Budapest and Bratislava

[Trish]

Anyone been to either of these destinations? A friend has an apartment in Budapest and they are letting it out int he summer. Was thinking of going over for a fortnight in June and using it as a base: I'd like to go to Prague (have never been) and my friend suggested going to see Bratislava as well.

Any tips/suggestions/advice would be appreciated?

Thanks

[Trish]

Ignore Budapest - just saw another thread down the page on that but anything on Bratislava would be good.

[storysham]

wasnt there myself, but i met 2 belgian guys in my hostel in budapest during the summer who had just spent 4 days there.
they hated it, absolutely fuck all to do. nice place to look at for a few hours but after that forget it. no nightlife to speak of. afder 1 day they were suicidal.

[Trish]

Am only planning on going there for a day before I go to Prague, so I might see what happens.

[Superdave]

Am only planning on going there for a day before I go to Prague, so I might see what happens.

bratislava is a complete kip mate. having said that i suppose a lot of places worth seeing are kips - it's got the communist feel and the old town is nice - although relatively speaking compared to other European Cities, it's got nothing really. the castle overlooking the city gives a perfect example of this - worst castle ever!


vienna is an hour from bratislava - cracking city. if not, then hit Brno in the south of the czech republic to break up the journey.

[Komodo]

went inter-railing last summer to Prague, Brataslava, Budapest. Prague is a great city. It has everything. Great nightlife, amazing architecture, restaurants etc...
Brataslava is a nice small city which is being currently being developed at fast pace. There is no nightlife. It was like a ghost town at night. Could not find anywhere with a good athmosphere to drink in. However it is worth a day or two visit. The people are friendly...
Budapest was awful. The people there were ignorant. Beware of the taxi drivers whom stalk vulnarable tourist so they can rip them off. Beware of the restaurants whom serve cold watery goulash. And don't go up to the castle at night. Budapest is divided into cities - Buda and Pest. Buda is a great, amazing buildings and view. Pest(aptly named) is the worst, biggest kip ever.

[Proinsias]

went inter-railing last summer to Prague, Brataslava, Budapest. Prague is a great city. It has everything. Great nightlife, amazing architecture, restaurants etc...
Brataslava is a nice small city which is being currently being developed at fast pace. There is no nightlife. It was like a ghost town at night. Could not find anywhere with a good athmosphere to drink in. However it is worth a day or two visit. The people are friendly...
Budapest was awful. The people there were ignorant. Beware of the taxi drivers whom stalk vulnarable tourist so they can rip them off. Beware of the restaurants whom serve cold watery goulash. And don't go up to the castle at night. Budapest is divided into cities - Buda and Pest. Buda is a great, amazing buildings and view. Pest(aptly named) is the worst, biggest kip ever.
I've just come back from 6 days in Budapest and I can assure you, you're wrong about Pest being a kip.

Bratislava is alright, but I would say a couple of nights there is probably the most you'd want. Krakow is great, but that's a 3-4 day holiday (at least) in itself.
You can get an overnight train to Krakow from Budapest, and you can also go south to the former Yugoslav contries by train easy enough.

I could seriously come up with a weeks worth of stuff to do in Budapest easily enough...

[storysham]

Budapest was awful. The people there were ignorant. Beware of the taxi drivers whom stalk vulnarable tourist so they can rip them off. Beware of the restaurants whom serve cold watery goulash. And don't go up to the castle at night. Budapest is divided into cities - Buda and Pest. Buda is a great, amazing buildings and view. Pest(aptly named) is the worst, biggest kip ever.

maybe that was your experience. i had a ball there and felt perfectly safe(even though the riots were on and i was on my own).
Buda and pest have so much to offer. you will never run out of things to do.
the rip off taximen are well documented, i never found the need to use them. trams, the metro and walking got me anywhere i needed to go.

[mushypea]

I spent 3 days in Bratislava......its not great. i have to agree with Superdave. We were staying in the best hotel there and left our bags to take one last look around the city before heading to the airport - they robbed a digital camera out of a suitcase........:-?