Budapest Shopping Guide

Shopping in Budapest

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Shopping Guides

Shops usually open from 10 am to 6 pm on weekdays, and from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays. Shopping centers on weekdays are open till 8 pm and majority of them are also open on Sundays.

The Castle Quarter (or District) is the place to buy antiques and folk art items at the small shops and on the streets. The House of Hungarian Wines has an enormous collection of wine from the historical Hungarian wine regions.

The Great Market Hall is a large and rich indoor market, and a major tourist attraction. Built in 1890, it is the city's "pantry", a vast repository of Hungaricums such as paprika, brandy (pálinka), goose-liver (libamáj) and a wide variety of traditional sausages and salamis seasoned with paprika.

One part of the main pedestrian shopping street, Váci utca (street) begins on the opposite side of the Great Market Hall, at the foot of Liberty (Szabadság) bridge. The other part continues through the underpass at the entrance of Elisabeth Bridge and leads to Vörösmarty tér (Square). Several antique and folklore shops, galleries, designer boutiques, foreign-language book-shops, jewelry and wine-shops, restaurants, and cafés can be found on the neighboring streets. On Kígyó utca the two finest porcelain shops face each other. The Herend and the Zsolnay porcelain shops sell Hungary's majority precious hand painted porcelain vases figures and dinner services.

The antique shopping street, Falk Miksa utca, runs from Szt. Istvan Blvd. to the Parliament. The shops offer the richest collection of antiques in Central Europe.

The Ecseri Flea Market in the 9th district has many treasures for collectors, browsers and anyone looking for an unusual souvenir to take home.

There are shopping malls at major intersections and metro stations throughout the city. The Westend City Center (next to Western Railway Station), one of the largest shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe with its 400 shops, a 14-screen cinema complex, entertainment center and a huge food-court, is changing the cityscape. The second Hilton hotel in Hungary, the Hilton Budapest Westend, is integrated in the mega-complex. On the roof, a tethered balloon gives a view of the city.

On the Buda side, two new shopping complexes opened one after the other: MAMMUT shopping center at Széna square (along Margaret Blvd.) has more than 300 shops on 7 levels in two buildings connected with a covered bridge. The center also houses several restaurants, an entertainment center, fitness facilities and a health center. The other is MOM PARK with 70 shops, a restaurant and cinema (11th district, Attila út) is the newest shopping and entertainment center of the City.