Where is Budapest Hungary

 
Where is Budapest Hungary

Where is Budapest Hungary ? See about the main attractions, highlights of Budapest, the Castle, spas, islands, hills, restaurants, history, wildlife below this page.

Despite the funny title, Budapest is the 25th most popular city in the WHOLE WORLD with more than 4 million tourists every year from almost everywhere in our planet.

where is budapest hungary

The Chain bridge – perhaps the most obvious symbol of Budapest, designed by William Thierney Clark, execution manager Adam Clark, they are not brothers, the designer was an English the execution manager is a Scottish gentleman. The distance between the two main pillars is 202m.

This bridge was the first bridge on the Danube in the whole Hungarian area. It is interesting the Danube has 417 km section in Hungary. Clark designed three bridges for Istvan Szechenyi and Gyorgy Sina, but only one was built. The price of the bridge was 13 times of the National Museum which was built at the same time. The location of the bridge was chosed by William Thierney Clark as well. Behind the columns of the bridge you can see the National gallery in the Buda Castle.

The bridge on the picture is not the original Chain bridge, the original bridge was blowed up in the II World War by the escaping German Army. The new bridge was opened at the 100th anniverary of the old bridge (1949).

Where is Budapest Hungary

Where is Budapest Hungary

Budapest is located in the Northern hemisphere, in Middle Eastern Europe in the middle of Austria, Croatia, Romaine, Serbie, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, not very far from Italy or Germany. See the map below. Budapest is located 217km (134 miles) from Vienna, 689km(428 Miles) from Berlin, 1247km (775 Miles) from Paris, 1450 km (901 miles) from London, 1565km (972 miles) from Moscow, 2200km (1367 miles) from Cairo, 5354km (3327 miles) from Delhi, 7005km (4352 miles) from New York, 9046km(4841 miles) from Beijing, 9040km (5617 Miles) from Tokio, 9046km (5621 miles) from Cape town, 9986km (6205 miles) from Rio de Janeiro, 9992km(6208 miles) from Los Angeles, 15770km (9800 miles) from Sydney. All distance is as the crow flies, the distance on the road is longer.

Budapest bridges

As the Danube crosses the city bridges are essential in Budapest. The width of the Danube around 300m (328 yards) in Budapest, somewhere more. The first bridge The Chain bridge was built in 1849. Below the Margaret bridge at night which connects Buda and Pest and here possible to go on Margaret island as well.
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Distance from European cities nearby

The Distance between Budapest and Vienna is 243km, the distance between Prague and Budapest is 525km. The distance between Budapest and Bratislava is 200km, Ljubljana Budapest distance is 462 km, Zagreb Budapest distance is 345 km, mostly on motorways. So Bratislava, Vienna, Zagreb, Ljubljana are the closest capital cities nearby.

Where is Budapest inside Hungary

Budapest is located in the Middle North part of Hungary, near to Slovakian border, little bit West from the center of Hungary. This part of Hungary is part of the Wonderful 60km long Danube bend area.

Budapest view from Gellert hill

Budapest view from the Gellert hill, the Danube is in the middle, at the left side of the Danube is the Castle district with the National Gallery and Mathias church, Buda hills in the background. Budapest the capital of Hungary is one of the most popular tourist targets in Europe. Approximately Four million tourists visit Budapest every year. Budapest is the 25th most popular tourist destination in the whole World. The city is very romantic with lots of picturesque places all around. The Danube crosses the city and beautiful forested mountains and islands can be found here. Up in Buda side the World heritage Castle district can be found, which was a place for Weddings of the Kings.
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The Gellert hill which is located next to the Danube is a very popular place for picnic, and there is a playground also can be found there. At the top of the hill, the Citadel and the Sculpture can be checked together with several canons, restaurant, and beautiful view on the city.

The Heroes square is located in front of the Varosliget City park, but there are many other attractions can be found there: the Vajdahunyad romantic Castle which is mixture of different buildings, the Zoo, the Circus, the Ice skating ring, the beautiful green park with the Lake.

Budapest festivals


Budapest has many festivals during the whole year. The most popular is the Sziget music festival held in the Obuda island, in the North part of Budapest. Around 400,000 people attend to the festival every year, which is traditionally held in August. Other popular festivals are the Spring classical music festival, Buda Castle wine festival, Czech beer festival, Red bull air race, Hungaroring Formula 1 race, National gallop, 20th of August Fireworks, Christmas fair. You can check the current festivals and events in Budapest here

Budapest has a long history

brief history of budapest
Few places has such a long and interesting history as Budapest has. People lived here even before the Roman empire. From the Roman era through Hungarian invasion (896) to the Carpathian basin, Tatarian invasion in 13th century (1240-42) after the and Turkish invasion in the 16th century (1540-1686) through the first and second world war, nazis, communism to capitalism. There are ruins of the Roman era called Aquincum, which was the name of the city at that time.

