REVIEWS

The personal connection is the most important! The greatest reward of my work is the recommendation of my former, satisfied and happy clients. You are more than welcome to read the opinion of clients I have guided in Budapest in the past! Please alos check out my Tripadvisor reviews (please click below)!

Andrea Makkay

Andrea Makkay

"We are a group of nine friends traveling to Eastern Europe for the first time. We found Andrea Makkay through Rick Steves' recommendation in his guide book, and we were not disappointed. We did a two-half-day minivan tour of Budapest with Andrea and enjoyed every minute of it. She is extremely knowledgeable about the city's history and culture and had great stories to tell at every church and every monument... Andrea is also very considerate, funny and full of energy. It is not easy to guide a group of nine women, yet Andera was sensitive to everyone's needs and made sure everyone had a great time. Thank you so much Andrea for making this trip so special. We would love to come back! Andrea made our trip to Budapest unforgettable!" Jenny Hee "We learned about Andrea in Rick Steve's book and thought we would contact her about a tour for our group. We had one full day in Budapest before going on a riverboat cruise down the Danube and wanted to make the most of our day is this beautiful city. We had a group of 14 and she was very quick to respond to us. She gave us a variety of options and we choose a half day tour in a mini bus. She gave us a fabulous tour!! We saw and learned so much about Hungarian history and culture. We saw so much of beautiful Budapest in only 4 hours. She really listened to us and knew what we had already seen the night before and was able to end our tour at the Szechenyi Baths as we had pre-purchased our tickets for that. Andrea is such a positive happy person. She is excited about her city and it shows. I would highly recommend her to anyone visiting Budapest!!" Karen Miteff "Andrea Makkay is the first tour guide you should consider when planning a private tour of Budapest. We found her based on Rick Steves' recommendation in his Budapest guide book. She is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, considerate, and patient. We traveled with 7 people, which included 3 children under 12 years old, my wife and I, and my 70 year old in-laws. Andrea made them all feel comfortable and welcome. We learned a great deal about the wonderful city of Budapest, and her tour gave us information about the city that we used to our advantage for the rest of the trip. We did two sessions of 4 hours each in successive days, and we traveled in a very comfortable and air conditioned tour bus. It was a great experience, and we highly recommend Andrea!" David Hugus "Thanks so much for taking us on the wonderful tour of Budapest last week! We can't imagine how we would have made it without you. You have a rare gift for conveying the story of a place and its peoples in a fun and friendly way - I'm sure you will achieve any success you reach for! Once again, many thanks for making our visit to Budapest a wonderful experience. Let us know if you ever want to visit the United States!" John Hayden "You are THE BEST! Our choir and chaperones all felt you gave us the best tour of Budapest and surrounds we could have ever received. Your concern to satisfy the diverse interests of our group was impressive and the variety of places you took us was a perfect mix for us. To end our tour with a gourmet dinner on our own private boat sailing down the Danube was pure genius! We loved every thing about Budapest! (And the kids loved your melodious voice coming over the bus' microphone!) Until we return: áldás, békesség! All best wishes to you!" Beth P. McCoy and the Highlands Youth Ensemble of the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy "Thanks again for being such a professional, informative and personal guide. We learned so much from you about your beautiful city, your culture and your old and modern history, and we are certain that our Budapest experience would have been much less if we had tried to see Budapest on our own or with a large guided tour group. Also I will be sending a note to Rick Steves about our travel experiences and you can be certain that we will be giving him glowing remarks about your service." Thanks again from the Bells and Karlins, Vern "We want you to know you are the best guide we have ever had. You know so much about Hungary and speak perfect English! The kids loved being with you as well. Thank you so much!" Nancy McBroom "We thank you so very much for meeting us and taking us all around your wonderful home. It was the highlight of our trip. I got my picture prints yesterday and we remembered each place vividly again. You made our trip a very special one and we thank you and wish all the best for you and your husband. If you ever find yourself in our part of the world, here are our address and phone number and we would like to show you our city." Brenda and Jim Johnson "We wanted to thank you again for your wonderful tours. They added greatly to our understanding and appreciation of Budapest. Please feel free to use us as a reference. Be well and thanks again." Cordially, Anna and Jeff Lieblich "I wanted to take this opportunity again to thank you for your splendid tours, full of historical information and personal insight. Never have any of us, I believe, been quite as impressed with someone as you. Budapest, for me, proved to be the most wonderful city that we visited, and I hope to be in touch with you, granted my future visit to your city." Richard Weinberg "You are thought of frequently and mentioned each time that we rave about our time in Budapest. Budapest is now one of our favorite cities, which in large part is because of you! You immediately made us feel at home in your wonderful city and provided experiences that created pleasant memories of our visit to Hungary." Robert Blaufuss

