In summer, one of the city’s most popular concert venues, Budapest Park, serves as an open-air mini, inner-city festival spot. Now for winter, it’s turned into a festively fabulous winter wonderland, boasting a massive open-air ice-skating rink, a towering Christmas tree, lovely twinkling lights, a romantic light bridge and delicious drinks and food to warm up both the body and the soul of skaters and spectators alike.

Getting to Budapest Park is a special experience already since you can hop on popular Tram 2, which passes by some of the city's most stunning landmarks like the Buda Castle, the beautiful bridges and Gellért Hill with the Citadel. If you're lucky, you can even catch the special illuminated Christmas carriage (on the road until January 7th). After getting off at the last stop (Közvágóhíd), a magical winter wonderland awaits at Budapest Park with a massive alfresco ice-skating rink complete with an ice corridor, a Christmas tree, pretty fairy lights, a light bridge, great music and plenty of spots to warm up with a delicious drink.

The main attraction, of course, is the alfresco ice-skating rink, which occupies more than 2000 square metres, providing plenty of space for everyone to draw figure eights. There's also an ice corridor on the side for some extra fun. The facilities include a skate and skating aid penguin rental, a cloakroom, a changing room, a children's corner, a heated baby care room, as well as a  rinkside bar and hütte offering delicious wintertime snacks and drinks.

A  special attraction is the brand-new light bridge that stretches above the ice-skating rink, offering a wonderful view of the whole winter wonderland, as well as a perfect selfie spot for Insta-worthy photos. The bridge leads to one of the bars, which is also approachable directly from the ice in your skates, offering drinks and snacks to refuel in between laps.

Delicious drinks and winter-warmers

The hütte and the bar offer a lengthy and somewhat extreme list of drinks and snacks so you can contribute to the sweet smells filling the air. You can order snacks like hot sandwiches, hot dogs and fries, as well as deep-fried goodies like cheese or chilli cheese balls, mac and cheese bites or jalapenos filled with crème cheese. If you're after something heartier, there are vegetarian and meaty plates to share, and if you have a sweet tooth, be sure not to miss the churros rings with chocolate, fruit or caramel sauce, or go for some doughnuts.

As for the drink selection, well-known winter classics like hot tea, coffee, mulled wine and punch make an appearance, but specialties like Bailey's hot chocolate, mulled wine with Hungarian plum Unicum, Lumbaba, which is hot chocolate with rum, as well as Bombardino liqueur with whipped cream also feature on the menu. If you're more of a daring type, you can try what Hungarian pálinka is like when it's served warm with whipped cream, what a mixture of pálinka, rum and black tea tastes like, or knock back some tartatea with champagne. Why not, right?

Ice Ice Baby

Budapest Park often throws fun events as well. Every Saturday night, a DJ starts spinning disks and the rink transforms into a disco dance floor, meaning you can belt out some bangers as you glide around.

Tickets

Daily tickets are available, and there are separate prices for Monday-Thursday and for Friday-Sunday (as well as between December 22nd and January 7th). Discounts are available for students, teachers, over 65s and District IX residents, and you can also purchase passes and family tickets. Entry under the age of six is free.

Opening hours:

  • Monday–Thursday: 4 pm–9 pm
  • Friday: 4 pm–10 pm
  • Saturday: 10 am–10 pm
  • Sunday: 10 am–10 pm

More details here.

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