Elisabeth Square
Elisabeth Square (Erzsebet ter) is a public square on the Pest side near the Deak Ferenc transport hub, with a park, a Ferris Wheel, and open-air cafes. Free.
Walking tour in Budapest
Budapest General Walk Free Tour
The TriptoBudapest General Walk is a free walking tour covering both sides of the Danube, starting at Elisabeth Square on the Pest side and crossing to the Castle District on the Buda side. The route covers approximately 3.5 kilometers and includes an uphill walk to Castle Hill (public bus option available). Running since 2008, this is one of the most established free walking tours in Central Europe. Budget travelers book the morning slot to combine the tour with a thermal bath visit in the afternoon.
The route
Where it stops
Each stop is free to stand in front of, whatever the tour costs.
St Stephen's Basilica
Budapest's largest church was built to be exactly 96 meters tall, the same height as the Parliament building across the Danube, to encode a symbolic equality of church and state into the city skyline. The Neo-Classical interior holds Hungary's most sacred relic, the Holy Right Hand of St. Stephen, the 11th-century king who Christianized Hungary.
Hungarian Parliament Building
The Hungarian Parliament Building is 268 meters long, has 691 rooms, and stands exactly 96 meters tall: a number chosen deliberately to match the year 896 AD, when the Magyar tribes first settled the Carpathian Basin.
Buda Castle
Buda Castle has been destroyed and rebuilt at least six times, which makes the Baroque (meaning the ornate 17th-18th century style of the Habsburg empire) palace visible today something of an illusion: it was shelled in 1686 when the Habsburgs retook it from the Ottomans, nearly obliterated in the 1944-1945 siege, and then gutted by the Communist government
Dohany Street Synagogue
The Dohany Street Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe, seating nearly 3,000 people, with twin 43-meter onion-domed towers visible from much of the seventh district. Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saens played the original 5,000-pipe organ at the 1859 inauguration.
Everything else Budapest costs.
Budapest