What to do in Budapest in octubre

You'll soak in the open-air Széchenyi baths at 38°C while steam rises over the snow — the city's most iconic winter ritual.

The Mangalica Festival fills Szabadság square in early February with sausages from Hungary's woolly pig grilled on the spot.

On March 15 the city pins on red-white-green cockades for the national holiday marking the 1848 Revolution, with speeches at the National Museum.

Easter fills the Vörösmarty square market with painted eggs and revives 'locsolás', the custom of sprinkling women with water or perfume for good luck.

May is textbook weather — 22°C and clear skies — for climbing Fishermen's Bastion or rowing on the Városliget lake.

Museum Night (Múzeumok Éjszakája) opens dozens of museums until dawn on a single ticket in late June.

The Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix roars at the Hungaroring just outside town in late July — one of the oldest races on the calendar.

The Sziget Festival takes over Óbuda Island in mid-August — a week of hundreds of acts, one of Europe's biggest.

The Budapest Wine Festival sets up at Buda Castle in early September, with Danube views and wines from all 22 Hungarian regions.

Mid-November lights up the Advent markets at Vörösmarty square and St. Stephen's Basilica, with the season's first mulled wine.

A light show projected onto St. Stephen's Basilica turns its Christmas market into the city's most photographed.