Is there anything better than a long weekend away? You can have a change of scenery, recharge your batteries, spend some alone time with a loved one or simply disappear into anonymity for a few days. The city break is becoming increasingly popular as travel distances and travel times get reduced by increased numbers of flights and improved rail service.

It wasn’t very long ago that a long weekend in Budapest, Hungary wouldn’t have been a possibility. The paperwork and travel time alone would have caused more stress than was worth it. Not so these days. Budapest is very much within reach for a long weekend and it is [1] very affordable to travel and stay there.

Situated on the Danube, Buda and Pest come together to form one interesting and sometimes lovely city. Changes are happening on a daily basis so if you haven’t been there in awhile you might not recognize much more than the historic Buda Castle towering over the city. These days Budapest claims to have more shopping malls than any city in Europe. It also has more restaurants serving wonderful tasting paprika than anywhere else I have ever been. Do yourself a favor as well. Take one of the metro escalators down. It might take you more time to go down than it does to fly to the city.