Mark, I’ve read you’ve recently been to Budapest. Would you share some information with us? (I’m travelling there in August, but since Budapest is attracting a lot of tourists, this topic is maybe of interest for more people on this forum).

- I’ve heard there still is a considerable language barrier in Hungary. According to this 2006 poll http://p21208.typo3server.info/126.0.html, 23% of Hungarians are able to have a conversation in English, 25% in German. Maybe the numbers are higher for the younger generation?

- What about daygame in Budapest?

- Hungarian girls in comparison to American and/or German/Berlin girls (attitude, looks, bitch-shield)?

- NO-GOs or things to avoid?

- Can you say something about the artistic scene in Budapest? Is there anything like an “underground art” sub-culture? (I’ve heard about such places, but I don’t know whether they still exist, because some say Budapest has changed a lot during the last couple of years…)

Maybe some other guys on this forum have been to Budapest, too? Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any information shared.

Hey,
I've been living in Budapest for the last four years. It's true that a lot of Hungarians don't speak English, but if you find some that do, they are often very receptive to you.
Girls in Budapest are generally hot. I've been to the states, NZ, all over Europe and they are definitely the hottest I've come across. In general, they are easier than most western girls I've met. The standard of living is not so high here, so maybe they are looking for a rich foreigner.
Be careful with strip clubs, if they are heavily promoted chances are they will rip you off. They have a reputation for charging ridiculous prices for drinks, (hundreds of euro for bottles of wine) and then the bouncers will threaten to kick the crap out of you if you don't pay up. This has happened to a few friends of mine. Also, a lot of the taxi's are corrupt and work with the strip club's. If you want a taxi, phone a reputable taxi company, don't hail a taxi on the street, unless you want to pay four times the regular price.
I don't know much about the art scene, but there are some arty "ruin" bars, such as "Szimpla Kert" or "Instant", well worth checking out.

Two words: Hajogyari Island

More specifically, the night clubs Bed Beach and Dokkolo Beach. I have rarely seen so many smoking hot girls in a single place, and I've picked up in the highest end venues in NYC, LA, London, Miami, Las Vegas, Buenos Aires, Berlin, etc. Seriously, both nights I went out there, I saw 10-20 girls who could be models back in the US. Bed Beach in particular is probably in my Top 3 venues of all time in terms of the talent it stocks there.

With that said, the venues are very hard. And will really test your confidence if you're not good at night game. They're extremely loud, lots of aggressive guys, big dance floors. On top of that, only half of the girls speak any English at all. My friend who I'm traveling with has got pretty solid game back in the States, and he got absolutely destroyed both nights we went and just ended up getting hammered by himself by the bar.

I had a hard time the first night. But went out last night on a mission. Actually did decently... didn't have a drink, approached maybe 12 girls -- all incredibly hot -- about 5 of them went well, danced with a few, made out with one and attempted to bring her home, but she decided to stay with her friends.

But I'll re-iterate, these venues are not easy. Even if you spoke Hungarian, they'd be pretty hard. Without Hungarian, they're some of the hardest places I've picked up in, period. If you can make it in Bed Beach, you can make it just about anywhere. The girls are extremely hot. And when you do hook, they're very friendly and sensual. So in my mind, it's worth it. I imagine for a lot of guys, it's not.

Outside of Hajogyari Island, the night life seems OK. It goes late, but coming from Berlin that's going to be nothing new. The bars are very artsy and interesting. But not crazy party scenes or anything, and the girls are decent, but nothing to get excited about -- slightly better than western girls, if at all. Fair amount of tourists as well. My only lay here was actually a Brazilian girl I met at one of these places.

Day game, I haven't done any. But I've seen a lot of cute girls walking around. Area around Saint Stephen's Basilicka and the Opera House seems to have a lot. Also, look for the intersection called "Oktogon," it's a pretty high trafficked area and I saw some hot girls walking around there.

So far it seems like 50-60% of Hungarians speak some English. It's a matter of how well. I'd say 1/5 speak very good English, and another 1/5 speak passable English -- as long as you speak slowly and use simple words, you can get your point across. The rest either speak none, or so little they may as well speak none. Basically, plan on losing half of your approaches off the bat to the language barrier.

It's a great city. It's really unfortunate that Hungarian is such a pointless language to learn. Otherwise, I'd stick around and basically set up shop at Hajogyari every week. I'd say, if you want to get laid, stick to bars like Szimpla and some of the rooftop places. They're fairly easy venues, have tourists in them and the locals are friendly. If you want to play in the big leagues or just see some of the hottest girls of your life, head up to Hajogyari.