"I normally look up for Rick Steves recommended guides. And when I found Andrea has worked with him, I needed no further search. And she was exactly the same I expected. Right from the beginning she was very prompt in replying my many many queries over the period of a month and a half. We were a group of 20, and we took two days tour with her. She was absolute delight to be with. Very very knowledgeable and charming. We learned so much about the history of Budapest and Hungary. Her vehicles are very clean with excellent drivers. She gives you many suggestions for activities to be carried out in later part of the day. Andrea is the best in the business. I recommend her totally." Rupa Nageshkar "Our family still talks about the wonderful day we spent with Andrea Makkay in Budapest. We spent a full day enjoying the beauty, the history, and of course the incredible food. Andrea filled our day with a fascinating and enriching experience we had not expected. Our two married children, their spouses & our youngest (18) all enjoyed every minute. In fact we were surprised to realized we had spent the entire day with Andrea Makkay. She even helped set us up with activities the following day. She made each minute count. We will definitely be rebooking with Andrea when we return to Budapest." John A. "My wife and I booked Andrea based on recommendations in Rick Steves' guidebook, and we were not disappointed. Andrea is the best guide we've ever had in any city. From beginning to end, she designed tour stops(we had a driver on our tour) so that we would see items that interested us. In addition, she knew we would be doing a city tour from our Viking cruise that was leaving in a couple days and she avoid sites that we would see on that tour, maximizing what we could see in Budapest. She really kept a good pace but shared just the right amount of information so we weren't overwhelmed. She spoke very clear and good english. Our first stop was the monument and vista at Gellert Hill. This is a great place to start because you can trace the history of the city. We then visited the baths, the Cave Church, the Synagogue, Heroes Sqaure, had lunch at the market, St Stephen's Basilica, and walked from there to Parliament. We chose to be dropped off at the Christmas Market and Andrea even walked us to the market. Andrea really cared about us seeing all the sights in Budapest and having a wonderful experience. She made great recommendations on places to visit on the other days we were in Budapest. She even contacted us to make sure we knew that our Viking ship was at a different pier then we had expected it. Andrea certainly has set the mark high for other private guides were schedule." Scott Howard "We were a group of 8 friends visiting Budapest for the first time. We were lucky enough to have hired Andrea Makkay to be our guide for two 4-hour tours on two of our days in Budapest. She is extremely knowledgeable, very patient and was wonderful fun for us -- not to mention expert in negotiating the streets of Budapest with her driver. We would simply not have seen as much of this wonderful city without Andrea, who listened carefully to our interests and desired pace and crafted two delightful days for us. I would recommend anyone visiting Budapest to take a tour with Andrea." Linda Reston "Andrea, Thank you again for your wonderful tour of Budapest. We also had a great time the rest of the week, thanks to many of your suggestions. We enjoyed the thermal baths and many of the museums you suggested. When it came time to come home, we didn't want to leave--we could've spent another week in your beautiful and interesting city." Alison and John Dillow "We are back here in the states and are still glowing from our wonderful experience. Thank you again for taking such good care of us during our stay, especially with regard to changing hotels. Our trip would have been much different without your kind assistance and enthusiasm. Please let us know if you ever travel to Los Angeles or Las Vegas. Warm Regards!" Jeff and Nancy "Thank you for your guidance during our visit to your lovely city. We appreciated your flexibility in responding to the differing interests of our group, getting us comfortable with the transit system, as well as explanations that were more like conversations with friends than “scripted”. Lasting memories of our visit include the touching moment with the woman at the statue of Imre Nagy and the incredible folk music and dance performance later that night." Ron Friend "How are you? We arrived back in Hong Kong today. Once again, I must thank you for your lovely informative introduction to your beautiful city. There are still things and places that we did not get to see on this visit and we look forward to revisiting Budapest in the near future!" Clement Mak "Just a quick note to let you know that we made back home. We got home about 2 weeks ago, but we are still tired from our trip. The rest of the trip went well. We bumped into Rick Steves in Rome (he was leading one of his tour groups), and spoke with him for a few minutes. We mentioned what a great time we had with you as our guide in Budapest. Anyway, we want to thank you for all your help. We truly enjoyed visiting your country, and you made our experience that much better. We saw more than we expected, and look forward to visiting Hungary again in the future. If you are ever in Florida , please do not hesitate to contact us." Noel & Connie Orraca "I thought that I would simply pass on our thanks again for the very interesting tours of Budapest . After you left us we spent the rest of the afternoon in Szentendre.The next day we decided to stay in the city and walked in the Gellert Hill park and to the castle district where we visited the House of Hungarian wine and returned with a few bottles of our favourites. So we have left Lake Balaton for reason to visit Hungary again in the future!" Eric & Heidi

The personal connection is the most important! The greatest reward of my work is the recommendation of my former, satisfied and happy clients. You are more than welcome to read the opinion of clients I have guided in Budapest in the past! Please alos check out my Tripadvisor reviews (please click below)!

