Hungarian Grand Prix

[Cheshirecat]

Hi, I'm thinking of going to the above event this summer and wondered about other listers' experiences.

What are the best tickets to buy?

Places to stay?

Other parts of Hungary to visit?

I have all the usual type of information but you can't beat a personal recommendation!

Any opinion valued!

[belleair302]

The Hungarian GP is interesting, firstly because of the location....Budapest is a wonderful place to spend a few days, but is not as cheap nor as Eastern European as it was a few years ago. Secondly although the circuit is a little dull the fans, many of them Finnish seem to party like nowhere else.

Lake Balaton is one of the more beautiful places in Hugary and anywhere along the Danube is wondeful. The further east you venture the more basic the country becomes, but be prepared for few people to speak any English.

Many hotels in Buda and in Pest...the city is split by the river. However you may struggle to get a decent room as the hotel operators do run a minimum 4 night stay around the GP weekend.

The other option is to stay outside Budapest in a small B&B.

[anonymous-user]

we went a few years ago, it was an awesome weekend, as said, budapest is a wonderful city, lots to do, walk around the parliament building, waslk around Pest, if you have the time walk around margaret island becuase its such a beautiful place right in the middle of the danube, oh and the view from st stephens basillica is quite impressive too. there are lots of hotels in and around the centre, Andrassy Ut is busy, has lots of hotels and restuarants, we stayed at the Delibab which was good but not a/c and it was bloody hot the weekend we were there...

https://www.grandprix-tickets.com/index.asp?pageid...

this link has a map of the grandstands but you can buy tickets direct from the circuit

http://www.hungaroring.hu/en/formula1/tickets

as for the gp, the general admission tickets get you a good view as its on a slight hill and you can see a good deal of the circuit but the bronze grandstand we had tickets for was pretty good, well worth the money. you saw them for a good while and had a tv infront of you for pitstops etc. cant really see the point of spending anymore personally, save it for the city itself...

there was a thread about Budapest a week or two ago with restaurant suggestions.

oh there are buses from the centre to the circuit all weekend through the GP weekend. its about 20km and taxis have a set charge for the weekend to get you there if you choose that route.

[anonymous-user]

pablo said:

we went a few years ago, it was an awesome weekend, as said, budapest is a wonderful city, lots to do, walk around the parliament building, waslk around Pest, if you have the time walk around margaret island becuase its such a beautiful place right in the middle of the danube, oh and the view from st stephens basillica is quite impressive too. there are lots of hotels in and around the centre, Andrassy Ut is busy, has lots of hotels and restuarants, we stayed at the Delibab which was good but not a/c and it was bloody hot the weekend we were there...

https://www.grandprix-tickets.com/index.asp?pageid...

this link has a map of the grandstands but you can buy tickets direct from the circuit

http://www.hungaroring.hu/en/formula1/tickets

as for the gp, the general admission tickets get you a good view as its on a slight hill and you can see a good deal of the circuit but the bronze grandstand we had tickets for was pretty good, well worth the money. you saw them for a good while and had a tv infront of you for pitstops etc. cant really see the point of spending anymore personally, save it for the city itself...

there was a thread about Budapest a week or two ago with restaurant suggestions.

oh there are buses from the centre to the circuit all weekend through the GP weekend. its about 20km and taxis have a set charge for the weekend to get you there if you choose that route.

forgot to say there are a few campsites very close to the circuit which looked like mayhem, lots of germans drinking and some really good banter. we went with big BAR Honda flags and were the only ones we saw save for a little japanese guy who was wearing BAR stuff, lots of finns there, lots of spanish but all out numbered by germans, take flags and banners, really go for it.

[Cheshirecat]

Thank you so much to both of you for your advice and pointer for the previous thread. We are planning to go for at least a week and aim to do some site seeing and so will use your comments when finalising the plans!

[anonymous-user]

if you are there for a week, definately include statue park in your plans, its quite an spooky place where they have collected all the communist statues (some 10m tall!) and put them in one place. there was a big discussion about what to do with them apparently, some people wanted them destroyed but others wanted to keep them as a reminder of the past. http://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Lang=en also include a walk around heroes square in your plans... as you can guess, i rather liked budapest!...

[AndrewD]

pablo said:

if you are there for a week, definately include statue park in your plans, its quite an spooky place where they have collected all the communist statues (some 10m tall!) and put them in one place. there was a big discussion about what to do with them apparently, some people wanted them destroyed but others wanted to keep them as a reminder of the past. http://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Lang=en also include a walk around heroes square in your plans... as you can guess, i rather liked budapest!...

Really?

I lived in Budapest for 18 months, I have to say the statue park was about the dullest thing I ever saw. And it is miles out of the centre.

Get table reservations at some of the main restaurants for the Saturday night (eg. Tom George). Couple of years ago (the Button win) we were there on Sat eve, Kimi was on the table behind us, and DC & Newey on the left of us. Plus a huge table of Red Bull girls......

We were lucky enough to be in the Red Bull thing in the paddock, but if you are looking at where to buy tickets, I'd be tempted with the silver seating in front of turn 5 & the first chicane: you can see the cars coming over Mansell, then the right hand turn 5 hairpin, then into the chicane. The covered gold granstand seats get a view of the pits and cars going past at a million mph, not thrilling

IMO