Budapest with kids: a railway driven by children, and eleven other things that work

Budapest handles children better than most European capitals, for three practical reasons: the transport is cheap and frequent, the largest attractions are outdoors and in one park, and the thermal baths — which sound adult — include several that are effectively lidos.

What follows is organised by what the day actually looks like, not by category.

The one that beats everything else

The Children's Railway. A narrow-gauge line through the Buda hills, eleven kilometres long, staffed almost entirely by children between ten and fourteen — selling tickets, signalling, announcing stations, running the platforms. Only the locomotive driver is an adult.

It began in 1948 as a Pioneer railway and simply never stopped. For a child of six to twelve it is the single most memorable thing in the city, because the staff are visibly their own age and completely serious about the job.

Ride it in combination with the cogwheel railway, which climbs from Városmajor to Széchenyi Hill on a rack rail and has been running since 1874. The cogwheel is a scheduled BKK line, so a normal transport ticket covers it. The Children's Railway is not, and has its own fare.

Get off at Jánoshegy for the Elizabeth Lookout, the highest point in Budapest at 527 metres, then come down on the Libegő chairlift — an open two-seater over the treetops down to Zugliget. Three different historic railways and a chairlift in one afternoon, which is a hard combination to beat.

Check the timetables before you go. The Children's Railway and the chairlift both close on certain weekdays and run reduced winter services. The classic failure is riding the cogwheel up and finding nothing running onward. See Hegyvidék for the whole area.

The City Park, which is a whole day on its own

City Park — Városliget — holds more child-facing attractions per square metre than anywhere else in Hungary.

Budapest Zoo opened in 1866 and is one of the oldest in the world. The Art Nouveau animal houses are listed buildings and worth seeing in their own right; the elephant house in particular is extraordinary.

Vajdahunyad Castle, five minutes' walk away, is a nineteenth-century fantasy built to display every Hungarian architectural style at once — so it reads to a child as an actual castle, with towers and a moat. Free to walk around.

Széchenyi Baths are at the park's edge. Children are allowed, the outdoor pools include a 27°C swimming pool as well as the hot ones, and the whole thing is more relaxed than the word "thermal bath" suggests. Under-14s are not permitted in the sauna section.

The House of Music and the Museum of Ethnography are both new buildings with strong interactive sections, if the weather turns.

Realistically that is a full day, and possibly two. See everything in the City Park district.

Water, in summer

Budapest in July is hot — regularly over 33°C — and the answer is the strand, the Hungarian open-air bath.

Palatinus on Margaret Island is the obvious choice: eleven outdoor pools, slides, wave pool, grass to lie on. It is designed for families and is where the city's own children go.

Római Strandfürdő in Óbuda is the more local version, cheaper and shaded by old trees.

Csillaghegy and Dagály are the other two worth knowing.

Avoid taking small children to Rudas or Király — the Ottoman baths are small, dark, hot and quiet, and are not built for it.

Getting about, which children like more than you expect

The M1 metro runs three metres below Andrássy Avenue in its original 1896 tunnel, with short wooden-framed carriages that feel like a toy train. It is a genuine attraction and costs a normal fare.

Tram 2 runs along the Pest embankment past the Parliament and is frequently listed among the most scenic tram routes in Europe. Twenty minutes, one ticket, and it solves the "we need to sit down" problem.

The funicular up Castle Hill is sixty seconds long and children love it. The queue is often longer than the ride.

Inside, when it rains

• Hospital in the Rock — a wartime hospital and nuclear bunker in the caves under Castle Hill. Best for ten and up; genuinely gripping. Timed tours, book ahead.
• Pálvölgyi and Szemlő-hegyi caves in the Buda hills — real caves inside the city, with proper walkways.
• Aquincum — the Roman town that predates Budapest, with a reconstructed street. Good for children who have done Romans at school.
• Memento Park — the Communist statues moved out of the city after 1989, standing in a field. Older children find it strange and memorable; younger ones will be bored.

Eating with children

Hungarian food is, on the whole, extremely child-friendly: breaded and fried things, chicken soup, pancakes. Almost any traditional restaurant will have something a fussy eater will accept.

Menza on Liszt Ferenc tér does modernised canteen classics and is used to families. The Great Market Hall upstairs is a good, cheap lunch and children like the noise. And *lángos* — deep-fried dough with sour cream and cheese — solves most afternoon crises.

For the full picture, the eating guide covers it.

Practical points that matter

• Under-6s travel free on all BKK public transport, and prams travel free with an adult.
• The pavements are uneven in the older districts and the Castle Hill is cobbled. A sturdy pram or a carrier beats a light buggy.
• Distances look shorter than they are on the map because the blocks are large. Two central districts is a comfortable day with a child, not four.
• The baths require flip-flops and most require a swimming cap for the lap pool.

A workable two-day shape

Day one: City Park — zoo in the morning, Vajdahunyad and the park after lunch, Széchenyi baths before dinner.

Day two: the hills — cogwheel up, Children's Railway across, Elizabeth Lookout, chairlift down, then tram 2 along the river at dusk.

That is two days that a child will remember, and it involves almost no queuing and no museum-marching at all.