On our first full day I would hate to start jumping on public transportation. I'd rather start with a walk.

I would like to walk from the hotel (Marriott Executive Suites) across the Chain Bridge to the bottom of the Castle funicular.

How long a walk is that?

Thanks.

I've done that very itinerary from our base at Marriott exec. suites.

It's not a challenging walk. Maybe 15-20 minutes. The trip across the bridge is, say, 5 minutes.

More important: You will be so entranced by everything you see along the Korso (promenade along the Danube) and on the bridge itself that elapsed time will not be the slightest consideration. You will have NO IDEA of how long you have been walking.

Thanks tedgate.

Just what I was hoping to hear.
We are not really museum goes although we've been to and enjoyed some of the more famous (Louvre, d'Orsay, Prado, etc).

Current plan.
Arrive late the night before by train from Prague.

Day 1 (Tue).
Start at Marriott. Walk along the embankment toward the Chain Bridge.
Cross to the funicular and up to the Castle District. Wander around for a couple of hours.

Varbusz down to Moszkva and Metro over to Batthyany. Take in the view of the Parliament and wander the area. Pick up a snack at the Vasarcsarnok Market Hall(?).

Metro across to the Parliament building. Not sure if I want to take in the tour. Walk around the area and embankment sights. Metro of tram from Parliament to Deak ter and/or Vorosmarty ter.

Maybe snack at the famous Gerbeaud.
Meander all the way down Vaci Utca to the Central Market Hall.

Day 2.
Take in the sights of the Jewish District.

Depending on the distance, walk or Metro from Astoria to Deak ter.

Wander the length of Andrassy Ut all the way up to City Park. (Timing?)

Day 3.
Either train or boat to Szentendre (depending on timing-would like to boat). Wander the town.
Return to Budapest by train.
Spend any spare time if any in the Inner City.

7:30PM plane to Brussels.

Any thoughts?

Some Suggestions:

On day 1, around Castle District, Cafe Ruszwurm across from Matthias Church is nice for mid-morning break.

From Parliment, it is a short walk to Deak Ter (no more than 15 minutes directly): If you like architecute, make sure stop by Four Seasons Gresham Palace (on Roosevelt Ter) to see the beautiful Art Deco lobby; or you could walk through Szabadsag Ter to visit Basilica St Stephen. Around this area, I like the food at Cafe Kor (one block from the basilica) better than Gerbeaud.

Day 2, You mentioned not interested in museums, but the Holocaust Memorial in the courtyard of Jewish Museum is really moving, you could view it from the side street.

Not from from Jewish quarter, the Art Nouveau entrance of Museum of Applied is quite interesting.

It's about 10 minutes walk from Astoria to Deak Ter.

Not the whole boulevard of Andrassy is all interesting, perhaps you
take metro to Opera- most lovely metro station with wood panels, then walk to Liszt Ference Ter- beutiful aquare with cafes around.

If you have time, it would be a real experience to spend even an hour at Szechenyi-the thermal baths in City
Park. The Baths is the largest thermal
complex I have ever visited.

JudyC, Thanks.

Looks like we'll walk from the Parliament to Vaci Utca if it's that short a walk. Thanks for the snack suggestions.

I didn't mean we never go to museums. We just don't spend hours in each one.

I intend to visit all of the sights in the Jewish District. Museum included.

I have considered the Szechenyi Baths.

Depending on how late we get there we may try to include it. I suppose we'll take with bathing suits. But I really don't want to carry around towels. Can we rent them?

Also, how secure are our belongings? I'd hate to have my camera disappear.

Thanks again

Myer,
Vaci Utca is a pedestrian street with Americanized shops.It has no real European flavor.Spend your time around the Jewish triangle, Hero's Square, see the shoes along the Pest side embankment between the Chain Bridge & the Parliament Bldgs, take in all the wonderful Buda sites, walk through Margaret Island, & enjoy the steep ascent & descent of the subway system. Operas are reasonably priced so grab one in as well.

Oh ya, forgot to mention-
Expect the best sleep ever. Hungarian down is 2nd in the world to Siberian down.Bring a duvet home.

