n April this year, we experienced Budapest as part of our Rockitfish On Tour series, and despite my wife believing this was a 3-day jolly, these internal events are so much more than just festivities.
Of course, it’s the opportunity to celebrate successes from the previous year, but it’s also a learning opportunity to see how we can improve and enhance our overseas offerings, experience a destination and grow the team.
This year we departed late Thursday afternoon, as it was deemed better to stay onsite in Budapest, rather than get an early flight out in the morning and stay at an airport hotel. On the plane we had branded handouts highlighting some key points about Budapest, some trivia questions and some elements to think about before discussing in our meeting the next day. We hit the ground, albeit slightly delayed due to flights, and took the 45-minute transfer to the centre of Budapest where we arrived at Continental hotel which was our base for the next 3 night conveniently located close to the ruin bar area of the city. After some drinks and nibbles in the hotel bar we retired to our beds ready for a busy few days ahead.
Day one, starting with a half-day meeting highlighting the reasons why we were here in Budapest, and having some unofficial Rockitfish awards and giving away a selection of local prizes from paprika spice to rubix cubes. When the team entered the meeting room they were greeted with goodie bags containing a few local items as well as a branded Rockitfish sweatshirt, which was to be worn during one of the activities. Once the meeting ended we were whisked down the Caravan street food area – which had an array of fantastic street food offerings including local Hungarian dishes, Fried Chicken, Wood fired pizza, Burgers, Mexican and even a smoked meat option. There was almost too much choice but all options were superb quality and totally delicious (there was a lot of food envy happening!) I opted for the traditional Hungarian Langos – which is a local deep-fried flatbread.
After suitable fed and watered, we were onto our main activity which was a city tour of Budapest. This is something we offer to many of our clients as it’s a unique and fun way to experience a city whilst also having a fun / competitive element running throughout, and at a relatively relaxed pace. This challenge took us on foot around much of the city and finished at Castle Hill on the Buda side which has amazing views over the city. The weather can be unpredictable in April, however despite day one being a little blustery, the rest of the weekend was relatively warm and pleasant.
We then returned to our hotel for a quick change before jumping into a fleet of Rickshaws to take us to our dinner destination of the first Strudel house – famously know for its Strudel and we dined a beautiful 3 Course strudel menu consisting of salmon, beef and Apple courses! The showstopper was before dessert where we experienced one of the chefs’ giving a demonstration of how he makes the strudel onsite, and commenting on how he makes enough for around 2000 a day! We were also given the opportunity to make our own strudel, but based on the outcome, I think we should leave it to the professionals. We finished the evening in a couple of stunning roof top bars before heading to bed.
Day two for me personally, was the most exciting and fun, however probably not one we would do for a group due to the specific nature of the event and that its only on a specific time of the year, but it suited our group perfectly. This was a wine and food festival that takes place about 45 minutes outside of the city in a place called Etyek, and the event is called Etyek Piknik. Before we departed the UK and knowing this was the activity of choice for day 2, we sent all the team a HUSKI insulated stemmed wine glass, as at this festival you either need to have your own wine glass or hire one on the day if you want to experience (taste) any of the wines on offer, so we thought this would be a nice gift for everyone to keep use and then keep post trip. I was told that Etyek has a population of around 4000 and during this festival they sold well over 7000 tickets, so a mass of local Hungarians descended upon this small wine region (we were definitely the only tourists there!). We arrived around 10.30am, and during our time here we managed to experience a cheese tasting in a local cheese factory as well as taste some cured meats from one of the top producers in the country which included a visit to what I can only describe as their meat dungeon. During the festival there are local wine vendors, pop up stalls, live music, food tasting in an incredibly picturesque setting and in a laid back and relaxing environment, we only stayed till the late afternoon before making the long journey back to Budapest.
After another remarkably quick change we were whisked off to the river to board a couple of speedboats for pre-dinner drinks to experience the city from the water and to watch the sun go down before heading to dinner at Restaurant TwentySix. This was a great unique dining option set in what can only be described as an urban jungle (lots of trees and foliage everywhere). This restaurant not only has a superb sharing style menu, if you purchase a plant a tree cocktail (which we did), they plant a tree for each one purchased. A couple of weeks after we returned, I got an email with a picture of my tree planted in Baja region of Hungary, which is location about 150km outside of the city. After dinner we headed to some Ruin bars from some post dinner drinks to celebrate the end of a fantastic few days in Budapest.
On the final day, we checked out and headed out of the centre to our pre-chosen activities in the Peoples Park, which consisted of either an electric bus tour, static balloon ride or for the majority of us a visit to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, one of the best and busiest thermal baths in Budapest. This was a great way to unwind at the end of a busy trip and once we were all finished on our activities, we headed for lunch at the Robinson Restaurant on the terrace looking out over lake Városligeti-tó.
It was an incredible trip in a fabulous location with a great group of people, which I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to visit, as Budapest offers fantastic value for money with a varied range of activities, hotels and restaurants! Roll on RFOT4!
