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Standing up for Budapest

17th April 202517th April 2025 funtime65

Maybe they couldn’t solve their Rubik’s Cube or got fined by Vlad the Validator but I’m standing up for Budapest against the naysayers.

Those reviewers who marked the Hungarian capital and its famous baths down in a luggage company survey.

Why the experts on the Radical Storage luggage storage firm should pick on the magnificent Magyar city on the Danube you’d have to ask them.

Perhaps they too had been fined £60 when someone forgot to validate their ticket before boarding the train and were collared by the huffy Hungarian guard.

Or were kept waiting by your other half in the steamier of the two outdoor pools at the Szechenyi Baths.

Neither challenges should, of course, detract from your enjoyment of what is truly a unique experience.

A lot of bull about Istanbul

The 95,352 rambunctious reviewers seem to have it in for the Hungarian capital as a whole.

And placing the Baths at fifth most overpriced attraction, and at £12 or £14 on weekends for a multi-thalasso treat they’re tough to please.

Now we can’t count here for Alton Towers in Staffordshire in England, considered the worst for price and value or Snowland in Brazil, fourth on the list.

But we’re digging our heels in here too for Topkapi Palace (£15) in Istanbul and the Dubrovnik City Walls, the same price although it does shoot up to £30 in high season.

The madness continues when it comes to the world’s most disappointing list.

Water mistake about Trevi Fountain

With inexplicably the Trevi Fountain fifth biggest letdown, shared by a former colleague who described it as just a fountain. Mamma Mia!

The best pint in Dublin, alongside we’re contractually obliged to big up cousins’ The Workshop bistro, is at the Guinness Storehouse.

But some curmudgeons put it down in seventh for most disappointing attraction.

And those wet fishes place our Hungarian baths at No.10 alongside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC which is actually out of this world.

Hit and list

And just to spell that out in hard facts for you here…

Most Overpriced Tourist Attractions
Rank	Attraction	Country	Negative Mentions about Costs and Value
1	Alton Towers Resort	United Kingdom	18.0%
2	Topkapı Palace	Turkey	14.7%
3	Dubrovnik City Walls	Croatia	14.4%
4	Snowland	Brazil	13.0%
5	Széchenyi Baths and Pool	Hungary	11.2%

The World’s Top 10 Most Disappointing Tourist Attractions
Rank	Attraction	Location	Country	Percentage of Reviews with Negative Mentions
1st	Alton Towers Resort	Staffordshire	United Kingdom	49.4%
2nd	Széchenyi Baths and Pool	Budapest	Hungary	37.2%
3rd	Siam Park	Tenerife	Spain	31.2%
4th	Time Out Market Lisboa	Lisbon	Portugal	28.4%
5th	Fontana di Trevi	Rome	Italy	24.6%
6th	Horseshoe Casino	Las Vegas	United States	24.0%
=7th	Guinness Storehouse	Dublin	Ireland	23.2%
=7th	Gardaland Park	Lake Garda	Italy	23.2%
=10th	Topkapı Palace	Istanbul	Turkey	23.0%
=10th	National Air and Space Museum	Washington D.C.	United States	23.0%

Turk that

Digging deeper, we don’t know if it’s an Orban or an Erdogan thing but the raspish reviewers vent their spleens at Istanbul and Budapest again and Bangkok in the following scroll of dishonour.

The Cities with the Most Disappointing Tourist Attractions

1. Istanbul (16%)

Considering the cities with three or more tourist attractions in the study, the data finds that when taking an average of all local attractions, Istanbul’s offering is the most likely to disappoint with a 16% negative mention rate. The most disappointing Istanbul attraction in the study is the aforementioned Topkapı Palace.

2. Bangkok (15.9%)

But not far behind is Bangkok with a score of 15.9%. The Grand Palace’s poor score of 12.6% (the joint 7th worst in the study) dragged the Thai capital down. Visitors might want to prioritise visiting Wat Arun instead – the Temple of Dawn – which has a much more favourable score of 9.4%.

3. Budapest (13.9%)

Budapest comes third (13.9% overall), with Széchenyi Baths and Pool (the most disappointing attraction) dampening the vibe. In fact, four attractions here came in under the study average of 10.9%: Fisherman’s Bastion (10.2%), Hungarian Parliament Building (8.6%), Shoes on the Danube Bank (7.8%) and St. Stephen’s Basilica (5.8%).

You can see the full list of the cities with the most disappointing tourist attractions on the main study page.

We’ll tease you here with the world’s least disappointing as reviewed in this survey by saying Leith, Scotland’s Royal Yacht Britannia is on it.

But today is for standing up for Budapest and our other maligned favourite places.

