Transportation

From the airport

You have three options: my parents can pick you up (easiest and fastest), you can take a taxi, or you can take the bus.

1. I`ll give you my parents` numbers, just remind me.

2. If you want to take a taxi, ask for the fare in advance! Some taxi drivers take advantage of tourists and charge them more because they assume you don`t know the prices. A normal price to the city center would be in the range of 5000-7000 forints (~$25-35).

3. Taking public transportation from the airport is somewhat adventurous, but manageable. Bus #200 goes from right in front of the airport, it`s impossible to miss. Buy your ticket in a newsstand within the airport, because they charge you more on the bus. Take bus #200 to the final destination of Kőbánya-Kispest, where you have to transfer to metro #3 (it goes only one direction from here, so you can`t take the wrong one). Just follow the crowd, they all take the metro. Get off of the metro at Deák tér  -this should be the closest to your apartment.

Deák tér (left) and your address (right)

Around the city

If nothing else, Budapest has a wonderful public transportation system, which I never appreciated enough until I came to the Midwest. Buses, trams, metros, electric buses called `troli`, trains, boats and so on. The transportation company is called BKV, and oh-have-we-many-jokes-about-them! If you buy a three-day pass (assuming they still have those), or 24-hour ones, you get unlimited free rides everywhere, on everything. I always go for this option instead of the individual tickets. Every station is crawling with ticket inspectors, going in and out, whom you don`t want to cross, they can be very rude and very aggressive sometimes. There`s this ever-ongoing battle between inspectors and Budapesters, because many people try to `blicc` that is, avoid paying fees, which, of course, pisses the inspectors off, so they tighten the grid, but that only makes people become more creative and the cycle goes on. Instead of installing security gates and sparing the conflict, we keep these low-paid people around, who feel like they have to get back at you for their miserable lives, maybe because otherwise they wouldn`t have jobs at all. So, just make sure your ticket is valid and with you.

Here`s the webpage of BKV in English: http://bkv.hu/en/
Maps, trip planners, prices are available.

Sample passes: 72-hour pass for 4150 forints (~$20),
weekly pass for 4950 forints (~$25)

A new invention of BKV is boats on the Danube, run by Mahart Zrt. The plan was to transport people to work and back, but quite frankly, 99% of passengers use this for tourist purposes - but for that, it`s wonderful. So, don`t pay gruesome amounts for private boat tours on the Danube, just hop on one of the public ones, the experience is the same, minus the boring tour guide.

Driving

Should you decide to rent a car and drive, there`s one very important thing to know: there`s no turning right on red in Hungary! Signage is also scarcer than in the US, most of the time small intersections are uncontrolled, so you always yield to the one on your right, and stop signs are practically non-existent. But alas, I wouldn`t drive in Budapest, it`s just like every other big city, crazy, crazier, craziest.