28 Aug Best Alternative Things to do in Budapest
If you’ve ticked off Budapest’s most famous sites and are looking to delve deeper (or you simply like to go against the grain), then we’ve got the ultimate travel to-do list for you.
From exploring the most curious outer neighborhoods and hunting tiny statues throughout the city to trying your own hand at some street art, we have some suggestions to give you a Budapest experience that will take you beyond the mainstream.
Visit a few quirky museums
Hospital in the Rock
Hospital in the Rock Museum. Photo: budacastlebudapest.com
If you’re looking for culture beyond the main museums, Budapest has plenty of quirky spots to explore. You have the Hospital in the Rock, a subterranean former hospital in Castle Hill that also functioned as a secret nuclear bunker for decades.
Today, you can visit and get a feel for its intense history, when its claustrophobic corridors were packed with the wounded during World War II and the 1956 revolution.
Memento Park
Photo: tourinform.hu
However, if tight spaces are not your thing, you can head out into the Buda Hills to Memento Park, an outdoor statue park that you can think of as a cemetery for Communist statues. These statues used to be found all over the city, but since the fall of the regime, they have been removed and sent to Memento Park.
Koller Gallery
Photo: welovebudapest.com
However, if it’s still fine art you want, then Koller Gallery, a secret gallery hidden away in the Castle District with an incredible secret garden hanging over the Danube, is worth a visit (and if you’re looking to buy art, all their pieces are for sale).
Discover some of the outer neighborhoods
District VIII
Photo: budapestflow.com
In Pest, the VIII District is an exciting and bohemian neighborhood with quirky bars, such as Auróra, Gólya, and Nyolcésfél, but also Hintaló and Csiga, both close to the Rákoczi Market. The gritty backstreets are peppered with alternative cultural spots, and small galleries and quirky cafes punctuate in between.
District XI
Photo: index.hu
Over in Buda, the XI District, particularly around Bartók Béla Boulevard, is home to several restaurants, cafes, and art galleries, but there are also some curious cultural venues to explore, like Dürer Kert close to the Danube, where there are excellent concerts and parties.
Óbuda (District III)
Fellini Római open air bar at the Danube. Photo: facebook.com/Fellini-Római-Kultúrbisztró
In the northern part of Buda, Óbuda is the place to come in the summer. You’ll find Roman ruins and Baroque buildings here, but the area around Római Beach is also the ultimate hangout when the temperatures climb up, with trendy beachside places like Fellini.
An excellent cycle path will bring you up here if you want to explore the city on two wheels.
Slip into Budapest’s hidden courtyards
Some of Budapest’s best sights are hidden behind closed doors. Several beautiful courtyards are tucked away across the city, with some being easier to access than others.
Paloma Artspace
Paloma Artspace. Photo: facebook.com/palomaartspace
You can get a feel for some of these hidden downtown spaces without breaking and entering like the courtyard belonging to the Paloma Artspace collective of designers close to Astoria. In this colonnaded courtyard, you’ll find several design workshops and showrooms you can explore.
Unger House
Photo: 24.hu
Others worth checking out are the Unger House courtyard nearby, a passage where you’ll find a trendy taco place, and a second-hand bookstore, and the charming courtyard belonging to Fekete coffee house next door.
You might just want to peek through any open door you see, some house cafes or shops, while many are just residential, but beautiful nonetheless. If you come to Budapest the weekend of Budapest100, many houses open their doors for you to explore their stunning interior courtyards, and they are worth the visit. For adventurous alternatives, delve into the recommendations in this article.
Take in the living outdoor gallery of the Jewish Quarter
Motivation is a Wonderland Mural – artist: Dan Ferrer. Photo: budapestflow.com
The Jewish Quarter has a reputation as being a party district with Jewish history, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a vibrant area that attracts young creatives, and each street and firewall is treated as a canvas.
Think murals, paste-ups, stickers, stencils; you’ll find them all as you wander around this part of town or even in some of the ruin bars. And the street art here always changes with new murals popping up or a new paste-up greeting you on the next street corner.
