ledhead

Hi everyone. My daughter and I will be in Budapest for just one full day. We figured we would need forints for just one dinner and a couple of taxi rides around the city center and about $500.00 USD for souvenier money. Can anyone help with the approximate cost in forints for these three things;(approximate cost in forints for a nice dinner for two, maybe 2 taxi rides in forints and around $500 USD spending money in forints? I am told it is much cheaper to buy forints here in the US before we go to Europe. Would really appreciate some advice please!

Michael

It is <b>not</b> much cheaper to get forints in the U.S. Use your credit card for the meal and probably the souvenirs, given the amount you expect to spend. Use an ATM to withdraw money when in Budapest for any cash you might want.

Andrew

Find out what it costs to use your ATM card in Budapest. If your bank will charge you $5 + 3%, maybe it's better to pay for everything with your credit card that you can but maybe exchange $10 or $20 USD for Forint as needed. If the ATM use is expensive for you, there's probably no cheap way to get just a small amount of cash for a short stay.

I wouldn't get Forint in the US, either.

StCirq

People are "told" all kinds of misinformation. It is absolutely not cheaper to get forints in the USA before you leave. When you get to Budapest, use your ATM to get spending money for small purchases (I hope you have a bank that doesn't overcharge you for foreign exchange, but even if it does it will be less than buying forints in the USA). Use your credit card for any major purchases, such as the meal.

Budapest has a pretty good public transportation system. Not sure you'll need taxis (and they are hard to find, IME).

You can look up the exchange rate on innumerable websites.

janisj

>>I am told it is much cheaper to buy forints here in the US before we go to Europe.<<

Someone is pulling your leg -- your banker perhaps?

No, it is NOT cheaper to buy currency at home.

Leave all your $ in your checking account and use your ATM card to get any cash you need (you can use your visa/mastercard instead of cash for most things and just use your ATM card to get a little cash if you decide you need some)

BigRuss

<< I am told it is much cheaper to buy forints here in the US before we go to Europe.>>

Who told you that? It's pure bullsh-t. If it's your travel agent, fire him or her. If it's your banker, pull your money.

And when you follow the advice of everyone above who is correctly telling you to use your ATM and credit cards and not bring forints to Hungary, make sure you pay the local bills (meals, souvenirs, etc) in forints, not in dollars by Dynamic Currency Conversion.

Christina

I didn't even know you could get forints in the US, I didn't think that currency was convertible. I didn't think any bank would carry it outside Hungary, definitely not in the US. And rare currencies like that would probably cost you more in the US than, say, buying euro.

I don't think there is any country where it is cheaper to get a currency used in the country itself in a foreign place. That doesn't really make sense. Maybe someplace with odd govt currency regulations. But I would say there is no European country where it is cheaper to get that currency in a foreign country than where it is actually used and all over the place.

Okay, I checked travelex and amazingly they do sell forints in the US online--but I was right, they mark it up a lot more than euro. ON euro, they take about a 10 pct commission, but on forints, they take about 14%. And that doesn't include the delivery fee. One's own bank may differ, but I would bet there isn't any place in the US that will give you forints cheaper than you'd get in Hungary.

I don't think you want to buy and carry 150,000-175,000 forints with you to Hungary, which is about what you'd need. That's about $600-$650. Be very careful about taxis, they have a bad reputation, especially random independent ones. And given the money is so different and looks a lot alike, you have to be careful what bills you use. But a taxi ride in the city proper should cost you less than US$20 (5000 HUF or less). I don't know about restaurants, but if it is nice, you could easily spend about what you would in a lot of big cities, say at least $30-$40 a person or something, depends what all you order (that's just food).

Did you really mean you plan to spend US$500 on souvenirs in one day? If so, maybe up the food budget if you want more expensive restaurants. Maybe take 200,000 forints if you do want to take it with you.

janisj

>>I didn't even know you could get forints in the US, I didn't think that currency was convertible. I didn't think any bank would carry it outside Hungary, definitely not in the US<<

My local suburban USB branch has an on-site Travelex office and they DO carry Forints (though it is still a bad idea to pre-purchase)

StCirq

IME, Travelex is one of the biggest currency rip-off artists in the world. If you happen to belong to, say, the World Bank or United Nations or some similar credit union, you can almost always get any currency imaginable at a "fairly" reasonable price, but I doubt many Fodorites are members of these insitutions, and even if they are, they'd still be paying too much.

Having spent 6 days in Budapest fairly recently, it's hard for me to imagine finding US$500 worth of souvenirs to buy in a week, let alone a day. And even though we asked for recommendations and did a good bit of research and were willing to pay well for a good meal, rarely found one. Probably our own fault, but if you want a really nice meal in Budapest, do plenty of research in advance (and I don't mean read TA reviews).

J62

Thirty years ago, before the end of the Soviet block, it was in fact much cheaper to get many eastern block currencies in the west for much cheaper than you could get in-country. I fondly recall getting East German Deutche Marks in West Berlin for about 5x better exchange rate. It made for some cheap beer & wurst in East Berlin. Ditto for Rubles.

