What Tourists HATE about Budapest

Hey there fellow travelers, Mark here with Walt's World and today we're back in Budapest and today we're going to talk about are the things that annoy the tourists when they come here to Budapest. And I'm going to tell you, this city is fantastic. Most tourists are not going to have any problems when they're here coming from going to the castle, the food with all the paprikas and all the fantastic fun you can have when you're here from exploring the caves to going into the museums, the churches, St. Stephen's Basilica. I mean, it's a fantastic place to visit. But there are some things that tourists tend not to like so much. And I want to tell you, about my biggest one is the ticket checkers on the public transportation. Look, when you come here, just buy the 24 hour ticket or the 72 hour ticket, because it's gonna make your life so much easier, because they have checkers to make sure you have a ticket whether you're taking the metro, or maybe take the trams, you're gonna take the buses, you want to make sure you have a valid ticket because they will find you and they will find you on the spot. And it is not an insignificant amount of money. So please, please, please, please just get your ticket, get it on your phone, you already have it there, you don't have to worry about it, because otherwise, you will learn about the least helpful service there is in Hungary. And that is the people that will be like, look, it's not my fault, you didn't validate your ticket. Fine, pay up. Alright, so just go to the BKK kiosk, you'll see them there, you can buy the tickets, go online, get it on your phone, you'll be good to go. But just just be aware, just be aware. This is one of the things that tourists really get nailed on that you don't like. I've been nailed myself. And that's one reason why I'm like the burnt hand on the iron. Never going to do that again. All right, I don't want that happening to you. Now, the second thing that tourists don't like when they come here are their currency woes. When I say currency woes, there's a few things. Well, one, first off, this is not a Euro land, okay? They have the foreign tier. And the thing is, you have the foreign, you have currency you're not using. Sometimes you get kind of confused with the exchange and, and with the bills and things like that. And that sometimes throws tourists off. Also, that means sometimes some nefarious folk might want to slip in some other currencies in there, my short changer, these kind of things. And so it's kind of hard to catch on when you're not sure the currency, but also probably the toughest thing that tourists don't like it is the math that you'll need to do the foreign to Euro or foreign to dollar exchange rate. We're talking I don't know 300 or 400 to one. Yeah, you could do four to one, you do three to one, but 350 to one, it gets a little confused in your mind. And sometimes that can make it tough like when you're taking money out of the ATM, or you're trying to debate like, is this an expensive dish or not? So that's something that can be unhelpful, right? And then also continue with your currency woes is dealing with the exchange offices. Yes, some of them are fine. Some of them do just fine they give you a good rate, no commission, you'll be fine. Some of them promise you a good rate, they give you an insane like fee they're gonna make you charge, or other ones just give you a really bad exchange rate. So it's really important you look around. And I recommend if you're going to get some local currency, which you probably will need a few times, like maybe for a public bathroom, or maybe get something to the shops, a little quick thing. Or if you're at the markets, you want to grab something, in general, you can use card all the time here, not a big deal. Visa and MasterCard people, American Express, a little bit more difficult to discover, a little bit more difficult to use here. But I will say, getting those things out, go to the ATM, get your foreign out there. Remember, never, ever, ever take that conversion. Get the money out and say, no, I'll take it in foreign. Thank you. And the thing is, the ATMs here will ask you twice because they want to to try really try to make sure they can get you so do be careful with that now another thing that tourists may mention on things that is really tough to uh get a hold of when you come here to Budapest is the Hungarian language I mean it is one of the hardest languages to learn anywhere in the world and the locals know that you will not speak Hungarian but I will tell you when you try and you mess up they are still so so happy so remember this köszönöm, köszönöm is thank you right there people would be so happy you're like they're köszönöm hey you said thank you like hey no problem and then hi or hello is like Szia okay that's gonna be one you can use for that people will say but köszönöm is a really good one also uh jó napot which is another way of saying like good day and i will tell you if you want to make the locals happy say jó napot when you come in or Szia when you come in or köszönöm when you're leaving if you're doing something they really appreciate that and it can help with the service because i'll be honest with you one of the things tourists don't like about coming to Budapest is the service. Now, you can get very friendly service when you are here. That's not necessarily the problem. The problem is getting the service to come to your table, to flag them down to get your bill, to get another glass of wine when you're here, maybe a bottle of wine, or you want a pálinka, these kind of things. It is kind of tough to kind of get the service to come to you. So you have to be a little bit more proactive in your service searching. Now, one thing I will say here in Budapest, the service line has come up a lot since we started making videos 20 years ago. But the thing is, it still is one of those things you need to have some patience with, and just be a little proactive. If you want that next to another soda, if you want another wine, if you want the bill, just do that. Oh, also, don't forget, you do tip here, and what you'll do is you'll tell them the percentage, like when you go to pay, you'll be like, okay, just add on 10%, and they'll add it on, you'll be good to go. Now, I'm sure they prefer if you did it in cash, but you can do it with your card, no big deal. Now, one of the great things about coming to Budapest is still a very affordable, fun city to go to. However, I will tell you this, some tourists have mentioned that going to Váci Street, like the main kind of like touristy kind of street there, the prices seem a little bit high at the restaurants and at the souvenir shops and at the stores there. And that's one thing I would recommend if you want to go eating, you want to go shopping, you want to get your souvenirs, go away from there and you will get significant discounts in terms of like, what you're gonna pay and you're gonna get a lot better, not only say better food, but you're gonna get food at a better price other places. So be aware of that. And you notice the locals aren't eating there so much either. So that kind of was a giveaway that maybe the prices aren't really what the locals are usually paying and you shouldn't either. Now next up we have our traditional kind of things that no one likes in any city, the typical kind of scams you have here. And Budapest being a fantastic city to visit with tourists to come all year