Hungary
Budapest
- Thermal baths - good all year as it has natural hot water with healing properties - either Gellért Thermal Bath or Széchenyi Thermal Bath depending on where you are
- Széchenyi Thermal Bath is on the Pest side around Heroes’ Square, which also has art museums around it like Museum of Fine Arts, the City Park Ice Rink & Boating, depending on season and big park with a recreated Vajdahunyad Castle
- Gellért Thermal Bath is on the Buda side next to Gellert Hill, which can be good to climb for a nice view of the city. The street that leads up to it, Bartók Béla út, has hip cafes and bars, like my friend’s vietnamese Caphe by Hai Nam, so can eat/drink around there.
- Crossing the river to the Pest side from Gellért Thermal Bath, you have the Central Market Hall, which is a nice market and you can walk from there on Váci utca, to Vörösmarty tér which is a restaurant/shopping street with nice buildings and can also go down to the riverside.
- Also around there is the Jewish corner, with cool pubs and nice to walk around, like the most famous ruin pub Szimpla Kert, which is touristy, but still definitley worth a drink/visit, some restaurants like Gettó Gulyás, which serves hungarian food and places around Gozsdu Court.
- Also around there you have St. Stephen’s Basilica that has wine bars and restaurants around (although expensive). For hungarian food Retek Bisztro looks nice.
- Crossing back to the Buda side on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, you have the Castle hill, with Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion, both of which are worth walking around.
- Some miscallenous drinks/food places
Outside Budapest
- Szentendre is easiest to get to, not sure how it’s in winter but beautiful to walk around
- Lake Balaton, in particular the wine region in the north, winter time could be sad
- Tokaj wine region, not sure if great in winter
- Pécs, never been, but heard good things
- Szeged, never been, but heard good things
Close to Budapest, not Hungary
- Vienna - 2.5 hours by train
- Brno - 4 hours bus
- Prague - 6-8 hours - night train/bus
- Kraków - 7-8 hours - night train/bus