Blog

This is the end of the month of April, this time of the year I’m usually very busy with tours as Budapest is magnificent in the spring months. This year is different, I can only deliver virtual tours, I can only show you my beautiful Budapest on the screen of your laptop or tablet. 

As of today the situation in Hungary is still much better than in other European countries. There are 2583 registered cases (probably more but testing here is not as good as in other countries) and 280 people died. We’re in self isolation and can only go out to work, to do grocery shopping or to help relatives. This is the 7th week of self isolation.

I cannot tell you how much I miss travellers and the busy streets of Budapest. I’m devastated to see the deserted streets, cafés and restaurants. But as for now, it’s safer to stay home.

However, I think that summer months will bring us relief and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope that with social distancing we’ll be able to deliver some tours. I know that group touring will not possible but that’s maybe a good time for all travellers to try private tours. I’ll offer some special tours once it’s safe to do so, and people who visit my beautiful city will definitely have the most amazing Budapest experience.

I hope to see you soon!!

These are the empty streets of my beautiful Budapest:

Actually, this tour was suggested by one of my travellers, he and his family were mostly interested in our communist history. I customized a 1-hour online tour for them with the virtual visit of the House of Terror Museum and they liked it very much, so this tour is now available on my website.

This tour gives you a comprehensive overview of the Hungarian history in the second half of the 20th century. With a lot of footage and photos from the archives you get a better understanding of our life under Communism. Also, visiting virtually several exhibition halls of the House of Terror Museum makes it a full online experience.

Just like all of my other tours, this one is live and private too, and is fully customizable. Feel free to ask me for more details, or book online!

This has always been one of my most popular tours. I understand that it’s still very important for a lot of people to find out more about their family and ancestry.

As many people have to cancel their trips to Hungary, I have cancellations for ancestry tours, too. But I’ve collected a lot of information the last few years so I thought I’d still offer the online version of the tour.

Feel free to contact me for further details or send me all available information so that I can put together your family tree and all additional information that might give you an idea about how and where your relatives lived hundreds of years ago.

To be honest, this is my favourite tour these days. I know that it’s difficult to break the monotony of self isolation, all I can offer is an in-depth visit of a specific neighbourhood of Budapest, great stories, and a truly private tour.

You see through my camera what I see: my beautiful Budapest. From the comfort of your armchair you can take a virtual walk around the Parliament building on the Pest side of the Danube river or the magnificent Royal Palace in Buda. You see on your screen all the major attractions and can ask any question you’d like to, as if you were really touring with me around the city that I love the most and I know the best.

You can book 1 or 2 hours and see as much as possible. While you’re on a tour, you’re also supporting Budapest tourism industry devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feel free to contact me for further details or book online! I promise to deliver a special tour customised according to your interests and preferences.

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!

The last few years I’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries for tours including the visit of the magnificent Houses of Parliament. I decided to create a customised tour including the visit of the Parliament.

The iconic building of the Parliament is one of the most visited attractions of Budapest and the interior is so beautiful, it’s highly recommended to all travellers.

Although I have a contract with the Parliament Visitor Centre and can very often get last minute tickets for the visits, there is no guarantee I can book tickets for the requested dates, so please always get in touch with me prior to booking the tour.

https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/christmas-markets/

Every year hundreds of thousands of travellers vote for the best European Christmas Markets. This year my favorite Christmas Market in Budapest was voted the second best, that’s the one in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica. It’s easy to understand why this particular market got so many votes, it is all about food and drinks, local handicraft products and the videomapping show over the main facade of St. Stephen’s Basilica is magnificent.

Don’t forget to try local hot wine and chimney cake (kürtöskalács), the most delicious treat at our markets.

I’m very fortunate to have special requests all the time to customize Budapest tours according to my travellers’ preferences. Today we had the chance to visit the Pálvölgyi caves, which is actually the longest cave in Budapest. The visit is about 60 minutes and you can see different stone formations, unique dripstones and prints of primeval shells.

Another advantage of hiking in the caves is that the temperature is constantly 11 degrees Celsius / 52 degrees Fahrenheit, so it’s relatively warm in the winter and pretty cool in the summer.

The fairytale castle-like lookout terrace built to replace the medieval town walls of Buda overlooks the Pest side and the Parliament building in particular. Famous of its panoramic views and the 7, richly ornate towers symbolizing the seven Hungarian tribes who conquered the actual territories of Hungary in 896.

Named after the Fishermen of Buda, who had the task to protect this segment of the town walls in the Middle Ages, it really is one of the most beautiful highlights of any Budapest driving or walking tour.

Chairlifting to the Elizabeth Tower on the top of St. John hill in Buda is always a special experience. However, it’s even more special in autumn, as you can see the beautiful colours all around you and of course can also enjoy the magnificent view over the city from the top of our beautiful Budapest.

We had a quite unusual and rather special Foodie Tour this weekend with my travellers. Instead of visiting several markets and shops in the city we focused on the Pig Slaughtering Festival held on this beautiful and sunny weekend in Budapest.

I can’t tell you how much we were overwhelmed with all the sausages and meat, the amazing smells and flavours. We tasted so many different things that in 4 hours I ate just as mush as I usually do in a week.

I’m very proud of all our meat products and what I can recommend you the most is to try mangalica sausage, which is probably the best of the best.

I woke up early this morning and witnessed a most unique moment: the sun rising up over the beautiful buildings of Pest. It was just a few seconds but made my entire day.

Tip: the best location in Budapest to watch sunrise is the top of the Fisherman’s Bastion (I took the video and the picture from there) or the top of Gellért hill.

Pécs is a really long drive from Budapest, but believe me it’s worth the time and energy. A beautiful little town with so much history from as early as 2000 years ago, some rare relics and architecture from the Ottoman era, fascinating Baroque architecture and more.

The visit of the Zsolnay Quarter is part of my Pécs and Villány tour, it’s a unique experience if you would like to learn more about Hungarian ceramics and porcelain and Vilmos Zsolnay, the greatest figure of Hungarian pottery.

The Zsolnay project was a monumental industrial historic building reconstruction project in the original factory plant exceeding 5 hectares. The main aim was to create a lively cultural center to commemorate the Zsolnay heritage and to recreate the factory plant an attractive cultural district with the operating production also being part of the plant.

You can have a look at the special collections of the Handicraft / Artisan and Creative districts or enjoy the facilities of the Children and Family district.

Every year, around the 20th of August, St. Stephen’s day, you can meet great Hungarian Folk Art designers and artists, truly amazing people creating Hungarian handicraft products in the Buda Castle District.

The best of the local pottery, jewellry, wooden products, ceramics, fabrics an much more can be seen and purchased. You can also try some of the hard work as weaving, sewing or doing embroideries. Also, it’s a great opportunity to taste some Hungarian treats!