TOUR START/FINISH After a short riding lesson, start exploring the city on the Pest side remarkable for its elegant 19th-century architecture. Ride along the spectacular Danube riverbanks and bridges and the elegant Andrassy Avenue and wonder at the Opera House and grand 19th-century palaces. Visit Heroes’ Square and learn about Hungarian history in a nutshell then tour through the charming City Park, home to the Zoo, the Great Circus, Széchenyi Bath and Vajdahunyad Castle. Marvel at St Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament Building then cross the river Danube and explore the Buda side famous for its medieval castle and astonishing hilltop views. Tour through the cobblestone streets of the historic Buda Castle District, visit the Royal Palace and the iconic Matthias Church and marvel at the stunning view from Fisherman’s Bastion, the most famous lookout in Budapest. At last, drive up to the Citadel and Liberty Statue on top of Gellert Hill and admire the unparalleled view of Budapest.

The Great Market Hall standing on the Pest side of Liberty Bridge is the largest and most popular market hall in Budapest. The 150-metre-long, 3-storey brick building supported by a cast-iron frame was built in 1896 by the Hungarian architect and academic Samu Pecz. The historicist main facade features Zsolnay ceramic tiles. The market hall is a mecca for food lovers. Hungarian sausage and salami, goose liver and sweet paprika powder are just a few of the countless Hungarian delicacies that you can buy here. In its dozen of food outlets, you can taste typical Hungarian dishes like goulash soup or lángos (scone) and you can even buy your souvenirs. The Great Market Hall is a must-see tourist attraction that was elected by CNN as the best market hall in Europe.

Liberty Bridge, linking Pest Small Boulevard with Buda, was the third road bridge in Budapest but the first one that was designed by a Hungarian engineer. The shortest bridge in the city was completed for the Millennial celebrations in 1896 commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the Conquest of Hungary by the Magyar tribes, which is also reflected in its ornamentation. The pylons are decorated with historic Hungarian coats of arms and falcon-like mythical Turul birds cast in bronze perching on gilded orbs with spread wings. The bridge was originally named after the Austrian Emperor and Hungarian King Franz Joseph I, who presented himself at the opening ceremony and personally hammered the last silver rivet into the iron structure. In WWII, the bridge was blown up by the retreating German troops along with the other bridges of Budapest. Following its post-war reconstruction, it was renamed Liberty Bridge.

Marvel at the Castle Garden Bazaar, a beautiful 19th-century structure closing the Castle Gardens on the Danube riverfront

The elegant avenue, renowned for the Opera House and grand 19-century palaces is often referred to as Budapest's Champs-Elysées. The main reason for its creation was to establish a link between the city centre and City Park, which hosted the Millennium Exhibition in 1896 where 5 million visitors were expected. The visitors were carried to the exhibition by the Millennium Underground running along Andrassy Avenue, the first subway line in mainland Europe opened in 1896. Andrassy Avenue and the Millennium Underground were declared World Heritage sites in 2002.

The Neo-Renaissance Hungarian State Opera House is Budapest's most prestigious music hall and is listed among those with the best acoustics in Europe. It was built in 1884 to the designs of Miklos Ybl, a leading architect of the age, who also drew the plans for St Stephen's Basilica. Its exterior decoration features the statues of world-famous composers while the highlights of its interior are the 24-carat gold plating, a lavish bronze chandelier weighing 2 tonnes and the frescoes created by the most renowned Hungarian artists.

Heroes' Square is the largest square in Budapest and has been a national landmark for more than 100 years. It is located at the end of Andrassy Avenue and is surrounded by City Park, the largest public park in Budapest. The centrepiece of the square is the Millennium Monument, a national pantheon of great Hungarian kings and chieftains commemorating the Conquest of Hungary in 896 and the 1000-year Hungarian history. The square is framed by two Neo-Classical palaces, the Museum of Fine Arts which boasts the richest painting collection in Hungary and the Kunsthalle (Hall of Arts) which accommodates exhibitions of contemporary art. Heroes’ Square along with Andrassy Avenue had been declared a World Heritage site in 2002.

