Szentendre (Engl: Saint Andrew) is a charming little town located close to Budapest, Hungary. It is known for its cute houses and many churches. It is also very popular among day trippers!

A bit of history of Szentendre

The area was largely uninhabited until the arrival of the Hungarians in the Xth century. During the Ottoman conquest of Hungary (XVIth century) it was completely depopulated. After the Great Turkish War, although the Serbs hoped to liberate their country, they ended up fleeing Kosovo and the Austrian emperor allowed them to settle in the region of Budapest. Szentendre thus became the religious, political, and cultural center of Serbs in Hungary.

Today less than a hundred Serbs still live in Szentendre and the connection with the Serbian culture has disappeared.

The inhabitants nowadays are artists and small galleries (which do provide the city’s charm).

How to get to Szentendre

The city is easy to visit as part of a day trip (or even half-day trip from Budapest). If you get a travel card (whether 24h, or longer), you still need to pay an additional fare for Szentendre as the city is located outside of Budapest metropolitan area.

When we go the travel card for 72 h, we asked for two return additional fares to Szentendre and …ended up with one. Therefore, we paid the return fare in the train. You can do that and there’s no penalty whatsoever.

To get to Szentendre you need to take H5 from Batthyány tér (on M2, red). The last stop is Szentendre and the trip takes about 45 min. Make sure the H5 has Szentendre written on it as H5 also only goes to Békásmegyer (last station in the metropolitan area). No biggie if you take the wrong train but you’d need to get off at Békásmegyer and hop on the correct one to Szentendre.

If you prefer to ride a bike, there’s a bike line, which apparently is quite scenic, as it goes by the Danube. From downtown Budapest, the ride is 25km.

Not a fan of the train or bike? Take the boat! There’s regular service from May to September. You will have to ask around to get the correct info on schedules and where the boats leave from.

Booking.com

What to do in Szentendre

I can summarize the things to do in Szentendre like this: walk, take photos, walk some more, visit a museum or two, visit a church or two, eat, and go back.

The downtown area is well marked from the hev station. You just go straight to the center and there are maps from time to time, to make sure you are on the right road. It probably takes about 10 -15 min to walk to the downtown area.
Then, you walk some more and take photos of everywhere. There are a lot of cafes, restaurants, artisans shops, crafts shops… so take your pick. There are a lot of churches to visit, too. The ones we’ve passed by, charged to visit them (and I do not pay to visit churches!).

I do recommend the Marzipan Museum. The ticket is 450 HUF/ 1.60 USD per adult and while it is small, it is worth a visit. Oh, and they have a café where you can try marzipan sweets. Or buy some for home.

When hunger strikes, read the prices. No, seriously. I love that the restaurants and cafes must have their menu and prices available before you sit down to order. And I was able to find a place that was willing to take the cheese out of the food to make it vegan for me.

Pro tip

On the way back to Budapest, you can visit the Roman ruins of Aquincum. It is interesting, and they have just opened a new exhibition and some new areas, too. It is only open from April to October though.