Culture: high culture, low pricesMany people have the misconception that going to the movies is one of the cheapest entertainment methods, but the truth is we can have an incredible cultural experience for a fraction of the price of a normal movie ticket. Few people know that in Budapest at the State Opera tickets for seats 2 - 7 and 8 - 11 of the second floor boxes are just 600 forints, and that extra seating in the so-called "VII price category" costs a mere 500 forints. Not only that these same seats are just 200 forints (!) during open rehearsal performances.
In addition to the Opera, other theatres also offer ridiculously cheap tickets in order to fill their seats. For example, if we book seats early, tickets are just 500 forints for any of the comedy theatre shows at the Vígszínház.
New books are so expensive, e-book readers are similarly overpriced and reading on a monitor is plain hell. So we are left with antique book shops, or for example, Kelet Café, where we can take books for free if we leave another one behind. This offer is more than fair and ensures that we are never left without new reading material.Entertainment: cinema Naturally, the theatre and the opera are not the only options when we're looking to be entertained. We all love going to the movies but we need to be on high alert when going to the cinema because of the often scandalous cost. Fortunately, there are some cinemas in Budapest that offer discounted tickets on certain days. For example, on Wednesdays tickets at Sugár Cinema cost 990 forints, at Corvin Cinema tickets are 1050 forints (instead of 1490 forints) and at Cinema City tickets are 1210 forints.
The discount days vary at the other cinemas. Both Puskin Cinema and Művész Cinema offer tickets for 1100 forints on Mondays, while at the Toldi Cinema tickets are just 1000 forints on Thursdays. But remember to get in quick on these days because for some mysterious reason there are a lot more people rushing to go to the cinema on these days.
By the way, there is a rather unconventional way to get movie tickets at Sugár Cinema.
If we buy more than one hour of bowling at the second floor bowling club, we will receive 2 cinema tickets as a gift per lane. Although this is not the cheapest way to acquire tickets, because one hour of bowling costs 4490 forints, we can easily outsmart the system by going with a group of friends and keeping an eye out for unneeded tickets. Or if you wanted to go bowling anyway simply think of these movie tickets as free.Sports: street workout instead of expensive gymsA great alternative to expensive gyms is the new craze, Street Workout, for which all we need are a few metal bars at a nearby playground or park. There are no fixed sessions but new workout routines are available mainly on YouTube. Everyone can literally do whatever combination of exercises they like and whenever they choose. The exercises mainly use your own body weight so the workouts mainly consist of push-ups, pull-ups, crunches and squats.
Fortunately, there are plenty of places where this type of fitness regime can be undertaken including Margaret Island, City Park, Városmajor, Óbuda (Óbuda fitness park: III. district, Harrer Pál Street), Bikás Park (XI. district), Népliget and Hajógyári Island.AlcoholA bottle of wine is always nice with dinner, but as we all know, the cheaper the better. Especially because most of us cannot afford to spend much on alcohol just before pay day. The best option is to visit old-school pubs on the outskirts of the downtown party district where we can get tipsy for about 2000 forints instead of much more.
While we've already written a compilation about cheap pubs, there are others including UdvarROM.
This is the favourite hangout of dirt poor students and workers. The similar Füge Udvar and nearby Tébolykert are also great options for a cheap and cheerful night out. Then there's also the Grand Boulevard’s staple drinking spots such as Gong Café and 4es-6os Wesselényi. At these places a rosé fröccs can be as little as 220 forints and Jäger around 500 forints.Food: to eat or not to eat?Definitely “to eat”. If we are clever enough, we can stuff our faces even just before our next pay without succumbing to the terrible croissant/kefir combination. Budapest has plenty of options if we want to get full for under 1000 forints, even if we're avoiding the oily Chinese buffets and the kebabs that we find on every street-corner.
For example, we can eat hamburgers. Utópia Bistro in Klauzál Street has 600 forint hamburgers on its menu in addition to its cheap drinks. For an extra 300 forints, we can even get grill potatoes on the side! Yes, the hamburger and chips combo adds up to just 900 forints so if we still have some spare coins we can get extra toppings such as tofu or a whole piece of Camembert.
Black Cab Burger offers hamburgers at a similar price: we can buy a high quality 100g beef burger for just 700 forints. Take a look at our detailed article on Black Cab Burger. These burgers are about the same price as what you'd get at an average fast food joint - but they're about one thousand times better.
Another option for quelling hunger is the most well-known Hungarian style street food: lángos, which we can get at loads of spots throughout the city. We recently compiled a list of our favorite lángos places. Even better is that it is nearly impossible to spend over 1000 forints on a lángos - in fact it's unlikely to even pass the 500 forint mark.Even though we mentioned it as a negative example, there are exceptions with Chinese buffets.
Tao takes the cooking business seriously and we can get away with some noodles or rice with tofu for about 800 forints. Even if you're craving meat any kind of chicken and rice combination will also come out under 1000 forints. Not only that, here we get real bamboo slices and the wood ear mushrooms are not replaced with some cheap cabbage. However, if your budget is tight, don't buy a soft drink here as a half litre coke costs almost as much as a large side dish.
Here comes the icing on the cake: Fornetti stores all over the city desperately want to get rid of their leftover baked goods after 7pm. While these products are not particularly fresh, in exchange they are ridiculously cheap. As a result the queues tend to be twice as long right before closing time.Hydration: free is still better than cheap waterBudapest is a city where the tap water is suitable for drinking, and the streets often have drinkingfountains. This is good because anything free is always better than just cheap. This is especially good for those people who are not too fond of bottled mineral water.Free water became even more accessible after one of the winners of the Design Terminál Smart City Lab’s competition came up with the “Hydrant to faucet” idea and brought it to life. A simple device has transformed hydrants into functioning drinking faucets. However, do not attempt to use any of them for washing yourself or your car – that would be pretty rude.
Megjelent első bookazine-unk, ne maradj le róla!
Már 15 éve lélegzünk összhangban a fővárossal. Jubileumi kiadványunkban mindent megtalálsz, ami magazinunk és eddigi munkánk esszenciája. Gasztronómia, kultúra, városi legendák és Budapest arcai, interjúk, történetek és a legjobb helyek – úgy, ahogyan mi látjuk a fővárost.
Rendeld meg itt vagy keresd a nagyobb könyvesboltokban!
hirdetés
