Except for the smoking comment, I think Elizadoo (and daughter) has characterized Prague and Budapest pretty well.

One trip to the Central Market in Budapest will convince you about the food. My experience has been that central and eastern Europe tend to be more focused on meats. Vienna and Bratislava have schnitzels and sausages everywhere. Prague has some of the heaviest meat and dumpling dishes anywhere I've been.

Since this thread is Budapest or Prague (not Austria), I'd say Budapest has good sightseeing, some good restaurants, and the ruin pubs are kind of cool. Prague has excellent sightseeing and history, but many parts are overrun with tourists. Stick to the Jewish Quarter and Mala Strana to avoid the worst crowds. If you like beer, the beer in Prague just tastes different than anywhere else.

Both are great cities and, as an American, they would probably both rank in my top 5 in Europe.

How did you come to that conclusion? Prague is a city of 1,3 million people, Budapest is nearly 50% larger at 1,75 million.

Prague was "hip new" destination 20 years ago Or maybe I'm getting old and a new generation has rediscovered it lately

And your daughter is correct - culinary Budapest beats culinary Prague even with hands tied and blindfolded with a considerable margin.They are just competing in a different league. Except, of course for the beer, where only M�nchen/Munich could possibly give Prague a run for its money.

Yeah, not sure "hip" is the right word for Prague compared to some other cities, but there's definitely a lot there geared toward the younger crowd, due to the "stag"gering amount of stag parties.

BUMP.

I'm heading to both in September and having the same dilemma as well. It seems like Budapest has the edge over Prague.

I still have to read up on both cities to see which fits me more but as a foodie, I'm handing it over to Hungary.

As a bit of a foodie myself, here's my impression:

Both countries have a lot of heavy food. Meats, sausages, gravy/sauce, starches. I found the food in Prague to be less interesting than Budapest. My experience was that the flavors and spices were more complex in Budapest. The goulash is good and spicy. I had the best roast goose dinner I could have imagined there as well. Also, there was some type of street food that was similar to a pizza that I found interesting. I don't know the name, maybe someone else will. There are also a couple of reasonably priced Michelin restaurants in Budapest, but I'll confess that I haven't tried them.

The number one food-related item in Prague that would bring me back is the beer.

They're both really great cities, but the food winner is Budapest.

Looks like my gut feeling was right on the money. We'll soon find out.

Another foodie here:

For your average international dining the cities are quite equally matched actually. When looking at Prague I see a city that has made huge inroads in dining options and availability of great ethnic cuisine over the last years. Maybe the comment of Prague being "hip" has to do with it, as compared to my first few visits I see a much bigger variety in both dining options and bars. But as Czech food (however tasty it is!) is not that much special as it is quite similar with what you can find in surrounding countries, I would go for Budapest on this aspect. There are a lot of spices, dishes and small bites that you won't see anywhere else. It's a great culinary discovery, do try at least the following two typical Hungarian street foods:


K�rtőskal�cs - or chimney bread, eaten either plain or (most tasty) with a topping (all kinds of nuts, vanilla etc. etc.). It's actually originally from outside the nowadays borders of Hungary (from the ethnic Hungarian community in Transylvania). Delicious. Do make sure you get it fresh from the grill, as pre-packaged it can be chewy and tasteless.


L�ngos - a deep fried flat bread, usually with a topping of cheese and bacon.

Apart from the food another reason to chose Budapest: in my honest opinion the city is slowly getting overrun with tourists and is slowly losing a lot of its charms. The stag-party level is nowadays the equal of Prague (that city to me is actually improving somehow on this, if you visit out of summer!). Where ten years ago you could be one of the few foreigners in your average Budapest ruin pub, nowadays (certainly on the weekends) it can easily be an all-foreign crowd. It might easily get much worse.

I love chimney bread! We have a baker at our Farmer's Market that does this! Coconut, cinnamon, chocolate, or brown sugar....

You can get langos in Bratislava (Slovakia, not to be confused with Slovenia), and what I had looked better. Then again, lots of ethnic Hungarians still live in Slovakia.

I love Czech cuisine, but have to admit that Hungarian is more exotic and tends to be more spicy. Hungarian sausages are to die for, so if that's your choice, be sure to stop at a meat shop and get some to go with some bread and good (not yellow) mustard.

Hungary has excellent wine, but for best beer in the world (on tap of course) you have to head to Czech Republic

This may have been the pizza-like food I had, although it looked better .

I got it at a small street festival. It was larger and cut in single serving pieces, and there were a few varieties. Mine had a different type of meat, but there was one with bacon there.

Does that sound like Langos or did I have something else?

Aside from the pub scene, how touristy does the city feel in general? Just curious. Traveling there for the first time late this summer and wanting to calibrate. People seem to have highly varying definitions of "touristy". Are we talking "touts on every corner, tour groups with flag-carrying guides, hop-on-hop-off bus" touristy, or "the backpackers are upset because the hostel prices are above $10" touristy?

Both depending on where you go. The area around the Fisherman's bastion has the tour groups (though not too many touts) but there are other areas which are more complaining backpacker territory. I definitely think Budapest is somewhere you should go to now before it changes too much - it isn't just the tourists, it's all the investment turning it into a modern European city.

There are definitely pockets of both. But as a whole, there are significantly fewer tour buses and touts than in most large European cities. It's no comparison to the tourism industry in Prague, IMHO.

I agree now is the time to go.

Oh yeah it's definitely less touristy than Prague