Budapest right now

ARC is the biggest open-air poster exhibition in the country, and the 26th edition opens on September 18 at the Buda bridgehead of Petőfi híd, on the BME car park on Egry József utca. This year's theme is IDEGRENDSZERVÁLTÁS, a pun that folds regime change into the nervous system, and the works are billboard-format images that anyone could submit. It is outdoors, free and open around the clock, so it slots into a walk along the Buda embankment instead of costing you an afternoon. It runs to October 18.

The operator has moved its own dates on Margitsziget. The wave pool at Palatinus, which the closing list had ending with August, now runs to Sunday September 6; the leisure pool and the outdoor children's pool go a week later on September 13; and the Margaréta pool holds to September 27, which makes it the last outdoor swim on the island. The strand pool, the slide pool, both outdoor thermal pools, and the outdoor teaching, sitting and swimming pools all carry no closing date at all, and neither do the indoor pools or the saunas, so most of the bath is not going anywhere when the wave pool closes today.

Rudas has posted a renovation window: between September 2 and September 28 the shower in the thermal section does not work. The same notice also has the salt room out of service, and unlike the shower that one carries no end date. Nothing in the notice touches the pools, so the Ottoman octagon and the rest of the wing run to their normal schedule. The closure lands awkwardly, because the house rules ask you to rinse before getting in and the thermal wing is what most visitors come for. The bath also remains closed to wheelchair users for technical reasons, and that notice is still up.

The Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill that opened on 31 July at the Dorothea Hotel, Dorottya utca 2, is the brand's first restaurant in Central and Eastern Europe, a few steps off Vörösmarty tér. The operator's own page lists daily breakfast 06:00-11:00, lunch 12:00-15:00, dinner 18:00-23:00 and the bar until 01:00, which quietly makes it one of the few high-end rooms in the city serving a real breakfast from six. The menu runs the brand's grill canon, Beef Wellington included, with Hungarian touches. Two practical notes the booking page implies and the opening weeks confirmed: reserve ahead, because the first days sold out fast, and dress for it, because elegant attire is stated policy, not a suggestion.

Late-night food near the Basilica usually means settling. Forni di Napoli is the exception: the Bazilika branch at Október 6. utca 19 runs daily from noon to midnight with the kitchen open until 23:00, which makes it one of the few real plates in the quarter after the dinner rush dies. The pizzeria's own wall of titles includes European Champion Pizzeria 2026 and a fourth place at the 2026 world championship, and the menu is strict Neapolitan pizza plus fresh pasta rather than a bit of everything. A second branch sits at Szent István körút 7-9 if you are on the Nagykörút instead. It shares the street with Tonichi, the ramen shop two doors down, so Október 6. utca is quietly becoming the food street nobody markets.

The team behind the Hachi restaurants opened a dessert-only spot on 23 July at Zrínyi utca 12, two streets from St. Stephen's Basilica. Hachi Deza does the wobbly Japanese fluffy pancakes in rotating flavours, glass-cup desserts, fruit-and-cream milk-bread sandwiches and a short list of creative drinks. It is still running itself in quietly, so expect the menu to shift and the queue to form on weekend afternoons; the pancakes are made to order and were never a grab-and-go dessert anywhere on earth.

Aura Bay opened on 17 July on Óbuda Island: eight indoor rooms and a 5,700 m² outdoor light garden, 258,000 LED points, with a 360-degree domed room as the finale. Entry is by time slot and the slot only fixes when you walk in, not how long you stay. The practical catch: the garden is open from 16:00, but the installations only show properly after dusk, which is why the 16:00-19:30 day slots are cheaper (adults 4,000 Ft plus a 10 percent booking fee online, 5,000 Ft at the gate) than the 19:30-22:00 evening ones (5,000 Ft plus fee online, 5,600 at the gate). Children, students and seniors pay 3,000/3,300 Ft plus fee depending on the slot. Runs through 31 December.

The famous part of Széchenyi is the courtyard, and the operator has now dated the maintenance on all three of its pools. The leisure pool with the whirlpool goes first, out September 7 to 18. The 38 degree thermal pool, the one in every photograph, is out September 21 to October 2. The lap pool follows October 5 to 16. They never overlap, so the courtyard is never empty and you always have two of the three, but a September trip built around the whirlpool or an October one built around lengths needs the dates checked first. The indoor thermal pools, the medical pools and the saunas run throughout, but the indoor swimming pool is its own closure and is out from September 1 to 18.