Budapest, verdict by verdict

Budapest is two cities in one river-wrapped package: stately Pest with its Parliament dome and grand boulevards, hilly Buda with the castle and Fisherman's Bastion's free panorama. The ruin bars of the Jewish quarter, thermal baths steaming under neo-baroque facades, and the lit-up Parliament from a night cruise make it one of Europe's great-value capitals, and the 100E airport bus lands you in the middle of it.

The trade-offs are polish and noise: it is scruffier than Vienna or Prague, District VII's party streets stay loud until four in the morning, some bath complexes are more communal changing room than spa day, the dinner cruises' food lags the skyline, English Parliament slots sell out weeks ahead, and Szechenyi packs solid at midday on summer weekends. Travelers expecting pristine streets and western polish should go to Vienna and pay for it.

Three days covers Parliament, the castle hill, a bath and the ruin-bar quarter, with a Danube evening cruise as the skyline payoff. Sleep in District V or VI, do Szechenyi on a weekday morning, book the Parliament tour well ahead, and come April to June or September to October, with December adding the markets. The 100E bus is the arrival.