Kathie

To help you see where you get a better exchange rate, take a look at xe.com, then ask your bank what they would charge for Florints. Your bank is also likely to adda service charge for getting this unusual currency for you. Using your credit card to obtaining money from an ATM menu you will get the interbank rate (some cards charge a conversion rate of up to 3%). Check with your credit card company to see what they charge (if anything) on foreign exchange, likewise check with your bank on what they charge on foreign exchange and what their charges are for using their card in a foreign ATM.

If you plan to travel with some frequency in the future, you will find that credit unions or brokerages usually have the best terms, and many, many credit cards from many different issuers have no foreign exchange fees. You will want to get a credit card with no foreign exchange fees, and you may want to open a bank account for your travels.

bilboburgler

>>I didn't even know you could get forints in the US, I didn't think that currency was convertible. I didn't think any bank would carry it outside Hungary, definitely not in the US<<

kidding right? Even our local post office has it.

If you want $500 of souvenirs in Budapest then you can get wine or crystal very easily. They will also happily take dollars and give you a terrible rate.

ATM at the airport, and on many street corners, google maps will advise.

northie

You can also used euros in Hungary . Perhaps led head is going to buy Herend Pottery which is what I bought in Budapest .

StCirq

Sure, you can use euros in Hungary, also at a horrible rate.

Michael

For souvenirs, Hungary has some wonderful folk pottery and textiles based on traditional designs. A look at the Museum of Decorative Arts might be worthwhile.

StCirq

We found a lot more enticing, and affordable, folk pottery in Bratislava, which we thought was far more interesting than Budapest. But it's all personal taste, of course.

okszi

Hi,

500.00 for souvenirs is not that a deal.
Herend makes one of the finest porcelains in the World at matching prices.
I just recently arranged shipping a set of 6 dinner plates to Ukraine for one of my clients. Cost was 1,200 Euros. herend is not your cheap street pottery.
In Bratislava (we call it Pozsony still) you can buy some cheap pottery. They make it by truckloads in some rural towns.
However you can buy El-cheapo, though good looking pottery in Budapest as well. The vendors are buying it from some gypsy suppliers in Romania. Their profits are much-much higher than investing even in the best shares/bonds, etc, of all times
I am in the tourist business for more than 20 years so have the first-hand account on those things.

Foreign Cash:
Maybe the restaurants or gas stations won't give you the best rates, but this is still a F-A-A-A-A-R Cry of StCirq's "horrible rate".
However for some people a 5-7% lower rate can probably be horrible, I don't know....
At the same time the souvenir vendors accept foreign cash for little less than 3-4 % of the official rate. If their rate is worse than that, go and find another one. We a have quite a few tons of them, I mean vendors

Now for dinner:
Your best bet would be probably the Rosenstein restaurant.
http://rosenstein.hu/
https://media.wix.com/ugd/39ba6c_096...83673a269b.pdf

This is a family run restaurant and they provide a very SOLID Hungarian cuisine with a little Jewish touch, which even makes it much better.
They probably have one of the best goose-livers in town along with many Hungarian classics and definitely one of the very-very few places in Budapest having the cooked marrow bone on toasts on their menu!
Also their Lecso (Vegetable stew, kind of a Ratatouille, but many times superior, at least to us Hungarians ) is one of the best in town.
For a decent dinner for 2 it will set you down to about 100.00-120.00 $US.

https://media.wix.com/ugd/39ba6c_096...83673a269b.pdf
For 150.00 you will have a real treat.

OK,
here comes Taxi time:

City Taxi
http://www.citytaxi.hu/index.php?lang=en

or Fő taxi
http://fotaxi.hu/?lang=en
have English speaking operators. Fő Taxi has an app, so you can download it from Playstore and order a taxi any time, anywhere.
Don't hail a taxi on the side of the street, call or internet instead.
However, just in case, you can still hail a cab, but definitely negotiate the cost before jumping in.
Sometimes you can have a decent rate, especially when you know the approximate cost.
Use Fő taxi's trip calculator for that.
Hope it helped

dweislaw

Personally, I never leave the U.S. without some currency for the countires I'll be visiting and last summer's visit to Budapest was no exception. The local mall has a currency exchange palce and obtaining forints was easy. Of course, you pay a premium for that, but in relative terms to your entire vacation cost, the additional margin paid for a small amount of spending money is not meaningful. If it is of no moment to you, get all your Hungarian cash here, pay the premium for doing so and be done. It's not what the posters here would do, but it may work for you.

There are tons of currency exchange bureaus in Budapest. They are easy to use and the margins are very reasonable due to the competition. This article on a competing site was quite helpful -https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g274887-c183000/Budapest:Hungary:Currency.Cards.And.Foreign.Exchan ge.html

Credit cards were accepted all over Budapest, including taxis which were not hard to find or use. You can also ask your hotel/restaurant to call a taxi for you or use their car service if they have one.

Michael

Zsolnay porcelain is also something to look for:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7623003638578/ and the next four pictures as examples taken at the factory museum.

okszi

Michael,
YES OF COURSE!
That's my absolute favorite
I've been to the factory museum in Pécs many, many times and still love every single visit!