Money
Hungary uses the forint, not the euro. Card payment is accepted almost everywhere, including on transport through the app. Withdraw from a bank ATM rather than a standalone machine in a tourist street, and always decline when a machine or card terminal offers to charge you in your own currency — that is dynamic currency conversion and it costs several per cent.
Avoid the exchange booths on the main tourist streets, some of which advertise one rate and apply another after commission.
Tipping
Around ten per cent in restaurants. Check the bill first — many central restaurants now add a service charge of ten to twelve and a half per cent, and you should not pay twice. It should be stated on the menu. Tips are usually given by telling the server the total you want to pay rather than leaving coins.
Safety
Budapest is a safe city by European standards. Violent crime against visitors is rare. Pickpocketing happens on the busiest trams — 4 and 6 especially — and in crowds around the main sights.
The one thing to know about is the bar scam: an approach in the street, often by a friendly local or a woman near a nightlife area, an invitation to a specific bar, and then an enormous bill enforced by door staff. It has been running for two decades and is regularly reported. Do not go to a bar you have been led to by a stranger.
Related: use licensed taxis or Bolt rather than unmarked cars, particularly late at night.
Drinking and driving
Hungary has zero tolerance. Not a low limit — zero. Do not have one drink and drive. This applies to cycling as well, with a lower penalty.
Smoking
Smoking is banned in all enclosed public spaces including bars and restaurants, and also at public transport stops, including open-air tram stops. Terraces are generally fine.
Water and health
Tap water is safe and good throughout the city; there is no need to buy bottled. Public drinking fountains run in the parks in summer.
EU citizens should carry an EHIC or GHIC card. Everyone else should have travel insurance. Pharmacies are marked gyógyszertár or with a green cross, and several in the centre are open around the clock.
Emergency numbers
112 for everything, from anywhere in the EU. Operators speak English.
Practical odds and ends
Museums mostly close on Mondays. The Great Market Hall closes on Sundays and shuts early on Saturdays.
Toilets in cafés and restaurants are for customers, and public ones often charge a small fee — keep a few coins.
Addresses carry the district as a Roman numeral or in the postcode, and the floor is given European-style, with the ground floor as földszint and the first floor above it.
Sunday trading is normal now, but smaller shops in residential districts keep short hours.