Indulge / Hungary
Budapest, Thermal Baths and Slow Luxury
Budapest · 7 min read
Budapest is one of the last European capitals where genuine grandeur is still affordable. Belle epoque hotels, thermal baths built like palaces, coffee houses with chandeliers, and a river running between two cities that used to be separate.
It is a very good place to spend money slowly.
The baths
Szechenyi is the vast neo baroque one in the park, with outdoor pools that steam in winter and chess players in the water. Gellert is art nouveau, tiled and calmer. Rudas is Ottoman, sixteenth century and has a rooftop pool over the Danube.
Go early, take flip flops, and treat it as three hours rather than a quick stop.
Pest and Buda
Pest is flat, grand and where the life is: the Parliament, the boulevards, the ruin bars in the old Jewish quarter, the market hall. Buda is hilly, older and quieter, with the castle district and long views back over the river.
Walk the Chain Bridge at night. The whole point of the city is visible from the middle of it.
Eating and drinking well
Hungarian cooking has moved a long way past goulash, though a good one is still worth having. The city has serious tasting menu restaurants at prices that would be a bargain in Vienna.
The historic coffee houses are theatrical and worth one afternoon. For wine, Hungarian whites, particularly from Somlo and Tokaj, are dramatically underrated.
Why it feels like a gift
Few cities let you live this well for this little, and the baths turn a city break into something genuinely restorative.
Book a grand hotel here rather than a modest one somewhere pricier.
