Budapest Hammer and Sickle Tour

Budapest, Hungary

The way it was comrade! This raved about tour will take you on a journey back in time and shows you what life was like during the 50 years of communism. Your tour guide will summarize how it all started, how big brother told us what to do and what not to do and teaching you about life behind the iron curtain. Learn details how children were brought up, what families lived like, how and where they could travel, how long it took to get a passport and many other interesting experiences from black markets to banana lines.

Your guide will cover the ideas behind them and where they were placed in the city and for what reasons. Also at the park you will visit some exhibitions of communism related themes that is ever changing along with a real Trabant car that was originally designed to be a covered motorcycle and became a trademark as the Hungarian family car!

Also included on your tour is a visit to a private exhibition room, where we will introduce you to the real features of a Hungarian home through relics to typical furniture and furnishings. Furthermore, view an extensive collection of many communist related relics, such as red and blue passports, party member's registration book, pins, medals, currency and huge placards to help your understanding of the propaganda Hungary once lived within.

USD $29.27

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Gordon L	September 2011
Great to get the histoury of the various status in the park

Review by: William B	August 2011
The guide was fabulous. The tour was excellent. However it should have been an hour longer as we did not get to see everything. There was a film show which we only saw five minutes of! But I would recommend it highly.

Review by: John W	June 2011
This is relatively new and being developed. The tour guide was excellent and the consolidation of the statues was nice. A map of where they were in the city would have been a nice touch. The museum is still in development, there was a nice movie taken from the cold war archives on how spies were trained. the gift shop was just items available at the ticket booth, a little disappointing. It was worth the trip think it will be a much better experience in a couple of years if they continue on there current pace.

Review by: Denise C	May 2011
The guide was fantastic. The tour was very interesting and most enlightening.

Review by: Peter N	October 2010
A terrific tour and the guide was superb. One major problem was that you booked us on a day that the tour did not operate and it was only lucky that no one turned up for the scheduled tour so the guide was able to look after us.

Review by: Giuseppe M, United Kingdom	April 2010
Interesting insight into communist leaders. Good tour guide, provided expert knowledge.

Review by: Sohail F, United Kingdom	December 2009
It's always very nice to know about different ways of life. My tour guide explained things for me in a way that I could put myself in their situation and imagine things during the Communism era. Thanks to her. Also, there're very wise and interesting reasons behind the architecture of the park they made to keep the statues of that era. Highly recommended!

Review by: Alberto C, Canada	October 2009
This was far more than a tour to take picures at statues or monuments of the former soviet era. It was like opening a page about the history of the city and how much its citizens had to endure during a good part of the XX century. Don't miss it if you want to understand Budapest.

Review by: Anonymous, France	August 2009
I would recommend this tour for travelers who want to see the Statue Park. The tour guide we had was knowledgeable and interesting.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	July 2009
Memento Park was worth seeing, but was a forty minute ride. They needed to provide drinks at the site. Our tour guide was a teacher, and was very knowledgeable, and reenacted communist life as he knew it. Thought provoking and enjoyable.

Review by: Catherine S, United Kingdom	May 2009
Definitely worth it so long as you're seriously interested in the history of Hungary under Communist rule. It is a very information-dense tour and quite long, not fun-filled and bubbly as advertised! Our guide was excellent and gave us a bit of personal insight into life during Russian occupation as well as an overview of Budapest's history through the ages while we travelled to the statue park on the bus. The statue park is still being developed and isn't as sophisticated as you might expect but still very interesting. On a gloriously sunny day, packed with tourists taking photos, it took a bit of concentration to imagine how oppressive these statues must have looked lining the streets of Budapest. After about an hour and half at the park, it's back on the bus to the tour office where there is a little 1960s room where we could look at paperwork and medals etc.

Review by: Anonymous, United Kingdom	April 2009
Great tour. The guide made it - giving her own personal experiences. Unfortunately only had 20 mins to look into museum - not enough time.

Review by: Anonymous, Ireland	February 2009
The tour tour guide was excellent, but we both felt it was a little boring. I would not recommend it unless you are deeply interested in communism. We also went back to the tour office with the guide, who knew a huge amount about communism, and looked as old passports, etc. This part was very interesting.

Review by: A R M, New Zealand	July 2008
Having a guide made the visit to Statue Park more meaningful. The time spent with the guide at the 'private museum' gave great insights into life before democracy. We recommend this tour as a valuable history and cultural lesson!

Review by: Ross M	July 2008
Having a guide made the visit to Statue Park more meaningful. The time spent with the guide at the 'private museum' gave great insights into life before democracy. We recommend this tour as a valuable history and cultural lesson!

Review by: Sarah Y, United Kingdom	June 2008
The bus leaves at 11.00 not 10.30, we waited at square lost as no guide turned up until 10.50. The tour was great and so was the guide.

Review by: Chris L, Canada	November 2007
Our guide certainly made the statue park interesting and pertinent. His personal remembrances of his family living through this time gave us a deeper understanding of life under the Soviets. Sitting around the re-created Soviet-era apartment at the end was a great idea and made a fitting ("fun" isn't the right word) end to the tour.