The ruins can be seen scattered relatively in huge area of the city. This part of the city called Obuda. (Ancient Buda). In the famous Obuda island, which is a scene of the popular summer music festival, they found the traces of the Palace of the Roman emperor Hadrianus, when they construct the boat factory at the North part of the island in the 50’s.

brief history of Budapest

Aquincum was founded around 89 AD. Seems it was much smaller than the recent area of the city. It was a military camp according to historians.

Budapest is packed with older buildings. Some of the bigger residential building’s basements surves as a refuge in the World War. Some of this basements has an area of the soccer field (60*120m). In the Castle district there is a unique Hospital in the Rock, which was a Hospital during the War.

There are some buildings from the era of the Turkish invasion as well (1540-1686). There are three Turkish baths in Budapest, and the Tomb of Gul baba, which is still a pilgrimage place in Budapest.

This city has seen lots of history. Some bullets in the walls of the city can still be seen in several places. Budapest has nearly hundred museums of all kind. See in detail at below link.

There are Roman era ruins several places at the North Buda area, scattered around, there is a bath, several columns, walls in different places but mostly at Obuda area, and in the Obuda island they also found traces in the past. This area was called Aquincum and it was part of the Pannonia province.

Budapest Hungary’s capital is the city of social life

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Budapest famous for their social life. Lots of conferences, company parties held here. The restaurants, cafes, ruin pubs, tee houses, wine bars are usually packed with people, especially in the inner city.

The most tea houses can be found in the Liszt Ferenc square not far from Nyugati railways station. Places next to the Danube, has excellent view and atmosphere, but usually these are the most expensive, premium locations. Hungarians usually very polite and helpful with foreign people. Budapest is also very kid-friendly, see program possibilities below:
Budapest with kids

Budapest the city of Thermal water

Below you can see the Szechenyi spa Budapest, which has 3 external and 18 internal pools, lots of saunas steam and infra cabines.
Széchenyi spa Budapest
Budapest is famous about it’s thermal water. Several spas can be found here, some from the Turkish era in the 16th century. Budapest is incredibly rich in Thermal water, there is a huge quantity of thermal water here. For example the heating of the Zoo and Plant garden is also made by thermal water of the Szechenyi baths. There are many medicinal baths, and bigger open baths available here, some of them with huge pools, for thousands of people.

The biggest thermal bath is the Szechenyi bath in the city park, the most popular open bath is the Palatinus in the Margaret island. The Szechenyi is open in the whole year until 10 o’clock in the evening. The Szechenyi has 18 pools, 15 covered and three external pools, while the Palatinus has 11 pool, included a huge wave pool and slides as well, but it is only open between Spring and Autumn, depending on weather conditions as well.

See detail of Budapest baths, and open beaches in detail at below links.

Budapest is the city of fun

All kinds of fun available here from the beautiful parks, islands, spas, open beaches till all kinds of sports, boat rides, cave visits, Castle visits, mountain hiking, water sports, horse riding and hard to name all the possibilities easily provided here. Budapest has a zoo, romantic castle, beautiful lakes, very nice food and wine. All kinds of fancy staff life shooting with real guns, water slides, Go-kart fields, ruin pubs can be find here.

There are many games available in the city designed especially for tourists, like finding out how to escape from a room, learning the Hungarian language, which is pretty difficult and perhaps funny as well for tourists, team games, and other fun stuffs.

There are many bus rides available, one of them even manage to go in the water, the same bus which goes in the streets of the city, see the picture below. The bus starts at the land after go in the water and after returns to the land as well.

where is budapest hungary

At the border areas of the city there are many beautiful areas, and nature reserves as well, like the one at the picture at South Buda area. The downside of this place for example that there are many mosquitos there, I made this picture and after was defeated badly, so we quickly leave the area. For a one day stay perhaps not so interesting to travel so much.

Budapest caves

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In Budapest there are several caves can be found. The most known and popular are the Palvolgyi and Szemlohegyi caves. Both can be found in North Buda area near Szepvolgyi (Beautiful valley) street, at the bottom of Buda hills. The Palvolgyi is a stalactite cave, which is incredible long. The paved and lit up visitor area is 400m, but goes up and down. Some warm clothes is needed even in summer because the temperature is usually 12 Celsius. A good pair of shoes is also useful, even the visitor area is fully paved with concrete stairs and lighted up as well.

Budapest is the city of music

Budapest is a well known city of music. Lots of people know about the famous Sziget festival which attracts 380,000 visitors every year, or the nowadays state of the art Classical music center the Halls of Art. Budapest has a well known Opera and several other places for musical events. Open air discos are also very popular here. See concerts at below link: Concerts in Budapest

Budapest is a city for shopping.

