Budapest

Between the grandiose of Budapest’s architecture from all periods, the sprawling City Park of the east side, the iconic fortress that crowns Buda Hill in the west, the rough-and-ready wreck bars that pop up in the basements of old USSR tenements, and the island-peppered meander of the great Danube River running through its centre, it’s easy to see why this city on the cusp of the continental east and west continues to reign as one of Europe’s best-loved tourist destinations. First off, there are more museums than you can shake a Roman relic at, and Budapest is very proud of its position as one of the cradles of the now European-wide Night of Museums festival. Then there are the majestic baroque facades and neo-classical mazes of the Belvaros downtown, hiding the buzzing Great Market Hall of Pest, the winding boulevard of Ucta Vaci, and a smattering of boho blues clubs and underground speakeasies. Anyone looking to immerse themselves in the local culture though should be sure to ask their Budapest tourist guide about their choices of the city bathhouses, with a full range from art deco to modern, where Hungarians wallow in the healing waters powered by bubbling geothermal springs below, and travellers discover drinking cures in the saunas and the steam rooms.