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland

The perfect pint at The Home of Guinness Experience

18th February 202517th March 2025 funtime65

Now, some homework, you idlers, pouring the perfect pint at The Home of Guinness Experience in the home of our favourite stout, Dublin.

Well, of course, we have had the drinking part licked.

Since first we started frothing our upper lip some 45 years ago.

Although we never tire of quenching our thirst.

And best of all in Guinness’s spiritual home which we did last week in Whelan’s in the Irish capital.

My perfect cousins

Gateway to heaven: Guinness at St James’s Gate

It is a recurring question, always pitched at those from Ireland and its diaspora…

Is the Guinness really better in Ireland?

I take my cue here from my cousins who run the family business Kennedy’s, now The Worskshop, next to Tara Street DART station, on the Liffey.

Who tell us that the Guinness needs to be kept in circulation.

Which is why bar Guinness is always better than its hotel equivalent.

All of which makes sense to us.

Pure genius

Of course nowhere does the Guinness run more consistently than St James’s Gate in the Liberties.

Where the genius happens.

And where the Guinness Storehouse, the World’s Leading Beer Tour Visitor Experience, is introducing a new tour, the ‘Home of Guinness Experience’.

You’ll be part of a fully guided tour where you’ll discover and delve deeper.

Into the origins, history and innovation of Guinness throughout seven floors.

All paired with a lesson at the Guinness Academy where visitors can learn the legendary six-step ritual.

By pouring their own pint, earning their very own certificate.

Before finishing up with a creamy pint overlooking the 360-degree views of the city.

Barack, the Queen, Bill’s pal and me

Now Guinness Storehouse is rightly proud that it has welcomed 25 million visitors through its doors since 2000.

Including the Queen and Prince Philip, Barack Obama and yours truly, as guest of Bill Clinton’s best pal, the former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe

The perfect pint at the Home of Guinness Experience runs Monday-Thursday with time slots available at 11am or 1pm with a maximum of 12 people per tour.

Running now until Wednesday 30^th April, tickets priced at €48pp are live on the Guinness Storehouse website. Strictly over 18’s only.

Now whisper it but I’ve already initiated in the arts of Guinness pouring by said Kennedys at The Workshop.

And also the Perfect Pint Experience at Las Vegas Ri Ra.

When I was out there and managed to Strip the Light Fantastic.

Countries, Ireland

St Paddy’s dish of the day

3rd March 2023 funtime65

And we all know what we’ll be drinking on March 17 but what about the St Paddy’s dish of the day.

It’s fair to say that our eating and drinking habits have changed since his day back in the 4th century.

When we’re reliably informed that Paddy would have ate meat and venison and drunk wine imported from the continent.

Before he was captured from the then-Wales, probably more Cumbria in the north-west of modern-day England.

And transported to Ireland where oatmeal gruel (think the cereal Ready Brek) and a mixture of fruit, nuts and oaks (think muesli).

Paddy himself helps us with mentions of two foodstuffs he did eat…

Wild honey (he was after all a beekeeper) and deer.

While the drink of the day for the regular Irish native would have been a light barley ale.

Jar of porter

Whisper it but the fashion for stout or porter began in London and was transported by Arthur Guinness to Dublin where he took a lease for a thousand years and tapped into the waters of the Liffey.

Guinness has of course gone on to become the world’s most famous stout and anyone who visits the Irish capital should avail themselves of the Guinness Stew, in any of the fine hostelries there.

The next best thing, of course, if you can’t get over for Paddy’s Day, and it is rammers around Dublin City Centre is to make your own.

And we have Beanies Irish Cream coffee (sounds delicious) to thank for giving us some ‘St Patrick’s Day: Delicious Recipes to Help You Celebrate’.

And they, of course, advise that we should add Beanies to any coffee cake we make.

The creamiest cream though is what settles at the top of you Guinness and your lip.

And Beanies have done the hard work for us with this recipe rundown.

Guinness stew

Traditionally made with lamb, this meal can also be prepared with beef.

And while it doesn’t traditionally involve alcohol, it can include Guinness to help
deepen the flavour of the beef.

Ingredients:
1 pound of Beef
1 cup of Guinness
4 cups of broth, beef or vegetable
1 tbsp tomato paste
6 cloves of garlic
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp flour, to thicken
Thyme

For a thicker stew, you can reduce the amount of liquids, increase the flour or add corn starch, or increase the meat and vegetable volume.

For a thinner stew, increase the liquid contents. And depending on your personal tastes, you can play around with the levels of broth to alcohol, with some recipes also including red wine alongside the Guinness.

Simply brown off your meat and leave all the ingredients in the slow cooker, with a perfect stew ready in a few hours.

And that in a nutshell is your St Paddy’s dish of the day.