Budapest: what to do in 2 days in the Hungarian capital

Last month, I spent two days exploring Hungary’s capital, Budapest, discovering its magnificent architecture, amazing food, spa culture, and beautiful scenery along the Danube River.

The building is decorated. Monuments to the city’s writers, artists, and musicians seem to be on every corner, and public transport and plenty of taxis made it fun and easy to tour some of Budapest’s main sites.

To get my bearings, I headed to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The cathedral is a neoclassical cathedral named after the first king of Hungary and consecrated in 1905 after more than 50 years of construction. Roughly 100 meters high, its dome is well worth the climb (or elevator ride) for its 360-degree views, including the Castle Quarter and Parliament Buildings on either side of the river, and the Buda Hills beyond.

I also visited the Treasury Museum. It was dominated by early 1900s oil sketches by Hungarian artist Gyula Ventur, designer of the mosaic above the cathedral’s main altar. Inside the cathedral’s nave, St. Stephen’s mummified hand, displayed inside an ornate replica of the building, was an interesting find.

About a 10-minute walk from St. Stephen’s Cathedral is Café Gerbaud, a Budapest classic. This is a shop that a Hungarian friend recommended to me for their “delicious” pastries and sweets. Founded in 1858 by confectioner Henrik Kugler, the cafe has been in its current location on Veresmarty Square since 1870, and looks like little has changed since its inception.

My partner and I shared a tasting selection of desserts. My favorite? Esterházy slices, triangular stacks of walnut sponge, cognac vanilla cream and fondant topping.

From there I hopped on bus number 16 and crossed the Danube via the landmark Széchenyi Ranchi or Chain Bridge. Built in the 1840s, it was the first permanent bridge to connect both sides of the city: Buda in the hills to the west and Pest to the east.

I got off at Fisherman’s Bastion. Fisherman’s Bastion is an observation terrace designed by architect Friges Schreck and completed in the early 1900s. Located within the historic castle district, this area is home to cobblestone streets, several museums, and the impressive Matthias Church, known for its detailed and colorful interior.

A short walk from the church is the Royal Palace, or Buda Castle. Originally built as a fortress in the mid-1200s, it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. After suffering severe damage during World War II, the complex was extensively rebuilt in the mid-to-late 20th century. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, the surrounding promenade offers panoramic views of Gellert Hill and across the river to Pest.

The palace houses the Hungarian National Gallery and the Castle Museum, from which we took a series of elevators, escalators, and walkways to the beautiful Castle Garden Bazaar on the river.

In the evening, I headed to the Múzsa bar at the Art Nouveau-style Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace. This is where international movie stars often stay when filming in the city.

One staff member said she recently offered her services to British actor Eddie Redmayne, who was reportedly in the city filming Season 2 of The Day of the Jackal. The bar’s signature drinks were all about love, with the “Second Kiss” mocktail featuring Morello cherry and Japanese citrus being a standout choice.

At the end of the tree-lined street, Heroes’ Square and the adjacent City Park are a must-see when visiting Budapest. Statues of Hungarian leaders are displayed around two colonnades on one side of the square. The portico was built in 1896 to commemorate the anniversary of the conquest of Hungary 1,000 years ago. Statues, or heroes, include St. Stephen, or King Stephen, who lived from about 975 to 1038, and Lajos Kossuth, who ruled the Hungarian state during the War of Independence from 1848 to 1849.

A short walk from the square is the City Park, where you can explore the zoo and botanical gardens, enjoy aerial views of Budapest from BalloonFly, or simply stroll through the park. The fairy-tale Vajdahunyad Castle, perched above the lake, is home to the Hungarian Agricultural Museum. Around the corner is a statue of Anonymous, an anonymous writer who wrote Gesta Hungarorum, or Acts of the Hungarians, around 1200.

Although Hungary is a landlocked country, its inhabitants, known as Magyars, love water, especially spas. Abundant with natural hot springs, Széchenyi Baths, a vast neo-baroque complex built in 1913 in the middle of the city park, has two wells offering multiple indoor and outdoor pools.

In addition to several saunas, steam rooms, and treatment areas, there is also a medical spa, a beer spa (fill up a glass of water and sip while relaxing in the wooden tub), and a “Dayspalm” relaxation area on the second floor for an additional fee.

They say it’s quiet in the morning, but when I went there around 10am on a Friday in August, the baths were crowded.

We enjoyed the steam room to inhale the salt and the outdoor leisure pool with jacuzzi. On the other hand, the mineral-rich hot spring pool (water heated to about 38 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit) felt great floating around. If you’re looking for a night out, the outdoor pool hosts DJ-led “sparties” on Saturday nights until 2am, all year round except January.

It’s a 15-minute taxi ride from the baths to Budapest’s Jewish Quarter, a charming and inspiring area filled with cafes, vintage shops, quirky bars, and several synagogues. In the fashionable Mazer Tov restaurant, a poem by wartime Jewish hero Hanna Senes marks a fragment of a wall that was part of the ghetto where 70,000 Jews lived for several weeks from December 1944 to January 1945.

Not far from the restaurant, on Dohany Street, is the Budapest Ghetto Memorial Wall, which commemorates the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust.

The Jewish Quarter is part of Erzsébetváros, or Budapest’s 7th district. The neighboring District 6 is home to the neo-Renaissance Hungarian National Opera House on Andrássy Street, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Opera House is worth a visit just for the frescoed ceilings and murals in the lobby area. The 2026/27 season will focus on Oriental themes such as Richard Strauss’ Salome, which is based on a Biblical story. Another great building, Drexler Palace, built in 1886, stands across the street. Formerly home to the Hungarian National Ballet School, it opened as W Hotel in 2023.

Back in District 7, the so-called “ruin bars” in old residential buildings provided a pleasant end to a busy day. After an early evening drink at Szimpla Celt, a place filled with neon lights, fairy lights and mirror balls, I was itching to try some traditional Hungarian cuisine. At one end of the pedestrian-only Liszt Ferenc Square, Koheli is a good-value restaurant whose beef stew with dumplings is delicious and filling.

As I spent more time in Budapest, I went to concerts at the Liszt Academy across the street from Kohely and visited its galleries and museums, including the Hospital in the Rock, located in a former nuclear shelter in the Castle District, and the Museum next to Heroes’ Square. We are already looking forward to our next visit.