What to pay attention to

Váci utca

Those who visit Budapest, the Hungarian capital city may easily walk into the first trap while walking in the city centre, along Váci utca, if they are not careful and attentive enough. The main pedestrian street of Budapest is full of girls hunting foreigners. They pretend to be foreigners, and after approaching the unsuspecting tourists who are just looking around, they go with them into a bar or restaurant chosen by them. And at this point begins the unlimited consumption of food and beverages, while the attention of the "poor guy" is diverted, with every method possible, from the price list. As the price of certain cocktails and alcoholic drinks can easily reach 100 Euro, the bill will soon reach the amount of 1000-2000 Euro. Evidently, the girls in question also get a good proportion of this amount.

That it why you should keep in mind, that getting acquainted with pretty girls on the street is not any easier in Budapest than in any other city in the world. Please, be careful and cautious, always look at the price list, and always fix the price with the waiter/waitress right before consumption!

Duplicate price list

Regrettably, the number of nightclubs using this very simple but highly efficient method is numerous. The method is the following: Once you arrive, they try to convince you to stay, thus they show you a price list which indicated good, relatively low, very attractive prices. Once you have decided to stay, they change the price list (unnoticed), and when it comes to paying the bill, you already have the other list with much higher (four or five times) prices.

Taxis hired by the hotels

If you wish to visit a nightclub, strip bar or a restaurant, the biggest mistake you can make is to use the services of a taxi hired by a hotel.

You should not do it, because the taxi drivers collaborate with the respective establishments and get very high commission (quota) from the amount the cheated foreign tourist pays. As a consequence of this method, the taxi driver will definitely take you to a dishonest, incorrect place, as these places pay the driver the largest commission which is paid, in reality, by YOU.

Before you make up your mind and choose a place to go, please try to get information about your choice, and use the services of an ordinary taxi company, which "in addition to being honest" is much cheaper. Below you find a list of some of these taxi companies:

6x6 taxi: 6 666 666
Rádió taxi: 7 777 777
Tele 5 taxi: 5 555 555
Turist taxi: 3 655 555 (to and from the airport, this company offers the best price!)
City taxi: 2 111 111

Escort service providers

In Hungary, people have not as yet adopted the long-term business approach. As a consequence, a lot of the services provided are based on cheating and misleading. Escort services also fall into this category.

The biggest problem is that escort services are extremely expensive. However, even if we decide to pay 300-400 Euros for these services, we seldom get want we thought, expected and should receive. In stead of the beautiful, tall, blond, long-hair and intelligent girl promised, the person who actually arrives is usually a sloppy, frowzy Gipsy girl who hardly speaks any foreign languages. In itself, it would not be a big problem, but ? in the majority of the cases - the agency asks for half of the amount payable in advance, thus we loose that sum anyway if we do not like the girl and send her back. In other words: In Hungary, using escort services is a kind of "lucky or unlucky bag", so we do not recommend this service!

Catalogues

An alternative to the above escort services is the so-called catalogue. These catalogues are usually being shown by the receptionist to the "lesh-hungry" male companions.

In these catalogues, you usually find attractive, beautiful, young ladies, but when you make your choice you are usually (in 99% of the cases) told that the girl in question is not available, and another will come. Needless to say, that the girl who actually comes is much less attractive than the one on the photo and the price is not the same either as the one told initially, because they calculate everything as extra. Finally, this service will not be any cheaper than visiting a club and choosing the girl we like while having a good drink. We do not recommend this service either.

Discos, establishments for entertainment

Many foreign tourists believe that it is quite easy to get acquainted with pretty girls at such places. It was true about 10 years ago. By now, the situation has "regrettably" changed. For an unknown reason, Hungarian girls are reluctant to get acquainted with foreigners. You should definitely take this phenomenon into account when you make your plans and programmes.