To Myer,

I am afraid I don't know whether they rent out towels at the bath, as I was staying by Deak Ter, I went back to hotel one late afternoon, got bathing suit, towel, plastic slippers and soap, then took metro to Szechenyi, it took about 15 minutes door to door. It was a lovely way to end a long day walking.

I was given a locker by the locker room attendant, she locked it and gave me a number and a tag for retriving. I can't
say for sure, it seemed secure enough.

As a practised tour guide in Budapest, I would suggest you: walk to the Chain Bridge and cross it, travel up with the Funicular Train from the Buda side and if you are there in time at noon, there is a coming out of guards from the Presidential Building at the train end station. Walk trough the iron gate to the Savoy equestrian statue and visit the Hungarian gallery (free), have a good sandwich and salad at the buffet.
Cross the small tunnel to get to the next courtyard at the hunting waterfall and walk to the Matthias Church (from 10:00 till 17:00 there is a lot of people), Fishermen's bastion. Have a look inside the lobby of Hilton Hotel. Opposite to the Hilton there is a nice place: House of Hungarian Wines. 15-18 USD entrance and walk around with your glass and test more than 80 kinds of superb wines. Continue to the Vienna Gate. Small synagogue to see as a museum.Good restaurant : Király Restaurant with evening folk show. Get to the War History Museum and line of old cannons and get back along the defending walls down to Moszka square (large shopping mall with hundred of shops open till 9:00 pm). Take the red line metro back to Pest downtown. Stop station called Deak square. If you need a driver gude, write me.

We found Liszt Ter (on the fringes of the central area) an interesting, cosmopolitan boulevard full of outdoor cafes.

The Central Market hall is a real treat for the eye and nose. For a treat to the taste buds, head upstairs. There you will find tasty and very inexpensive traditional Hungarian 'fast food' sold from carts and stalls which you can take away or better still, stay and eat with the locals. Also, just over the bridge right beside the market is the famous Gellert Hotel (which itself is beside Castle Hill, so you can visit both while in that area ) which is also good for a look around and a visit to the Art Deco baths/spa attached to the hotel.

JudyC, Syl et al,

Wow!!! Great info.

About the baths. I originally thought of going when I'm at the Park. You idea of making a special trip may be a good idea.

I guess I have Vaci Utca in there for a combination of curiosity, my wife and getting to the Main Market Hall.

I expect to spend a good few hours in the Jewish area on the 2nd day. Of course, depending on timing that could move around somewhat.

Thanks again.

I'll definitely print out this thread.

Eats? Upstairs? Did they change the layout since last May? I would say the primary food shops are on the main floor, the seafood shops are on the lower level, and the clothing etc is on the upper level of the Central Market.

I know you've said you're not really interested in musums, but we really liked the ones we went to - The hungarian National museum, the National gallery in the castle district [free] and the museum of fine arts - up by the thermal baths and open air skating rink [we went in December]. We didn't use the baths, but my reading of the quaintly phrased notices in Engilsh was that you could hire everything, including swimming costumes and towels, but they wanted quite a hefty deposit.
The metro was fine and very easy, and cuts down on some of the walking, so you can see more.
Try to book tickets for the opera house - it's very lovely and the production we saw was very good. Or book a guided tour, if you don't think you can manage a performance. Have fun.

Did I give the impression we don't like museums? I may carry that reputation until death.

There are museum goes who spend hours or days getting an education in a partucular museum and then there are those who casually visit the main or most well known museums just out of interest.

We are the latter. The Prado in Madrid and d'Orsay in Paris were among our favorites.

In most cases if I missed a museum but spent hours wandering around seeing the sights, I wouldn't feel deprived.

There!!!

Having said all that, this thread has provided me (and others) with some excellent information.

Thanks.

When I was there in Sept. 2004 and in May 2005, the clothing / lace shops were on one half (roughly) of the upper level and the eating kiosks were on the other half of the same upper level.

And they were still there last weekend, when we visited! Great value food and drink......but very smokey.

We also found a supermarket in one part of the basement, which was not signposted from anywhere that we could see. They had a good range of beer/wine.