I’m going to Budapest for 4 nights on Thursday, and it’s apparently going to be roasting (30 degrees of Celsius). Does anyone have any nice tips for stuff to do to enjoy/beat the heat please? Nice beer gardens, shady parks, centres for ice cream, places for a dip and the like?
Fortunately, Budapest has loads of public baths where I could’ve easily spent the whole day (except I needed to get food).
I went here
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Don’t judge this place on their ability to code their website for discource embedding; judge them on their lovely sculpted ice creams:
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why not get yourself down to a cool underground cave network in the old town
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I like the water park on St. Margaret’s island
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This is one of my all-time favourite surreal tourist destinations - it’s just a weird little place buried under the castle.
It combines spooky, unexplained dioramas of waxworks dressed like 18th century nobles and opera music (the dioramas might be scenes from the operas). The whole place is full of incredibly boring pieces of masonry presented as if they were works of art.
There’s an extended exhibition on Dracula (they speculate the real Dracula was imprisoned in the tunnels) and a section of complete and total darkness where you have to navigate it by following a chain (you can skip the dark section if you’re not into that).
The whole thing is kind of crappy but it’s lovely and cool down there and it’s also interesting in an odd sort of way.
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I also recommend Gellert Spa.
Szimpla Kerr is good for food and drinks with indoor and outdoor spaces.
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These were the baths I went to. They had some amazing freezing cold ice dispenser bath bit for adter you came out of the saunas. Was apparently good for your skin or something but mainly good cos it was boiling. One of the best places I’ve been to and lovely gardens outside the venue to mooch about in.
And another vote for szimpla bar. Cool cavey bar.
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Thanks all, looking like a very strong system of hiding underground in the morning and soaking away the afternoon. With drinks and fancy ice creams for sustenance.
No idea how it fares in the heat - it’s in a cellar so maybe good maybe bad - but the pinball museum is great imo
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Budapest is just the best, isn’t it? Such a great city to explore.
When the sun starts to set you can go get sozzled in one of the ruin bars.
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Was closed when we went. 
10 things / places I really liked when we went:
Printa (Design + Print + Coffee Shop)
Bestia (Restaurant)
Wave (Record Shop)
Premier Kultcafe (Café + Arts Venue)
Museum Of Applied Arts (Museum)
Menza (Restaurant)
Szputnyik (Vintage Shop)
Széchenyi Spa (Public Baths)
WAMP (Design Market)
Alexandra Bookcafé (Bookshop + Café)
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i highly recommend the Mad Scientist taproom/restaurant - cheap, fancy, delicious food, lovely piazza seating
MADHOUSE Bistro & Craft Beer Bar
+36 70 621 0741
https://goo.gl/maps/vZmzPewaBp727vYa7
also this is the best restaurant in budapest for traditional food (now that the Matyas Pince is closed) but it is quite hard to get a booking
Hungarikum Bisztró
+36 30 661 6244
https://goo.gl/maps/71Fo7EaLSjdKWeZd7
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also if you like classical music at all the Liszt academy is incredible and very cheap compared to seeing anything comparable in the UK - i saw an opera for £17 in March, was incredible
My gf said it was 30° last night
Having a lovely time so far. We went to Gellért baths today and I very much enjoyed the mix of old world splendour amd areas that seemed genuinely hazardous to be in.
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Palatinus baths and Margaret’s Island were lovely for a sunny Saturday. Langos and beers between dips is a real treat. Not as many hazardously hot/cold rooms as Gellért.
Gratified to find a mini Belgian quarter on the Buda side and get potted on intense beers before the Fisherman’s Bastion.
@Dayrider we did the Panoptikum/Labyrinth and it was indeed an entertainingly baffling experience. It was particularly entertaining going through the dark section after our handsome lunch and walking into walls.
Also, the 24 hour arcade in Pest full of slightly busted machines was a treat.
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Glad you enjoyed it! I love those kind of strange little experiences you can have traveling…