Things to avoid

Illegal money changers: if someone offers you to change money for an apparently very convenient rate, beware! Very often this people will sneak worthless foreign or old notes in the roll they give you, or play sleight-of-hand tricks like counting the same banknotes twice, giving you the lump of money and running away before you can count them yourself. It is advisable to change money in banks and official change agents.

Unauthorized taxi drivers: beware that a regular taxi must have a yellow number plate and a yellow taxi sign. It was very common, at the beginning of the nineties, for dodgy people to try and grab your baggage and take you to your destination with their private car: although it is not as common as it used to be, be careful and choose regular taxis. With language and currency issues, you risk to pay a huge amount of money for a ride that would have cost you very little.

Prostitution: Budapest has been one of many former Eastern Block cities to capitalize heavily on the West’s need for sex and related products. Although things are not really in your face, there’s a lot of sex tourism: just be aware of it if you find yourself in ambiguous situations.

Dodgy bar/club/restaurant owners: In Budapest there are some bar and restaurant owners who have an history of presenting huge, inflated bills to customers and having bouncers help in making the customers pay. The American embassy has produced a list of clubs who have a reputation for trying to pull this trick on people, and at the moment of writing this list includes the following clubs/bars:
 Anker
 Aphrodité
 Fontanta Cabaret
 Galilei
 Mepisto Café
 Mizram Café
 Music Corner
 Muskátli eszpresszó
 Piccolo bár
 Pigalle bár
 Tropical bár

While there’s no need to panic, the only advice you should follow is to ask your hostel owner or fellow travellers for reputable clubs, check that the club’s atmosphere is not dodgy, and that the staff speaks some English so that there’s no language misunderstanding alibis to try and fool you.