Money and other Budapest, Hungary General Tips

Favorite Thing: The currency of Hungary is the Forint. As a rough guide, there are 250 Forints to the Euro, 200 Forints to the US Dollar, and 400 Forints to the pound.

Hungary is a relatively cheap place to visit, except for hotels in Budapest which are about the same as the average across the Euro zone. Food and transport is particularly cheap, with a main dish at a reasonable restaurant generally costing less than 5 euros.

The low prices of everything means that big notes can be difficult to dispose of, and the ATMs, which are all over the city, tend to give out the biggest notes possible. I had real problems getting anyone to accept the 10000 Forint note, worth about 40 euros, and I couldn't even spend a 5000 Forint note (about 20 euros) in a place as big and international as Burger King, so good luck spending the bigger notes in the small family run restaurants.


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Favorite Thing: Former Eastern European countries like Hungary have a good collection of crazy old cars from the Soviet era. The days of Lada taxis have long gone; they all drive brand new Volkswagens and Skodas now. However, there are a few rusty old buckets around, and a few that have been lovingly preserved, like this old East German Wartburg 311 that I found in the Castle District. The Wartburg 311 and 312 were later replaced by the ferociously ugly 353, a car which exemplified classic 80s East European styling, and was even more unattractive than the Lada.


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Favorite Thing: ...

Caboodle

If you want to find a good restaurant, bar, shop, or pretty much anything in Budapest or Hungary, then this is a great site for you. It has a very up to date directory of almost everything, along with user ratings and reviews. The great thing is that it's written by expats, so it's all in English.

Chew.hu

A sister site to the above, focussing exclusively on food. It's Top 33 restaurant list is well regarded as a benchmark.

Pestiside

An insider's guide to Budapest. The nightlife guide is particularly good.


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