round. I mean, it is a very popular city for bachelor parties, for culture trips for school groups for anybody to come. I've brought students here, I've seen people come here for bachelor parties, I've come here for bachelor parties. I mean, it is just a really fantastic place to visit. Anytime you have a fantastic place to visit with a lot of tourists. That means you're going to have, you know, the usual scam stuff, pickpockets, you know, if you're over in Pest, make sure you pay attention in St. Stephen's Cathedral when you're going around there, and all the like major areas when be careful in the castle area when there's a ton of tourists around, do be aware and there are a lot of really good buskers here. So if you're focused on the busker, you become a little bit easier to pickpocket. So do pay attention there. Now, it's not horrible here, but it is something I want you to be aware of. Also the usual kind of things don't leave anything in your car, if you're parking, you know, three card Monty, you will never win. They will always win. That one person that won is their friend when they're playing those street games kind of things. No, but honestly, there's kind of two kind of scammy kind of things that tourists really mentioned a lot. And I've seen this firsthand that they really don't like. One, make sure you're always checking your bill at the restaurant in case maybe there was an extra palinka or paprika, like chicken paprika that that showed up on your bill. You want to make sure everything's on the up and up. Accidents do happen, you know, they might accidentally put something on there. But it's one of those things like you might order something, they don't bring it and it's still on the menu or it's still on the bill. You want to check for that or if they added something extra, it's a good idea to check for that. But I really it's not so much the restaurants, it's if you're going to clubs, okay, you go to the clubs and they overcharge you or they don't show you the menu before you order. Look, you got to see the menu at the bars before you order because you just order a beer. You don't know what kind of beer you're going to get and how much it's going to cost. So make sure you're checking that out. So that kind of like the bill menu kind of scammy kind of thing for tourists. That's one thing they really don't like. The second thing are the taxis here. And I'll be honest with you, you can use the rideshare apps when you are here. It's probably it might not be one you have back at home, but so look and see. But I would recommend using rideshares to get you around because then you know they're gonna pick you up, where they're gonna drop you off, how much you're gonna pay for it, it's already all set up. So that's a lot more helpful. And I do recommend doing that over the taxis. Now, some of the taxis have been very nice, but I'll be honest with you, I have been to Budapest five times this is my sixth visit here and the other five times we've had taxis try to rip us off so just be aware of that and that's not just me that's a number of tourists that mentioned that now another thing that tourists might mention they don't like is when you go to the thermal baths and no it's not about going to the thermal baths because you want to go to the thermal baths when you're here they are fantastic when you go and you just enjoy the water or you get the massages when you're there it's just such an awesome experience I remember the first time I came first time I came here was in 1997 fell in love with the massages there they just like oh like they broke me and i'm like oh i feel so good like you just feel like a new man when you go to them but also the spa is all over itself and you can enjoy them all year round okay so they're like a little snow and then hot springs and thermal baths they're fantastic however one of the things tourists don't like is the fact that well yes you have to bring a swimsuit but that's kind of normal but also you need to have flip-flops when you're there and bring your own towel you can rent them when they're there but they're like wait i might as well just buy them for the price of renting them so do be aware of that if you're gonna go just throw in your flip-flops or your swimsuit that little towel, you'll be good to go. Okay. Oh, yeah. And the flip flops one because it's slippery when you're walking around, but also in the summertime, these tiles get super, super hot. So you want to have that but you can't buy them when you're here. So you can pick them up. So there is that but yeah, be ready for that. Now, next thing that tourists maybe mentioned about here and I know I mentioned about the money before kind of things, but it is the public toilets or lack there of public toilets. So you might be going in to have a coffee to use a toilet but if you do see some of the public ones you need to have coins for them no guarantee they're actually clean but just know that might be one of the things because i've been burned on that a few times so i already have my coins just in case we get it you love paprika and i'll be honest with you the paprika is really tasty but it can be a bit overdone because literally it is in the food over and over and over again and it's super tasty but i mean your soups and your starters and your mains that's a lot but it's not just the food where the paprika shows up you'll notice in the souvenirs yes the souvenirs will have paprikas all over the place as well and oh maybe the decoration you'll see as well yep there'll be paprika there too so just know you might get a little paprikas out when you're here though if you like it you're gonna love it when you're here and then i think i need to mention this one for those of you that are coming here for the nightlife kind of thing and one of the real gripes you'll really have are the kind of aggressive touts you have for the clubs and the bars the ladies that will come up to you to ask you if you'd like to go to a club with her or to a club that's gonna be going on and it can be a bit much especially evening time when you're heading back to your hotel and you're like i just want to get back to my hotel like oh come on we got a club it'll be fun let's go or hey big guy how are you doing you know like you get that and just like again and again and again and again and it really takes away from the beauty of the city when you have to deal with that in the evening time all the time now it's not all the time it's not everywhere just you know when there's a lot of tourists you have these kind of things there and that's why it kind of leads into the the scam about the bars and stuff and the bills i really want you to kind of think about because they're kind of scamming you or leading you on the way into those kind of places so do be aware of that all right so what are the things that you didn't like about coming to budapest let us know in the comments below because I'll be honest with you. I've loved coming here for over 30 years because this city is fantastic. So please do come don't let me scare you off because they're just fun things you should know about before you come. So you don't get the fine on the metro or getting taken for a ride on the bill at a club. All right, so have a great time. If you want to know about the good things about going to Budapest, don't worry, we have a video on what tourists fawn over when they come here to Budapest. Anyway, I wish you all the best. I'll say bye from here in Budapest, Hungary.