Hop on Hop off Bus in Budapest

When you’re with a group of people with no specific plans on what to do, or who don’t all necessarily think all of the same things sound fun, or you just want an easy way to explore a new place, the Hop On Hop Off bus generally works. There’s usually a variety of options for things to do depending on which stops you decide to get off. If you just want a tour of the area riding it around the entire route to see what’s there or just to see the scenery that works too. These are especially useful if there are a lot of busses running so that there is never a long wait at the stops. In Budapest the busses came by every 10-15 minutes.

We met with some friends in Budapest before our Viking river cruise with maybe a vague idea of things we might do, but no definite plans and not really any idea of what there was to do in the immediate area. The hotel where we stayed sold tickets to the HoHo bus, and said there was a stop fairly nearby. It didn’t cost much more for a 48-hour ticket than for a 24-hour ticket so we went with the longer one. The stop nearest our hotel happened to be stop 1 on the route. As per the 10-15 minute expected interval between busses we did not have to wait long – in fact one showed up right about the time we got there.

Viking ship by the Chain Bridge in Budapest

We didn’t stay on it long though. The very next stop was the Chain Bridge, which was on the must-see list for some of the group. There were a couple Viking ships docked next to it so we figured we had found where our boat would dock in a couple days when it would be time to board. Later we saw some more Viking ships on the other side of that bridge, and noticed that besides those two the last email they sent lists the Elizabeth bridge as another possible docking place. At least they included a phone number to call if you can’t find the ship. That was how they phrased it anyway, but calling to see which dock it is actually on before searching all over for it is probably a better idea. We ended up seeing it docked by the Chain Bridge in the first spot we saw a Viking ship on the day before our cruise so we knew where it would be without having to call when we were ready to board.

Chain Bridge

We walked across the Chain Bridge and found another HoHo bus stop on the other side. There was a castle on top of a hill, but the bus stopped at the bottom. A funicular went to the top, and also some funny little blue castle hill busses, who had a 4-stop tour up on the top of the hill. Hop on Hop off runs the castle bus, but it is a separate tour with an additional cost. We wanted to ride the funicular up, but the wait for that was 50 minutes so we decided to go early the next day before it got such a long line.

bus by the Chain Bridge

The next bus that came by had a better layout than the first one and nobody else on it so we got much better seats there. The first one had an open top, but all of the other ones we saw both that day and the next had roofs over the second story, which is definitely better for winter in Hungary. We didn’t go up to the top, but pretty much everyone else who got on that bus did so we had the lower floor mostly to ourselves.

The bus stops by Margaret bridge at Margaret Island. After people get off for that stop and the bus starts moving again the optional spiel you can listen to on the ear pods they give you mentions all sorts of things to do on that island including a Japanese Garden. It would really make more sense to let people know what is there before it stops to let people off instead of after the stop when it’s too late to get off. If anyone decided they wanted to do any of the things there they would have to either get off at the next stop and walk back or ride the bus all the way around until it got back to that stop. Neither is really a good option since it is a long way to the next stop and it takes a long time to make the whole loop. There is a shorter loop for the green route, but we were on the longer red route.

book wagon seen from the bus

We decided to ride it all the way around and see what all the options were for all of the different stops.  At stop 9, Heroes’ Square, it came to a place with a whole line of HoHo busses with some other busses mingled in. We were told we had to leave the bus we were on and go to the one at the front of the line. Since everyone on all the other busses was told the same thing it was pretty crowded. The first one filled and left so we got on the second one. Instead of the nice padded seats the previous one had on the new bus the seats were lower down and cold plastic so not nearly as comfortable.

parliament building

The internet said the parliament building was closed, but the bus guide said it was open. One of our group really wanted to go there so after completing the circuit we got off in front of an eatery called Titiz since that was the stop closet to the parliament building. It’s a bit of a walk and google maps kept changing its mind about the directions after we got about halfway there so we just headed toward the river and came out right where we wanted to be. Turned out the internet was right for a change, the buildings were closed. That doesn’t prevent taking pictures from the outside.

shoe memorial

After that we walked down to the riverbank. There is an area with a bunch of shoes that is a heartbreaking memorial from World War 2. It consists of many pairs of shoes. We saw a shoe memorial in China where the shoes were bronze and expected something similar, but the ones in Budapest are the real actual shoes off the feet of Jewish people that were lined up on the riverbank near the end of the war when the Nazis were running low on bullets. They were all tied together and one was shot. That body fell in taking the rest along with it to drown. The shoes from those people’s feet are now on the riverbank where the people were standing. Some are adult shoes, but the sizes go down to toddler feet. People could walk to the parliament buildings from stop 2 at the Chain Bridge and see the shoe memorial on the way.

