Where to Stay in Budapest: Helping You Discover the Best of Budapest Hungary!

we’ll show you the best of Budapest…

We’re Geoff & Katie, a Canadian couple living in Budapest. We’ve been exploring Budapest since 2017, and want to make your Budapest trip planning a breeze!

Where to stay in Budapest is just the beginning, We also share hotel profiles, attractions guides, tips for getting around Budapest, advice on Budapest weather, and other essential tips.

Join us as we seek out the best Budapest has to offer…and plan your own trip to Budapest based on our experiences (and mistakes!).

get started with our expert guides to
Budapest’s best neighborhoods

Start your trip plan by finding the best area to stay in Budapest. Our Overview Guide covers the pros and cons of 6 Budapest districts, and helps you get oriented within the city.

If you need more info, our detailed neighborhoods guides have tips, maps, hotel recommendations, and inspiration to help you choose the best place to stay in Budapest. Dig into our expert guides covering Budapest’s best areas to stay below – just click on the image!

Expert Guide to Budapest 1st District – Castle District

Budapest 1st District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 1st District – Castle District

Expert Guide to Budapest 5th District – Downtown

Budapest 6th District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 6th District – Downtown

Budapest 7th District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 7th District – Jewish Quarter

Budapest 8th District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 8th District – Palace Quarter

Budapest 9th District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 9th District

Budapest 13th District Neighborhood Guide Feature Image — Expert Guide to Budapest 13th District

save money & time with these trip planning tips

Disclosure: This website uses affiliate links. That means we may earn a small commission when you use the links on this site to book a hotel, book a tour, buy your travel insurance, shop for travel essentials, etc. You don’t pay anything extra. We’ve made an effort to ensure all information on this website is correct at the time of writing, but expect readers to double check before booking.

save money in Budapest

The Budapest Card includes free, unlimited public transportation for the duration of the card, and is available as a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5-day card. In addition to free public transport, the card includes free entry to many museums, a complimentary tour, discounts throughout the city, and more. Click for prices and details.

book your flight to Budapest

CheapOair is our current favorite when it comes to searching for flight deals. It’s a meta aggregator, and will find the best deals and routes for you by searching airline websites and other aggregators.

skip-the-line in Budapest

Budapest is getting busier by the year, meaning you should expect to wait in line at the most popular attractions, especially in high season. If you only have a short vacation, consider getting a Skip-the-Line ticket for the most popular attractions: The Great Synagogue, Széchenyi Thermal Baths, and the Parliament. If you want to visit the interior of the Parliament, you have to pre-book. You can either use a tour aggregator like Get Your Guide or Jegymester.hu

book your Budapest tours

We tend to book tours via an aggregator like Get Your Guide (a company out of Berlin with great selection of tours in Europe, in particular) or Viator (a TripAdvisor company).

Why use an aggregator instead of going direct? Personally, we like to compare the different tours available for each attraction, as well as read reviews. Both Get Your Guide and Viator let us see multiple, similar tours, and compare prices and past reviews before making a booking.

find the best hotel in Budapest

We use Booking.com when making hotel reservations in Europe. In our experience, it has the best inventory/selection of hotels and holiday apartments, and we’ve had good experiences with their customer service team when things go wrong (which has been a rarity for us, thank goodness!). TripAdvisor is also trying to get into the hotel booking game, and may be worth checking out.

getting from Budapest airport to the city

Budapest’s public transportation system is generally excellent, and this extends to the airport. For a detailed post about getting from Budapest Airport to the City Center via public transit, shared shuttle, or airport taxi, read our guide here.

If you’re arriving late at night, coming in on a long-haul and expect to be exhausted, or would rather have the peace of mind of a private transfer, you can book one here.

buy travel medical insurance

We can’t actually recommend a travel insurance provider. Apparently it’s against the law.

However, we can say this: we know several people who racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses during separate, life-or-death situations while traveling. They were both insured by Allianz, they both received life-saving care, and they both made a successful claim.

No one wants to need travel insurance, but you’ll certainly be glad you have it if something goes wrong. And if something does go wrong in Budapest, we personally go to FirstMed for our healthcare. Staff and doctors speak English.

make restaurant reservations

If you visit Budapest in winter, you’ll probably be okay if you don’t make restaurant reservations, although we’d still recommend you reserve in advance Thursday to Saturday evenings where possible.

In summer, things fill up pretty quickly, although capacity at many restaurants increases when the city’s terraces open, usually sometime in May. It’s worth noting Budapest’s restaurants are all non-smoking inside, but get quite smoky on the terraces.