Budapest City Park is the largest and most frequented park in Budapest and one of the first public parks in the world. In the middle ages, it was the private hunting ground of King Matthias then in the 16th century, the trees were cut down and the area was used as a pasture-land. In the 1700s, by the order of Empress Maria Teresa thousands of new trees were planted, which marked the birth of City Park. The park has been home to some of the city’s most popular attractions such as the City Park Boating Lake and Ice Rink, The Zoo, the Great Circus, the iconic Széchenyi Bath and the fairy-tale Vajdahunyad Castle. Currently, the park is undergoing a comprehensive renewal. The large-scale project involves the renovation of the park’s historic architecture, the construction of new museum buildings such as the National Gallery, the Museum of Ethnography, the House of Hungarian Music, the complete rehabilitation of the park's green area and the development of its infrastructure.

One of the oldest Zoos in Europe was opened in 1866 with 500 animals, partly donated by Emperor Franz Joseph I himself. It features the 34-metre high Big Rock home to polar bears, the secessionist Elephant House and an over 100-year-old roller coaster made entirely of wood which was preserved from the former Amusement Park that had been closed down. The Zoo is currently undergoing a large-scale enlargement including the creation of a new garden section covering 5 hectares called the Pannon Park, which will showcase the flora and fauna of the Carpathian Basin. Its central facility is the Biodome a large indoor park covering 1,7 hectares where visitors can discover wildlife by walking along its paths or by cruising along its water canals by boats. A state-of-the-art marine aquarium will evoke the fauna of the Pannon Sea, which once occupied a significant area of the Carpathian Basin.

The Great Circus home to acrobatic shows was formed from the temporary side shows and entertainment facilities which had been operating in City Park since the early 1800s. The first permanent circus was opened in 1889. The present building was built in 1971.

One of Budapest's iconic baths was opened in 1913 in City Park following the discovery of a hot spring beneath the park. The building resembling a grand Baroque palace is decorated with remarkable artwork featuring statues, mosaics and fountains. Originally the bath was separated into a men’s and women’s bath but since the 1980s it has been mixed. The outdoor pools which were added in 1927, in the late 1990s were extended with new fancy features such as a whirling corridor, underwater effervescence production, neck shower, water beam back massage and many others. While during the day the old men play chess in the pool recalling the good old times, at night massive dance parties entertain the young. Today the bath boasts altogether 18 pools; 15 indoor and 3 outdoor pools, which makes it the largest public bath in Europe. The water temperature of the pools varies between 18 and 40 Celsius. Finnish saunas, steam baths, massage, and beauty treatments are also available.

The castle located on a small island surrounded by the Boating Lake is a dominant feature of City Park and undoubtedly one of the most romantic places in Budapest. It was originally made of wooden planks and cardboard designs as it was supposed to be just a temporary structure built for the Millennial Exhibition of 1896, to showcase Hungarian architecture. The Hungarians loved the castle so much that after the closing of the exhibition it was rebuilt in stone. It was designed by the Hungarian architect Ignác Alpár who blended the most characteristic details of 21 well-known historic buildings from all over Hungary into a composite fairy-tale castle. The most striking element of the castle is the replica of the Transylvanian Castle of Vajdahunyad - once called the King of Castles - found today in Romania. No wonder, the local people named the whole castle after this part Vajdahunyad Castle, which name eventually stayed with it.

The boating lake surrounding the fairy-tale Vajdahunyad Castle was one of the first attractions of City Park. It is in use even today, only the old-school rowing boats have been replaced by modern pedal boats. Since 1870, the lake is being transformed into an ice rink every winter, making it the oldest ice skating rink in Europe.

The Secession-style palace was built in 1906 for the office building and staff residence of the London-based Gresham Insurance Company. After WWII the building became the property of the state and the suites were transformed into smaller flats. In 2004, the government sold the building which was transformed into a luxury hotel.

The Hungarian National Academy of Sciences was founded in 1825, at the initiative of Count István Széchenyi, a renowned Hungarian aristocrat and statesman and also one of the richest landowners of Hungary, who offered a one-year income of his estates for its establishment. The Neo-Renaissance building inaugurated in 1865 stands on Széchenyi square overlooking Széchenyi Chain Bridge which both bears his name in his honour.

