Budapest is the capital city of Hungary with around 1,712,210 residents and is split by the Danube River. The two different cities; Buda on the west bank and Pest on the East were united on the 17th November 1873. Often people will talk about ‘Castle Hill’ which is a district of Buda and is the oldest part of the city; this is where the majority of tourists will be interested to visit.

The first settlement recorded on the site where Budapest now stands was Ak-Ink built by Celts sometime before 1 AD. This was later inhabited by Romans and became Aquincum, then Lower Pannonia in 106 AD. In 829 the city became a part of Bulgaria and the two Bulgarian military bases, Buda and Pest, became the basis of the city’s current name. It was only in the 10th Century that the Kingdom of Hungary was formed and them much later in 1361 when Buda became the capital of Hungary.

Budapest developed quickly until Austria-Hungary lost World War I in 1918 and Hungary declared itself as an independent republic. The Treaty of Trianon meant that Hungary lost 72% of its territory and 64% of its population. It expanded its borders later with the help of Nazi Germany, but this was quickly reversed with the Treaty of Paris in 1947.

In 1944 Budapest was badly damaged by air raids by the British and American sides and in 1945 the Battle of Budapest meant that the city suffered even more damage. It was during this conflict that over 38,000 civilians lost their lives and the German’s destroyed all of the bridges in the city. In 1949 Hungary became a communist state and the government completely gutted landmarks such as the Buda Castle to remove any symbols of the former regime.

The Hungarian Revolution began as a consequence of peaceful demonstrations within the city of Budapest in 1956. Mass demonstrations began late in the year and Soviet tanks, which were sent to crush the revolt, left more than 3,000 people dead less than a month later.

The Buda Castle was added to the list of World Heritage sites in 1987 and in 2002 Andrassay Avenue joined it. The population of the city peaked to around 2.1 million in the 1980’s but has since decreased leaving it feeling a bit quieter.

Are cheap hotels in Budapest harder to find than anywhere else in the Hungry?
Budapest hotels offer a wide range of accommodation matching the needs of backpacking visitors and holidaymakers from all over the world. For a long time the famous Spa City Budapest could not satisfy the demand for tourist accommodation due to the distruction after the second world war many of the Budapest hotels were out of use. As a consequence private apartment and house owners started to rent out rooms to paying-guests in the 1960's to compensate the void of hotel accommodation. This was the birth of cheap hotels in Budapest and soon these tiny businesses started to grow rapidly and developed into small privately owned family hotels and some of them into big modern three and four star hotels.

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» Budget hotels from 30,- Euro the night:

» More than 50 cheap hotels offer a variety of budget accommodation with great deals suited to budget travellers and backpackers. The selection of accommodation includes budget hotels, hostel rooms and dormitories, cheap private apartments and guesthouses in downtown Budapest.

As for budget travellers in particular it is to save as nuch money on the hotel as possible and have more left to spend on the fun stuff. BudgetPlaces.com.