The best views in Budapest, ranked honestly

1. Gellért Hill, from the Citadella

The best, and free. A steep half-hour walk up from the Buda embankment puts the whole river bend below you: Parliament, four bridges and the Castle in a single frame, with the Pest grid running away behind. Go at dusk, when the floodlights come on and you can watch the city change over.

2. The Fisherman's Bastion terraces

The famous one, and genuinely spectacular — seven white neo-Romanesque turrets looking straight across at the Parliament. The catch is everyone else. The upper terraces are ticketed in season; the lower ones are free and the view is barely different. Go before nine or after seven.

3. St Stephen's Basilica dome

A 360° walkway around the dome, in the middle of Pest rather than looking at it from Buda — which makes it the one view where you see the city as a city rather than as a riverfront. Lift most of the way, stairs the rest.

4. The Elizabeth Lookout, János Hill

The highest point in Budapest, reached by cogwheel railway, the Children's Railway and a chairlift. Almost no visitors get here, and on a clear day it sees further than anything else on this list — though the city itself is distant enough that it reads as landscape rather than architecture.

5. A rooftop bar in District V or VI

Not the best view, but the most comfortable, and the only one on this list that comes with a drink. Best in summer, which is also when they are fullest.

6. Tram 2, along the Pest embankment

Not a viewpoint at all, but for the price of a normal ticket you get the entire Buda skyline sliding past the window. Sit on the right heading south.

Free, and better than most of the above

Simply walking across the Chain Bridge at night. The Castle behind you, Parliament ahead, the river black underneath and lit on both banks. It costs nothing and nobody photographs it because it does not feel like a viewpoint.