On my first trip to Budapest last June, I paid around £20 for a sightseeing bus tour. I only had one full day in the city, so I thought that this would be the best way to see as much of it as possible. However, when I was planning for our three day trip in May, I thought it would be a great idea to join one of the walking tours in Budapest. I honestly think that there is no better way to see a city than by foot! It’s also a great way to get some exercise and work up an appetite for all of that delicious Hungarian food!

Walking tours in Budapest 

A quick google search will come up with a lot of options for walking tours, from several different companies at varying different price points. It can be quite hard to choose between them, especially if you don’t know what you want to see. So, as I was trying to save as much money as possible, I decided to go with a company that offered free walking tours in Budapest which allows you to see most of the main sights.

Although you don’t have to pay to take part on these free walking tours, the general idea is that you leave a tip at the end. There’s no set amount for the tip, you just leave whatever you feel like the tour was worth. This is how the tour guides make their living. You usually find with free tours that the tour guides are the most interesting and helpful.

Trip To Budapest tours 

The company that I chose to use after reading several Trip Advisor reviews was Trip To Budapest. They offer the original free walking tour twice a day, 361 days a year which is the one we chose to do. If you are looking for a more specialised walking tour, then you can choose from the following:

• Communism walk
• Jewish district walk
• Street and urban art tour
• Avenue and Heroes’ Square walk 

If I’d had more time, I would have loved to have done a couple more of these.

The Free Walking Tour 

We decided to do the tour on our first day in Budapest, which was a Sunday. The morning was all about getting our bearings and finding somewhere cute for breakfast, so we chose the 2:30pm tour. You don’t need to sign up or reserve a spot beforehand on these tours, you just need to arrive at the meeting place ten minutes before the start. This particular tour starts in Erzsébet tér (Elizabeth Square) by the Budapest Eye. The tour lasts for approximately 2.5 hours and covers 3.5km. On this particular day, it was 28 degrees so we made sure we had hats and covered ourselves in SPF 50.

A lot of people turned up for the tour, so we were split into three groups. Our particular group had 45 people in it when it began! Our tour guide was called Zoltán and he is a Hungarian who has grown up and lives in Budapest. It’s great to have a tour of the city from someone who obviously knows it so well. Zoltán started off by telling us a brief history of Hungary and Budapest itself, I was shocked to find out that Hungary remained under Soviet rule until June 1991. 

Seeing the sights 

From Erzsébet tér we went on to St Stephen’s Basilica, which was somewhere we had stumbled upon already that morning. This is one of the places that I hadn’t seen on my expensive bus tour. We then walked past the Fat Policeman Statue and continued along the Danube Promenade towards the Academy of Hungarian Sciences. Zoltán asked us if we could name any famous Hungarians and I’m ashamed to admit that I couldn’t. I didn’t realise that the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, Ernő Rubik is Hungarian. 

It was then time to leave the Pest side of the city and walk over the Chain Bridge towards Buda. Buda is the more expensive part of the city. Here, we stopped for a ten minute toilet/refreshment break before continuing up to Castle Hill. Although we could have taken the funicular up to the top of the hill, Zoltán told us that it’s not worth paying for a 30 second ride. The walk up the hill is the hardest part of the whole walk, but it only takes ten minutes. Plus, the views on the way up are stunning! I always love seeing a new city from above.

Once we got to the top, we were shown the view over to the Pest side of the city. Zoltán told us that this was the best panoramic view of Pest and there’s no need to pay for the Budapest Eye when you can walk up the Castle Hill for free. He then showed us around the Castle District including the Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion which is where the tour concluded. 

The end of the tour

At the end of the tour, Zoltán sat us down in a quiet area near Fisherman’s Bastion. He explained a bit more about the Pest area and what was around if we wanted to go and explore. He said that if we had any questions for him about places to go then we could ask but he had also prepared a map for us.

On the map, he’s pointed out the best ruin bars, restaurants and other places to drink and eat. I took a photo of this before we left and we used it as a reference for the rest of the trip. This was also the part where we left our tips. He placed a blue bag on the table, so we could give whatever we felt was necessary. I can’t remember how much we left as I was still getting to grips with Forints at that point!

The verdict

I am so glad that we chose to do one of the free walking tours in Budapest. Especially as it was given by a local who was very familiar with the area. I feel like we learnt a lot more than I did when I was on the bus tour. Plus, we got some exercise in while we were at it too.