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The university is on the Buda side of the city, which is the western part separated by the Danube (Duna) river. The eastern part of the city is Pest.
The public transportation in Budapest is done by the
Budapest
Transportation Company, BKV. You can find helpful information on that
website, for example schedules and a route planner (regrettably, the latter one
is only available in Hungarian).
Budapest has only three different subway (metro) lines, numbered 1, 2, and 3, or in colours
yellow, red, and blue. Subways propose the best method to travel inside the
city. Subways all cross at the single place: Deák Ferenc square (which is also a
good starting point to visit the famous Váci street). Trams are the second best
to use in Budapest, after the subway. Tram 4 and 6 are easy to reach from inside
the city including most of the proposed hotels. You can
also see some important tram stops on the
interactive map.
You can get tickets at the counters, mostly at subway stations, or at some newspaper sellers. You can also buy tickets at automats, but mostly they are out-of-order, so buying tickets in advance is preferable. There are officers (ticket controlling personnel) who regurarly and accidentally check tickets throughout the city, mostly at subway stations. They are not very polite people, so please have a valid ticket with you and if any misunderstanding occurs, do not pay fines just get a yellow cheque about that. (Sometimes they find it funny to disturb foreigners, because they not always take care of the complicated transportation system of Budapest.)
There are no sectors in the city, but if the bus goes beyond the borders of the city, additional/another tickets might be needed. It is not easy to use public transportation after 11 PM. Although there are special night lines, they go on different routes than in the daytime, so you might want to use a taxi in the night.
If you decide at the airport to get a taxi you can use FÅ‘taxi the official taxi service of the
airport. For other taxi services we prefer the taxi companies with a good reputation, like
Tele 5 Taxi,
FÅ‘taxi
(FÅ‘taxi's telephone number 06-80-222-222 is free from public phones).
At most FÅ‘taxi cabs, You can use a credit card, but better ask about that when calling for a taxi
by phone.
Other good names are the
6x6 Taxi company (call +36 1 466 6666).
Citytaxi (call +36 1 2 111 111).
If you need a taxi you should call one by phone, since it is more cheaper in
this way than stopping one on the road. Also, calling the taxi by phone decreases
the chance that You will be cheated, what otherwise happens sometimes,... (We repeat this again and again, and those who avoid this advice report us very bad exprerience, so it's worth to call for a taxi by phone, even if they are waiting in long queues at your site).
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For airport transfer, there are slightly different charges depending the company (and they are always changing throughout the years),
and also the direction (from the airport or to the airport). Also, most companies use
a sector-based scheme for aiport transfer. You have to ask abount airport transport
price at the cab driver. However, at most cases airport transfer costs about the same as
per taxameter from the university campus.
The number of public phones decreased in the last years. Some of them are working with coins (mostly pink phones), others work with a pre-paid card (such cards can be purchased at newspaper stands). Operator and information: Magyar Telekom.
Hungary has three GSM providers: Pannon, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. 900 and 1800 Mhz and in some areas of Budapest also 3G is available. Maybe the best coverage and quality is provided by T-Mobile.
The meeting room will definitely have Wi-Fi connectivity. Many hotels provide Wi-Fi, some for an additional fee. Sometimes you are able to find open hot-spots, and there are cafes with free internet. Check the website of the Hungarian Wireless Community for open hot-spots. There are also several internet cafes.
The electric power is 230V in Hungary, we use the german style Schüko socket.
It is a very good idea to stay some more extra days in Budapest. Budapest is the most beautiful in the summer, and you can find a lot to see and to try. Some more specific examples:
You can find more information on various websites like the official touristical website of Budapest, and you can also ask Boldizsár and Tamás for help.
Please note that in Hungary the tip is usually 10% if not included in
the price (it depends on the place). So if you eat in a restaurant or drink in a pub you should give 10% tip,
because this money is part of the waiter's earnings (of course it is
not valid if a service fee
is on the receipt). If you travel with taxi it is also recommended to
give a bit
more (5-10%) to the driver, but you can ask him to write the total
amount of
money you give on the bill.
Unlike some places, any companies, restaurants, shops, taxis must be
able to
give you a company VAT invoice with proper VAT ratios and amounts, with
the name of the purchaser included, at any time or place (invoice
on stamp and bus ticket might be problematic). Prices on the street are
VAT
included, VAT is 25% in most cases.
You can expect to use your credit card at most places or get exchange
from euro
nearby. Lately, restaurants began to calculate services fees. If You see service fee on Your bill, there is no need to pay any tips. They often try to make foreigners overlook on that and give an additional tip over the service fee which is not ethical.
You should better look around on the web for that, but some hints:
| Budapest University of Technology and Economics |
| Department of Telecommunications |
| CrySyS - Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security |