Budapest Card

Faith177

Hi Everyone

I'm off to Budapest in 2 weeks and I've been looking at the Budapest 72 and 24 hour cards that get you entrance into museums and free travel ect

I'm having trouble finding costs for travel and some of the museums so I can't weigh up if they are worth getting

Has anyone else used them? Were they easy to collect? Did they work out as good a value as they seem?

TIA x

zagfles

Have a look on Tripadvisor, discussed a lot there. From what I remember the general opinion is that it's not worth it unless you make full use of all the discounts/free entrances etc.

It's a very walkable city so you'll probably find you don't need to use public transport much. If you do make sure you validate your ticket - common tourist mistake - you can't just buy a ticket and use it you need to validate it first (that's for normal tickets, not sure about passes).

Faith177

zagfles wrote: »

Have a look on Tripadvisor, discussed a lot there. From what I remember the general opinion is that it's not worth it unless you make full use of all the discounts/free entrances etc.

It's a very walkable city so you'll probably find you don't need to use public transport much. If you do make sure you validate your ticket - common tourist mistake - you can't just buy a ticket and use it you need to validate it first (that's for normal tickets, not sure about passes).

Great thanks I found the tripadvisor page about them but couldn't see the comments so I'll go have another look

brook2jack

We found it worthwhile, but our hotel was on outskirts so had to take a train in and out every day and visited several museums etc and visited Momento park and Szentendre etc on train , which you get free up to city limits with the Budapest card..

Faith177

brook2jack wrote: »

We found it worthwhile, but our hotel was on outskirts so had to take a train in and out every day and visited several museums etc and visited Momento park and Szentendre etc on train , which you get free up to city limits with the Budapest card..

Our hotel is quite centralised but still a few things are a bit of a walk. I have stacks of museums down on my list so hoping to cross a number of those off

Was the Momento Park easy enough to get to? I had a look and it looked quite a distance but I did Communist history at school so really would like to see it if I can

zagfles

Faith177 wrote: »

Our hotel is quite centralised but still a few things are a bit of a walk. I have stacks of museums down on my list so hoping to cross a number of those off

Was the Momento Park easy enough to get to? I had a look and it looked quite a distance but I did Communist history at school so really would like to see it if I can

Didn't go there so can't advise, but if you're interest in communist history I'd suggest the house of terror on Andrassy Ut and also the "free" (tips only) communist walking tour http://www.triptobudapest.hu/v2/tours/communist-tour/ where you'll likely be shown around by someone who grew up under communism.

Faith177

zagfles wrote: »

Didn't go there so can't advise, but if you're interest in communist history I'd suggest the house of terror on Andrassy Ut and also the "free" (tips only) communist walking tour http://www.triptobudapest.hu/v2/tours/communist-tour/ where you'll likely be shown around by someone who grew up under communism.

The house of terror is already on my list so nice to get a suggest that it is worth it :beer:

That tour sounds interesting I'll take a look at that one

I am getting so excited now lol

macca1974

I went with my daughter last year and think that the 48 hour card was a bit over priced. I'm not sure that there was a lot in it, but I don't think that I'd get one if I went again. We had a really busy couple of days and there is a lot to see. My big recommendation would be the szeycheni baths which are fantastic. There was a baths included in the 48 pass but we didn't think it was anywhere near as good (felt very 1980's communist), the Szeycheni baths is awesome and well worth a few hours of your trip and has a stop on the underground.

Just with regard to Momento Park, it is miles away from the centre and you need to use the underground and then get a bus (it is in the middle of know where...). I think it took us about an hour to get there, 20 minutes to look round and then we ended up getting a taxi back to the underground station so we didn't waste to much more of the day. Some of the statues are magnificent though and make for some great pictures.

brook2jack

We enjoyed Momento park. The most interesting part was the old 60s and 70s secret service training films on covert surveillance . It gave a really interesting take on living in Communist times.

Szentendre is a huge open air museum site of various historical Hungarian buildings. It is a little way out from the town but is well worth visiting , a massive site that would be worth taking the miniature train to get around.

The railway museum was also interesting and little visited and easy to get to.

Pre book your visit to the parliament building .

House of terror is excellent but very busy so go early.

phatbear

Faith177 wrote: »

The house of terror is already on my list so nice to get a suggest that it is worth it

I have a keen interest in post 1939 history and found the terror house a real let down.

Unless you speak hungarian there is a script for each room you enter which gets longer as you get deeper into the building also with the exception of a few pieces the rooms are mostly filled with video screen showing subtitled clips from survivors of the war and the aftermath. However the basement is chilling considering the history of the place.

Other than that i loved budapest its got lots of great sights to visit, 99% of which are in walking distance and the food was mostly great and the cocktail bars were darn good, and reasonable, too

dirty_magic

We didn't get the cards, but we did buy a 3 day transport ticket when we went, which got us around and to and from the airport. We mostly walked around though.

I loved Budapest, it's up there in the top places I've been to. Buda is beautiful, I loved the old buildings. The hills are steep but the views are worth it. I liked the little bar at the fisherman's bastion and the ruin bars are cool!