Month: March 2020

When I delivered this tour for the first time, I was afraid that technology might trick me or the virtual tour will not be as enjoyable as the real tours. I wasn’t right.

There are so many ways to present my beautiful Budapest to travellers! I have a lot of amazing stories and great pictures and videos to share with you. We usually use Google Street View to take a virtual walk around the city and that helps travellers to have a better understanding of my city.

All the virtual tours are private tours, for you and your family or friends, only. This is a great opportunity to ask all the questions you have, to see all the attractions you’d like to and to enjoy sightseeing from the comfort of your armchair.

It’d be great if I could show you everything live. But, in the meantime, feel free to book this tour, again, you’re not just helping me but you’re also supporting my colleagues in the Budapest tourism industry. I know sometimes self isolation is depressing, try to find some fun and try to find some time to see places you’ve never seen before, like my very beautiful Budapest.

Stay home, stay safe and I hope to see you virtually very soon!!

I’ve started offering virtual tours over a week ago and I’m very grateful for all the support and kind messages I got the last few days. I know this situation with COVID-19 is difficult for most of us but I didn’t expect to see that there are so many fantastic people around the world who would like to help us. I’m grateful and I hope I can give each one of you a real big hug in the very near future.

As far as I can see the most popular virtual tour I’m offering is the cooking class. We’ve made Lángos, Pogácsa, Goulash soup and Chicken paprikás together and I also delivered a general foodie tour. I think it really is a great experience and I hope you all loved the food we made together.

I’m continuously reviewing and editing the list of available dishes, this is the actual list, but feel free to ask for a special dish you always wanted to prepare:

• Cold fruit soups
• Hungarian tomato and pepper ratatouille
• Egg spaetzle
• Layered potatoes
• Potato paprikás with sausage and frankfurter
• Vegetable pottage dish (a very thick vegetable soup eaten as main dish in Hungary, can be made of green peas, beans, potatoes or any other vegetable)
• Potato pancakes
• Pogacsa – potatoe bread snacks
• Pancakes/crepes
• Smarni, Kaiserschmarrn: the Kaiser’s Crumble
• Cottage cheese dumplings
• Goulash soup
• Chicken paprikas and beef stew
• Langos – fried bread

Please book a tour online or contact me for further details, I promise to deliver a very special Budapest Foodie tour for you!

Our industry has so badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, most of my friends, colleagues and partners aren’t just worried about the pandemic, they are also worried for the future of their business.

I created the new Virtual Tours to support all my partners and friends as all the donations will be shared among those who need it the most. Please book a virtual tour with me and maybe if we stand together our businesses will survive, too.

I know this is a very difficult situation for all of us and difficult times call for difficult measures.

Thank you!

I’ve been very hesitant about publishing this post but I’m getting so many worrying messages and cancellations that I think the time has come to publish what I think and what I, as a private Budapest tour guide can do to reassure you. This post is written on the 9th of March so all the information in it is from today, although things are changing very rapidly.

As for now there are 9 cases in Hungary. I’m checking the updates of country specific COVID-19 Information of the US Department of State. According to the updates Hungary is not listed among countries to where travelling is not recommended:

https://hu.usembassy.gov/covid-19/

I’m also monitoring WHO’s dashboard on the COVID-19 situation in Europe:

https://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/ead3c6475654481ca51c248d52ab9c61

These are the facts. I know that personal sentiments and concerns are different from the facts and that many of you are worried. To be honest, I’m worried, too. Not because of the virus, as I’m sure we’ll be over it very soon, now I’m more concerned about my business and the business of my tour guide friends and colleagues in different countries of the world and I’m also worried about my partners, drivers, tour operators and travel agents. We are in trouble and can’t even calculate our losses yet.

What I can do for you taking into consideration saving my business is that from now on all the tour requests have to go through my website and only tours booked on my website are confirmed. As you know the deposit is only EUR 30, which is probably not a big amount of money in your travel budget but it gives me some reassurance about your travel plans. The deposit is non-refundable if you cancel the tour within 30 days of the actual tour date. If you decide to cancel the tour because you’re concerned about COVID-19 and book a tour with me within the next 12 months, I’ll deduct it from the tour price. Please note that future bookings are subject to my availability!

Again, this policy is only valid until the situation changes, I’ll of course re-evaluate it when necessary. I hope this is acceptable for all my dear travellers and that we’ll have amazing tours together the next couple of months and later in 2020!

I’m delighted to see how many people explore my beautiful Budapest as part of their river cruise. I know that while on a cruise travellers have very limited time to discover each place.

That’s the reason why I offer Shore Excursions, fully customisable driving and walking tours, so that each and every visitor can make the most of their time in Budapest. I know what the cruise companies offer on their tours, and I’ll make sure I see you much more when you decide to book a private tour with me. The tours include driving and walking tours in both Budapest and the beautiful Hungarian countryside.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me for further details or to book a tailor-made tour!