Is there a popular "third language" among Hungarians that's more valuable to know? I'm thinking one of the other popular Euro languages such as French, German, Spanish.

(My guess is probably not, since English is everyone's favorite foreign language, but depending on proximity to other countries... ?)

Thanks a lot, Mark and Reprobate, for sharing the detailed information!

Reprobate: The artsy “ruins” thing sounds very interesting. We have the similar places here in Berlin. Thanks for the advice on nightclub scam.

Mark: What you wrote about Budapest perfectly fits into what some other guys with great game have mentioned about Eastern European cities (not only Budapest, but also Riga, Moscow, Kiev, etc.) It seems to be super hard there. Tough bitch shields etc. Hajogyari Island sounds definitely too hard for me…

When in Budapest I will more or less concentrate on daygame, but it will probably still be tough. Maybe I will write about my experience there, so I could add some good daygame spots to the places you already mentioned.

Equilibrium: According to the poll cited above, 25% of Hungarians speak German. I think this has reasons in history (think of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire before 1918).

I've been asking girls what other languages they speak (since I speak Spanish and some Russian), and it's been all over the map. There have been a couple German's, but one Spanish, one Russian, some French, Italian...

It really seems like the only language there that more than 50% speak is Hungarian, which is unfortunate.

General: I actually don't think the girls here are that hard once you find an English speaker. They've all been pretty friendly towards me. Very few bitch shields. Just a bitch of a language barrier and a few really hard night venues.

Overall, I give the city a thumbs up. I give the women a thumbs up. But I feel kind of the same way I feel about Prague: since it's a language I have no interest in learning, I don't see myself spending a whole lot of time here in the future. Glad I came though.

I visited there when I lived in Vienna about 5 years ago. Only thing I remember going to was this outdoor party called Romkert which was really cool. It's just a ton of bars set up outdoors, different dance floors, all types of music, etc. It was a summer festival so I think you're going at the right time. The language barrier was definitely a factor. I was making out and dancing with some girl for a long time but really couldn't progress much further or bounce her back to my hotel because she didn't understand anything I was saying.

So I've just returned from Budapest and want to tell you about my impressions.

The first thing I want to say is that I've been there only for a short time and I have only approached 3 girls, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

How to rank the Budapest girls (concerning looks), that seems to be quite subjective. I do NOT agree with the enthusiastic views others have posted here. In my opinion, the quality is significantly lower than in Munich, WAY lower than in Riga, and maybe equal to Berlin (that's all the towns I've been to recently). Again, let me emphasize that this opinion is subjective. And I haven't been to the top nightgame venues. I restrict to myself to what I have seen on the street.

I was there for four days. The first two days I only did sightseeing. On the third I did streetgame at night. I went to Erzebet Ter for this, which is a central square in the city center. At nighttime, that's an ideal spot where young people meet friends, hang around etc. But it's quite hard to find attractive girls on their own there.

I opened the first girl with a direct opener, she rejected me immediatly. The second one also did not receive me well in the beginning, but in spite of this I could hook well and I would have had a 50-50 chance to get her on an instant date... if her boyfriend would not have come after 5 minutes. So I ejected. The third woman I approached also did not receive my approach well at first. However, I charmed her, and I got her on an instant date. We have spent the night and the following day (my last day) together. All three girls were in the HB 6-7 category (i. e. slim body and pretty face, but too short to have the model look).

Concerning the language barrier: This does not seem to be such a big thing. (Again, take this with a grain of salt, since I did not speak with so many people.) It's easy to find young people who have at least some command of English and German.

Ironically, the hottest girl I've seen in Budapest was an American tourist. I would give her a 10. Unfortunately she was in male company, so I didn't stop her on the street.

The city itself is huge (even for a Berliner like me). I like the danube and Magrit island best (not for gaming, just for sightseeing). Magrit island would be a top daygame spot (there are beautiful parks), but unfortunately there seem to hang out many families, couples etc., but hardly any attractive females on their own.

Magrit island is great. I went running there a couple times. Not sure what you're saying about it being bigger than Berlin. And DEFINITELY don't know what you're saying about the girls not being hotter than girls in Berlin. But, to each their own.

Like I said, I honestly didn't see a whole lot of quality in the city center either.

Cool city though.

Well I think it would be easier if at least half of your approaches would be tourists,I dont think there are local girls at many countries that are so directly- open to tourists.Telling this from a famous touristic country.Also if your mother tongue is English,they may think you are british,the worst tourists ever!
But maybe the best is to find something near your culture whatever it is.
For example theres is a gothic club here,where if a german goth comes and meets people,he will be very successful.