  UPDATED February 7, 2007 HUNGARIAN
TOURIST OFFICE: A wonderful resource, with
all the best information to visit Budapest and Hungary = http://www.hungary.com
BUDAPEST
TOURIST OFFICE: Visit the Budapest's
official touristical homepage to perfectly organize your trip. It provides
on a mouse click most useful information on the city, sights, excursions
and, last but not least, it allows very convenient on-line
hotels booking and on-line
services (Travel Offers, Domestic holidays, Travel Agencies , Programs
, and Air Tickets) = http://www.budapestinfo.hu
BUDAPEST
CARD: "The whole city in your pocket"
is the motto of the Budapest Card, introduced by the The services of the card are detailed in a 100 paged, coloured publication in Hungarian, English, German and Italian languages. This publication introduces the use of the Budapest Card and the servicing enterprise (with photo, address, opening hours, entrance fees and discounts). Budapest
Card, valid for one adult and one child up to 14 years of age, costs HUF
3950 for 48 hours or HUF 4950 for 72 hours. It is available in more than
250 places in Budapest: main metro ticket offices, tourist information
bureaus, travel agencies, hotels and the airport. You can also find
it abroad : at major tour operators, and several representations of Malév
Hungarian Airlines.
BUDAPEST
OPERA HOUSE: Built in 1884 by Hungarian architect Miklos Ybl, very
much influenced by the neo-Renaissance Wien Stadt Oper, the Budapest Opera
House BUDAPEST
OPERA HOUSE (Magyar Allami Operahaz): Andrassy ut. 22, Budapest VI
BUDAPEST
SPRING FESTIVAL: Just like each year since
decades, the Budapest Spring Festival (March 16th – April 1st , 2007) will
open the musical season in Hungary with Everything is given for the festival: famous orchestras, celebrated performing artists, world opera première, experimental dance, contemporary artists –including Farkas Kempelen’s chess-playing Turk. The Budapest Spring Festival 2007 will highlight chamber music: featuring the performance of rarely heard duos and trios, with evenings are devoted to rarely heard composers. Don't miss the concerts in the new Palace of Arts (wonderful design and acoustic), Budapest Opera House, Pesti Vigado, and Academy of Music. BUDAPEST
SPRING FESTIVAL HOMEPAGE & PROGRAM 2007: http://festivalcity.hu/btf2007/
BUDAPEST
SPA CITY: The abundance of medicinal
waters in Budapest is unparalleled. A capital city featuring the highest
number of medical thermal springs in the world, SEE
OUR REVIEW OF THE SPA FACILITIES IN BUDAPEST
CITY
& EXCURSION TOURS: Since
1996, this tour operator is ranked about the top best in Hungary in term
of quality and level of services.
Featured for high-class Many letters sent to the agency show the complete satisfaction of a clientele very much impressed by the personal care they received during the stay. When the trip is over, a driver will take clients back to the airport where, as a departing gesture, they will be surprised with a bottle of famous Hungarian wine! Children under 12 are given a gift to remember Budapest. Which large-scale tour operator could act such a nice way, indeed? Available at much affordable rates, the classical package includes transfers from/to airport, and three-hour sightseeing. A limousine service is also available. In that case, same tour can be done driven into a luxurious Mercedes-Benz. If you really want to look like top VIP, then rather use their stretched Ford-Lincoln, with a bar featuring Champagne! CITY
& EXCURSION TOURS:
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 FIRST
CLASS AROUND THE WORLD |
is
widely regarded as one of the finest in Europe. Smaller than any other
world class concert hall, this is nevertheless one of the most charming
in the world. Hundred thousands tourists and opera aficionados come each
year from round the world: sometimes just to see the frescoes painted by
Karoly Lotz. Despite of Communism (which made the seats affordable for
everybody) the Opera House always kept its quality in term of programs,
musicians and singers. Of course, time when prestigious foreign directors
like Gustav Mahler were hired to manage it is over. But the last concerts
we could hear recently at the Budapest Opera House were very high standard.
Richard Wagner, Mozart, but also national composers like Bela Bartok or
the much venerated Ferenc Erkel (author of Hungary's anthem), are particularly
well served. Blue Beard Castle (from Bartok) or Hunyadi Laszlo (from Erkel),
though both quite hermetic to the non initiated melomaniac, are regularly
at the program: this is worth the booking, as few opera houses in the world
ever show those purely Magyar creations. Still cheap compared to the Western
concert halls, mostly when reservation is done directly at the Opera booking
office, the place is actually worth the trip. During the break, don’t forget
to have a glass of Tokaji at the Buffet or on its terrace. Black tie is
not necessary; but formal dress is kindly suggested.
prestigious
events and a remarkable street animation in Pest downtown (Vorosmarty square,
Vaci street, River Danube banks...). This event, attended by international
melomaniacs and tourists alike, is not thematic: it is characterised by
variety and abundance, by the concentration and juxtaposition of highly
promising concerts, stage productions and exhibitions, involving the whole
city; in contrast to festivals that are addressed to connoisseurs and concentrate
on a single theme.
Budapest
was granted the title of « Spa City » in 1934. The Celts and
the Romans used the hot springs on the Buda side, and the name of Aquincum
may also refer to the springs. (The name may be a derivation from the Celtic
word for ‘water’, or from the Latin aqua quinque, ‘five waters’.) There
is probably no other capital city on the globe with swimming pools and
bathing halls dating back to the Turkish occupation and still in use today,
with thermal spas irradiating the rich colours and forms of Art Nouveau
and featuring one of the largest spas in Europe. Natural springs and wells
in the territory of Budapest (a total of 118 different sources) provide
up to 30,000 cubic metres of 21-76o C thermal water every day: mostly dolomitic
water ranging from lukewarm karst to thermal hot water. Romans used 14
thermal spas, and a British traveller reported 10 spas in Turkish times
(1669). There are 24 medical spas, public baths, indoor and outdoor swimming
pools in the capital today, ten with a special medical capacity and therapeutic
value.
operations,
it cares about each detail. Those include airport pick-up by a