Built in the late 19th-century in Renaissance style, the glorious State Opera House is a wonderful example of the mania for historicist architecture in Budapest. A must for opera or ballet fans, and well worth a visit for the stunning frescoes and dazzling gilded interior for everyone else. Tickets are inexpensive by London standards and can be booked online before your visit.

22 Andrássy Street, VI. Budapest; nearest metro: Opera; www.opera.hu/

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It is fun to go see and opera or ballet performance in this glorious old Opera House. Top price tickets are usually about £28 ($50) with lots of lower prices. Website has an easy to use online booking system in English. Productions can be a bit hit and miss but it just rather fun to be in a Grand Opera House - treat yourself to a box and you'll feel very grand indeed!

www.opera.hu/

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A very posh, old-fashioned eating experience up in the old castle area, this is worth saving the forints for. The food is very rich and traditional and the wines are expensive but superb. But it's the operatic and ballet-based entertainment that sets the place apart. There is hardly room to swing a cat but two dancers and a string quartet somehow find space to perform.

There is the largest hammered dulcimer (called a cimbalom) I have ever seen and two short chubby opera singers belt out recognisable favourites with great panache. Go on. Spoil yourself!

Kiraly Etterem (Kings Restaurant)
1014 Budapest, Táncsics Mihály Utca 25.
Tel: +36 1 212 8565
www.kiralyrestaurant.hu

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