Budapest - The perfect and cosiest Christmas destination

Christmas is always one of the busiest times of the year! You can be the most organized person in this world but you will surely have some Christmas shopping to do during the week before the 25^th. Today, we bring you the perfect solution so you do not end up shopping in a rush and getting the wrong present to the wrong person!

Budapest is one of those cities where you can truly live the Christmas spirit: the snow, the lights on the street, the outdoor rinks for ice skating and… the outdoor Christmas fairs! If you are looking for a cosy and delightful place to do your Christmas shopping, with enough variety for you to choose the perfect present for your family and friends, this is where you should go! Christmas markets are one of the reasons why Budapest is fairly known to be the perfect Christmas destination!

We are bringing you two of the most well-known and busiest Christmas fairs going on in Budapest. One of them is located at Vörösmarty tér. This Christmas fair actually starts near Deak Ferenc and it stretches until the beginning of Vaci utca, curiously, the number one street for ‘shopping’, also known as Fashion Street. This market  has a considerably high number of wood stalls selling everything you can imagine – from handmade items to marzipan sweets! If you want to stop for a meal after shopping, you can also do it. Here you can try some of the most famous traditional Hungarian dishes. You can choose to go for Goulash or try some Hungarian flat bread, also known as Lángos. The best part is that you can do all of this while comfortably enjoying a nice music concert for free! How to get there? Use the Metro! There are currently three lines stopping at Deak Ferenk. These are: M1 (Yellow line), M2 (Blue line) and M3 (Red line). Once you leave the Metro (considering that you have followed the information provided there that would lead you to Deak Ferenc), you will be able to easily recognize the Christmas fair. Not only because it is truly near to this station but also by the amount of people strolling around and the intense smell of Christmas delicacies and season meals!

The second well known Christmas fair happening in Budapest is the one located right in front of Saint Stephen’s Basilica. At walking distance from Deak Ferenc, here you will be able to find as much variety as in Vörösmarty square. The environment here is astonishing! You can choose from a hundred handcraft stalls. And, if you are lucky enough you might be able to see the Basilica’s facade turning into a surprising Christmas show. Everyday there will be Christmas Laser Projections on the Basilica also known as Video Mapping exhibitions.

Still not convinced that this is the right place for you to do your Christmas shopping? You better see it for yourself! We promise you will have a great time.

And, until then, egészségedre!

Ice skating season has begun!

Christmas time is approaching and with the cold that you have been feeling outside, you are probably thinking that there is nothing better than just stay at home next to the fireplace, with a warm drink and Netflix by your side. Wrong! Budapest offers you an infinite number of ways to enjoy the cold weather.

Ice skating season has begun with the official opening of Varosligeti Mujegpalya, Budapest’s Outdoor Ice Rink in the City Park. Located right next to the famous Heroes’ Square, Varosligeti Mujegpalya is the oldest and still functioning ice rink in Europe. It is open since 25^th of November until mid-February (Winter Season). On weekdays you can skate from 9am until 1pm and from 5pm until 9pm. On Saturdays, from 10am to 2pm and from 4pm until 9pm. Sunday opening hours are exactly the same ones as Saturdays. However, the rink closes one hour earlier in the afternoon, at 8pm.

You do not need to be an expert to go ice skating at Varosligeti Mujegpalya! You just need a little bit of courage. If medical assistance is needed the required services are provided by the organization itself. A specialized team provides non-stop medical services within the facilities during the opening hours. Nevertheless, skating at Varosligeti Mujegpalya is safer than you can imagine and it is also easy to get a grip on as long as you are eager to learn!

Visitors are allowed to bring their own skates. However, if you are a beginner at this practice, you can choose to rent skates at the entrance. In order to rent them, you need to provide the organization with a personal identity document with a photo, which will work as a deposit. Cash deposits are also accepted. There are four different rental rates that might be paid in advance - visitors can rent skates for one to four hours! If you wish to rent skates for one hour an amount of HUF 800 is required. For two hours you will need to pay in advance HUF 1 500. If you want to skate for longer prices will reach and go above HUF 2000. For instance, a three hour rental will cost you HUF 2000 while a four hour rental will require you to pay only HUF 400 more (HUF 2 400). If you exceed the prepaid hours, an amount of HUF 400 will be charged for each additional half-hour period. Rental hours start to count at the moment you receive the first pair of skates. Nevertheless, visitors might be given 10 minutes in addition to the original rental time in order to change skates and clothes. More important than this is that you bear in mind the opening hours of the ice rink when selecting rental hours. You should also check beforehand the most frequented sessions otherwise you may have to wait in line!

