Budapest

Am going to Budapest for 5 nights in a couple weeks with a heavy emphasis on photography. Can any members provide info on best spots, dos and donts (ie can you use tripods out and about?), best times at certain places etcetera.
Any advice would be most welcome and appreciated.
BTW - can I suggest that a great topic for the weekly comp in about 3 weeks would be Hungary!!

Well, it depends on your field of interest... This is not the best season for Budapest - springtime is better. It is snow (and some will be on this weekend, too) - but great opportunity to take some interesting photos. What I mostly like is the mist over the river in the early morning hours. The most usual places are the downtown and the castle district (great view to the city). If you are interested in panoramic pictures the hills of Buda are good places. I recommend also the human faces - mirror of the present economical situation. You can use tripod (in museums, galleries: it depends)

Food is good (be careful with some popular restaurants, always check the prices on the menu ! I can recommend some)

Try also Szentendre - a small town near Budapest, can be reached by suburban train in 40 minutes, 2.5 Euro) - a jewel box, famous of its atmosphere and artists (my home town :wink

Have a nice stay!

Laszlo

hello,

the best spots depend on what you like to photograph i suppose,early morning or late afternoon would probaly provide the best light, and the same applies to avoid hordes of people

Thankyou, ME, have "googled" Szentendre and its looks a very interesting place, given I am there for 5 days I think I will have a trip there.
I am hoping the winter weather adds to the opportunities, although I appreciate the light will be limiting. I also agree about street photography - am hoping to develop a few skills here. Would welcome any tips on recommended restaurants (budapest and Szentendre).

Hi, Matic,,,sounds like I will have to get out of bed early then!!
Great advice, thanks you guys.

Some great places in Budapest, the palace & the parliament buildings are huge, The palace is great for shots along the river. There is also a square with lots of statues i think this was called St Marks square, but a litle rusty.

Lots of old & new buildings, lots of great opportunities for street photography with lots of great looking characters.

If using the tube train don't forget to get your ticket validated in the machine on the platform, we didn't & got arrested & escorted of the train along with a fine each

Have fun, we enjoyed it.

I visited Budapest and agree with the others it's a great place. There are so many hidden gems within the architecture that you need to do some thorough homework to make the most of it. Some of the major buildings are used by the university or colleges but are open to visits.

We went to Szentendre and while it was OK I wasn't overwhelmed and I'll ask my wife what day trip we took. She's very good public transport so usually manages a day trip out using buses or trains. She also used the public baths or whatever they call them where you can have a sauna and massage at very reasonable cost - a hangover from the communist era I believe.

The public transport is excellent and good value. If I went again I'd spend a lot of time station hopping just see all parts of the city.

Mike

You can try the following:
http://www.nancsineni.hu/ - a "must try". Quite a distance from the city center but it worth. Reservation recommended.
http://www.kehli.hu/, http://regisipos.hu/?hun , http://www.ujsipos.hu/, http://becsiszelet.hu/?menu=load&tp=105 - closer to the city center. Reservation recommended.
http://www.trofeagrill.hu/ - Pay fix, eat as much as you can within 3-4 hours.
http://www.etterem.hu/1264, http://www.etterem.hu/509 - in the city center
http://www.remiz.hu/kisbuda/kisbuda_etterem.html,
http://fakanal.artia.hu/ - simpler, cheaper category, mostly local audience; good kitchen

In Szentendre most of them can be recommended. If you also like sweets, good coffee and ice don't miss Surányi Cukrászda (Rózsa str 2. or Kálvária str 49) or Szamos Marcipán (http://www.szamosmarcipan.hu/)
If you came in spring or summer I would recommend you Szentendre Open Air Museum ( http://www.skanzen.hu/index.php ): traditional rural life (full day programme!) and good opportunity to make great pics.


Public transport is not as good as some years ago. Ticket costs about 1 Euro and must be validated when entering the tube, bus or tram. (To suburbs you will need an extension ticket) Here you can find timetable and other useful info on public transport: http://www.bkv.hu/english/home/index.html

Laszlo

Many thanks for all the advice.
ME - thanks for your hard work in pulling together all those site links; I am slowly working through them.

Hopefully I will have a few pics suitable for posting on here when I return. Watch this space.

Again, thanks to everybody!!

Came back from Budapest a couple of weeks back.

Took a tripod, no problems at all.

Get yourself a 72 hour public transport card an hop on and off.
Places to photograph, there are plenty, night shots, try north of the chain bridge so you can get the palace in, and on the Buda side of the river, from the palace itself. Plenty of trams to take pics of, and even shots in the tube, no-one bats an eyelid (unlike London!)
Have a look on my flickrstream for insparation.

I was also in Budapest for 2 days a couple of weeks back, I took a few, all handheld with K20D + DA*16-50.

You can see a few of them here: link

I plan to add a few more soon.

Cheers

Some lovely shots Richard.

Some nice piccies there Richard; without a doubt!

I was there just over a year ago; before I had a DSLR (wish I had one then!!!!) I used a humble Kodak DX 6490, results were ok...

But this time of year was perfect - not too busy and the onset of night being earlier than in the summer was great for photos. All of the photos I took were without a tripod; do if you dont want to lug it around and wish to stick to what you can see from the River Danube; there are plenty of walls to plonk your camera on - I did'nt miss the tripod at all.

Impressive hand-held night shots!
Cant wait to get there now, seems to be photo ops at every turn, night and day!! The trams alone could probably make a 5 day photo project.
Thanks to all for the advice and sharing your pics.

They were'nt hand held - just using available walls etc. I found that when I wanted a specific shot; there was a wall perfectly placed.

Lugging a tripod around with me would have reduced the amount of shots I would have taken and it did'nt draw any attention - BUT we are all different; it suited me pefectly; it might not someone else.