I have never traveled for New Year’s Eve before. So far I’ve been to concerts or fireworks shows in front of the Town Hall in Arad, visited my parents or friends and even went to some parties..

This year, however, thanks to some friends , we’ve already made plans to visit Budapest between December 29 , 2012 and January 1, 2013. So…4 nights including New Year’s Eve. For the special night we plan to celebrate in the street, with the locals, watching fireworks.

I know it’s still more than two months until then but forecast says it’s going to be rather warm and snowing. So, shouldn’t worry about being too cold (as it’s always been in Romania so far).

Accommodation:

We are going to stay at Dominik Panzio, the very same place we stayed at last December. The price is 33 euros/night/triple room and breakfast is 3 euros/person.

Transport:

To and from Budapest, we’ll probably go by car with a friend. Within the city we’ll make use of day travel cards (1550 ft last year) for the days when we’ll do a lot of sightseeing, and walking for the rest of the days.

Sightseeing and activities:

Again, I want to go to the Christmas Market (which will still be open by the time we get there). Then, there are the concerts before New Year’s Eve and on the day taking place in various markets in the city.

As for sights, I saw pretty much everything there is to see in Budapest, but want to go back to the Transport Museum (been there in 2007) and hopefully check out more museums this time.

Of course, I want to take more night shots in Budapest and hopefully see Budapest at night from the Fishermen’s Bastion or anywhere in Buda Castle.

Budget

Accommodation: 33 euros/night x 4 nights = 132 euros [assuming we won’t share the room with anyone else]
Commission for bank payment: 20 lei / 4.50 euro
Transport: 130 lei /person x 2 = 260 lei / 57 euros [assuming we don’t travel by car]
Transport: 160 lei / person x 2 = 320 lei / 71.50 euros
Breakfast: 3 euros x 2 persons x 4 days = 24 euros
Other meals: 10 euros/ 2 persons/meal x 8 meals = 80 euros

Total: 293 312 euros

Entrance to many sites are free in December. And since it’s going to be 10 to 12 persons traveling, we’ll probably get some discounts, too.

Later edit (Dec 10, 2012):

Decided to email them to transfer 3 rooms to another name (the guys who’d come by car). Then I saw their fine print (in the confirmation email, and NOT the offer email) that we’d have to pay in advance 50% for accommodation by Dec 14. By transfer, of course, adding to the cost.

Rookie mistake? Yes. I was assuming they’d have the exact same policy as they did when I was there last year in Dec. Wrong, they don’t. I knew about the 3 nights minimum stay over NYE but not about the payment in advance.

We have 2 days to confirm or we’ll cancel. And we eventually decided who to pay as not to lose too much money via the transfer. It still bugs me that someone working at a hostel doesn’t have a good grasp of English and it’s often downright impossible to communicate.

Photo via Flickr