Sisi's Godollo Palace Tour From Budapest

This was a English tour but the whole tour was done in Spanish so we were forced to do the audio guide. Very dosappointing

The tour was small group tour and the guide was very clear and very patient. He literally give us interest history lesson during the entire length of the tour.

We took the sisis palace tour it was lovely i recommend it definitely very polite people Vera was adorable!!!

You had one job and didn’t do it. I paid for a tour in English. ALL of the tour in the palace by the guide was in Spanish. We were handed an audio guide and told we were on our own. If I had wanted to do that, we would not have booked a tour. Terrible experience and a waste of time and money.

The office contacted me by email the day before our scheduled tour informing me that the tour start time was changed to start a half hour later. I immediately emailed back that I had another tour scheduled immediately after this tour & confirmed that we would return on time. They assured me I would be back in plenty of time. We got to the office early & 15 mins after the tour start time they still didn’t have a tour operator there but told me someone would arrive soon. A half hour later someone finally showed up. We found out from the replacement that the original English speaking guide called in sick. The company then combined our English speaking group with the Spanish & French speaking groups. The poor replacement had to translate in all three languages to the three groups they combined. All of us were subject to repetitive explanations, on the drive as well as at the palace, in 3 different languages. She kept apologizing for her lack of proper English (to her credit she did a decent job under the circumstances). However, it was awful waiting for her to keep repeating the same thing in 3 different languages. We all only got to see part of what we should have seen because of this. Not to mention all that noise & confusion gave us all splitting headaches. We saw people walking thru the palace themselves with audio headsets, like in a museum, with numbered exhibits. We asked at the front desk & was informed that there were audio guides available in every language but it would cost an additional $1000frn/person & was not included in our ticket. Since we paid $65/person & the tour was more than half done, we decided it was not worth it at that point to pay any more money. Why didn’t Viator offer us the head sets instead of making all of us suffer thru a timely & tedious triple presentation of each room!! IT WAS AWFUL!! We got nothing out of that experience! If you want to visit the palace I would recommend that you take a uber to the Palace & rent the headset. Sadly I was really looking forward to going to the Sisi Palace. We were on a Viking cruise that was supposed to take us there but the Palace was closed the day our boat was in port. I am sure the tour with Viking would have been 100% better since they do everything first class.

This was a very exciting palace with full of interesting history. Driver/tour guide was very friendly and informative. A nice tour in all.

Enjoyed the trip and the guide was very knowledgeable. It was too much to expect her to have to speak in both English and Spanish within one group. This ended up wasting a lot of time for all. Charge more if you need 2 guides, it would provide for a far better experience.

Great access to a historic palace that celebrates Sisi..lots of paintings and photos of her and her family.

Worth it to go by your own means and spend the day reading the story of the palace and walking the lovely gardens. Not worth it to go with a guide, since the palace is so small.

Too much people and there is not time to visit the Palace, gardens and to see careefully the building and spaces. It is a pity to invest long time in travellibg and wainting people of the group that dissapear. At the end, three hours invested yo see in one hours the Palace. Habibg said that, the guide was excellent.

The Gödöllő Royal Palace tour is a captivating journey through Hungarian history, expertly guided by an articulate and knowledgeable English-speaking guide (Anna, I think - she was awesome!). Anna offered up a deep dive into the palace's rich past on the short bus ride from Budapest to the castle, taking us through the palace's construction by the aristocratic Grassalkovich family to its significant role in the lives of Franz Joseph I and his beloved wife, Sisi. The guide skillfully weaves together fascinating tales of the palace's history and its occupants, briefly touches on the use (and plunder) of the palace by Nazi forces during World War II and later by Soviet forces, and then talks about the meticulous restoration done in recent years. The restored palace now stands as a stunning tribute to its illustrious history, especially highlighting Sisi’s deep connection to the residence and to the people of Hungary. This tour not only enriches your understanding of Hungarian history but also provides fascinating insights into the architecture, décor, entertainment and fashion of the time, all while celebrating the legacy of Sisi. We loved this tour!

Must see if you want to know more about Sissi. Beware though, some rooms might be closed due to privatisation. Nice to walk where Sissi walked as well.

