Buda’s got UNESCO charm and old-world sights sprawling down wooded hills. Over the river in Pest, there’s ruin bars filled with beer so cheap you may as well get married just to come here on your stag.

Both sides are friendly on the wallet, but how far will £20 get you in this Hungarian capital?

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Like any self-respecting capital city, there’s loads of free relics to snoop around to get a feel of the history.

The Kerepesi Cemetery is the biggest outdoor statue park in Europe, and probs the creepiest too. Hungary’s socialist big dogs (including János Kádár who was leader for 30 years) are all here, along with the Labour Movement Mausoleum (and the Snow White witch?) It's free to enter.

Wander up Castle Hill. It’s about 1km above the city and you can look over Budapest’s visual goodies, including the badass Parliament buildings.

Fisherman’s Bastion is at the top - a crazy, turrety, Disneyland looking thing. Apparently the fishermen defended this part of the city in the Middle Ages, so they built a ‘bastion’ (surely the best free bastion in Europe?) Either way it’ll do you a right nice view over the Danube.

The Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest History Museum and the National Library of Hungary are all up there too and are each about a fiver to enter.

You can’t reaaaally come to Budapest and not go to the baths. It’d be like going to London and not going on the underground. (The baths are better though, obvs.)

The classic Széchenyi baths is the most iconic, but pricier than the rest (£15 for the day). Try Lukács Thermal Baths - it has everything: indoor and outdoor pools (feat all the minerals), sauna, sinking pool, a Himalayan salt wall...and it’s in a big park. £10 on a weekday.

Eat here:

Markets are your friend - the Sunday one at Szimpla Kert does fresh cheese from local farmers and live music.

The Great Market Hall is great (as the name suggests). It’ll do you a mean ‘Kolbice’, a sort of hot-dog medley in cone-shaped bread with braised cabbage, onions and condiments (roughly £4)

There’s zillions of foody stalls aswell as trinkets, and the grand building is worth a visit in its own right.

Drink here:

“Why do they call them ‘ruin bars’?”

“Coz we’re gonna get ruiiinnnneddddd wayoooooo!!!”

Yeah, Budapest attracts a few stags. And that’s because the beer’s so goddamn cheap (£2 a pint max) 🍺 and there’s MANY fun places to drink it.

Instant is the enchanted forest of ruin bars. A labyrinth of 23 rooms, 6 bars, 4 dancefloors and 2 gardens, it's got a secret lurking round every chipped corner (and a herd of dangling rabbits 🐰) It’s free to enter.

For more of a chilled (and weird) vibe, Csendes is rocking chandeliers, walls covered in amputated mannequin limbs and leering Disney characters. Score. Beers are around £2.

For your classic ‘converted car park now a graffiti-d bar’- Rácskert is where locals chug iced tea and ‘palinka’ (fruit brandy).

Sum up:

Budapest lives up to its rep of being a scandalously cheap city, and you can get a true feel for the place hardly spending anything.

For £20 you can hang out in the parks, spend a day at the baths, sink your chops into loads of free culture AND have enough cash left over to drink yourself blind.
💰 🍻 🌳 🏰