# Staying in Belváros-Lipótváros, Budapest: Map & Verdict

Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/belvaros-lipotvaros
Every Budapest district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest.md

District V is the centre in every sense: Parliament, the Basilica, the river and all four metro lines. You pay Vienna prices for it and you eat badly if you stay on Váci utca.

Facts: 8 min walk to Deák Ferenc tér; 40 min to the airport; price €€€€; best for first-timers, sights, couples, business trips; lines M1, M2, M3, M4, 2, 47, 49.

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

Hotels in Belváros-Lipótváros: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D1248%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Budapest

- [Terézváros](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/terezvaros): Recommended. District VI runs from the Opera up Andrássy út to Heroes' Square and the Széchenyi baths. Central prices minus a third, and the M1 does the walking.
- [Erzsébetváros](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/erzsebetvaros): Mixed. District VII is the old Jewish Quarter and the ruin bar district at the same address. Two square kilometres, the best food in Budapest, and no sleep on a Saturday.
- [Józsefváros](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/jozsefvaros): Mixed. District VIII is two districts. The Palace Quarter is the prettiest quiet corner of central Pest; the streets behind Népszínház utca are the ones locals walk around at night.
- [Ferencváros](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/ferencvaros): Recommended. District IX is the Great Market Hall, Ráday utca and half the District V price. Stay inside the Grand Boulevard; the district runs a long way south of it.
- [Várkerület](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/varkerulet): Mixed. District I is Buda Castle, Fisherman's Bastion and the best view in Hungary. It is also the most expensive district, the steepest, and empty of restaurants after 21:00.
- [Újbuda](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/ujbuda): Mixed. District XI is 33 km² of Buda. The Gellért baths and Bartók Béla út are worth booking; the rest of it is suburbs, and a hotel listed as District XI can be 10 km out.
- [Angyalföld](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-budapest/angyalfold): Recommended. The southern end of District XIII, Újlipótváros, is where people who live in Budapest would stay: 1930s streets, real restaurants, the Parliament 15 minutes away. The north is not.