The palace was lovely, if you have extra time in Budapest. However the guide was doing a dual language tour and she spent a lot of time speaking Spanish and next to nothing in English. We eventually asked if we could just go ahead and meet her somewhere. She laughed and said this is how it usually goes, one group always gives up and goes on. Nice to know.

Dual language tour in which one language got lengthy explanations and the other stood around waiting for their 30 seconds. Half way thru we asked where to meet them later and the guide said “this always happens, one group always gives up”. Palace was nice.

Please take care that the adress for pick up is clearly stated in the e-mail! We booked and traveled to the bathory street 19 which is the adress mentioned in the mail. Apparently there are two bathory streets!!! And they are miles apart, so when we were called by the guide they told us there was nothing they could do and there was no refund possible. We weren’t the only people affected by this so we complained a bit and they offered us a different tour which we had to quickly go to. So we booked a taxi and what followed was a wild goose chase looking for the correct bus. Eventually we made it, but of course we we’re really disappointed because this was a city tour where as we wanted to see the royal palace of Sissi. Really if you book this tour make sure you have the right address!!!

Vera was a phenomenal tour guide! So knowledgeable and warm, absolutely nothing but praise for her. I did think that the tour company stretched her a bit too thin by having her juggle multiple different language groups at the same time - an admirable feat on her part, but as a result we all lost valuable time as she scrambled to accommodate everyone. Again, absolutely NO criticisms for Vera or the tour itself! I just think the company should consider limiting the sizes of tour groups rather than lumping everyone together (and potentially shortchanging everyone together). Love Sisi, love Gödöllő, just wish it was a smaller group!

The tour was with Vera, who is an excellent and informative guide. It was a comfortable ride in an air-conditioned minibus, very welcome on a swelteringly hot day. The palace is beautiful and worth visting, while the café has very good cake. Highly recommended.

Wonderful woman with good sense of humour as a guide! Too much tourist groups in the palace at the same time in the same rooms, but it's the problem of the palace and their staff- bad organisation!

I had a very nice time. My guide, Vera, was very knowledgeable. It was a lovely excursion. Having it in two languages made us feel a little rushed, since the guide said everything in English and Spanish.

A fascinating story was presented. The guide paid attention to everyone. Sometimes we had a long pause because she had to tell it in English and Spanish. We could not drink in the cafeteria because it was reserved for another group.

A nice trip to Godollo palace, a beautiful palace with an interesting story. Excellent guide mrs Vera , she gave us a lot of interesting information about the place .Worthwile trip if you have the time (lasts about 3 hours).

It was a beautiful, shiny day had a great group with us. The guide were very nice nice and high qualified. We had fun whole day and got rich historically. I can easily recommend this tour and so the company for everyone.

We traveled by metro and train to get to Gödöllö to see sissi’s palace. Took us two hours from where we were staying in Budapest. Unfortunately in the pouring rain. When we got there it was closed because they were filming a movie. So so disappointed !

We want to thanks Erika, our guide, for this very unique experience. She explained us everything about the castle, from general knowledge about Sisi and her life to the most hidden details in the architecture of the castle and the pieces of art in it! And also thank you for the very nice surprise at the end of the tour ;)

George was a great guide. He knew his history and his English was very good. The problem I had is that I expected something different. I expected to see the castle as it might have been when it was lived in, ie the living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. Instead we walked through rooms that had little or nothing to do with the original castle occupants. For instance a room filled with weapons, a room with a mannequin in an evening dress, a room with paintings/historical write ups, etc. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle. Almost all of the pieces in the castle are reproductions, since the originals were destroyed by wartime activities. This no fault of the tour operator, just things you should know before making a decision to visit Sisy's castle.

Amazing palace showing the opulence of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the woman who stole a prince from her sister to become empress. The palace is like a giant selfie of Sisi, Empress Elizabeth. Every room has a portrait or statue of Sisi, showing how tiny her waist was and how glorious her hair. Apparently she starved herself to achieve that tiny waist and suffered from her mother-in-law and aunt. She was a Tom-boy and loved to ride horses. As empress she was pressured to be elegant and was apparently miserable. We also saw palaces on previous trips at Corfu (Achilleon palace) and in Vienna (Schonbrunn palace). Sisi seems to have spent all her time escaping her relatives and riding horses and starving herself to achieve beauty. She was pretty. It seems an odd way to chose the leader of a country. Today she would sell shampoo on commercials. Guari took great care of us and told good stories of the Russian invasion and the Austro-Hungarian empire. The palace was restored after being ransacked and devastated during the Second World War. Gyuri took extra care after the tour to return us to our hotel. He was a great guide. One thing to know about this tour is that a taxi picked us up at our hotel, and took us to the tour-van. However, no return taxi is included. Gyuri carefully dropped most of the tourists near their hotel. The traffic was very heavy near the chain bridge. Gyuri drove us to our hotel in the castle district to help with my twisted knee (twisted from a previous trip). Without Gyuri’s help we would have needed to find a taxi and try to return to the hotel. THANKS GYURI!!

