When I was invited to join the AccorHotels blogger competition for “24 Hours in…” with a post about my favorite city, truthfully no one city came to mind immediately.
So, I enlisted my husband to help me. We have this travel game we play, where one of us will say two locations, and the other has to choose which one they want to visit most. As you can imagine, this game doesn’t really have an ending, and it’s not black-and-white, so I came down to two choices: Prague or Budapest.
It might be cheating to write about 24 hours in the current city I’m living in, but I haven’t given Budapest much love on this blog yet, so I couldn’t resist!
(For more about Prague: 5 Day Trips from Prague, a Prague Bucket List, A Guide to Teaching English in Prague, and my Love Affair with Praha).
24 HOURS IN BUDAPEST
The first thing you must do is hit up Deryne Bisztro for breakfast. It’s a bit out of the way but so worth it.
After breakfast, take a walk up Castle Hill and head to Fisherman’s Bastion for the best views of the city you’ll be exploring for the next 24 hours! 
Visit the Matthias Church, since you’re right there after all. It’s gorgeous.
Head to a fancy café for lunch/coffee. I love the Alexandria Bookstore on Andrassy avenue, but the New York Café is billed as the most beautiful cafe in the world if you’re up for the prices that go along with that tagline. If you’re not in the mood for fancy, head to Ruszwurm, supposedly the oldest café in the city, and conveniently right next to Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion.
Take the metro to Varosliget (City Park) and walk through, making sure to visit the Vajdahunyad Castle.
At the other end of the park, hop into the Szechenyi Baths for a relaxing soak and spa treatments. There are tons of other baths in the city, like Gellert Baths and Rudas, but Szechenyi is literally in an old palace. How could you go wrong?
After a soak, head back to your hotel/Airbnb for a quick clean up. Then…
Head to DiVino Wine Bar for pre-dinner glass of Hungarian wine–spoiler alert, it’s delicious–and a gorgeous view of St. Stephen’s Basilica.
Walk along the Danube to see the Budapest skyline showing off at night, especially the Chain Bridge.
Eat a late dinner at Menza for traditional Hungarian with a twist.
Save some energy for at least one ruin pub! Ruin pubs are one of my favorite things about Budapest. Szimpla is the most famous, and a must, if only to sit in the bath tub. My favorite is Anker’t. Here’s a list of more here. Most of the pubs are close to each other, in the 7th district, so it’s easy to hop between them.
Budapest turns all the lights out at midnight, but really the party is just getting started, so you can stay out all night if you want. My teacher schedule usually has me in bed by midnight, so I’m not an expert, but try out Doboz–a ruin pub and a club in one!
Go home, knowing that 24 hours in Budapest was just enough to leave you wanting more.
Have you been to Budapest? What would you squeeze into these 24 hours, if you could?
yes:) visit to Christmas markets, I’d add:)
Yes! I forgot those! Although I wrote this post before any of them opened 😉
I loved the Szechenyi baths, so cool! I adored Budapest when I visited, but it was quite a while ago now and I’ve always wanted to go back. I’d add the chairlift (lubego I think?) which I thought was a really cool way to see the city from afar- but if you were only there for 24 hours, I think it’d be much too far away to get to. Still, I just loved that chairlift!
Oh yeah that’s a good one too! I always forget about that since it’s a little ways out of the city. But if you had two days, the views are the best! 🙂
A great day in Budapest – I already wanna go back, haha. Something I was so surprised about: I went to Szimpla at like 9pm and there was a frickin’ queue to get in. AT NINE! Amazing. I like getting the party started early, personally! Then maybe I can be back in my bed by 1am, haha 😉 (#thisisthirty)
Oh yeah Szimpla is crazy. Most of the city is on a totally different sleep schedule than me, lol. We went out dancing the other night (which happens like, once every six months, maybe, lol) and when we were leaving at 2 a.m. there was a queue full of people JUST checking their coats in. Like, just getting the party started! Everyone always goes out starting at midnight and I usually can barely make it that late! this is…almost thirty 😉
Love this, I’m totally saving this post for whenever i can make it to Budapest!
Yes! And let me know so we can meet! 🙂