Where to stay
Budapest by district: where to sleep, and what it means for your nights
Budapest is organised into numbered districts, and the difference between them is not only price — it is how loud it will be under your window at two in the morning.
The seventh district, and the decision it forces
The seventh district (Erzsébetváros) is the ruin-bar quarter, and it is also the restaurant quarter. At night it is very much alive; by day it is quiet. That is not a contradiction — it is the same street at two different hours.
The consequence is simple. If you came to Budapest for the nights, sleeping here is the best thing you can buy. If you are travelling with children or you sleep lightly, this is exactly the district to give up — and to sleep one district over.
Three tiers, and what is in each
Budget: Józsefváros (VIII), Ferencváros (IX) and Zugló (XIV). Mid: Belváros (V), Erzsébetváros (VII) and Terézváros (VI). Premium: Várhegy (the castle district), Andrássy út and Óbuda.
Note that the seventh sits in the MIDDLE tier, not the premium one. This is one of the few European cities where the most central address is not automatically the most expensive — and that, more than anything else, is what makes Budapest good value.
The flight: Wizz Air at home
Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet all serve Budapest, and Wizz Air is a home carrier there. The booking window we aim at is comparatively short — four to eight weeks ahead — and the cheaper days tend to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
Peak season is June to August. The recommended window is December, for the Christmas market, or March–May when the city is green and clean.
Money, arrival, and two notes
The currency is the forint, roughly 395 to the euro, and cards are accepted almost everywhere. From the airport: a shuttle at €7, or metro M3 to the end plus bus 200E; a taxi is about €20. A 72-hour transit ticket is €6, and night buses run around the clock.
Two notes that save time: the thermal baths split between the large, touristy Széchenyi and the local, atmospheric Rudas, which is a choice of character rather than quality. And in the seventh, Szimpla Kert is the original — there is no point arriving before nine at night.
In Budapest the seventh district is both the centre and the noise. If you came for the nights, sleep in it. If not, one district over buys quiet at almost no cost in location, and the forint does the rest of the work.
Where to go from here
The facts in this article come from our own destination knowledge. They are not a measured price: prices on this site always carry the date they were measured.
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