The M1 line
Continental Europe's first underground (1896), with restored wooden stations and small carriages â a historic ride on an ordinary ticket.
Bybbisch94 â CC BY 4.0 · Bybbisch94 â CC BY 4.0 · Fred Romero from Paris, France â CC BY 2.0 · Fred Romero from Paris, France â CC BY 2.0
Do both: walk from Erzsébet tér to the Oktogon, about twenty minutes and the richest stretch for buildings and cafés, then take the yellow metro from the Oktogon to Heroes' Square. You get the avenue and the historic line together.
The Opera (at least from outside), the House of Terror at number 60, and the Liszt Academy near the Oktogon. All three are a short walk apart in the avenue's first half.
It opened in 1896, the first underground in continental Europe and the second oldest in the world after London. It was built shallow, just below the surface, with small stations in restored wood and original tiling, and carriages shorter than usual â riding even one stop is worth doing for its own sake.
It begins at Erzsébet tér near St Stephen's Basilica in central Pest and ends at Heroes' Square and the entrance to the Vårosliget. Use it as the connecting route between those two areas in a single day.
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AndrĂĄssy Avenue is Budapest's ceremonial street: two and a half kilometres of palaces, villas and trees running dead straight from central Pest to Heroes' Square. It was cut through between 1872 and 1885 in imitation of Haussmann's Paris boulevards, and it is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list along with the Danube banks and the Castle District. The avenue changes character three times along its length: it begins relatively narrow, with continuous frontages, shops and the Opera; widens at the Oktogon crossing into cafĂ©s and trees; and in its final third becomes a broad road of detached villas, embassies and private gardens running up to Heroes' Square. Beneath it runs the yellow M1, the first underground railway in continental Europe, opened in 1896 to carry people to the millennium exhibition without spoiling the avenue with surface tracks. Its restored wooden stations and small carriages are an experience in themselves â and it is the cheapest and most enjoyable way to cover the avenue. Along its length: the Opera, the House of Terror, the Liszt Academy and, nearby, the Museum of Applied Arts. Walk the first third and take the metro for the rest if time is short.
Continental Europe's first underground (1896), with restored wooden stations and small carriages â a historic ride on an ordinary ticket.
An eight-sided crossing midway along, with cafĂ©s and constant movement â the natural pause on the walk.
Detached houses with gardens and embassies under large trees â the quietest, most elegant stretch, missed by anyone who only rides the metro.
19th-century palaces with statuary, balconies and carved detail â look above shop level.
AndrĂĄssy Ășt, from ErzsĂ©bet tĂ©r to Heroes' Square, Pest