8 min
40 min
M1 · M2 · M3 · M4 · 2 · 47 · 49
30.8 / km²
24
6
1,346
+19% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Belváros-Lipótváros
District V is two quarters with one postcode. Lipótváros in the north is the Parliament, the ministries, the Basilica and Szabadság tér - grand, quiet after office hours, and where the good coffee is. Belváros proper in the south is the pedestrian shopping streets, the Danube promenade and the hotels, and it is busy from breakfast until midnight.
Everything a first visit is for is inside a twenty-minute walk, and Deák Ferenc tér is the only station in Hungary where all four metro lines meet. Bus 100E from the airport terminates there too, which is the shortest airport transfer in the city.
The price is the catch and the food is the other one. Váci utca and the streets off it are where the padded-bill restaurants are, and Wikivoyage names the area outright. Walk two blocks inland, or cross the Small Boulevard into District VII, and you pay Hungarian prices again.
What works
- All four metro lines meet at Deák Ferenc tér, in the district
- Parliament, the Basilica and the Chain Bridge are a 10-minute walk apart
- Bus 100E runs direct from the airport to Deák Ferenc tér in about 40 minutes
- Lipótváros is genuinely quiet at night despite being dead central
- Flat, well lit and busy at every hour - the easiest district to arrive in
What does not
- The most expensive rooms in Budapest, roughly double Districts IX or XIII
- Váci utca and the streets around it are where restaurant scams happen
- Almost no ordinary shops left in the southern half - it is souvenir stock
- Kossuth Lajos utca is a four-lane road through the middle of it
- You are surrounded by other visitors, not by anyone who lives in Budapest
It is a good idea to avoid restaurants in the heart of the most touristic areas like Váci utca, especially if all customers seem foreigners, as you'll likely be served mediocre food with a high bill padded with number of bizarre charges.Almost every part can be suggested for a sightseeing walk, except the noisy Kossuth Lajos street.