Budapest Guide
The city limits
Tropicarium
Opening time: Daily 10am–8pm
Price: 1900Ft, children 1200Ft
Address: Campona Shopping Centre, Nagytétényi út 37–43, in Buda's XXII district
Website: www.tropicarium.hu
A must-see for kids, Budapest's Tropicarium is the largest aquarium-terrarium in Central Europe, covering three thousand square metres. Its saltwater section has an eleven-metre-long glass tunnel for intimate views of sand, tiger and brown sharks, clownfish, triggerfish and wrasses; you can even feed stingrays. The freshwater part has piranhas, mouth-breeding cichlids from Africa's Great Lakes, and an outdoor pool to show fish lying dormant when it freezes over. Even better is the mini-rainforest, complete with macaws, marmoset monkeys, iguanas and alligators, kept steamy by a downpour with thunder and lightning effects every fifteen minutes. Take bus #3 from Móricz Zsigmond körtér, or #14 or #144 from Kosztolányi Desző tér. The mall is named after a Roman fort that guarded the riverside, where excavations yielded a cult-statue of Mithras, now in the Aquincum Museum .