Rental rates are not included in the price of admission to the rink. Under the age of 6 entrance is free of charge. Students can benefit from lower prices. On Mondays and Tuesdays, during the whole day, adults can get into the rink for HUF 1000. On the other hand, students (when providing eligible proof) may only pay HUF 800. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, all day, and on Friday mornings, adults pay an entrance fee of HUF 1 500 while students may only pay HUF 1000. On Saturdays and Sundays, all day, and on Friday afternoons, students can also get into the rink for HUF 500 less than adults. Adults will be required to pay HUF 2000 while students HUF 1 500. You can also save money by purchasing entrance passes! There are two different arrangements for students. For groups of more than ten students, based on prior arrangement, on school days and only in the mornings, there are group tickets for HUF 300. Students can also purchase a pass for 12 sessions for the price of HUF 11 500. Adults might purchase the same pass for HUF 6 000 more, for HUF 17 500.

Another important information that you need is how to get there! Varosligeti Mujegpalya is located at Olof Palme sétány 5, close to Heroes Square’ and right next to Vajdahunyad castle. To get there you can take the M1 underground to the Hősök tere (Heroes’ Square) stop and walk around 2 minutes along Műcsarnok (Art Gallery). There are also two different buses stopping right in front of the main entrance (No 75 and 79).

We hope you are planning on visiting this amazing place! Do not forget to bring your friends with you so you can all enjoy properly the winter in amazing Budapest. Do not forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

Until then,

Egészségedre!

Instant

Hello! Today we are going to present you a different alternative of a night club Instant. If you want to spend less money in comparison with all of the other clubs we already showed you, you should try Instant. This is a very cool club/bar in Budapest. It might not be as good as the other clubs we told you about previously, but the good thing about Instant is that it is very cheap.

Instant is in a ruin building, so that makes the atmosphere incredible. It has 7 bars, 2 gardens and 7 different stages depending on the type of music that you want to dance to.

The most important thing in Instant is that the entrance is free, so you can spend your money only in the drinks that you might want to buy. Or you can even go there only to dance without buying anything!

 Type of music: R&B, Eletro, Latin, Hip-Hop

Prices: 500ft for one 50cl beer (Around 1.5 Euro).

Another special thing about Instant is that every day of the week it is crowded. No matter which day of the week it is, Instant will always have people. So if there is a day that you are bored and you feel like there is not that much to do in the city, when you go to instant everything changes. Another cool thing is that Instant is very close to the city center and to the most popular bars in Budapest.

We recommend you this club, specially if you are traveling cheap (because your student budget does not allow you to do more) and you do not want to spend a lot of money but you still want to have a great party!

See you in the next post, and don't forget to always say:

Peaches and Cream

If you are looking for partying in a fancy place, we recommend you to go to "Peaches and Cream". This club is one of the fanciest clubs in Budapest. All of the staff is very professional and caring. Most of the time it is crowded, but especially around 1am. There is no dress code needed, but of course you cannot get in in jeans, for example.

The prices are a little bit expensive. The cheapest beer is around 650 ft (which is more or less around 2 euros). But there is a special promotion: you can buy 4 different cocktails of whatever you want for just 2.600 ft (around 9 euros).

Type of music: R&B.

Cover: 2.000 ft (6euro)

Hours: We recommend to go from 12 to 5am

Peaches and cream also has VIP section. You can get in there buying a bottle (of, for instance, more or less 20.000 HUF, like Bacardí). Here you and your friends can have a special table with couches and specially assigned waitress.

Another tip is that the bar works really slow because there are just 5 or 6 persons making the drinks to every guest. So, you better arrange a pre-party!

We promise you, you are going to have a great time in this club,  and:

Thermal Baths!

Hey Guys!

Budapest is a great city! This wonderful city is known by a lot of things! But the name “City of the Baths” reallty has a meaning!

Today, I’m going to share with you my experience of baths visiting!

Generally speaking, Budapest has around 27 thermal water springs and 13 of them are health-giving. The most popular baths are: Széchenyi Baths, Gellért Baths, Rudas Baths, Lukács Baths. But there are also some others less popular, like Király Baths, Császár Baths - Veli Bej or DANDÁR. Mostly these baths are recommended to cure degenerative illnesses of joints, chronic and semi-acute arthritis, spinal problems and post-injury healing. Well, I haven’t visited all of them (yet). But I’ve collected some opinions of our exchange students.

These are the most popular:

Széchenyi Baths- most part of us has already been there. It’s one of the largest public baths in Europe. The medicinal baths were built in 1913, and latter on in 1927 was built the northern part with beautiful Neo-Baroque interior. Széchenyi Baths has 18 pools, of which 15 are spring fed, it also has sauna and steam pool.

Usually there are a lot of tourists there; locals prefer some other less popular and smaller baths. There you can always find some people that are playing chess.  In my opinion the best time to visit this place is when it is a bit cold outside +5-+10, then in outside pool you can see a kind of steam around the bath and it is really refreshing to seat in warm water and breath the fresh air. Opening Hours: 6 am – 7 pm daily. Prices (lockers): full day weekdays – 4500 HUF, weekends – 4700 HUF (no student discounts) 

Gellért Baths – also one of the most popular destination, and it is one of my favorite bathes (I’m a big fan of Art Nouveau). This baths was built in 1912-1918, and it is a part of Hotel Complex. There are 10 pools of various sizes and temperatures, also two saunas and two Turkish steam rooms(one of them is herb steam room). 

