Hungarian Natural History Museum — Attraction in Budapest

This is why the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. Every museum curator should be required to visit this museum to see how NOT to run a museum. I came by on a rainy Friday morning. There were swarms of young children, but that's fine, though they were pretty much running wild. I got in line for tickets with only a half-dozen or so people ahead of me. Twenty minutes later those same half-dozen people were still ahead of me. There were two ticket kiosks, but one was closed. I figured the delay might be because they were working out pricing for one of the large school groups, but I'll never know for sure. While waiting, I was very much aware of the rather pungent smell of urine. I gather the men's room had suffered some fiasco. Next to the ticket kiosks, hidden behind the never moving line of people for tickets, were two women at the information desk (good place to hide your information people and good to have two people there while only one selling tickets). Looking at the queasy faces on the poor women working the information booth, I could tell they'd been breathing piss fumes for way too long. Finally, when my turn came to get tickets, I was confronted by a frumpy and grumpy middle-aged woman who was behind a plexiglass window without any speaker so as to make her voice audible. I said one adult, but apparently, the sound didn't work in either direction. At any rate, this Magyar battle-axe was anything but polite. I indicated I couldn't hear her, so she started shouting angrily. Seriously, her behavior ranks as the poorest I've ever encountered. I tried to factor in that maybe she was understaffed, frustrated and also ready to vomit from the stench, but her attitude would still have been uncalled for. After getting the ticket and quickly hurrying past the bathroom fiasco, I went into the main room and tried to figure out where one was supposed to go. Hungarian isn't my native tongue, but everything is also displayed in English, it really wasn't a problem of language. The problem was that the museum people simply had done a poor job of informing one where to go. I finally, through trial and error, determined that the permanent exhibits we're up a small spiral staircase on the second floor past yet another pair of flooded bathrooms. The crowd was thick and, as mentioned before, unruly. I can kinda understand: take a bunch of grade school kids, let them suck on the scent of urine for an hour, and then turn them loose. At any rate, none of the exhibits seemed good enough or unique enough to warrant this kind of hell, so I made it...

We went into this museum thinking it would be very interesting and a learning experience, sadly it was not. Firstly, the whole building looks like it wasn't made to harbor a museum, instead it feels like it was just a random building inside of which someone tried to organize a museum. Because of this, there is very little organization inside, there are large empty spaces, the expositions are located in weird places and you have to take stairs back and forth between the rooms. The workers don't seem to be enjoying themselves and looked tired. The ticket itself was relatively cheap, about 5 euros. However, if you wanted to take pictures inside you had to pay more (!), this is absolutely ridiculous and it was the first place we ever went to where we couldn't take photos inside without paying! Because of this, there were several museum workers inside just walking around and looking at you to see if you weren't taking photos, we felt very observed and it was not pleasant at all. Inside, the museum opens up to a huge room with posters and photos on the walls and a very empty feeling. We then had to climb some stairs until we reached a floor full of rocks. Upstairs from here there is a floor with animal figures, many of them cramped up into small spaces (it was sad to see the space so badly used, there were huge empty rooms and then so many stuff packed all together on small spaces). After this, and when we thought the museum was bad enough, we paid extra for a ticket to the Dino park, and when we get there to our surprise it was literally just 10 meters of a dirt road with 4 or 5 big poorly constructed dinossaures. It was absolutly ridiculous! So I'm giving 2 stars because despite being cheap, the whole museum was deorganized and very little interesting. I also think it makes no sense to charge an extra ticket for you to be able to take photos and extra for a "dino park". Overall, it was a very underwhelming experience. PS: despite some parts of the information on the exposition being translated into English, the most part is not, so take that...

One of the most horrendous experiences of my life! First, you’re greeted by a huge whale skeleton that traveled across several nations before the Hungarian Natural History Museum decided they wanted it. This fossil is just the start of what will be an awful visit to this place.

Remember, you’re in Hungary. It’s not that they don’t like tourists (who does?), but they aren’t exactly prepared for them, given the country’s long period of isolation. You buy your tickets (which are far from cheap considering what awaits you) and then decide to leave your belongings at the cloakroom (great idea). The lady behind the counter, who looks like she hasn’t seen a tourist in decades, seems genuinely shocked that you’ve shown up for what will be 1 hour and 40 minutes of pure torture.

You step into the exhibition hall. Great! Dinosaurs, fossils, stones, insects, right? Wrong. You’re met with a bunch of space pictures on the wall—complete with descriptions in Hungarian. Hmm, maybe they’re renovating? Don’t let that get you down, the "fun" is just beginning.

Next up, the highlight: THE PACIFIC EXHIBITION! WOOOW! You walk a few meters and see some reconstructions of sea life in epoxy resin (super exciting, right?). Then, bam, the corridor ends, and you’re in yet another room filled with space pictures in Hungarian! Two exhibitions for the price of one? Natural history + astronomy? What a deal!

But wait, there’s more! Keep going through the PACIFIC EXHIBITION, and you’ll find yourself in a corridor showcasing—wait for it—pictures of the Brazilian biome known as the "Pampas." Not a single leaf or insect in sight, just lots of photos and a couple of dead toucans. If only it ended there...

But I won’t spoil the rest. If you hate yourself enough to visit, or if you’re into some dark tourism thing, I’ll leave the remaining horrors for you...