VIKING-Prestige-Danube April 27th

Hi,

We are booked on the above river cruise. Will be in Budapest for 2 days prior to leaving. Any help on money exchange, clothing, weather, sights to see other than ship's tours...etc. In other words, any help would be appreciated. This is my first time to Europe...DH's been before.

We are retired and from the East coast of FL.

A & H:)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

IMO the best source of a travel info.

Thanks...I know I'll get useful info at that site. Appreciate your help!

Hi...anyone else on this river cruise OR any more helpful hints!!!

Currency is a little tricky since you'll need Forints in Budapest (there are about 225 forints in one dollar), and then things will switch over to Euros (assuming that you're headed toward Austria). We had the same issues with deciding how many Forints we would need for two days. We did pretty well estimating, but we had a few Forints left over. Fortunately we had friends who were starting a river cruise a couple of months later in Budapest, so we forwarded our remaining few Forints to them.

OkiCruiser49

Hi Okie and thanks for your thoughts. Did you use a bank for the money exchange? That seems to be the best from what I have heard. What type money do the taxi cabs like in Budapest? Did you, by any chance, hire a driver while there. Since we cannot do long walks, I'm thinking that's the way to go. I've come across several on different sites and probably need to book them to be sure of a nice day's sightseeing.

Alice N.

New Smyrna Beach

Alice,

We got money at ATMs--first in the airport, and then later at our hotel. We didn't do cabs or get a driver. You might want to consider the "Hop On-Hop Off" buses (HoHo buses). There will be people trying to sell you tickets EVERYWHERE you go in Budapest. They go by most of the popular sites and you can get on or get off anywhere.

We loved Budapest. Our favorites were St. Stephen's, the Dohany Street Synagogue, and the Grand Market. You might want to consider a tour of the parliament building. From what I've read on CC, you may need to get tickets for that before you leave. A couple of ladies on our cruise did the baths and really enjoyed it.

One more quick suggestion, after my wife got her wallet stolen in Chicago several years ago, we always make sure that we each have different credit/ATM cards. That way if one of you loses a wallet, the other has cards that are still good.

FuelScience (aka OkieCruiser49)