Budapest

[Monkey Nuts]

Morning all,

I'm off to Budapest at the end of the month for a few days. Does anybody know of any cigar related venues - whether just a good spot to relax and have a smoke, and whether there are any shops worth visiting. I'm not sure what's available and what prices may be like.

Any other information about the city in general would also be most welcome.

Thanks!

[Lads2000]

Hey Monkey

I'm familiar with Budapest. My partner is from Hungary so have been a few times. When exactly are you going? as there are some celebrations that happens on the 19th which are worth seeing if you are there. The laws are still relaxed in Hungary so smoking is possible inside. This time of year it is still hot and I found it a much nicer experience to smoke outside, there are a number of resturants and cafes in the pedestrian areas that are very nice to sit in and watch the world go by for an hour or two. Alternativley most of the cafes that I saw had some form of outside sitting area.

As for buying of stogies then my only advice to you is take your own! There seems to be one shop that sells cigars in Budapest which is tower cigars and the prices are equal if not a little more than UK prices. It's worth going there just to see the building though good archetecture. The airport has a reasonable selection at descent prices but will only sell if you are travelling outside of the EU so no good for us in the UK.

I could write a guide book on where to go as there are so many places to visit and see, but one think you must do is visit the Baths. Gelert is probably the most popular and has a very nice resturant next to it. If you go around lunch time they normally do a deal with lunch and entrance to the baths at a reasonable fee. If you can get a chance try to eat at one of the resturants just off the beaten track as this is where you will most likely find some real Hungarian Fair rather than modern overprices european food that the main areas try to sell. I hope this helps but let me know if you want some more info.

Cheers

Lads

[patrickspark]

hello monkey. the Cigar Tower on Fashion St. is right beside the Kempinski Hotel (cigar friendly). Worth a visit but as L2k says prices are comparable to uk but still lower than here in Dublin !
i can highly recommend the cigar lounge in the New York Palace Hotel on erzsebet st. - reasonable selection of stogies for sale with some great whiskys.

[Monkey Nuts]

Lads - thanks for the info, I'm going after the 19th so I'll miss out on all the celebrations. Looks like I'll be taking my own cigars then!!

If there's any restaurants or nice bars you can recommend that are slightly away from the main tourist areas that would be good. Always nice to see even just a small chunk of local life rather than stick to the tourist trail.


Patrickspark - thank you to you too, the New York Palace Hotel is not a million miles away from where we're staying and looks like a pretty impressive building, so I'll pop over there at some point