Budapest 3-hour self-guided walking tour and scavenger hunt

Are you looking for things to do in Budapest? Try our tourist scavenger hunt to walk the city while discovering its monuments and palaces!

It will take you from Parliament to the Széchenyl Chain Bridge and then to the Hungarian State Opera and several museums between each stop. We offer challenges at every step. Each challenge will tell you where you are going next and a bit of local history and advice.

Buy $50

What you'll see

Parliament
Shoes on the Danube
National Academy of Sciences
Stephen Basilica
Hungary State Opera
Pest Broadway
Liberty Square
Széchenyl Chain Bridge
and more!

We will visit Budapest in the Fall of 2019 and test this scavenger hunt at that time.

Specifications & Requirements

Starting point: Liberty Square, Budapest, Szabadság tér, 1054 Hungary, near the Arany Janos utca metro station.
Distance: 3.4 km / 2.11 mi
Duration: 3 hours
Methode: walking
Required:
- Fully charged smartphone with internet access (data plan) – Wifi will not be enough.
Suggested:
- Water bottle
- Local map

History

Ancient History

The history of Budapest begins in the Celtic period when remnants of a village are transformed into the Roman city of Aquincum (89 CE). It becomes the capital of Pannonia until 200 when the Huns take control, then the Goths, and then the Lombards.

From 600 to 900, the region is dominated by the Avars. There are then two cities, Obuda, and Buda.

The Hungarian nation was founded in 1000 at the coronation of King Stephen I, a Catholic. He became St.Stephen. It is then that the city of Pest, on the other side of the river rises.

The Ottoman Empire took control of the region for 150 years as early as the 16th century. Charles V of Lorraine, a Habsburg and still king of a part of Hungary, reconquered the city in 1686.

Budapest suffered a great fire in 1723, followed by a major flood in 1838. The reconstruction of Buda, Peste, and Obuda began in the second half of the 18th century under Empress Maria Theresa (Hungary-Austrian Empire). Then, the 3 cities are merged into one, forming Budapest.

Modern History

The population of Budapest reached 730,000 in 1900. The end of the First World War caused the loss of 2/3 of the kingdom’s territory. The population of the metropolitan area rose to 1.4 million by 1930.

The desire to recapture the lost territories prompts Hungary to join forces with Germany at the end of the 1930s. As a result, 250,000 Jewish inhabitants of Budapest died during the Second World War.

The city is liberated by Russia, which installs a communist government. A rebellion was attempted in 1956 to regain democracy but was quickly crushed by the Soviet Union. 20,000 are killed and 160,000 are exiled from the country.

Democracy finally returned in 1989 with the fall of the USSR.