Széchenyi Chain Bridge (Széhenyi Lánchíd) is the first permanent bridge in Budapest, a national landmark and the legacy of a remarkable period of Hungarian history when Hungary enjoyed great economic and cultural prosperity, and Budapest developed into a flourishing European metropolis. It was built in 1849 at the initiative of the renowned Hungarian aristocrat and statesman Count Istvan Széchenyi and to the designs of the English William Tierney Clark. The Scottish engineer Adam Clark supervised the construction and later he designed the Tunnel on the Buda side of the bridge. After the construction of the bridge, the formerly separate cities of Pest Buda were unified and renamed Budapest. The famous lion sculptures adorning the bridgeheads were added in 1852. Legend has it, that the lions don’t have a tongue because the sculptor forgot to create them, for he had been criticized so much that he committed suicide.

The 350-metre-long tunnel running across Castle Hill was built in 1857 to provide easier access to the Chain Bridge without having to climb the hill. It was designed by the Scottish engineer Adam Clark who also supervised the construction of the Chain Bridge. The square framed by the Tunnel and the Chain Bridge bears his name in his honour. On the square stands the Zero Kilometer Stone marking the official centre of Budapest from where the major national roads start and the distances are measured. The rooftop terrace of the Tunnel is a good vantage point and a popular spot for amorous couples.

The historic cable car carrying passengers from the foot of Castle Hill to the hilltop was completed in 1870. The main reason for its creation was to provide faster access to the Court Theater, and the government offices situated on top of Castle Hill, which could not be reached by any other means of public transport. Its lower terminal was placed near the Chain Bridge, which was a major traffic junction for the horse-drawn tram and the omnibuses and the upper terminal was built near the Royal Palace. It can carry 24 passengers in each of its two cars, running parallel upwards and downwards on the 95 m long track. The funicular was destroyed by a bomb attack in WWII and was dismantled after the war. In 1986 it was reopened with modernised engineering and in 1987 was declared a world heritage site.

Matthias Church is one of the most famous national landmarks and one of the oldest historic monuments in Budapest. King Bela IV - who built Buda Castle after the Mongol invasion- founded the Romanesque church in 1270. King Matthias, who held both his two weddings in the church, built the 76 m high main staple in 1470. This is where its commonly used name, Matthias Church comes from. In 1541 Buda Castle was taken by the Turks, and the church had been turned into a mosque for 145 years. Following the recapture of Buda Castle from the Turks in 1686, it was rebuilt in baroque style. In 1867, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, and Empress Elizabeth, were crowned here king and queen of Hungary, which marked the beginning of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The church regained its original Gothic character following its great reconstruction led by Frigyes Schulek between 1867 and 1896. The last king of Hungary Charles IV was crowned here in 1916.

Fisherman’s Bastion is the most famous lookout in Budapest. The building - reminiscent of a fairy tale castle adorned with towers, terraces, staircases and archways was built in 1902 to the designs of Frigyes Schulek who led the reconstruction of Matthias Church. By his concept, the outdated walls behind the church were replaced by a new yet medieval-looking Neo-Romanesque structure. Even Emperor Franz Joseph I, who visited the lookout in 1903, had been stunned by the view, which was very much different from what he saw 35 years ago when he was crowned king in Matthias Church. By this time Budapest had developed into a flourishing metropolis whose nearly all famous landmarks can be seen from here; the Parliament Building, St Stephen’s Basilica, the Chain Bridge, Gellert Hill with the Citadel and Liberty Statue, Margaret Island and many more. Its name was given in honour of the brave fishermen who defended this stretch of the wall during the sieges.

One of the oldest churches in Budapest was built around the foundation of Buda in the 1240s. During the Turkish occupation in the 16th century, It remained the last functioning place of Christian worship and was shared by the Catholics and the Protestants. The church was badly damaged in WWII and was pulled down after the war except for its 15th-century tower which is the only medieval monument of the Buda Castle District maintained in its original form.

