The winter wonderland of Budapest
No matter how cold it is, bundling up and leaving your hotel room to explore the city center of the Hungarian capital in the wintertime is a must. Christmas fairs in the city, with their irresistible aromas of cinnamon, hot wine, roasted chestnuts, and freshly baked delicacies, must be on your itinerary. These bazaars also entice visitors with their wooden stalls and a wide, and colorful variety of Hungarian merchandise such as ceramics, special honeys, uniquely designed clothes, bags, jewelry, candles, handmade toys and other handicrafts. The most popular Christmas fair is on Vörösmarty Square and attracts 800,000 visitors per year. It also hosts concerts, puppet shows and workshops the whole family can enjoy, while the Advent Festival located beside Saint Stephen’s Basilica offers skating lessons for kids, live music, and a wide selection of handmade goods.
Budapest in the winter offers an abundance of gems that will make you feel as if you’re walking into an enchanted world of fairy tales. One of the most amazing things to do here is ice-skating at the picturesque City Park Ice Rink, right next to the romantic Vajdahunyad Castle – it turns into a boating lake once the weather gets warmer. This place is truly one-of-a-kind with its magical atmosphere. The ice rink is also the largest and one of the oldest on the continent. If you can’t get enough of skating, you can also find rinks at many other spots in the city. There are ice rinks for children at most of Budapest’s Christmas fairs, where your kids can enjoy gliding on the ice free of charge. In 2022 another extraordinary event will make Budapest’s winter evenings even more atmospheric: On Margaret Island the Lumina Park exhibition offers a fabulous light and sound show to captivate visitors during the run-up to holiday season. You can wander through India, Australia, China and the United States, thanks to the installations set up in 19 different locations on the 1800-metre promenade around the Palatinus Bath. A light-giraffe that reaches up to the treetops, a car that you can sit in, and astronauts waving from the tops of the slides provide a great experience for both children and adults.
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Chimney cake
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Lumina Park, Budapest
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Vörösmarty Square-Christmas fair
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