Practical information : Treat yourself (& others) Budapest
Timetable
Outside shopping centers, which are generally open from 8am to 8pm, boutiques open early (8am) and close early (6pm), including on Saturday afternoons (1pm or 2pm), and are not open on Sundays. Designers are often closed on Mondays and open Tuesday to Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-2pm. Some boutiques are not open on Saturdays.
Budget & Tips
When it comes to food, shopping in the traditional market halls is inexpensive (even in the large, admittedly touristy, central market, where you'll find fruit and vegetables at Hungarian prices). Go in the morning, especially early on Saturdays, to take advantage of the presence of small producers. To stock up on trendy crafts and design (including textiles), go to WAMP, a designers' market held one or two Sundays a month from 11am to 7pm, or from 10am to 6pm in winter at Millenáris and on Erzsébet Square from April to September. Hundreds of designers come here to sell their wares (jewelry, clothing, interior design, etc.). There's something for every taste and every age! For more information, visit www.wamp.hu. In the Passage Gozsdu (Gozsdu week-end market), a small market of designers and antique dealers is held every weekend.
Sales
Summer and winter sales (in Hungarian: árengedmények szezonjá/leárazás) take place in Hungary at similar times as in France, at the end of December to the end of January and in mid-July to the end of August. Please note that the prices of clothes are about the same as in Western Europe.
What's very local
Do your Saturday morning market and designer shopping in the city center: most stores and markets are concentrated within a 3 km radius, and you can always stop off at a patisserie or café on the way. Two traditional Hungarian products, not cheap, but superb: ceramics from Herend or Zsolnay, to be bought in stamped stores. Embroidered garments with floral motifs are undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of Hungarian craftsmanship. The best-known are those from Kalocsa. You can buy beautiful placemats, aprons, skirts and other accessories in indigo fabric, a deep, distinguished blue decorated with white motifs. You can also (treat yourself to) beautiful carved wooden objects. The bottle of szóda (sparkling water), in colored glass, with its integrated atomizer, is sure to create a sensation on your Sunday table! Don't forget a bottle of Unicum, some good Hungarian wines, real paprika powder (make sure it doesn't come from Spain or China), two or three salamis and/or kolbász (dry sausage with paprika).
Tourist traps
Avoid most of the tourist stores in Váci utca, on the floor of the central market or in the vicinity of the basilica, which tend to sell souvenirs made in China.