1 destination · 28 things to do

Hungary

Budapest is two cities and a river: hilly, castle-crowned Buda on one bank, flat and grand Pest on the other, and between them the Danube, crossed by bridges that light up after dark like strings of pearls. It is the capital of thermal bathing in Europe, a city where locals play chess chest-deep in steaming outdoor pools, and it carries its history in plain sight, from the neo-Gothic Parliament stretching along the water and the Royal Palace on Castle Hill to the bullet scars, memorials and museums of the twentieth century. This guide books Budapest properly — a full morning at the Széchenyi baths, a Parliament tour with the Holy Crown, the castle and the National Gallery, the upper terraces of Fisherman's Bastion, the dome of St. Stephen's Basilica, a Danube cruise at the right hour, the Dohány Street Synagogue on a day it is open, and the House of Terror — and pairs it with the newly reopened Citadella, Heroes' Square, the Great Market Hall, Margaret Island and the ruin bars of the Jewish Quarter, plus the honest truth about forints, closing days and the Gellért baths, which are shut for renovation until 2028. Then it matches you to the right hotel, from the Art Nouveau Four Seasons at the Chain Bridge and the Belle Époque Matild Palace to a music-themed boutique by the Basilica and a design hotel with a Michelin-starred kitchen, because in a city split by a river, where you sleep decides which bank you wake up on.