It is the Castle Hill location. I don't even need to park it near my hotel, I just want a safe and secure location for something much cheaper. It looks like I can even leave it at the airport and then take public transportation in and save up to $100 USD.

Not a bad idea at all. I did the 200E bus to the M3 Metro transfer and it was easy as pie. I suggest the 24 Hour transit pass too.

I wrote a trip report for my recent trip which I hope does the city justice:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...rst-class.html

Great report! Thanks! I'm thinking of doing a trip report as well, but my story telling is horrible. We'll see.

Don't worry about the storytelling, just support it with photographs and you've got a good TR. Not enough Trip Reports talk about the destination so the more of those we have the better.

Not many posts on this thread. Is the 72 hour Budapest card a good deal? Usually these sorts of cards aren't.

https://onlinesales.budapest-card.co...en&affiliate=2

It depends. I've been there several times, and purchased it for the first time about a month ago.

Budapest is a very walkable city, and one time tickets for the occasional subway or tram are cheap IMO.

The reason I bought it this time was because my mother with a bad knee was along on the trip. She can't walk too long without it bothering her so we often took transport even to go just a few blocks. We came out ahead by buying the pass over single tickets.

If you enjoy walking (which is a great way to see the city), and are staying mainly in the center of Pest, and say Castle Hill in Buda, I would not buy the pass. Going out to Heroes Square or some of the baths, for example, just buy single tickets.

What is a good deal is purchasing a travelcard, which is good for unlimited travel on all of the busses, metro, and trams in Budapest. Price is HUF 4,150 ($15) for the 72-hour travelcard, or HUF 4,950 ($18) for the 7-day travelcard.

That will allow you to spontaneously do stuff like take Tram #2 along the Danube getting a great view of the Castle Hill lights. Or take the metro to Batthyány Square to see the lights of the Parliament building from across the Danube in Buda.

There is a kiosk at the airport where you can buy the pass......and immediately use it to travel into the city.

http://www.bkk.hu/en/tickets-and-passes/prices/

+1 for the 72hrs/1wk travelcard

When you purchase it, you can even set the starting day/hour so you can buy it whenever it's convenient. If you buy it at the airport, you'd obviously want to use it for the bus+metro ride to town. But if you prefer to take a cab due to luggage, etc just set a later start date

Correction to my post, what I purchased was the 72-hour travel card, NOT the Budapest card. I mis-read the original question. I would not recommend purchasing the Budapest card, except in rare circumstances.

OK, thanks, my usual experience is that cards that include a bunch of museum admissions are a loser while local transit cards are winners -- seems it's true here too. I am arriving by train from Vienna, however, can I buy it at the rail station?

Yes - they are sold at a number of places and machines. Your best bet is probably the ticket office (or machine) at the subway (=Metro) entrance. They take cash and cards (Visa/Mastercard, not so sure about Amex or Diners)

Yes...

Just below the rail station is a metro station (Keleti Palyaudvar). There's a large ticket office located in the metro where you can purchase travelcards. Two metro lines cross at Ketali...lines 2 and 4 (green and red on the metro map:

http://visitbudapest.travel/images/s..._metro_map.png

To the answer the OP's question seven years late, Budapest is one of the most stunning and interesting cities in the world and everyone should visit it. Most cities are worth about 2 days, Budapest is worth 4 days.

Taxis - as are most things in Hungary - are very cheap.

They have regulated rates, and accept cards.

Though you might have have communication issues.

The density of attractions there is such that walking covers of most of where you would want to be. And my recommended complementary mode of transportation to that is Uber.