From paragliding to wakeboarding to mountain biking to caving, many thrilling adventures await everyone who wants to play hard in Hungary’s capital. Whether you’re an extreme athlete or just a curious beginner, Budapest offers plenty of opportunities to soar upwards, glide along the water, ride down steep hills, or sightsee while sprinting along urban streets – here are some of the city’s best organizations and destinations for extraordinary sporting sensations.
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Paragliding
Let the wind carry you heavenwards to see Budapest from a bird’s-eye perspective. An active community of paragliders frequently takes to the sky from the Buda Hills, where updrafts are perfect for this high-flying fun. Even if you’ve never tried it before, anyone can enjoy tandem paragliding with a skilled local – after a brief coaching session, the pilot and passenger are attached into a special harness together, and after a short run the wind takes them up into the sky in the blink of an eye. While airborne, the pilot controls the journey, so passengers can focus on admiring spectacular views over the city. Since this activity is highly dependent on the elements, it’s recommended to plan and book the adventure a few days in advance, checking the weather forecast with organizers.
More details: contact Siklóernyős tanfolyam, or book a package with Multigo Events and Tours, including transfers to and from the starting point.
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Wakeboarding
Just a short journey away from downtown Budapest, the private Omszk Lake awaits adventurers who want to show off their wakeboarding maneuvers. Both championship-level wakeboarders and beginners can take part in the fun, with an electric-powered tow-cable system pulling people through a variety of obstacles like ramps and rails. Experienced wakeboarders can dive straight into the action, while newbies can take private lessons or join group courses with professional instructors; trainees are provided with all necessary equipment, so there is no need to invest in wakeboarding accessories before falling in love with the sport.
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Directions: Get there by suburban HÉV train H5 toward Szentendre departing from the Margaret Bridge station on the Buda side, getting off at the Budakalász stop and walk another 600 meters inland along Sport utca.
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Caving
Carved by the city’s famous thermal waters, numerous cave systems hide beneath Budapest’s surface – and here people can plunge underground to climb, crawl, and squeeze through incredibly narrow subterranean passages directly beneath residential areas. Anyone who is not claustrophobic can explore the undeveloped Pál-völgyi Cave during a three-hour spelunking adventure led by qualified caving guides, with your helmet-mounted lamp being the only source of light. Before the tour starts, the guides define the route and the difficulty level of the expedition based on the group’s fitness and readiness, but every route includes plenty of shimmying and clambering. (For a less strenuous underworld journey, head to the neighboring Szemlő-hegyi Cave, made easily accessible with paved walkways.)
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Laser tag
Experience the rush of woodlands combat without all of the unpleasant explosions and wounds by playing laser tag. Amid a huge open-air complex dedicated to this active game at Csillebérc at the top of the Buda Hills near Normafa, we can hide behind burnt-out cars and shoot from abandoned buildings using long-range laser guns and rifles. The weapons and headgear are equipped with built-in hit detectors, to easily keep track of every shot. Team members take various roles ranging from machine gunner to sniper to medic, catering to everyone’s special skill set. A session can take from ten minutes to a couple of hours, and extra equipment is available, like walkie-talkies for easy communication to GPS devices for treasure-hunt contests.
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Indoor skydiving
Have you ever wondered how it feels to float weightless in the air? Now you can experience this without having to jump out of an aircraft. At Skyward, a high-standard wind-tunnel provides daredevils with a simulated skydiving experience, with air turbines pushing people upwards to keep them suspended in air. What seems easy from the outside is quite a challenge from the inside, so the first session always starts with a half-hour coaching session to learn proper positions, techniques, and hand signals to utilize during the action aloft. Every participant must wear a special outfit, a helmet, and goggles before stepping inside the wind tunnel, but the coach is always nearby and a safety net protects us from injuring ourselves.
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Running
Now we can literally run around the city from one landmark to the other, getting a comprehensive overview of the city’s historic sights along the way with Running Tours Budapest, a uniquely active way of exploring the Magyar metropolis. Led by hard-core running devotees, the service provides a challenging and eco-friendly way to explore Budapest with multiple routes: for example, the strenuous “Heartbeat Tour” leads up and down Gellért Hill, with stops at the Citadel and the Gellért Bath; the level-surfaced “Riverbank Tour” runs alongside the Danube all the way to Kopaszi Dam; and the “Shady Budapest Tour” ventures into hidden parts of downtown. Anyone can book a package of their preference individually using the group’s online calendar, or tailor-made tour packages are also available.
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Mountain biking
Large swaths of undeveloped woodlands crown the Buda Hills, creating perfect terrain for mountain biking up and down a variety of gnarly forest paths. The two-wheeled tour guides of Budapest Bike Breeze provide all equipment necessary to discover these sylvan trails with group excursions kicking off at Deák Square, heading towards the Cogwheel Railway that takes the group up to the hills. The real adventure starts when we disembark at Széchenyi Hill to hit the dirt around Csillebérc and Normafa, speeding through pristine nature within Budapest’s city limits. We can also smuggle a well-deserved strudel break into the program to provide extra energy for the rest of the tour. At the end of the four-hour ride, the group descends back into vibrant downtown.
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Boating
Since all life in this city revolves around the river that divides Buda and Pest, it is only natural that we use this waterway for active recreation. At the popular Római Part riverfront section of Óbuda, we can rent rowing boats like kayaks and canoes to ride the current while waving to locals lounging on the shore. The Béke II. Boathouse near Fellini Bistro offers some great deals if we want to row around by ourselves, while Evezz velem (“Paddle with me” in Hungarian) is a group of professional canoe experts offering English-language guided tours. If we join the excursion we can paddle the 14-kilometer distance from Római Part all the way through downtown to Kopaszi Dam in less than three hours, providing uniquely panoramic perspectives of the Hungarian capital.
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