Since we moved here, Budapest and Prague were high on my bucket-list destinations. However, when we started planning our spring break to hit both locations, flights from Sicily to Prague were not convenient (landing at midnight, 2 layovers, etc). And taking a train to Prague from other locations was going to be more expensive than any flights! 

So instead, we looked for locations that had the cheapest direct flights. The two destinations were Marseille, France and Budapest, Hungary. So, that’s what we did. Two 3-Day small trips to each.

First up: Budapest. 

Everyone kept telling me how cheap it was to travel to Budapest. We didn’t feel like that was the case. At the moment, the Euro is high, so while some things were cheap (the Waterpark) other things were typical.

There were an abundance of hotels, AirB&Ns, apartments and bookings you could get for pretty inexpensive, but we didn’t know the area well enough to be comfortable with some of the more inexpensive ones. 

So after talking to a few friends, we had narrowed it down to a hotel near the Parliament Building and ended up on the Junior Suite at Aurea Ana Palace Hotel. The room was perfect for families, it had a little “spa” where we were able to reserve a time for the girls to swim and play in the small pool they had, they had a full restaurant and bar, and close to things to walk to.

The highlight of the trip for Pat & I: The first Hungarian meal we had at an amazing Hungarian Bistro around the corder from our hotel. The food, the service, the wine was all amazing. We sat there for almost 2 hours all enjoying our meal. We got goulash multiple times throughout our trip to Budapest and enjoyed all of the meals we had.

Since it was rainy, we spent a little time in the hotel pool, and then walked to dinner at the Magic Restaurant- a Harry Potter themed restaurant. It was recommended to us by a lot of friends, but it was kind of a let down, to be honest. Some of it was cutesy and fun, but, the service was very poor, and for the prices, it wasn’t as great as you’d expect. After that, we caught up over drinks with our Hungarian friend who lives in the city and relaxed at the hotel. 

On the second day, we did more sight-seeing. We walked almost 6 miles! The city was gorgeous, clean, and very nice. We found a toy store (lego store) that was underground in an old bomb shelter, and it was pretty neat to see. The girls picked out little lego sets to work on and were happy campers. 

We also visited the St. Stephen’s Basilica and climbed to the top for a beautiful view of the city. The downtown area of Budapest was so beautiful, clean, nice, and surprisingly, it was HUGE! There was so much to see and do, I feel like we barely scratched the surface! Of course, we found a Starbucks at as well for some American comfort.

The thermal bath, or “bath house culture” is a huge thing in Budapest and one of the top attractions on all the “must-do” lists. But the baths aren’t pools, they are like big, adult, relaxing hot tubs. After all the research I did on them, there are some that are more accepting of little kids, but not really recommended. So instead, we spent our time at a massive indoor waterpark called AquaWorld.

So after lunch on day two, we took a taxi a little north of the city to AquaPark Resort. You could stay there, but to be honest you’re outside the city and theres not much else to do in that area. So for us, it was best to take the taxi up there for a half day. 

For our family for 3 hours, it cost 50 Euros. We felt like that was pretty cheap. You could buy food and drink there, too. The whole place was awesome. Slides, wave pools, hot tubs, indoor/outdoor pools, kids area… it was perfect. For most of the slides (all except 1) there was a height requirement and only Bella was tall enough, which was a bummer, but other than that, the girls had an amazing time. 

By that time, it was late, we got some McDonalds for dinner and called it a night!

On the last day, we were going to walk around the Fisherman’s Bastion area and Buda Castle, but to be honest, it’s located up on a hill and it was really cold and windy… so instead, we got a late start to the morning, took the underground subway, to the zoo area.

First we stopped by the shoes along the Danube. A sobering view. The sculptures remain there as a memorial to the Jews who were killed there during WWII. The military would round up men, women and children to walk in the icy cold to the location on the bank of the river and then shoot them into the freezing cold water. Their final order would be to remove their shoes. This memorial is there in honor of them.

Then we took the oldest running subway to the zoo area, saw the war monuments and then made it to the zoo. Our Hungarian friend was with us all morning helping us navigate the systems, which was very helpful!

The zoo was perfect. The sun came out, the animals all came out, we ended up walking almost 7 miles that morning, and we had so much fun. We tried interesting Hungarian street food to get at the zoo, helped us with what to order, and we just had fun! 

After that, we had the afternoon to kill because we had a 7pm flight. So, we rounded out the trip with another stop at the water park for a few hours.

A smooth trip back and spring break part 1 was a massive success!

Overall- we did very few of the “must-do’s” of Budapest that most touristy sites say to do… but we had such an awesome family vacation making it our own. 

Budapest Details:

Hotel: Aurea Ana Palace Hotel

Would we recommend it for families? Yes. 

Best Restaurant: Hungarian Bistro

Would we recommend it for families? 1000% yes. We got lucky with a seat, since it’s small, call ahead or make a reservation.

Best attraction for families: AquaPark

If we had more time: 

War museums, Buda Castle & Fisherman’s Bastion at night, Ruins bars at night.

Would we go back? Yes, when the kids were older to see more of the historical sites, or go without kids. And we’d go back when it was warmer. 

Next month: Marseille, France