Great Budapest Private Guide: Timea of Budapest Jewish Walk

In searching for a Budapest private guide, I found Budapest Jewish Walk on Tripadvisor and I’m so happy I did.

Timea Tarjani is a fantastic guide. She was incredibly helpful in the months leading up to our trip and was happy to help us organize all our days in Budapest, not just our days with her.

She was also kind enough to prepare a Hungarian translation for me related to Sydney’s allergies and was happy to include a childhood friend of mine that met us in Budapest for a few days.

Timea is a soft-spoken wealth of information. A mom of two young children, Timea is a teacher by day and guides on weekends and when school isn’t in session. Although she operates Budapest Jewish Walk, she does many different types of Budapest walking tours and other private tours in its surrounding areas. She is the perfect Budapest private guide.

We booked Timea for two tours. The first was a five-hour Budapest walking tour on our first full day in the city. We like to book walking tours shortly after our arrival in a new city so that we learn our way around and get a good feel for the location from a local guide. The second was a full day trip of the Danube Bend. In searching for a private guide, we really wanted to find someone that was able to do both tours.

On the day of our Budapest walking tour, Timea met us in front of the Opera House as it was close to our apartment and near our first stop, the Jewish Quarter.

As we walked, we learned about the history of the Jewish people in Budapest through the Nazi period and the Communist period as well as the daily lives of the Jewish people that live in Budapest today, including Timea and her own family. When searching for a Budapest private guide, it was important that our guide had personal knowledge of the communist period so that she could tell the children personal stories of her younger years during this time.

Timea explained the stumbling stones found throughout Budapest and other European cities. These small brass squares are engraved with the name of a person taken from their home or place of work during the Holocaust.

Timea also showed us a wonderful little park located in the Jewish Quarter. The area was in ruins after the war and when people started to return to live in the area, they took it upon themselves to create enjoyable spaces for the children of the community.

Notice the beautifully painted wall. This playground was created by and is cared for by local people living in the community.

Walking through the Jewish Quarter it’s easy to see remnants of the Communist era in Budapest. Some of the buildings are still incredibly dark with soot and grime that predominated during this time frame.

This beautiful building was likely white before the communist era. Look closely around the windows.

At times you can see the beautiful colours underneath sneak through where the rain has washed the grime away. Other buildings have already been brought back to life by new owners trying to bring life back into the community that lost so many during the war.

Look closely at the windows. You can see the beautiful blue flowers that used to surround them. They’re visible because of flowing rain water.

The next stop on our Budapest walking tour was the orthodox synagogue on Kazinczy Street. It is simply beautiful. Note that men must have their heads covered when entering synagogues. They do have yamakas available but a baseball hat is fine as well.

While we didn’t visit the interior of the Great Synagogue on Dohany Utca, it will be one of our first stops on our next visit. We saw the Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial which stands over the mass graves of those murdered by the Nazis in 1944-45 and learned about life for Budapest’s Jews during that time.

Each leaf on this beautiful silver willow holds the family name of someone taken during the Holocaust.

Our next stop was the ruin pub called Szimpla Kert. This is a really unique location but our primary reason for visiting this day was for Timea to show us exactly how people lived during Communist times.

At that time, people were no longer permitted to live in large homes. Families were expected to share rooms in larger homes such that multi-generational family lived in a small room and shared the home’s kitchen and bathroom with other families also living in the house.

The building in which Szimpla Kert operates is still very much divided up just as it had been during Communist times which made it much easier for the children, and adults, to understand.

This small room would have been filled with bunk beds. It would have housed a family with children and grandparents.

For more details on Szimpla Kert, check out our top things to see and do in Budapest.

We went into the metro station at Ferenciek Tér to buy our 24 hour group pass for today and tomorrow. It was great to have Timea handle the details and it made it so much easier for us to do ourselves two days later.

Once we had our passes, Timea brought us to Borbíróság for lunch. The food was light and delicious. A perfect lunch! It’s easy to tell why Borbíróság made it on our favourite restaurants in Budapest list.

After a nice break, we explored the Central Market Hall where I bought paprika paste and powder. We promised Sydney we’d return to buy some pickles.

The exterior of the Central Market Hall. The green tiled roof is so unique.

The interior of the Central Market Hall has such wonderfully high ceilings! It’s spacious and not crowded at all.

Timea suggested we try the pickled plums with garlic. They were amazing!

Timea dropped into a nearby grocery store to buy us Turó Rudi, a Hungarian chocolate bar made of cheese curds dipped in chocolate. Yum!

These are amazing! You’ll find them in the refrigerator section. I also found them in a cooler at the airport so stocked up on the way home!

We then hopped on the number 2 tram (fantastic tram that runs along the waterfront) to get to St. Istvan Basilica.

We loved using the trams and the metro in Budapest.

Walking from the Chain Bridge to St. Istvan Basilica. Gresham Palace is on the left.

Timea was great and took a bunch of photos of our family and one of my greatest friends from childhood who visited us from Scotland for a few days while we were in Budapest.

We went immediately to the top of the cupola for one of the best views of Budapest. I was so thankful that there was an elevator!

The square in front of the basilica with the Danube River and Castle Hill in the distance.

We were running a little behind schedule and Timea had to pick up her children so we parted ways at the Basilica at 15:30 but before she left, our wonderful Budapest private guide pointed out the most amazing ice cream shop located next to the Basilica where your ice cream cone is made like a rose. It was a perfect stop later that afternoon.

We were so lucky to have found Timea and Budapest Jewish Walk. She was a great guide for our family. We left that day looking forward when we would see her again on our full day Danube Bend tour.

You may also be interested in these posts as well!

Our full day Danube Bend tour with Timea from Budapest Jewish Walk

Favourite guides in Europe

Our Family Adventure: Five Days in Budapest

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