Hungary · Self-guided walk
Budapest in one walk 7 sights, 90 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Budapest Old Town: 7 sights on one 6.0 km loop, about 90 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 6.0 km, a loop
- Time
- about 90 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 7
- Start and finish
- Budavári Palota
- Steps
- on Citadella lejtő, Szervita tér, Széchenyi István tér, Habsburg lépcső
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Budapest walk: 7 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
7 sights in Budapest, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Budavári Palota
the start
Come in through the Oroszlános udvar. Four lions on the gate, and not one of them moves aside. Then out onto the Savoyai terasz and look down: from there you can see everything you have eaten today.
Next: Citadella, 1,520 m, about 23 min, along Szent György utca, Savoyai terasz, Ybl Miklós tér, Döbrentei utca.
2. Citadella
about 23 minutes of walking from the start
The highest thing on this level. Do not go straight up, take the Citadella sétány round the back: longer, shadier, and the view arrives all at once at the end instead of in bites. Save this one for last.
Next: Magyarok Nagyasszonya Sziklatemplom, 700 m, about 10 min, along Citadella sétány, Citadella lejtő.
3. Magyarok Nagyasszonya Sziklatemplom
about 33 minutes of walking from the start
This one is not on the hillside, it is in it. At the Buda end of Szabadság híd, look for the opening in the crag; there is barely a front to find. I like a building that is mostly not there.
Next: Központi Vásárcsarnok, 590 m, about 9 min.
4. Központi Vásárcsarnok
about 42 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Fri 06:00–18:00, Sat 06:00–16:00, Sun 10:00–16:00
The one thing on this level that agrees with me about what a city is for. Fish downstairs, paprika and sausage and pickles by the crate on the main floor, lunch above. It sits at the Pest end of Szabadság híd and you smell it before you see it.
Next: Károlyi-palota, 790 m, about 12 min, along Sóház utca, Váci utca, Szerb utca, Egyetem tér.
5. Károlyi-palota
about 54 minutes of walking from the start
Go round the back. Behind it there is a walled garden with gravel paths and benches, the quietest corner on this side of the water. Váci utca is four minutes away and nobody from it is here.
Next: Pesti Vigadó, 950 m, about 14 min, along Károlyi utca, Ferenciek tere, Petőfi Sándor utca, Kristóf tér, Türr István utca, Apáczai Csere János utca, Vigadó tér.
6. Pesti Vigadó
about 68 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sun 10:00–19:00
Stand on the Dunakorzó and look up. Every hand's width of that front is decorated and no piece of it agrees with the next. Then turn round: nowhere on this bank gives you a better look at the hill you still have to get up.
Next: Széchenyi lánchíd, 690 m, about 10 min, along Apáczai Csere János utca, Eötvös tér, Széchenyi István tér, Széchenyi lánchíd.
7. Széchenyi lánchíd
about 78 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sun 00:00–24:00
Walk this one instead of photographing it. A lion sits at each end, and between them the deck hums under your soles in a way no picture carries. The flattest thing I get all day, and I take my time over it.
Back to the start: Budavári Palota, 730 m, about 11 min, along Széchenyi lánchíd, Clark Ádám tér, Szent György utca.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Budapest.
This loop is 7 sights. The Old Town is 174 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Budapest Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.