This really was a very popular tour but unfortunately the Trabant car is so terribly polluting that I decided to stop it. Now the same tour is available by car, I’m happy to offer the same experience with less impact on the environment.
This was not an easy decision for me, especially after my tour was featured in a French travel TV show but our planet’s and our kids’ future is more important than some business opportunities.
I try to publish beautiful pictures of my beautiful Budapest as often as I can, still, I don’t think I reach many people via my Instagram feed. Never mind, this is the selection of my favourite pictures in 2019.
Lonely Planet has just published a list of the “Best destinations, journeys and sustainable travel experiences” for 2020. I am very proud, because Budapest is listed among 10 destinations in total, we’re number 2. It’s a great achievement, I only wish they didn’t include “Budapest is one of the most rewarding on your pocket” as I don’t want travellers to visit Budapest because it’s cheap. Come and see my city, because it’s beautiful! 🙂
Nestled just a stone’s throw from St. Stephen’s Basilica on Zrínyi Street, the whimsical Fat Policeman statue—affectionately known as Uncle Karl—stands guard over the cobblestones of the bustling city centre of Budapest. Cast in bronze by sculptor Illyés András and unveiled in 2008, he’s dressed in a nostalgic early‑20th‑century uniform complete with a jaunty helmet and a twirly moustache. His rotund, friendly figure instantly catches the eye, and true to local superstition, his belly has become gloriously polished from the countless tourists who rub it for good luck and loosing weight—and perhaps the gift of guilt-free indulgence in Hungarian cuisine.
This monument is part of my ongoing Statues of Budapest series, which explores how meaning in this city is often hidden in plain sight.
Those seeking romance often reach up to stroke his moustache, a gesture believed to bring good fortune in love. Over the years, his well-worn features have become a testament to thousands of hopeful wishes.
Though officially titled the “Guardian of Order,” the statue’s more playful nickname speaks to its charm and the warm-hearted humor woven into Budapest’s cultural tapestry. Anecdotal measurements suggest he stands about 1.7 m tall—just over five and a half feet—making him approachable and almost lifelike in scale. He’s become a selfie magnet and a lighthearted must-see for visitors wanting to balance architectural grandeur with a bit of street‑art whimsy
By blending nostalgia, folklore, and everyday joy, the Fat Policeman encapsulates the spirit of Budapest: historical depth with a side of light-heartedness. Whether you’re capturing him in a snapshot, giving his belly a good rub, or simply pausing to admire his cheery posture, Uncle Karl offers a delightful pause in the rhythm of urban exploration—and perhaps a sprinkle of good fortune to boot.
Explore more: The 0 km Stone is featured in my Statues of Budapest collection, where famous monuments and easily overlooked details reveal the deeper structure of the city.
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:
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.
Hungarian strudel is one of those pastries that quietly wins everyone over — and it’s always a favourite on my Foodie tours in Budapest.
Many visitors arrive already knowing Apfelstrudel from Austria or Germany, but the Hungarian version has its own character. The dough is stretched paper-thin, the fillings are generous but never heavy, and the result is not too sweet, just perfectly balanced.
Whether filled with apples, cherries, poppy seeds, or cottage cheese, strudel is a wonderful example of our home-style baking. You can taste it in traditional pastry shops — or, if you’re curious, even try making it yourself and experience the magic of stretching the dough until it’s almost transparent.
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.
If you’re walking along Andrássy Avenue, one of the most elegant boulevards of Budapest, you might notice a sphinx statue quietly guarding the entrance of the Hungarian State Opera House. At first glance, she looks familiar — mysterious, timeless, and watchful.
But take a closer look, and you’ll realise there’s something unusual about her.
This statue is part of my ongoing Statues of Budapest series, which focuses on both famous monuments and easily overlooked details hidden in plain sight.
Traditionally, a sphinx is depicted with the head of a woman and the body of a lion. The Budapest sphinx follows this classical form — almost.
If you stop and observe carefully, you’ll notice an unexpected detail: she has breasts, making her far more explicitly feminine than most sphinx representations. This subtle feature sets her apart and gives the statue a distinctive presence.
It’s one of those details many people walk past every day without noticing, yet once seen, it’s impossible to forget.
The sphinx fits perfectly into the artistic world of the Opera House. She embodies mystery, guardianship, and elegance — qualities closely associated with music, performance, and the dramatic arts.
Placed at the entrance, she feels less like a decoration and more like a silent gatekeeper, watching over one of Budapest’s most important cultural institutions.
The sphinx of Andrássy Avenue is a perfect example of why Budapest rewards attentive visitors. You don’t need grand monuments or dramatic viewpoints — sometimes, the most interesting stories are carved into details just above eye level.
All you have to do is stop, look up, and notice.
Explore more: The Sphinx statue is featured in my Statues of Budapest collection, where famous monuments and easily overlooked details reveal the deeper structure of the city.
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:
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.
