similar for those reasons, their history and languages are different, also. I think just because they are Eastern/Central Europe, you think of all of those countries as the same.

Personally, I think adding Budapest for a couple days in-between London And Prague doesn't really make the most sense, for logistical reasons. I do not know how you plan to get between all these places, but there are other choices that would take less time in that regard.

Sounds like you wanted to visit Budapest though, to pick it out given the other choices that would be easier, at least by train. Such as some place in Germany. I presume you must be flying to Budapest as you couldn't take the train all the way and then to Prague in only 3 days. And then the train to Prague, I guess. Are you aware that train will take about 6-7 hours alone?

Some other places closer would be in Germany (like Dresden or Berlin) or even Vienna. Vienna to Prague is only 4 hrs. Dresden a little over 2, Berlin about 4.5. I think those, in addition to Budapest, would be the most likely suspects if you fly to the place and then take the train to Prague. I think Budapest would be fine but not when you only have 3 days between cities.

I'm still trying to understand how much time you have for these trip. All you said is 3 days. Is that 3 days for Prague or Budapest? It can't be for London and then one of the others - or you would only have 1 day in each place.

As for being similar they are very different except for being in Central Europe and having similar weather. Every major city in europe has a castle, a cathedral and a river running through it and almost all have Jewish quarters.

If you haven;t figured that out yet your previous trips must have been extremely cursory. Have you looked at what is different in each one.

<i> Budapest and Prague - Too Similar?
Posted by: bgs08 on Dec 29, 16 at 11:28pm</i>

Hardly.

<<St Cirq has pumped Prague at Budapest's expense on this board for years. >>

That's ridiculous. I never set foot in Budapest until last October, and I haven't been in Prague for quite a few years. Get the facts straight, dude.

At any rate, they are completely dissimilar.

Budapest left us with a leftover Cold-War feeling, sour-faced people, broken infrastructure, no river culture (on the Danube? What are you thinking? You have this beautiful, gorgeous river and could have cafés and parks and whatnot - instead you've got broken old nasty sidewalks and dangerous boat landings and an island (Margets) that is built up in the guidebooks as a glorious escape from the city but that in reality is just a dull place with with some greenery and lots of sports venues and cheap hot dog stands. One nice fountain. Apart from that, pretty much nothing.

The public baths were nice, but not particularly clean. We walked into the Geller and were not impressed. It was very expensive, very austere, very cold, and not a friendly place. Outside was a huge sculpture of what looked like an egg with metal steps clinging to it - it was not appealing.

The food was mediocre. The shopping was cheap and some nice things to buy, but we're not really big shoppers, so that didn't appeal to us so much. The central market was absolutely wonderful. The synagogue was astounding, and so was the opera house. But the general vibe of the city was "who cares?" almost like what I remember from East Germany in 1983. It didn't grab me, at all. It felt forlorn. There was a morning when we walked out of our hotel and there was a truck down a block or so that was dispensing huge pags of potatoes, and I went to look, and a nice man explained to me that every week this truck pulled up and gave out these sacks of potatoes for 2 euros instead of the 20 that you'd pay at the market. And hundreds and hundreds of people were pouring down the street to this truck to get their huge sacks of potatoes. It reminded me of Czechoslovakia in 1983 - poor people, cheap potatoes.

Now, the Old City in Bratislava, THAT caught our attention. We loved every second of that experience and would go back in a heartbeat.

Prague and Budapest are completely different.

Consider, Budapest probably had 30,000 building destroyed in WW2, while Prague did have some bombing, but still looks much like it did centuries ago.

Only been to Budapest once, but Prague three times and would go again.

Some info.

inyourpocket.com/prague and

inyourpocket.com/budapest

Do not think we didn't enjoy Budapest, we did.

Wow!! Budapest must have changed a lot and very much for the worse since I was there -- 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. Granted, it didn't have the Bohemian liveliness of Prague, but then nothing really does, IME!

St Cirq's description of Budapest is not the Budapest we remember (except for the food). We actually preferred Budapest over Prague - because it felt more "real" than the "pristine" Prague. We were there for 5 nights, just a week after visiting Prague for 4 nights.

Stu Dudley

We were in Budapest & Prague in Sept 2010.

Stu Dudley

The cities are very different and both are fascinating. Prague is amazingly preserved. Budapest shows a lot more wear, but it felt a bit less invaded by tourists and more evocatively different. See them both.