Parliament & Danube Segway Sightseeing Tour Budapest

Training and the start in central Budapest

The tour begins at the meeting point in Budapest's Belváros district, where your guide fits you with a Segway and runs a full training session of about fifteen minutes. A Segway is controlled by leaning forward and back, and most people learn it in a few minutes. All necessary equipment is provided, along with rain ponchos if the weather turns and gloves in winter.

This is what makes a Segway sightseeing tour in Budapest different from a walking tour: you cover a wide part of the centre quickly and stay comfortable, and the small group means the guide can talk to everyone while you ride.

St Stephen's Basilica and Erzsébet Square

The route passes Erzsébet Square, often described as the central park of the city centre, and continues to St Stephen's Basilica. This is the largest church in Budapest, finished in 1905 after decades of construction, and its dome rises to 96 metres, the same height as the Parliament. Inside the basilica is a relic said to be the right hand of St Stephen, Hungary's first king.

You see the neoclassical façade from the square, and your guide explains why the church is named after the founder of the Hungarian state. If you want to go inside, visiting the basilica interior or the panoramic dome is possible on your own after the tour.

Liberty Square and the Hungarian Parliament

Liberty Square is one of Budapest's most elegant squares, with historic buildings and monuments that tell the story of the twentieth century. From here the ride continues to Kossuth Square and the Hungarian Parliament, completed in 1904 to designs by Imre Steindl. The neo-Gothic building is about 268 metres long, one of the largest parliaments in the world, and its riverside façade is the best-known image of the city.

Questions like where to see the Parliament in Budapest are easy to answer on the Segway route, because you stop for photos right in front. Parliament interior tours have their own tickets and are not part of this ride.

Shoes on the Danube Bank and the riverside

The route follows the Danube embankment to the Shoes on the Danube Bank, a memorial created by the film director Can Togay and the sculptor Gyula Pauer in 2005. Sixty pairs of cast-iron shoes stand on the edge of the river to remember Jews who were shot into the water in the winter of 1944 to 1945. Your guide gives a short, respectful explanation.

From the promenade you can look across to Buda Castle, Fisherman's Bastion and the Chain Bridge, the city's oldest permanent bridge across the river, opened in 1849. The break at the memorial is also a good time to ask the guide for tips for the rest of your stay.