A great way to get some exercise while seeing the gorgeous city of Budapest is taking the Budapest City Walking Tour. Its a great tour for first time visitors to the city because you get to see the popular sights and its surroundings! You can scope out all the top restaurants, hot nightclubs and bars or just a nice place to relax after the tour.
Culinary Walk
Explore Budapest through its food and drinks. Our food, wine, and cultural walking (and tasting) tour begins at The Central Market Hall—Budapest’s cathedral of food—and continues through one of its more charming neighborhoods. This is our signature (and most popular) tour, and provides a wonderful introduction to Hungarian cuisine. The Central Market Hall, one of Europe’s largest and most spectacular indoor market halls, is a natural place to begin our exploration of Hungarian food. Here we will get an introduction to Hungarian cuisine through the great variety and abundance of Hungarian ingredients. We will discuss the history of the building, the culture of eating in Hungary, and just what it is that Hungarian home cooks do with all of that pork fat, paprika, and goose liver. As we walk through the three levels of the market hall, we will be tasting a variety of local products. We will visit several other places in the surrounding neighborhood for food tastings, including a bakery where we will sample some cakes, a butcher shop where we will have lunch, and a wine bar where we will taste three quintessential Hungarian wines. Other stops might include a traditional coffee house, a candy manufacturer, an artisan chocolate shop, an artisan ice cream shop, or a spice shop. This tour will give you a taste of the traditional side of Hungarian cuisine, as well as insight into the modern artisanal producers and specialty food shops which are adding spice to Budapest’s food scene. Bring an appetite….you will not leave this tour hungry!
Craft Beer Walk
While the Hungarian craft beer revolution is still in its infancy, it is building momentum and there are homegrown brews worth seeking out. Discover some of the best Hungarian craft beers—at some of the coolest beer bars—on this walk. You can get a pretty great glass of wine at any decent Budapest restaurant. Though beer has also been brewed here for hundreds of years, beer drinkers are not so lucky. Nearly all bars serve the same few Hungarian beers, which are mass-produced at breweries owned by the big multinational breweries. Luckily, there is a Hungarian craft beer revolution quietly brewing, and it has been steadily gaining momentum over the past several years. The result is a range of unique, handcrafted Hungarian beer for the beer-loving traveler to seek out. This tour, which is led by our beer-specialized guide, will include visits to three bars where you can taste the brews which are launching Hungary’s exciting beer revolution. The first bar will be a truly local place (which the craft beer revolution has not yet touched), where you will discuss the broader history and culture of Hungarian beer (and taste a mainstream beer, for comparison’s sake). At the next two places your guide will guide you through a tasting of around eight craft beers, in a range of styles and flavors. At one bar you will have some light food to accompany the beer. Join us to discover these exciting beers while the revolution is still fresh.
Availability and Timing
This tour is available year-round Monday through Saturday. The small-group tour is from 6pm-9pm and is limited to six participants. The tour generally lasts three hours. This tour is also available as a private tour.
Price
•68 EUR per person for a small-group tour
Starting and Ending Point
• Meeting Point: In front of the Great Synagogue (Dohány utca 2). Your Taste Hungary guide (who will be holding a tote bag with the Taste Hungary logo on it) will be waiting at the front of the building, to the left of the information booth, under the black marble plaque dedicated to Theodore Hertzl. The closest metro stops are Astoria (M2 line) or Deák tér (M1, M2, and M3 lines).
• Ending point: Varies, but is always somewhere central in the 7th district
What is included?
• Visits to two to three bars with your bee-specialized guide
• Plenty of beer tastings, and light snacks
Book the Craft Beer Walk now!Sweet & Coffeehouse Walk
Hungary has one of Europe’s great baking traditions, and is celebrated for its elaborate layer cakes, such as the caramel-topped Dobos torta, which are not only delicious, but hold fascinating stories. And Budapest’s cafés represent a cultural history of the city itself. At the beginning of the 20th century, Budapest was home to more than 600 opulent coffeehouses, which were second-homes to writers and artists. This tour will introduce you to some of the city’s greatest (and grandest) cafés and pastry shops. It will take us through several neighborhoods in central Pest, where we will be thoroughly immersed in two themes that pair well together: Hungarian sweets and traditional coffeehouses. Cafés were hubs of literary and artistic life in 20th century Budapest. They are deeply intertwined with Hungary’s history, and were vital to the city’s artistic and political circles. Though most of them were shut down during Communism, a few remain. The stories behind Hungary’s patisseries are also fascinating, and we’ll talk about the techniques used in the Hungarian pastry kitchen and the flavors and ingredients that show up again and again in many forms. We will discuss the people and stories behind some of Hungary’s most famous sweets and cafés. You’ll see (and taste) examples of how Hungarian desserts are continuing to evolve, while continuing to value the old traditions. In addition to the long-time favorites, we will experience some of the more innovative sweets being made today by talented local chefs and entrepreneurs. We’ll visit elegant cafés where influential literary reviews were edited and where some of Hungary’s greatest contemporary writers labored. We will see a Communist-era ‘presszó-style café’ (more of a social club than a traditional café), as well as a contemporary café for an artisan coffee. By the end of this tour you will have seen some of Budapest’s most beautiful buildings, and tasted some of the best cakes (and coffee) in town.
Availability and Timing
Hungarian Vegetarian Walk
Traditional Hungarian food is not known for being vegetarian (or vegan)-friendly. But Hungarian seasonal produce and ingredients are so varied, and chefs and restaurateurs are starting to take note. In addition to more vegetarian-friendly dishes being found on the menus of Budapest’s best restaurants, there is a growing network of vegetarian (and vegan) restaurants, cafés, and shops in Budapest where you can taste beautifully-prepared Hungarian cuisine, minus the meat. This walking tour will give you an introduction to Hungarian cuisine, wine, and culture—through a vegetarian/vegan perspective. Our guide (a local food journalist) closely follows Budapest’s food scene, particularly the new and exciting vegetarian developments. The tour begins at The Central Market Hall where we will introduce you to the variety and abundance of the mostly local and seasonal ingredients on display, and talk about how Hungarians use them. From there, we’ll explore the surrounding neighborhoods, and introduce you to some of our favorite underground restaurants serving vegetarian/vegan delights! We’ll also visit artisan shops stocking delicious locally-produced products. Lunch will be at one of Europe’s best vegan restaurants, where we will sample dishes with typical Hungarian flavors—such as gulyás and stuffed cabbage—just without any meat. We’ll get a taste of Budapest’s developing coffee scene by visiting a café with its own roaster, and dessert will be raw cakes and chocolate at an award-winning artisan chocolate manufacturer. We will conclude by a tasting three wines (a final few local specialties) at The Tasting Table, where you will get an introduction to the Hungarian wine regions, varietals, and styles. * Please let us know if you are vegan or vegetarian!
