DAY ONE
Any time spent in Budapest involves a lot of crossing over Széchenyi Lánchíd, the suspension bridge that links Roosevelt Square in the hotel and shopping area of Pest with the funicular at the foot of Castle Hill in Buda. In this split personality city, you also cross from one state of mind to another. In Buda, you're a tourist pure and simple. In Pest, you shop, work, hang out.
You'll arrive on the BA flight shortly after midday, so for that first afternoon, be a tourist. Castle Hill in Buda is Middle Europe distilled, a Ruritanian picture of turrets, wooded hills, ramparts, cobbled streets and wide courtyards. The Budapest History Museum in the far side of the Royal Palace is a good place to get your historical bearings. You whisk through the Roman, Gothic and Turkish history of the city before finding yourself in a brilliantly realised 3-D photographic depiction of Budapest's turbulent recent past.
Away from the crowds, just beyond the Hilton, it's worth seeking out the Koller contemporary art gallery housed in the former atelier of the Hungarian sculptor and actor Amerigo Tot.
For dinner, go back to the traditional mood with a visit to the Karpatia restaurant (karpatia.hu), founded in 1877. It's all vaulted ceilings, wood panelling, lacy tablecloths and Gypsy musicians at the table. The food is solid. Then on to the New York Café (boscolohotels.com) set within the New York Palace Hotel, a Belle Epoque restaurant in ornate late 19th-century style — great for watching fashionable young Budapest.
DAY TWO
A day for exploring Budapest's more recent past. Trabant cars used to be ubiquitous, but in 2011 virtually the only Trabbies you see are decked out in leopardskin upholstery and owned by an enterprising tour company (cityrama.hu). It's a lively, if not overly comfortable, way of seeing the main sights associated with the grim and turbulent years between the failed 1956 uprising and the downfall of the Soviet regime in 1989.
Heroes' Square, on the edge of People's Park, is a giant, neoclassical piazza where the great names of Hungarian history are remembered. In 1956 it was the scene of vicious fighting in the Revolution and jubilation when a massive statue of Stalin was torn down — the dictator's head was attacked for days. In 1989, anti-regime rallies were held here.
The Terror House is a gracious villa on elegant Andrássy út with a very ungracious and inelegant history — it was the HQ of the fascist and then the communist secret police. Today, it is a well-put-together museum that avoids schlock but explains much about the ghastly history of Mitteleuropa in the last century.
Statue Park is a huge communist-era theme park in the southern suburbs of the city. Many of the statues to socialist leaders and those socialist realist montages glorifying the workers were placed here when they were removed in 1989.
For a coffee-house stopover, sample the Austro-Hungarian charm of Centrál Kávéház (centralkavehaz.hu) — still where the intellectuals, writers, artists and journalists meet - even if it's property prices rather than insurrection they talk about these days.
For dinner, the first of the new-wave international restaurants is still, according to many, the best: Tom George (tomgeorge.hu) in the heart of the business district.
DAY THREE
You've probably eaten and drunk your fill by now: so spend the morning in one of Budapest's justly famous Turkish baths. Széchenyi (szechenyibath.com) on the Pest side is not sleek and minimalist. But if you've always wanted to bathe in hot springs outside a Baroque palace while watching middle-aged men play chess in their swimming trunks — you've found your dream place.
You've still time for a pre-flight lunch, so try Symbol (symbolbudapest.hu) in Old Buda — a complex of restaurants, art galleries and bars, all very stylish, housed in an old forage store.
NEED TO KNOW
Read
Victor Sebestyen's riveting Twelve Days on the 1956 uprising, and Revolution 1989.
Don't...
...go shopping, unless you collect lacy tablecloths. All the big Western names are here.
Here for more than 72 hours?
Visit Lake Balaton and wine country. Stay at Chateau Visz (chateau-visz.com), which also has a fine restaurant. Don't miss Szeremley winery (szeremley.com).
WHERE TO STAY
Luxury
Stay two nights at the five-star Le Meridien Budapest with BA from £299pp (room only).
Mid range
Stay two nights at the four-star Danubius Astoria with BA from £255pp with breakfast.
Budget
Stay two nights at the three-star Korona Pension with BA from £205pp including breakfast.
Prices are for July 2011 and include return BA flights from London Heathrow and UK taxes. Contact ba.com/budapest or +44 (0)844 493 0758 (subject to availability, based on two sharing).
