My favorite New Year’s Eve travel experience (that I can’t in good conscience recommend)

In our nomad years, Drew and I had plenty of opportunities to celebrate New Year’s Eve in weird places, some of them more exciting than others. My favorite of them was our experience in Budapest in 2014, but I can’t in good conscience recommend it to you for your own travels. Of course now I have to tell you why…

A year before, we had serendipitously ended up in Budapest just in time for their “St. Stephen’s Day” in August – Hungary’s birthday. They celebrate their nation’s birthday much in the same way that we celebrate July 4th with the most massive and impressive fireworks display I’ve still ever seen in my life, right over the Danube. The fireworks easily went on for a full half hour, if not more and it was truly jaw-dropping.

When we found ourselves in Budapest on New Year’s Eve the next year, we naturally just assumed they’d be doing another fabulous fireworks display over the river for New Year’s Eve. And this time, we had a room at the InterContinental Budapest with a view of the river – perfect for viewing the fireworks display we thought was sure to be happening.

But as the day went on, it became increasingly clear to us that there was no official fireworks show going on over the river that night. Even so, we joined friends and a huge crowd of strangers out by the river to ring in the New Year. Midnight arrived and while everyone cheered and the mood was full of excitement, not a single firework went off over the river.

Instead, a chaotic commotion of haphazard, amateur fireworks literally began to explode from right amongst the crowd, just behind us. No, there were no official fireworks, but all around us people began to set off their own fireworks, right there in the street.

Here’s a video to give you a better picture…

Sorry for all the screaming – it’s what I do when things start exploding in front of me I guess.

Budapest is a lovely city to visit any time of the year – New Year’s Eve or otherwise. And the InterContinental Budapest is an excellent location to be close to not only the river…but whatever shenanigans may or may not be going on alongside the river. So while I definitely recommend a visit, because this was one poorly-aimed firework away from being a disaster instead of a good time, I can’t officially recommend it for your next New Year’s Eve. Maybe try visiting for St. Stephen’s Day on August 20th instead. Or spend New Year’s Eve at one of the Ruin Pubs (like the now-famous Szimpla Kert).

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.