If you are going to Budapest and have spent almost your entire budget on travel and hotels, it’s okay. You can get to know the Hungarian capital absolutely free, while visiting museums and excursions – both sightseeing and thematic. We’ll tell you how to do it.
Excursions
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First of all, you can go on a free walking tour to see the city. A three-hour sightseeing tour with a route length of 3.5 kilometers is held every day at 10:30 and at 14:00. The organizers promise to introduce the history and architecture of Budapest, showing the city as the locals see it. For those who want to see Budapest in the evening, there are tours starting at 18:30 – but they are half as long as daytime ones (1.5 hours).
You can also go on a “communist walk” – an excursion dedicated to life in Hungary during socialism, which takes place daily at 10:00 and 15:30. At the same time, a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter begins. In addition, at 10 am every day, tourists are introduced to street art and urban art. You can view more detailed information on the website (http://www.triptobudapest.hu/) of the organization that conducts the tours. All excursions are in English.
Interesting excursions from local residents in Budapest
Museums
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Almost all museums in Budapest are open free of charge on national holidays: Hungarian Revolution Day (March 15), Stephen’s Day (August 20) and Hungarian Uprising Memorial Day (October 23).
In addition to the indicated dates, you do not need to pay for entrance to the ethnographic museum on January 22, March 5, May 18 and September 20-21. This is one of the largest European museums – it displays more than 200 thousand exhibits. On the first Saturday of every month, free entry to the Museum of the History of Obuda, the ancient part of the city. On the last Sunday of every month, you can get free access to the Kiscelli Museum, a branch of the Budapest History Museum. However, this only applies to visitors under 26 years of age, as well as one or two adults accompanying children under 18 years of age.
In addition to the museums mentioned, Budapest has many art galleries displaying paintings, photographs and sculptures. Entry to most of them is free. For example, you can visit Várfok Gallery, which specializes in contemporary Hungarian art, or The Virag Judit, which displays paintings and ceramics from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sights
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One of the main symbols of Budapest and all of Hungary is St. Stephen’s Basilica. It is the largest temple in Budapest and the third largest in Hungary. Inside the cathedral, the relics of the first king and founder of Hungary, St. Stephen, are kept. You can examine it not only from the outside, but also from the inside – entry to the cathedral is free. Other temples worth visiting are the cave church in Gellert Rock and Matthias Church.
A beautiful view of the Danube and the Pest region opens from the walls of the Fisherman’s Bastion, which is located on the Fortress Hill. From here you can also clearly see the neo-Gothic-style parliament building – another symbol of Budapest. The bastion itself, with its many small towers, balustrades, galleries and observation platforms, also deserves attention. Admission is free.
Another platform from which you can look at Budapest is located on Mount Gellert – from it you can see both sides of the Danube, as well as the Fisherman’s Bastion mentioned above. At the top of the mountain there is a citadel built in the 19th century.
If you want to take a break from walking around the city, you can check out Városliget Park, the largest park in Budapest. It contains several artificial lakes and many alleys, along which approximately seven thousand trees grow, including exotic ones. And here you can look at the Vajdahunyad Castle, built in four architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance.
Text author: Yana Kasatkina
Preview photo: Shutterstock.com
