5 Photo Spots in Budapest for Day and Night Photos

Visiting Budapest was one of those trips I’ve been postponing for years. Maybe because it’s quite easy to get there from Vienna. After a 2.5-hour train ride, you’ll arrive in the middle of this beautiful city.

Well, 2.5 hours only if your train engine doesn't break down as it happened to the train I was in.

Getting around in Budapest

Budapest has an excellent public transportation system. Lots of trams, buses and one of the oldest metros in the world. Google Maps, as well as Apple Maps, have public transportation lines and schedule. As I’ve planned this trip using Google Trips that I reviewed a while ago, it was quite convenient to get directions from one photo spot to the next using Google Trips & Google Maps.

You can buy public transportation tickets from vending machines in each station. Many of them accept credit cards, and I successfully bought a 72-hour ticket with Apple Pay, that finally launched in Austria at the end of April. Hooray!

As of April 2019, there’s no Uber and no MyTaxi in Budapest. But taxis seem to use another app that was formerly called taxify.eu and is now called Bolt but I didn’t try that. I used public transportation.

Vajdahunyad Castle

Vajdahunyad Castle was my first stop on day one. It's an “artificial” castle that was built for the Millennial Exhibition in 1896. It’s located in the vast City Park in Budapest. Before you enter the City Park, spend a minute or two at the Heroes’ Square right in front of it.

Vajdahunyad Castle is pretty amazing. Lot’s of different architectural styles were used when it was built. When you walk through the area, look up and pay attention to all the details of the buildings. Some parts are overgrown with climbers like the tower right near the gate or the back of the castle. A stunning view!

Here's one more photo of this photogenic caste. I removed a person standing in the lower right corner, right under the trees, using Touch Retouch App.

St. Stephan’s Basilica

This is probably one of the two most famous basilicas in Budapest. The huge square in front of it provides enough space to zoom in and out with your feet and photograph the church from various perspectives. You’ll get a beautiful view of the church from the Budapest Eye, a Ferris wheel not far from St. Stephan’s Basilica.

To photograph at least a part of the enormous Basilica inside, I used the Moment Wide and Moment Fisheye lenses.

And just in case you wonder about the other most famous basilica. It's definitely the one at Fisherman's Bastion. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good photo there. Something was going on there, and the basilica and parts of the surrounding were closed.

Edificio Párisi Udvar

Too bad that I was too late (or too early) to be able to get inside this building. Edificio Párisi Udvar is definitely one of the most colorful and most beautiful buildings in Budapest. I loved all the details in the facade. From what I’ve read, the interior must be equally fantastic containing a considerable passage. As of April 2019, the building is being renovated and thus not accessible.

To get a good photo of the building, I went to the other side of the street and used ProCamera with perspective distortion fix enabled. So I got e perfect upright photo of this architectural masterpiece.

Parliament in Budapest

I went there to photograph it twice. Once during the day and later at night. The perfectly balanced view of the building may be blocked by cruise ships that are docked at the river bank during the day. Fortunately, none of the vessels was there when I went there at night.

I got this photo of the Parliament building in Budapest using Slow Shutter Cam App in Low light mode with a manual ISO setting and an 8-second exposure; that, of course, required the use of tripod; see the night photography with iPhone page.

Chain Bridge

This over 175-year-old suspension bridge connects the Buda district with the Pest district. You can cross the bridge by foot or by car.

Just as with the parliament, it may be challenging to get a photo from the bridge from the river bank. When I was there lots of river cruise ships were docked, blocking the view from the river bank. Luckily, one of the ships departed around 9pm, and I could get this photo

But there’s a viewing Plattform on the Buda side right above the tunnel from which you’ll get a great view of the bridge. I'll have to try that next time as it started to rain and I went back to the hotel.

More photos of Budapest

I usually upload a few more photos to my Flickr, Instagram and Facebook. See you there?