We choose the group in english but in the end there was a spanish group (8 people) and 2 of us extra in english. The guide (Hejmi if I remember good the way of spelling the name) was TRYING to speak in both ut not very succeful (I speak spanish as well by the chance so I was listening to everythig kind of twice, for me it was just annoying but to accept, my friend doesn't speak spanish and she got definitely less information than the rest). Anyway the guide was not good prepared about the information. There were totally basic and asked for us extra info coudn't say anything more. Nothing interesting honestly. I came out of there with no new news about Sissi and her life. I was expecting a lot more. Also the way of guiding th etour, she doesn't wait with talking until the group to get from the room to the next one so in fact only the people who were all the time next to her could hear her. When in one moment we were on the end of the queue to pass by the narrow door till we got to her she already finished. The tour started over 1 hour late because the spanish group has been given the wrong time of the beginning of the tour so we lost 1 hour in the beginning but we were on time as planned back in Budapest so they took us our time that suppose to be free to spend as we want at the castle. There is a nice bar with the tables outside if weather is good and professional photograph when you can take pictures in costumes from the times of Sissi. We would love to do this but with 20min time free we were given it was impossible. Really disappointed with organization and luck of knowledge of the guide. Before booking the trip check who suppose to be the guide on this tour because place is worth to see but not with Hejmi.

<p>Very rushed tour told it was 4 hours and we could have coffee break. This did not happen.. Disappointing.</p>

The guide speaks perfect Spanish and English even though he is Hungarian. And he explains the history of the palace and its objects very well.

An excellent, unmissable experience. The guide knew EVERYTHING! It was wonderful. The palace is beautiful, the structure for the tourist is very good. I highly recommend it.

To be honest, my expectations were much higher than what it was; mind you, it is not the place's fault, I imagined it like other castles.

The minibus took us to the summer residence of Sissi, to accompany us c was the Spanish guide, Susanna, was very nice, professional, nice and it was a pleasure to spend the visit with her. Thank you ❤️

Interesting from the historical point of view but disappointing by the visit and especially the very different gardens. In addition, the groups follow one another and it quickly becomes cacaphony with the translators.

La guide vera était super, sympathique et parlant français et vait plein d'anecdotes à raconter Temps dans le château un tout Petit peu trop court 20 minutes de plus auraient été bien

L’esperienza è stata coinvolgente ed entusiasmante. Kristina, la nostra guida, ci ha fornito una spiegazione dettagliata e precisa del palazzo. Ci ha dato nozioni della storia di quest’ultimo sia relative a Sissi che ai predecessori. Infine molto comodo il transfer da Budapest. Lo consiglio vivamente.

Many things to say first marveled at the history of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the legend of Sissi and knowing his summer residence in Hungary, the Palace of Godollo where he found tranquility and peace and above all very surprised with our guide in Spanish...Esteban...who had been very close to our country Chile as he knew it very well and had lived here...which made our tour fascinating with a person very informed of the history life and legend of the Empress and Hungary wonderful country...highly recommended the guided tour by a Chilean at heart...

Nice excursion, all well organized, explanations in Spanish and English. Vera is an excellent tour guide.

Leider kamen dir englischen Ausführungen im Vergleich zu den spanischen zu kurz, so dass zum letzten Raum gar nichts mehr gesagt wurde. ( Auch nicht, wie angekündigt, im Bus.) Für den Garten war gar keine Zeit mehr, was wir sehr bedauert haben und für Giftshop, Toiletten, Weg zum Bus wurden genau 5 Minuten eingeplant Die knappe Zeit hat das Erlebnis erheblich getrübt, auch wenn die Reiseleitung nett war.

