Two cities in one - hilly Buda above, lively Pest below, the Danube between them turning gold at every sunset.
01 Baths first, sightseeing later
Start at Szechenyi or Gellert - a long soak in mineral water resets your sense of time in the best possible way before you walk anywhere. Locals come at sunrise with newspapers and chess boards; arrive then and you have the warmest pools almost to yourself.
02 Buda above, Pest below
Take the funicular up to the Castle District in the late afternoon. The cobblestone streets above empty out after the day-trippers leave, and the view across the river to Parliament catches every last colour of the sky.
Budapest is a city that asks you to sit down and stay a while.
03 Ruin bars and late dinners
The Jewish Quarter around Kazinczy is the city after dark - ruin bars in courtyards strung with mismatched lamps, langos stands, and small kitchens serving goulash until midnight.
Venice
8 min
Zurich
6 min
Vienna
7 min
Paris
9 min
Skopje
6 min