Budapest on foot: down the avenue, over the river, up the hill
Start at the top of the grand avenue, walk its whole length through Pest, cross the Danube on the old chain bridge, and ride a funicular up to the castle for the last of the light.
Budapest is two cities with a river between them: flat Pest, where you walk, and hilly Buda, where you look back at what you walked. Doing Pest first and crossing late means the one climb of the day comes when you are ready to stop, and the view arrives at the right hour.
Where to start: Mid-morning at Heroes' Square. The metro under the avenue drops you at the far end, and from there the whole day runs downhill and then across.
The walk, in order
- 1 Heroes' Square
Begin at the ceremonial square at the head of the avenue, with the colonnade of Hungarian rulers behind it. Half an hour, and the rest of the day is downhill from here.
- 2 Vajdahunyad Castle
Five minutes into the park behind the square: a stone folly copying buildings from all over historic Hungary, built for an exhibition and kept because people liked it.
- 3 Hungarian State Opera House
Now walk the avenue itself, end to end. The opera house is the set piece near the city-centre end, about four-fifths of the way down - gilded, frescoed, and worth the daytime tour if you will not be back for a performance.
- 4 St Stephen's Basilica
The largest church in the city, with a dome you can climb by lift or stairs. The square in front is the best coffee stop of the walk.
- 5 Hungarian Parliament Building
A ten-minute detour north to the river for the neo-Gothic palace on the embankment. Outside is free and the facade is the point; inside is tours only, booked ahead, and they sell out.
- 6 Dohany Street Synagogue
Back east into the seventh district for the largest synagogue in Europe, in striped brick and Moorish Revival. The garden behind it is quieter than the street.
- 7 The Ruin Courtyards of Erzsebetvaros
The same district after dark belongs to the ruin bars - derelict courtyard blocks reopened with salvaged furniture. Worth a look now even if you come back later; by midnight it is a different and louder place.
- 8 Great Market Hall
South to the great iron-and-glass hall: paprika, sausage, produce downstairs, lunch counters upstairs. Closes mid-afternoon on Saturday and all day Sunday - check before you build lunch around it.
- 9 Szechenyi Chain Bridge
Cross here. The first permanent bridge over the Danube in the city, and the crossing everyone photographs from the middle.
- 10 Castle Hill Funicular
At the Buda end, a nineteenth-century funicular climbs the hill in two minutes. The walk up beside it takes fifteen and is not hard; take the stairs if the queue is long.
- 11 Matthias Church
The coronation church on the castle hill, with a diamond-patterned tile roof that looks painted and is not.
- 12 Fisherman's Bastion
Finish on the white terrace of turrets next door, built purely so people would have somewhere to look at Pest from. The lower terraces are free, and sunset is the whole reason this stop is last.
Where to cheat
The one real climb is the castle hill, and the funicular does it for you. The avenue can also be ridden under - the little yellow metro line runs its whole length and stops every few hundred metres, so a tired party can skip straight to the basilica. Buda Castle itself is a half-day of museums; this walk treats the hill as a viewpoint, not a wing-by-wing visit.
Honest expectations
The baths are what half the visitors come for, and they do not fit here: the Art Nouveau complex at the foot of Gellert Hill is its own half-day, and squeezing it between the market and the bridge ruins both. Do the baths on another day, or swap the castle hill for them and come back for the view. Parliament interiors and the opera house both need tickets bought in advance - decide before you set off, because neither will take you at the door.
More of this country is on the Hungary page. Going between towns instead? See the routes. Other cities on foot are on city walks.