El autobús llegó tarde y retrasó la excursión por lo que luego en el palacio fue todo a correr La guía que nos tocó se dedicó a hablar todo en inglés y el tour era en español A parte daba datos no reales de la historia y consideraciones personales Empleaba lenguaje poco apropiado Y no nos dejo ver la capilla del palacio cuando era visita le desde un mirador

Muy buena la visita. Excelente Guia Vera., las danzas y.musica nos gustaron mucho.Completa la informacion brindada y entretenida

Stunning place, nice to retrace the stages of Sissi's Hungarian life. Friendly, explanatory and professional, our guide in Italian, Mrs. Gabriella, was able to explain even the smallest curiosities to us.

Nice visit. Sissi Castle is worth a visit, even though there are no original furnishings. The castle park is very relaxing

We really enjoyed the excursion thanks to Vera, our guide, who in addition to knowing a lot, it is clear that she enjoys her profession.

Beautiful castle! The trip was great, the bus ride to the castle was very pleasant. Our tour guide, Nikki, did a great job in German. We were able to learn a lot from her, she talked a lot and spoke very well. She was also very friendly. It was also nice that we went through the rooms and the castle quite quickly, because I personally don't need to spend 10 minutes in each room. The free time afterwards in the park is also very pleasant, it's just a shame that there isn't really anything except the small café, because there were far too many people in it! Luckily we had brought something to eat and drink with us, and were able to enjoy it in the park. The only negative thing was the other participants on this tour! You are told that you have to be there by 9:45 because the bus leaves at 10:00. More than half of the participants didn't arrive until after 10:00 and no one apologized or felt embarrassed! The last ones arrived at 10:20 and we couldn't leave until then. Then they said that we had to be back at the bus at 1:00 p.m. to go back and this time everyone had to be on time! The same people were all late again and didn't arrive until 1:10 p.m. I understand that there could be problems, but I think the tour guides should just say at 10:05 a.m. that we're leaving, tough luck. That was a bit annoying but it wasn't the tour guides' fault and the tour was great.

This long weekend on 08.12.23 we decided to go to Budapest, it was a success, we made various outings to learn about the history of this monumental city. It is worth visiting it thoroughly, there is a wide range of outings and tours, we stayed 4 nights/five days, The excursion that we liked the most was the visit to the Gödöllö Palace, just the night before it had snowed, just as we got on the bus to start the journey, one of our guides captivated us, Vera, a native Hungarian, with a very good command of Spanish explained to us the places and monuments we were passing through, he explained the history to us in a simple, clear and understandable way, just as it was. Already at the Gödöllö Palace, we were lucky enough to continue with her. Vera introduced us to the reality of the time, it was spectacular and her great knowledge of Hungarian history was evident, she told us the true story of Sissi, not the version we are accustomed to of princess stories. Highly recommended, the cultural level and the great information we received from this excellent native guide Vera, made this excursion one of the best gifts we took with us from Budapest. What can we say about his predisposition, attention, respect, good work and his good Spanish. Without a doubt, when we return, we will repeat. The palace is beautiful, although the quality of the restoration could be better; But the explanations, history and anecdotes that we received from Vera were worth it, it was the "plus" of the visit.

The tour was very good and the Palace is worth it. The only "downside" I found is that the guide Vera, with whom we did the tour, has a poor command of the Spanish language and since she did not know how to conjugate the phrases correctly, we did not understand well what she meant. It was obvious that his knowledge is high, but he could not (or knew how) to express it correctly. He tried very hard to explain, that's a point in his favor. But I think the agency should assign guides with a broader command of the language they are working on at the moment.

Magnificent trip. The guide, Vera, was excellent, she was very prepared. The fantastic palace, very well maintained. We will be back.

We made the visit with a native guide, Vera, wonderful, told us the whole truth, not the sweetened version of the movies and ambiguous language used in Google. He gave us many anecdotes for the rest of the trip, and we were very well conveyed the feeling of the people of Budapest, which has nothing to do with the extolling that is in Vienna. Highly recommended! The palace is not remarkable, but the information is. Vera!!!! Your little Spaniards!!! Butt with you! a 20!!!

It is worth this visit but especially thanks to our guide Vera who has been spectacular. Of the best guides we have had here in Budapest.