What to see in Budapest in 3 days. The best things to visit in the capital of Hungary

If you want to know what is the best thing to see in Budapest in 3 days, we describe here a very complete itinerary with which you will discover the best of the city. Visiting Budapest in 3 days is feasible and it is also an ideal duration with which you can get to know the most important things without stress and without rushing.
Budapest is a city to explore on foot, although we also recommend that you use its picturesque public transport network, especially the tram and the metro, which take you to the most touristic corners of the city.
You can get ideas in our travel diary for Budapest and other Central European cities. Do you have more days in Budapest? Discover what to see in Budapest in 4 days.
What to see in Budapest in 3 days
If you want to get to know Budapest in the most complete way, we recommend that you do some of the following activities and excursions:
- Illuminated Budapest Tour
- Boat ride at dusk
- Guided tour of Budapest
- Budapest Mysteries and Legends Tour
First day in Budapest
Our three-day visit to Budapest can begin in the Parliament, so before going we recommend that you organize the guided tour first thing in the morning of this first day with which you will get to know its main staircase or one of its chambers. If you cannot, adapt this itinerary to this visit, which is essential.
After visiting the fantastic parliament, we recommend you walk to the largest religious temple in Hungary, St. Stephen’s Basilica, which is not far away. You must visit its interior and also climb one of its towers from where you will have excellent views of the entire city. You can take the stairs but there is also an elevator.
Continue walking to the river. Arriving at the Chain Bridge, and overcoming the temptation to cross it, something we will do on the second day of the visit, we will have a new great view of St. Stephen’s Basilica and we can head to Andrassy Avenue.
On Andrassy Avenue you can enjoy spectacular mansions and buildings, such as the Dechsler Palace or the Opera House. You can also take an interesting guided tour of the Opera, also in Spanish, but you have to pay attention to the schedules as the visits are in the early afternoon.
Retrace your steps. Vorosmarty Ter must be your next destination. It is the main square of Budapest and in it you can enjoy Gerbeaud, the most interesting pastry shop in the city and taste a wonderful ice cream, at a reasonable price, on its terrace. With this you will be able to regain strength to continue your walk along Vaci Utca street, the main shopping street.
At the end of this street is the Budapest Central Market, where you can eat like a local and enjoy Hungarian cuisine. Then you can walk back to the banks of the Danube River where you can end the day by taking a cruise and enjoying the city from a different point of view.
What to visit in Budapest on the second day
You can start this second day in Budapest in Heroes’ Square, which you can reach by metro, an experience in itself, since this metro line is the second oldest in the world. Along with Andrassy Avenue, it is declared a World Heritage Site.
In Heroes’ Square is the Millennium Monument, in which the 7 founding tribes of Hungary are represented, and two neoclassical buildings that house interesting museums, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, which we recommend visiting on this tour, and the Palace of Art.
After visiting the Museum of Fine Arts, with works by Titian, Goya or Velázquez, we can enter the City Park, the main lung of Budapest where one of the great attractions of the city is also located, the Szechenyi Spa, where you can relax and get to know first-hand one of the great attractions of Budapest, its spas.
Now the time has come to cross the Chain Bridge, built to be able to cross the river in times when it was frozen. But first, it is a must to visit the Jewish Synagogue, to which we can travel by public transport from the Plaza de los Héroes as it is quite far. It is the second largest synagogue in the world after the one in Jerusalem.
After crossing the Chain Bridge we will find ourselves in the neighborhood of Buda, at the foot of the castle of the same name. But we will not go up because it is time to walk along the banks of the Danube River to the Cave Church, a church excavated in the cave that will surprise you.
Next to it is the Gellert Spa, in case you want to enjoy the most monumental of Budapest’s spas. As you will have already been in the Szechenyi Spa in the morning, you could leave this visit for the next day.
This is how the second day in Budapest ends, hoping to fully visit the Buda District on the third day of the visit.
Third day in Budapest
We arrive at the last of the three days in Budapest. We have already visited the neighborhood of Pest and the banks of the River Danube that are in the part of Buda. And this is the neighborhood that we are going to visit today.
We start the tour at the Chain Bridge, which you won’t get tired of admiring and photographing. From there we can go up to the Buda Castle in two ways. By the stairs that exist or by the funicular. This last option is the fastest and perhaps the most desirable after two days of walking.
From the top you have great views of the Chain Bridge and St. Stephen’s Basilica. And you are also next to the Budapest History Museum and the Hungarian National Gallery, highly recommended visits, both for their collections and for the building in which they are located, the Buda Castle.
After the visit we can walk through the streets of the neighborhood looking for one of the most picturesque places in the city, the Labyrinth of the Buda Castle, some caves that have become an essential attraction in Budapest and that we loved when we went. We recommend making the visit because you will surely not forget it.
Nearby are two other essential places. On the one hand, the Matthias Church, a must-see and coronation place for the former Kings of Hungary, and the Fishermen’s Bastion, a wonderful viewpoint from which you have the best views of Parliament. And if it is night, much better to see it illuminated. But even during the day it is something that you will not be able to forget either.
Our last day in Budapest can end on Margaret Island, the largest park in the city where you will find a small zoo, the ruins of an old convent and even a water park. With this you will have known the most important things to visit in Budapest in 3 days and you will have enjoyed a spectacular city.
You can find more information about what to see in Budapest on the Hungary tourism page.