What happens in Budapest……

So here’s part 3 of my coverage of the mini river cruise I took a couple of weeks ago. It’s all about Budapest. Rather than covering the history of the city which you can find out about from many sources I wanted to cover what happens when you’re on a river cruise. To catch up on the previous blogs click here to read about the ship and here to read about the food and service.

Budapest at night from cabin

We arrived in to Budapest in the evening and after a long days travelling and full from a super meal I, personally was too tired to do anything other than retire to my cabin & unpack. Some passengers hopped off the ship for a little wander around the city. It’s great to have the freedom to do this. You can see the beautiful view from my cabin on the picture above.

The next morning after breakfast we met in the lounge area to meet for a talk about Budapest with the cruise director and tours manager. They gave us a brief rundown of what was going to happen on today’s tour and lessons on how to use the little mobile gadgets provided for the tours that enable you to hear the guides without being right next to them. We were split in to 2 groups each with our own guide & coach.

Budapest 2

The first part of our tour was on the coach and took us round the Pest area of the city. This is the more modern area of the city, but not without its points of interest & beautiful buildings such as the Royal Palace and the stunning Parliament Buildings.

budapest parliament

The second part of the tour was a walking tour with free time at the end. The coach took us up to near to the top of the hilly Buda part of the city on the west bank of the Danube. Even for the less energetic amongst us the pace was nice & slow & not hard work at all. The tour guides were so knowledgeable and gave a great insight in to the history & culture of Hungary and Budapest.

Buda cathedral

Here we saw the Fishermans Bastion on Castle Hill which had stunning views over to Pest (see below pic). We also Matthias Church and passed the stunning Buda Castle. We were blessed with a cold but beautifully clear & sunny day, so it was nice to have free time to wander round the pretty narrow streets and sit & have a drink.

View over pest

All in all the tours were extremely well organised. Fore me a half day tour is ideal to get a good overview of the city and we were back on board in time for lunch. The freedom of a river cruise means that you don’t have to do the included tours, so if there’s something in particular you want to do or see you can just hop off the ship and do your own thing.

A highlight for me was sailing past the Grand Budapest Hotel once we were back on board and had set sail to our next destination.

Budapest is a stunningly beautiful city and somewhere I know I will return.

My final blog about this cruise will be on Vienna. Watch this space……..

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About Me

Hi There!  My name is Collette and as the blog suggests I am a big lover of cruising and have travel in my blood. I have worked in the travel industry for 25 years, starting as a holiday rep in Turkey back in 1993. After 4 years I returned to the…

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