Notable pieces include the gigantic firewall murals by Színes Város and world-class street artists such as Okudart and Dan Ferrer.
While exploring the area, you might discover paste-ups created by 0036Mark, a local street artist whose work draws inspiration from Communist-era cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s. You can wander around (use our street art map) or hop on a street art tour to get context about urban art in this district.
Experience street art firsthand in our small-group walking tour!
Discover Budapest’s street art scene and learn about the city’s contemporary culture and history through vibrant murals and street art pieces on a small-group tour.
“Amazing walking tours with great insights”
SAPHINA (USA), January 2017
Go on an urban treasure hunt for mini statues
Photo: kolodkoart.com
Budapest is a city where there are a lot of secret things hiding in plain sight, and a few you should not miss are the tiny statues by Mihály Kolodko, a Ukrainian sculptor living in Budapest whose pieces pop up overnight in different parts of the city.
His first statue, the Főkukac, a tiny worm from a popular Hungarian cartoon, was his first and got a cult following, with people even knitting scarves for the little fella who sits by the Danube.
Other sculptures include a tiny “sad” tank to symbolize the 1956 Revolution and the Rubik’s cube on the Buda side of the Danube.
On the Pest side, figures to look out for include a tiny statue of Dracula in City Park and a dead squirrel planted near the statue of Colombo on Falk Miksa utca.
These are just a few you can discover as you explore Budapest. You can also join us on an active scavenger hunt where you can find most of these hidden mini statues and hear the stories behind them.
Try your hand as a graffiti artist
If you want to get into the Budapest street art scene in a more hands-on way, then why not join a graffiti-focused workshop led by a local graffiti artist? Head out of the city center on the local suburban railway to Óbuda to one of the few legal graffiti walls in the city around Filatorigát.
This 400 m of space is open to anyone with a can of spray paint to unleash their creativity and is a living piece of art that changes with each visit.
If you’ve never done it before, no worries. Join a graffiti workshop, where you’ll get some assistance from an expert on how to tag and spray paint on the wall.
Grab a drink in ruin bars beyond the guidebooks
You’ve probably heard of Szimpla Kert Ruin Bar and Instant-Fogas as being must-see things to do in Budapest. Although ruins bars were once an important part of counterculture life, they are now mostly tourist attractions.
However, if you head beyond the Jewish Quarter, you can find some ruin-bar-style places that embody the original spirit of the ruin bars circa the early 2000s.
In the VIII District beyond the Grand Boulevard, Auróra is a ruin bar and community center hidden behind an ivy-covered facade that leads into a courtyard and a network of rooms. By day, it’s kind of a co-working space and offices for several NGOs, but by night, it’s a bar with various events, from parties to book launches.
Nearby, there’s Gólya, set in a gritty industrial space spanning various floors, and like Auróra, it’s also a place that’s a community space that hosts a mix of socially conscious events and concerts.
Nyolc és fél
Photo: jozsefvarosujsag.hu
In District VIII, there is a hidden ruin bar/cultural center at the base of a former Józsefváros Telephone Exchange. The complex is now home to Nyolcésfél, a collective of artists’ studios, where the ruin bar at its base is a popular hangout for the artists who come here.
Manyi
Photo: balkon.art
But if you want to cross the river to Buda, Manyi is another ruin bar that hosts exhibitions and comedy nights. It has a bohemian and countercultural vibe that will transport you back to the early ruin bar days.
RELATED WALKING TOURS
Discover Budapest’s street art scene and learn about the city’s contemporary culture, history and politics through these vibrant murals and street art pieces.
Have you ever dreamed of the thrill of popping open a fresh spray can and actually plastering a piece of street art on the wall somewhere?
Dive into Budapest’s District VIII filled with locals and offbeat cultural spots and visit authentic hangouts to learn about this upcoming and undiscovered neighborhood.
Discover an unique features of Budapest’s public art scene: the mini statues and learn about Budapest’s history and culture throughout the stories of the artworks.
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