Budapest City Tour ?
 

4 of us, including one native Hungarian speaker will be in Budapest for 3 full days this summer. My wife. has not been in Budapest since 1971, and did not grow up there.

Fodor's guide suggests the 4 hour city tour as orientation, and that includes English tour of Parliament. Can anyone tells us if this is worthwhile orientation or should we just do the Parliament tour?

Thanks for you help.

Just my opinion - I'd do the city tour and maybe skip the Parliament tour. Its a good sized city - a tour would be good for orientation and to help you decide where you might want to go and spend extra time. I visited the Parliament, mainly because it was included in my package. Maybe I have just seen too many grand European buildings, but with only 3 days there, I would choose to spend extra time elsewhre.

Don't bother. Get the Dorling Kindersley Eye Witness guide ISBN 1-4053-1442-7 and go for it on your own. It did us just fine. One day for Buda and one day for Pest. I really enjoyed it, especially as it was at Christmas with the market in Vaci Utca.

We did the 4 hour city tour without the tour of Parliament. The tour allowed us to get off the bus at Heroes' Square, Gellert Hill and Fishermen's Bastion. We were able to see the highlights of Budapest and then decide which places we wanted to go back to using public transportation. Although we had read about many of the stops along the tour it was an excellent way to refresh our memories of the many beautiful sites in the city.

I am a native speaker and I would just do the tour on your own with the use of a guide book..I agree if you want more in depth info on somewhere get the DK book, it's got great info and pics. I took the parliament tour. It was OK...it's a nice building but I didn't think it was that important to see. If you'd like a tour and there are 4 of you, you could split the cost and use a personal guide. There have been many mentioned on fodors in the last few years. That might be a great way to get a true feeling about the city. I always like to start in Budapest with a walk in Pest along the Danube, crossing the bridge and taking the funicular up to Castle Hill and walking there and then to the Matyas Church and then having lunch...I love the views and it makes it all so real. Have a great time.