Budapest remains noticeably cheaper than Vienna, two and a half hours up the road, and cheaper than Prague has become. It is no longer the bargain it was a decade ago, and the gap has narrowed fastest on restaurant and hotel prices in the central districts.
The currency
Hungary uses the forint (HUF), not the euro, despite being in the EU. This surprises people every year.
The forint floats and has moved a great deal against the euro and the dollar over the past few years, which is why you should treat any figure in an old guidebook — including specific numbers here — as indicative rather than exact. Check the rate before you travel.
Notes come in large denominations and it takes a day to stop mentally adding a zero.
Daily budgets
Rough, per person per day, excluding flights and excluding a big-ticket splurge:
- Frugal: hostel or shared flat, transport travelcard, self-catering plus one canteen lunch, free walking and viewpoints, one museum. This is genuinely achievable in Budapest.
- Comfortable: mid-range hotel or apartment, eating out twice a day at ordinary restaurants, a bath, two or three paid attractions, taxis occasionally.
- Generous: central hotel, a tasting menu or two, private guides, spa treatments.
The gap between frugal and comfortable is narrower here than in most Western European capitals, which is the practical argument for the city.
Where the money actually goes
Accommodation is the biggest line and varies enormously by district and season. District V is the most expensive; VI and VII are cheaper and better placed for eating; XIII is quieter and better value again.
Baths are a real cost — entry to Széchenyi or Gellért is not trivial — but they buy several hours and are among the things worth paying for.
Museums are inexpensive by European standards. The Parliament tour is the notable exception, and EU citizens pay a fraction of what everyone else does, so bring the passport that proves it.
Transport is cheap and a 72-hour travelcard is close to a rounding error against everything else.
Where you get caught
A handful of specific traps, all avoidable:
Ruin-bar district touts and “gentlemen’s clubs”. There is a long-running scam in which visitors are invited to a bar by a friendly local and presented with an enormous bill enforced by security. It is well documented and it still happens. Do not follow strangers to a venue.
Unlicensed taxis, particularly at the airport and outside nightlife areas. Licensed cabs are yellow with a door number, and fares are regulated and identical across companies. Use Bolt or Főtaxi.
Currency exchange booths in the tourist streets, some of which advertise a rate and apply another after a commission. Use a bank ATM, and always decline when a machine offers to bill you in your home currency — that is dynamic currency conversion and it costs several per cent.
The first stalls at the Great Market Hall. The same paprika is a third cheaper thirty metres deeper into the building.
Restaurants with a menu in six languages on the main tourist axis. Also, check whether service is already added: many central restaurants add ten to twelve and a half per cent, and you should not tip twice.
Where the savings are
The napi menü — the weekday set lunch — is the single best value in Hungarian eating, often a soup and a main for less than a coffee and cake in a grand café. Look for an étkezde or kifőzde.
Standing at the counter in a bakery or a lángos stand costs a fraction of sitting down.
Free things are not thin here: the Fisherman’s Bastion outside ticketed hours, walking the Chain Bridge, Margaret Island, the whole of the Castle District’s streets, the Danube embankments, the ghetto-wall courtyards, and the M1 metro as a ride in itself for the price of a ticket.
Cards and cash
Card payment is accepted almost everywhere, including for transport tickets through the app and in most markets. Carry a modest amount of cash for the flea market, small bakeries and tips. Contactless is standard.
There is no need to arrive with forints; withdraw from a bank ATM once you are there.
Seasons and price
Budapest has real high and low seasons and the difference in accommodation is substantial. Late spring and September are the sweet spot — good weather, full programme, prices below the summer peak. July and August are hot, busy and dearer. November through February is cheapest by a wide margin, and if you are coming for the baths and the museums rather than the terraces, it is arguably the better trip.
The Christmas markets push December prices back up for three or four weeks.
Tourist tax and the extras
Accommodation carries a per-person, per-night tourist tax on top of the quoted room rate, usually collected at the property and often in cash. Budget for it: over several nights and several people it is not trivial, and it is a common source of surprise at check-out.
What is genuinely worth paying for
If you are economising, economise on restaurants and souvenirs rather than on these: the Parliament tour, one good bath with a cabin rather than a locker, and the Dohány Street Synagogue ticket with its guided tour. Each of those is the sort of thing you will remember, and each is poorer done cheaply or not at all.