A Decade of Stories, One City, Your Tour
Stefan Uhrinak is a private tour guide based in Budapest with over 10 years of experience and more than 500 completed tours. He is a native speaker of both Hungarian and Slovak, and he guides in fluent English and Czech as well. He is completing a PhD in Linguistics from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest and a Bachelor of Arts degree in musical performance.
Who Is Stefan?
His guiding approach reflects his academic background: tours are built around genuine historical context, the kind that connects what you are looking at to what was happening across the whole of Central Europe at the time. There are no rehearsed scripts, no rushed stops, and no generic commentary. Every tour is a conversation.
Outside of guiding, Stefan is an award-winning translator and a musician. In 2026 he received the Susanna Roth Award for literary translation. His broader cultural life feeds directly into his guiding: he thinks in multiple languages, moves between cultures with ease, and brings that fluency into every tour he leads.
Why Stefan Shows You More
Most Budapest guides tell the city's story from a single perspective — Hungarian history, Hungarian kings, Hungarian architecture. That is a fine story. But Budapest is not a single-perspective city.
It was built at the meeting point of empires. Slovak, Czech, German, Jewish, Ottoman, and Austrian influences are written into its streets, its buildings, and its neighbourhoods. Stefan grew up bilingual in this city, with one foot in Hungarian culture and one in Slovak. He knows both sides of the story, and he tells them both.
Languages Spoken
It was built at the meeting point of empires. Slovak, Czech, German, Jewish, Ottoman, and Austrian influences are written into its streets, its buildings, and its neighbourhoods. Stefan grew up bilingual in this city, with one foot in Hungarian culture and one in Slovak. He knows both sides of the story, and he tells them both.
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Hungarian — native
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Slovak — native
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English — fluent
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Czech — fluent
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Spanish — conversational
Tours are conducted in English, Slovak, Czech, or Hungarian, depending on your group's preference.
About the Tours
No two tours are the same. Before your tour, Stefan will ask about your interests, how much walking you want to do, and what you already know about Budapest. He uses that to shape the route and the emphasis.
During the tour, he encourages questions and takes detours when something catches your interest. He is not a lecturer — he is a guide, in the real sense of the word. He navigates, he contextualises, and he makes the city make sense.
After the tour, he is happy to recommend restaurants, museums, concerts, or other experiences that match what you enjoyed.
Book a tour with Stefan:
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