It is very beautiful and a bit romantic bath, the best time to visit – before lunch, after lunch a lot of people come. Opening Hours: 6 am to 8 pm, daily. Prices(lockers): with locker for adults week days – 4900 HUF, weekends/Holidays – 5100 HUF. 

Rudas Baths – This bath was built in 16^th century. It has several floors with different areas: one is a big and fancy swimming pool that was built in 19^th centaury; the other is a thermal bath area, that includes 6 different thermal pools, also in Rudas you can find steam bath and sauna, plus panoramic view Jacuzzi. The bath has a special very late night opening hours every Friday and Saturday (the batgs re-open from 10pm to 4am, both days).

For steam bath, it has only Saturdats and Sundays for group visiting. All other days are for men, except Thursdays - women's day. Opening hours: swimming pool is open from 6am until 10pm, daily. Prices (lockers): combined tickets (swimming pool and thermal bath) on weekdays costs 3800 HUF, while on weekends/holidays it costs 4100 HUF.

Lukács Baths: This bath has a great reputation among locals. It was open in 1894 and rapidly became one of the most famous baths in Budapest. It was also a favorite meeting place among famous Hungarian writers and artists, and it still remains popular in literary circles. 

There you can find eight pools and five of them are thermal, also sauna and Turkish steam room. Opening hours: 6 am-10 pm. Prices (locker): daily ticket on weekdays -2800 HUF, daily ticket on weekends – 2900 HUF.

In this post I decided to give you some general information about the most popular baths, but I definitely recommend you to check the less poplar ones as well. Sometimes they might not be renovated, but as I have heard from locals, usually less popular baths have better quality of water.

We hope you liked this post! See you soon! And, until then, Egészségedre!

     

Locked

If you are a fan of puzzles and wicked riddles, you like mystery and you are into adventure games, you came to the right place! We might just have the perfect solution for you if you are looking for a different night out, rather than going to the nicest club in town. Today, we bring you some nice tips on where to go if you have been in the mood to try an Escape Game!

Escape Games have been around for a while now. Participants are locked in a room where they have to look for clues, while using elements of this room, to solve different puzzles and understand which step they should take next in order to move forward in the game. A given time limit is set for participants to solve as most riddles as possible and to finish the game. In order to escape, participants need to be persistent and carefully explore their surroundings. These games may sometimes integrate a certain local concept or a specific theme related with the city where it is being held on.

The Escape Game we tried here in Budapest was in a place called Locked, and we totally recommend it! They are really well located, close to the city centre. Their store in Pest is in Kiraly street, but you can actually enter the store from Székely Mihály street. The tram stop (Kiraly utca) is not that far away from the place and you can easily walk there. Nevertheless, there is also another store in Buda, in the Széll Kálmán Square.

Participants are advised not to form groups with more than 6 members. The missions can be play either in English or Hungarian. We also had the possibility to choose between two different missions. The first one was called Bank Rob and, as the name suggests, participants were required to follow all the necessary riddles in order to be able to break into a bank. In the second game, participants had the mission to protect a victim of a serial killer.

In order to win the game, participants are not requested to complete ever single “task” ahead of them. This means that you might be able to finish the game without paying attention to every single clue that comes up during the game. The main goal of the escape game is that you are able to use all the important information that is given to you throughout the game and that you are able to think fast so that you can finish the game on time. The duration of the games might range from 45 minutes to around 90 minutes, depending on the mission. At the beginning of the game, participants are provided with a specific plot/story line.

Escape games are excellent when it comes to promote team building. In order for you to ensure the success of your team you must be a good team player. Big groups might be advantageous considering that the more ideas are taken into consideration the easier it will be for the team to solve the game riddles.

As you can imagine I am not entirely allowed to go into that much detail on the Locked game itself. Otherwise, I could be giving you away some solutions and I truly believe that you should try it on your own!

We hope you liked this post! Feel free to post on our comment section. Do not forget to follow us on Instagram and to like our page on Facebook. Stay tuned for more posts and, until then, egészségedre!

Hello Baby!

Hi everyone! Today we are going to tell you about a new club, named Hello Baby.

This club is near the Oktogon Tram station (4/6 Tram) and we have to say that it is a pretty cool club. First of all it is one of the fanciest clubs in Budapest. The entrance price is around 2.000 HUF (which means, more or less, 6.5 euros).

The greatest thing about this club is the atmosphere. It is kind of a very large inner yard inside a big mansion. The artworks projected on the wall are also very cool!

It also has a VIP section where you can be in just for buying a bottle of anything (as long as it is within the price range of 25.000 HUF to 50.000 HUF).

Type of music: R&B, Electro, Latino.

We highly recommend you to visit this club. You will have lots of fun! And, remember always to say: