Music & Concert Tour To Budapest

The charming crooked streets of Budapest’s Castle District are packed with historic sights and attractions. The elegant neo-baroque Royal Palace is home to three museums and the National Széchényi Library, the Matthias Church boasts a rococo spire that pierces the skyline. There are houses surviving from medieval times that provide a window on the past.

Visit Budapest’s impressive neo-Gothic Parliament House on the Danube embankment. On a tour of the building, a guide brings it to life with commentary and anecdotes. Students get up close to its turrets and arches, and wander through the Great Vaulted Hall and the magnificent Session Room.

Tip: The Parliament Building is so vast it contains more than 20km of staircases.

Come and see how the 19th-century composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor Franz Liszt lived. The museum is a reconstruction of his last flat in the city where he lived from 1881 and 1886. It contains his original instruments, furniture, books, scores and personal objects and memorabilia.

Tip: In the concert hall nearby, the museum arranges Saturday matinée concerts for its visitors.

Here, students can find out about life under the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in 20th-century Hungary. It is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building. Part of the exhibition is in the basement cells that the communist ÁVH (secret police) used to break the will of their prisoners.

Take a dip in the healing waters of the Széchenyi Thermal Baths – one of the largest spa complexes in Europe and the first thermal bath of Pest. Set in a neo-baroque building in City Park, its water is supplied by two thermal springs. Students can swim in the pools and try the whirling corridor, underwater bubbles, neck shower and water beam back massage

Take in a performance at the prestigious Hungarian State Opera House, set in a beautiful neo-Renaissance building on the Champs-Élysées of Budapest – the Andrássy út. It seats 1,200 and is known for its incredible acoustics. Gustav Mahler was director here from 1887 to 1891. Operas are also performed at the Erkel Theatre – less splendid but larger and more modern.