Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492568 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Peterjon Cresswell has been living between Budapest and London since 1990 and has worked on all previous editions of Time Out Budapest. A Hungarian speaker, he has also contributed to Time Out's Europe by Air and Time Out Online, as well as several other guides covering the Central and Eastern European region.

Customer Reviews

The Definitive Guide to this City!!
I lived in Budapest for five months and can honestly say that this book has no equal. It educates and entertains all at once. Time Out does a great job of researching the coolest hangouts, and describes their atmosphere so you know what to expect. Whether you want restaurants, museums, galleries, or flea markets, this is the book for you!

A mix of useful recommendations and smug commentary
Bought this for a recent 5 day visit to Budapest.

On the positive side, it is very useful for finding restaurants and bars. The reviews are generally accurate. The layout of the book is fine, using the index became the primary way of locating information.

On the negative side, the book was very poor on providing what I would call 'travel' information; History of the city, places to see and do, getting around etc. I found many of the descriptions to be very condescending and patronizing and did not inspire us to visit anywhere. I gave up and bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Budapest which was much more useful.

We ended up using the two books which led to a great 5 days in Budapest!

Has its ups and downs....
I brought the latest edition of TOBudapest, two weeks after it hit Amazon.uk, to Hungary with me this past October. That being said, I was a little let down. Granted, Budapest is a city that is still changing, establishing and re-establishing itself. However, I think Time Out missed the mark on several occasions here (and I'm a huge proponent of Time Out guides).

The maps are especially erroneous. However, Time Out is once again very handy when it comes to addresses. I'd suggest buying a map upon arrival in Budapest (a good one can be picked up at a newsstand for a couple of bucks) and working in tandem with Time Out's signature style of breaking attractions up by area.

You take your chances with the nightlife, which surprises me as this is usually one of Time Out's fortes. For instance, they mentioned that, when asked, a bartender at Katapult Kazevo described their hours as "2 AM crazy, 4 AM cool, 6 AM breakfast, 8 AM 'Hello, I love you.'" However, my travel partner and I got there around 11 to find them closing up (the bartender informed us, incidentally, that they were more of a cafe than a bar). This wasn't an isolated incident, which led us to wonder if someone forgot to change the bar/club names to correspond with the correct reviews. Perhaps we can blame the fall of communism for that one.

They include a decent section on the Baths (Budapest's main attraction) and mention most of the other pertinent sights (Opera House, Oktagon Square, House of Terror, the cathedral, etc.). However, this is much more a consumer's guide to Budapest, based on the Big 3 of Wining, Dining, and Buying. While we were unable to try many of the upscale restaurants and indulge in shopping while there, the nightlife portion often steered us away from this guidebook and towards others to plan day itineraries. We did follow one of the day trips further afield with great success. And, as always, I appreciate the frankness of the editors when it comes to safety precautions, cultural and historical backgrounds (a necessity to understand in Eastern Europe, but overall I expected more from a publisher that (up until now) has never let me down.