Titiz cafe

From the shoe memorial the closest stop was stop 2 the one on the Pest side of the Chain Bridge where we had first gotten off, which is stop 2. Google maps said it was an 11 minute walk back to the hotel from there which would have been the choice I’d have made if it were just me since that would take far less time than riding the bus all the way around again since some people were ready to go back leaving other stops for the next day. Another option would be crossing to the other side of the Chain bridge and picking it up at stop 16 where we started the full circle from and skipping a bunch of it, but while we were all deciding what to do John called an Uber, which got us to the hotel in about 4 minutes instead of the 10 google maps said a car would take. It also only cost $4.

Turkish tea at Titiz

If we had been looking at a map we’d have realized we could have just gone to stop 3, which was nearly as close to our hotel as stop 1. Stop 1 is listed on their map as St. Stevens Basilica, but it is not actually at the Basilica. Stop 3 is listed as Jozef Attilla St. and is near the Budapest Eye.

On the second day we took an Uber to the funicular early in the morning before the HoHo bus started running in order to beat the crowd. There were a couple people at the ticket booth when we got there, but no line and only a short wait until one of the cars of the funicular was down at the bottom and ready to go. There is a restroom near the lower station, but it is of the sort you have to pay for. There was a sign pointing toward one at the top as well, but I don’t know whether that one is paid or free. Free ones are available in some restaurants and coffee shops around town if you stop in for a drink or something to eat.

funicular

A funicular is a cable railway system on a steep slope where two cars counterbalance each other as one rises and the other descends. This system of two cars balancing each other is what distinguishes a funicular from an inclined elevator, in which a single car operates individually. The top station of the funicular is right at Buda castle. It doesn’t cost anything to walk around the castle grounds, which is pretty expansive. It also has an excellent view.

Buda Castle at sunrise

By the time we finished walking around the castle grounds and came back down the funicular it had gotten late enough that the Hoho bus was running for the day. We weren’t at the stop long before one came by. They ran every 10 minutes or so, but one always seemed to come by quicker than that.

Budapest Eye

That time we stayed on the bus until we got to the stop near the Budapest Eye, which is a large Ferris wheel with enclosed compartments along the lines of the London Eye. It was not scheduled to open for about half an hour after we arrived with an opening time of 11am that day. Being winter and with a temperature right about freeing level we were all cold from the day’s activities so far so we were all happy to go to a nearby coffee shop for a hot drink while waiting for the eye to open.

Budapest Eye

It was not very busy so they only filled a few compartments, then ran the wheel up and loaded a few more on the opposite side. For some reason they ran a whole ride with just a few people on it even though there were still some waiting at each of their 4 stations so we had to wait for that round to complete before we could get on.

on the Budapest Eye

It doesn’t take long to load when they’re just putting a few people at either end so it wasn’t a long wait for our ride. This one does not run continuously, rather stopping to load and unload and then running around several times before taking on the next batch. If there was a crowd it would take quite some time to load and unload all of the compartments.

view from the Budapest Eye

From the top of the wheel you can see over all of the nearby buildings. We could see the top of St. Stephen’s Basilica, the tallest church in Budapest at 96 meters. This is the same exact height as the parliament building. Both of these two tower over everything else in the city as nothing is allowed to be taller than the parliament building. The church was allowed to be equal in height to symbolize that the government is not above god.

view with a balloon in the distance

We also saw a hot air balloon from there, though rather than a free-ranging balloon as it appeared from that distance it actually turned out to be a ride that is tethered to the ground. It just goes up and down without leaving that spot.

paddle wheeler seen from the river cruise

The hop on hop off bus ticket includes a short canal cruise so we next got off at the stop they said was closest for that, which was stop 13. Stop 2 at the Chain Bridge is actually closer as well as right on the river so they probably just want people to walk by all the shops near stop 13. The brochure doesn’t actually give much detail about what is at or near any of the stops. Sometimes the ticket person on the bus announces things and sometimes the recorded spiel will tell you if you listen to it. The ongoing spiel has a variety of language choices. Neither spiel nor ticket person are completely reliable though because sometimes the spiel rambles on about things that you have no idea what or where they are and some of the ticket people don’t say anything. It would be nicer if they got rid of all the advertisements taking up much of the space on the brochure and replaced them with close-up maps of each stop and what could be found nearby or at least listed what was there rather than mainly just the street name or square where it stopped. And not say the bus stops at a particular attraction when you can’t even see it after you get off the bus and actually have to walk there and find it on your own.

Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island

Regardless of which stop the hop on hop off boat dock is approached from it’s going to be a little bit of a walk because dock 6 where the boat was is in the middle of an area without direct access from the road and trolley tracks above. The trolley goes right past it, but does not stop in that area. It’s a fairly short boat ride down one side of the canal up to the Margaret Bridge with a turn there and then down to the Elizabeth Bridge and then back to where it started – about a 45-minute ride.

We didn’t get off at any of the other stops, but there are 20 of them on the red line. The green line only has 6. It’s surprising how many signs on various buildings are in English. Not all of them, but considering that is not the main language in Hungary we didn’t really expect any. A lot of people in many of the various non-English speaking countries of Europe do know how to speak English though so quite a few tourists probably find it helpful.

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