Where to stay in Budapest

District V holds both faces of Pest: Belváros, around Váci utca, all shops and tourists, and Lipótváros to the north, home to the ministries, the basilica and Parliament. To sleep, Lipótváros is the nicer half: wide streets, grand apartment blocks, and in the evening, terraces around the basilica rather than the Váci utca crowds.

Tram 2 runs along the Danube past Parliament and the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial. It is the best ride in town, and an ordinary ticket covers it.

Around the Great Synagogue on Dohány Street and along Kazinczy utca, the courtyards of abandoned buildings have become bars, starting with Szimpla Kert, which still pulls a crowd every night.

If you sleep lightly, ask for a courtyard room, or stay in the northern part towards Király Street, where the noise dies down earlier.

District VI follows Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square. Under the avenue runs line M1, opened in 1896 and the oldest on the continent: six stops to City Park and the Széchenyi baths, which makes this the best base if the thermal baths are part of the plan.

In the evening, life gathers around Liszt Ferenc tér, the square of the Music Academy, calmer than the Jewish Quarter next door. The avenue itself carries heavy traffic, so ask for a room on a side street.

District VIII has two very different halves. Between the National Museum and the Grand Boulevard, the "Palace Quarter" lines up nineteenth-century mansions and the cafés of Mikszáth tér: that is where to sleep. Beyond the boulevard, it turns residential, less well kept and further from everything.

Expect around €69 a night mid-range, well below the centre. Line M4 reaches the market hall, then Buda, in a few stops.

District IX begins at the Great Market Hall, at the foot of Liberty Bridge, and runs up Ráday utca, a pedestrian street of restaurants and terraces. The area has been renovated without losing its residents, and it stays quiet at night, ten minutes' walk from the centre.

Liberty Bridge leads across the river to the Gellért baths. The market itself is best in the morning, before the tour groups arrive.

On the hill, between the Royal Palace, Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion, cobbled streets keep their baroque houses. By day, tour groups pour in; in the evening they leave, and the district becomes one of the quietest in the city, with a view of Parliament lit up.

For a compromise, look at Víziváros, below the hill along the Danube: it has the Batthyány tér stop on line M2 and the same view of Parliament, closer up.