The cave accommodates the Cave Church which was built by the Pauline fathers in 1926 to the model of the Lourdes Grotto a similar rock construction in France. In the middle ages, the cave was known as "Saint Ivan's Cave" regarding a hermit who lived here and healed the sick by the magical hot spring. In the 19th century, it was inhabited by a poor family, who built a small shed at the mouth of the cave that was used as an animal yard. By the early 1900s, the cave had been abandoned and in 1926 the Pauline fathers erected a chapel inside the cave. In 1931 the cave was enlarged by a controlled blasting and later it was also extended with a monastery. In 1951 the communist authorities dissolved the Pauline Order and sealed the entrance of the cave with a concrete wall. The church was reopened after the fall of the communist regime in 1989.

Budapest is called the City of Baths. Gellert Bath located at the foot of Gellert Hill is one of the most famous. The first bath was established here by King Andrew II in the 13th century where his daughter Saint Elisabeth healed the leprous. The "magical healing spring" healed the sick for centuries however, the bath remained a modest establishment. Following the construction of Liberty Bridge, the city decided to replace the old bath with an upmarket spa hotel. The Grand Hotel Gellert and Bath was completed in 1918 and soon became the flagship hotel of Budapest. Among its guests were such celebrities as the Dutch Queen Juliana, Cardinal Pacelli later Pope Pius XII and the American president Richard Nixon. The bath is famous for its secessionist interior which features stained glass windows, mosaic floors and ceramic ornaments made by the famous Zsolnay porcelain factory. The outdoor wave pool producing artificial waves is also a popular attraction of the bath.

The military fort on top of Gellert Hill was built in 1854, by the Austrian general Haynau after crushing the Hungarian War of Independence of 1849. It was built not to defend but to threaten the Hungarians, no wonder the locals called it the Bastille of Budapest. Following the Compromise with Austria in 1867, the Austrian troops abandoned the fortress and it became the property of the city. Its demolition was on the agenda but the city had no money to pull it down and eventually stayed. During WWII, the Nazi German troops used it as an air defence base and after the war, it was utilized as a hotel, restaurant, casino, and even a dancing club. Currently, it is undergoing a large-scale reconstruction which involves the creation of a new lookout terrace, a museum, new catering facilities and the construction of a cable car is also on the agenda. The terrace in front of the Citadel is one of the most famous lookouts in the city where you can admire an unparalleled view of Budapest.

The 40-meter tall Liberation Monument was erected on top of Gellert Hill in 1947, to commemorate the Soviet liberation of Hungary which ended WWII and also marked the beginning of the communist rule. It represents a female figure holding a palm leaf symbolizing liberty. There are two smaller bronze statues at the base, the man holding a torch symbolizes progress and the man fighting the dragon symbolizes victory over fascism. During the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, the rebels tried to pull it down but could only topple the 6-metre tall statue of the Soviet soldier which used to stand on the lower pedestal. The statue was restored and had been standing there until the fall of the communist regime in 1989, when it was relocated to Memento Park, among those 42 giant statues which decorated the city during the communist dictatorship. In 1990, after the last Soviet troops had left Hungary, the monument was renamed Liberty Statue.

Elisabeth bridge completed in 1902, was named after Queen Elisabeth, who was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva in 1899. Until 1926, it was the longest chain bridge in the world stretching over the Danube with a single 290 m span. In 1945 the retreating German troops blew up the bridge. The explosion destroyed the pylon on the Buda side and the bridge collapsed. However, the pylon on the Pest side remained intact and had been standing there as a memento of the war, until the reconstruction of the bridge started in 1960. After lengthy discussions, in 1959 the decision was made to replace the former chain bridge with a new cable bridge in the same place, utilizing its original abutments. The new Elisabeth bridge was completed in 1964 to the designs by the Hungarian engineer Pál Sávoy, who saved the silhouette of the former bridge in a modern shape. Elisabeth bridge was the only bridge in Budapest, which was not restored to its original form after the war.

Marvel at the classical-style palace of the Hungarian National Museum, the oldest museum of the city.