MyBudapesttours

17/12/2024

📣 📣 📣 https://mondumo.com/tours/new-zealand-in-14-days/ 📣 📣 📣

07/12/2024

04/09/2024

Budapest :)

02/12/2023

Budapest is an insistently grand city. This is the main stairwell of the National Museum — but it could just as easily be in any one of two dozen similarly opulent interiors, all over town.

It's striking that one of Europe's most elegant cities is also the birthplace of ramshackle "ruin pubs" and sketchy "escape room" games (a worldwide phenomenon that, it may surprise you to learn, began in Budapest). It's all part of the paradox of this fascinating, frustrating metropolis, which I never tire of trying to unravel.

12/06/2023

Prague or Budapest? If you could visit only one...where would you go?

The Monday Night Travel team is back tomorrow tonight (June 12, 6pm PT / 9 pm ET) for another live Destination Duel — and this time, it’s two enchanting capitals: the Czech Republic’s Prague vs. Hungary’s Budapest: www.ricksteves.com/mnt

Both cities serve up characteristic architecture, renowned art and music, and intriguing histories. But which city reigns supreme as the jewel of the region?

It’s free... it’s fun... it’s Monday Night Travel! Register now at www.ricksteves.com/mnt — and then join the virtual fun as the team spars over which incredible city should inch ahead on your itinerary, sharing lots of great travel tips along the way.

16/05/2023

15/05/2023

Big news! The third edition of Andy Steves' Europe: City-Hopping on a Budget is on the way! We're about to kick off a season of research in time for 2021 publication. We'd love your take- where are your favorite restaurants, nightlife, bar and cafe venues in the top cities in Europe? Any unforgettable vantage points? Travel hacks or other insights?

https://forms.gle/a92xCGiPUJKSbScE6

Drop your tip in this google survey and enter to win a signed copy of the new edition when it's fresh off the press. Happy Travels!

Pick up a copy here: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781631217968

02/05/2023

20/04/2023

When is a “convenience” a pointless rip-off? When you pay in dollars abroad.

This is called “dynamic currency conversion.” And if you’ve traveled internationally in the past few years, you’ve probably encountered it. You make a purchase; you tap your credit card to pay; and then, just when you think you’re done, the payment terminal asks you one more question:

Would you like to be charged in the local currency? Or would you prefer to pay in dollars?

The answer is always, always, *always* to pay in the local currency.

If you accept the offer to pay in dollars, you’re letting a third party handle the conversion for you — which is invariably a bad deal. However, if you pay in the local currency, you can take advantage of the more generous bank-to-bank rate.

In this example, I could pay either 14.50 Polish złoty...or $3.91 in US dollars. I opted for złoty, allowing my credit-card company to handle the conversion, and it appeared on my statement as $3.64. Which means if I’d opted for the “convenience” of paying in dollars, I’d have overpaid by about 7 percent.

Can you imagine paying 7 percent extra, on all credit-card transactions across the board, simply by accepting this offer to pay in dollars?

In my imagination, somewhere out there is a finance executive who had this greedy brainstorm some years ago: If we can trick enough travelers into pointlessly paying in dollars, we can pad our profits that much more. He probably got a plum promotion. And the rest of us got stuck having to jump through the hoop of answering this completely unnecessary question — a deeply irritating, miniature speed bump — with each and every transaction, all day long, every day of our trip.

I hope someday this practice is outlawed. But in the meantime, just remember one simple rule: ALWAYS CHOOSE THE LOCAL CURRENCY...never dollars!

03/04/2023

Is it somewhere in Rome?

Or Budapest after a spring rain?