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With over 250 tours I delivered last year I can’t tell how fortunate I am to show my travellers around the city and the country I love the most. This is my home, my birthplace and I’m looking forward to introducing it to even more people in 2020!

I’ve just had a look at which my most popular tours were last year:

• “THE GRAND BUDAPEST” WALK: a great introduction of Budapest to first time visitors or travellers who only have one day to see the main highlights and some of the hidden gems.

• JEWISH QUARTER WALK: including the visit of the world’s second largest synagogue and a walk in the ghetto which is today the Soho of Budapest with great cultural and creative vibes.

• BUDAPEST FOODIE TOUR: as I also work for a Hungarian food magazin, I’m really happy to take you to local markets and little artisan food shops and to make sure you taste all the great Hungarian treats.

• EGER AND WINE TOUR BY CAR: we love our wines and we love our wine countries, Eger, the postcard-like Baroque little town is famous for the Bull’s Blood, the great Hungarian red wine. 

• A DAY IN TOKAJ WINE COUNTRY: another day trip, another tour to a beautiful wine region. I love Tokaj and the Tokaj wines and I hope that my travellers who picked this tour in 2019 loved it just as much as I did.

Happy New Year! My wish for the new year is to show around my beautiful Budapest as many happy travellers as in the previous years.

I’m wishing you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from beautiful Budapest.

Most of my guests on my Foodie tours just love our strudel. I always explain how and why it’s different from the Apfel Strudel you might have tried in Austria or Germany. I think everybody agrees it’s one of the nicest Hungarian pastries, not too sweet but simply delicious. I can take you to the best strudel places or you can try making your own!

Budapest in the winter is rather grey and foggy. Also, it’s very cold, so there are only a few outdoor programs locals enjoy doing from early December to the end of February. One of those programs is ice skating in the City Park, it’s great fun and the ice skating rink is usually very busy on weekends.

I’m starting a new series to introduce you the most famous statues of Budapest and some of the hidden gems, too. These are the beautiful monuments of Budapest we usually see on our walking or driving tours in Buda and Pest.

This beautiful sphinx is guarding the entrance of the State Opera House on Andrassy ut. Why is she so special? Because it’s not a typical sphinx with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, but if you have a closer look you can see the she has breasts, too.

I’m starting a new series to introduce you the most famous statues of Budapest and some of the hidden gems, too. These are the beautiful monuments of Budapest we usually see on our walking or driving tours in Buda and Pest.

Julianus and Gerhardus, Hungarian monks who travelled all the way to near the Ural Mountains in the 13th century to find Magna Hungaria, the territories where the Hungarians had lived before they started their migration to Europe and conquered the actual territories of Hungary.

A very special relic, the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian king who was crowned in 1000. The legend is that his body had been exhumed before he was canonised and that’s when his right hand and arm were found mummified. This relic can be seen today in the St. Stephen’s Basilica.

The reason why I love family researches a lot, is because it’s always a great experience to do the research and to find out more about my travellers’ relatives and family who were originally from Hungary. The other reason is that we usually go to beautiful Hungarian villages and towns to see where and how the family members lived 100 or 200 years ago.

Last week we visited the town of Kalocsa which isn’t just another cute little Hungarian town but it’s also famous for the local paprika. We went to see the local Paprika Museum to find out more about the most popular Hungarian spice.

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!