Budapest has lots of traditional markets, newest shopping malls, smaller and bigger ones, many web stores and lots of other possibilities. There are many stores with different goods, some of them cheaper others are really expensive. The most expensive places are the Vaczi utca pedestrian street in the inner city, the Castle district and the inner districts. Usually Buda is more expensive than Pest. Even if you don’t intend to buy anything the Vaczi utca (street) in the inner city is a good place to stroll around.

There are about a dozen shopping mall here, some of them are really big, around 100,000 m2 of retail area, or even bigger, on several level, with a huge underground parking. There are many cheaper shops as well, and many used clothes for really cheap price and other stuff. Most stores accomodate to the Hungarian market regarding prices and demand, so cannot expect the same level or quality than in London or other similar cities. Which are the most interesting Hungarian products ? The Tokaj Aszu dessert wine, the Paprika from Szeged, porcelain from Herend, Zsolnay porcelain at Pecs or porcelain from Holloko.

Budapest islands

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Perhaps it sound not so common, but there are several islands in Budapest. The two biggest is the Csepel island at South and the Szentendrei island at North. The area of the Csepel island is 257 km2, it is 48km long and 7-8 km wide. It is located between the Danube and the Soroksari Danube branch.

Csepel island

The Csepel island is located in South Budapest between the Danube and the Soroksari Danube branch. It is the biggest island in Budapest in fact the area of the island is not included in Budapest area but goes a lot further. Only the North part of the island belongs to Budapest. Most Budapest area is a residential area but there are some lakes and naturally interesting areas as well, mostly the areas next to the Soroksari Danube branch.

There are some islands in the Soroksari Danube branch as well, the biggest is the Molnar island which is mostly covered by Resorts.

The Szentendre island is located at the North part of Budapest. It is has and area of 56km2 it is a 31 km long island. From Budapest cannot be accessed, because of natural protection reasons, but the island is started at the M0 bridge North Budapest.

The Hajogyari or Obudai or simple the “Sziget (island in Hungarian language)” is the famous place for the summer Music festival. The area of the Hajogyari island is app 1km2. Around 400,000 people attend the Europe’s most popular festival every year.

Budapest wildlife

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Budapest is an interesting city. Even if it is a metropolis with 1.7 million people, the location is unique here with the hills, rivers, islands and parks. Many interesting animal or bird can appear in the city. The usual common residents are the crows, which can spend their lives in several m2 in a park. They manange to get the chips out of the garbage, and check if any left in. Woodpeckers are also quite common, like Green woodpecker, or Great spotted woodpeckers. Sometimes very interesting species can appear like Eagle Owl, Peregrine Falcon, Ruddy shelduck or Waxwings. Animals like Beech marten, Red fox, birds like Common Kestrel, Buzzard, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Golden oriole, Owls, Grey heron, Kingfisher are quite common in certain areas. In Spring or Fall migration very interesting species can occur, such as Nightjar, Crane, many kinds of gulls, water birds or singing birds. In the Budapest parks singing birds like Robin, Nightingale, Great and Blue tits, Warblers, Black birds, Wren are quite common. On the Danube Great Cormorants, Gulls, different types of Ducks in winter can occur.

Places to visit near Budapest

The vicinity of Budapest is packed with very nice locations. The one I recommend the most is the Szentendre, Visegrad, Esztergom line in the famous Danube bend North from Budapest. All three cities can be found in the same direction.

Szentendre

Where is Budapest Hungary Szentendre
Szentendre is a smaller town with picturesque looking narrow streets, Danube bank, lots of museums, and nice restaurants.

Visegrad

Danube view with the Szentendrei island from the Visegrad upper Castle.
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Visegrad is one of the finest place in the Danube bend with several Castles, beautiful nature, and friendly atmosphere. From 1335 it is a traditional place to meet the center European Governors and Politicians. Formerly King Mathias (1443-1490) the most famous Hungarian King ruled here who made beautiful artworks in the Royal Palace with mostly Italian artists. He was famous to disguised himself when visited different parts of the country and gives justice to everyone to the poor and the rich as well, as they deserved it.

Esztergom

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is where the biggest 100m high temple found in all Hungary.

It doesn’t stop there in Godollo the Castle of the former princess Elisabeth or Sissy can be found, in Alcsut a very nice arboretum can be found. Next to the Danube Vac is also a nice place, and all the settlements in the Danube bend as well.

The Pilis hills

where is budapest hungary
are also very popular with crystal clear air, and a ski course. The Ram spring valley canyon is very popular for hiking.

Thanks for reading !