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Budapest is a strong contender for the title of Europe’s best city break. It’s beautiful, either side of the Danube, has a solid range of often rather weird attractions, plus lots of thermal baths to splash around in. It’s also great fun — the ‘ruin bar’ scene is hugely enjoyable, while craft beer pubs and street food truck or stall clusters are popping up constantly. Budapest is still pretty cheap, too, and works for families, for couples and for stag and hen dos. A significant proportion of hotels are housed in grand old buildings from the Austro- Hungarian Empire, meaning relatively few bland, cookie-cutter options. There’s also a strong apartment scene, with numerous mid-range places that fall somewhere between aparthotels and Airbnb. Location plays a part — there’s a vast gulf in personality between pretty-but-quiet Buda and energetic, unashamedly urban Pest — but on the whole, the city is supremely walkable, so this division is by no means pivotal.