"We are a group of nine friends traveling to Eastern Europe for the first time. We found Andrea Makkay through Rick Steves' recommendation in his guide book, and we were not disappointed. We did a two-half-day minivan tour of Budapest with Andrea and enjoyed every minute of it. She is extremely knowledgeable about the city's history and culture and had great stories to tell at every church and every monument... Andrea is also very considerate, funny and full of energy. It is not easy to guide a group of nine women, yet Andera was sensitive to everyone's needs and made sure everyone had a great time. Thank you so much Andrea for making this trip so special. We would love to come back! Andrea made our trip to Budapest unforgettable!" Jenny Hee "We learned about Andrea in Rick Steve's book and thought we would contact her about a tour for our group. We had one full day in Budapest before going on a riverboat cruise down the Danube and wanted to make the most of our day is this beautiful city. We had a group of 14 and she was very quick to respond to us. She gave us a variety of options and we choose a half day tour in a mini bus. She gave us a fabulous tour!! We saw and learned so much about Hungarian history and culture. We saw so much of beautiful Budapest in only 4 hours. She really listened to us and knew what we had already seen the night before and was able to end our tour at the Szechenyi Baths as we had pre-purchased our tickets for that. Andrea is such a positive happy person. She is excited about her city and it shows. I would highly recommend her to anyone visiting Budapest!!" Karen Miteff "Andrea Makkay is the first tour guide you should consider when planning a private tour of Budapest. We found her based on Rick Steves' recommendation in his Budapest guide book. She is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, considerate, and patient. We traveled with 7 people, which included 3 children under 12 years old, my wife and I, and my 70 year old in-laws. Andrea made them all feel comfortable and welcome. We learned a great deal about the wonderful city of Budapest, and her tour gave us information about the city that we used to our advantage for the rest of the trip. We did two sessions of 4 hours each in successive days, and we traveled in a very comfortable and air conditioned tour bus. It was a great experience, and we highly recommend Andrea!" David Hugus "Thanks so much for taking us on the wonderful tour of Budapest last week! We can't imagine how we would have made it without you. You have a rare gift for conveying the story of a place and its peoples in a fun and friendly way - I'm sure you will achieve any success you reach for! Once again, many thanks for making our visit to Budapest a wonderful experience. Let us know if you ever want to visit the United States!" John Hayden "You are THE BEST! Our choir and chaperones all felt you gave us the best tour of Budapest and surrounds we could have ever received. Your concern to satisfy the diverse interests of our group was impressive and the variety of places you took us was a perfect mix for us. To end our tour with a gourmet dinner on our own private boat sailing down the Danube was pure genius! We loved every thing about Budapest! (And the kids loved your melodious voice coming over the bus' microphone!) Until we return: áldás, békesség! All best wishes to you!" Beth P. McCoy and the Highlands Youth Ensemble of the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy "Thanks again for being such a professional, informative and personal guide. We learned so much from you about your beautiful city, your culture and your old and modern history, and we are certain that our Budapest experience would have been much less if we had tried to see Budapest on our own or with a large guided tour group. Also I will be sending a note to Rick Steves about our travel experiences and you can be certain that we will be giving him glowing remarks about your service." Thanks again from the Bells and Karlins, Vern "We want you to know you are the best guide we have ever had. You know so much about Hungary and speak perfect English! The kids loved being with you as well. Thank you so much!" Nancy McBroom "We thank you so very much for meeting us and taking us all around your wonderful home. It was the highlight of our trip. I got my picture prints yesterday and we remembered each place vividly again. You made our trip a very special one and we thank you and wish all the best for you and your husband. If you ever find yourself in our part of the world, here are our address and phone number and we would like to show you our city." Brenda and Jim Johnson "We wanted to thank you again for your wonderful tours. They added greatly to our understanding and appreciation of Budapest. Please feel free to use us as a reference. Be well and thanks again." Cordially, Anna and Jeff Lieblich "I wanted to take this opportunity again to thank you for your splendid tours, full of historical information and personal insight. Never have any of us, I believe, been quite as impressed with someone as you. Budapest, for me, proved to be the most wonderful city that we visited, and I hope to be in touch with you, granted my future visit to your city." Richard Weinberg "You are thought of frequently and mentioned each time that we rave about our time in Budapest. Budapest is now one of our favorite cities, which in large part is because of you! You immediately made us feel at home in your wonderful city and provided experiences that created pleasant memories of our visit to Hungary." Robert Blaufuss

"I normally look up for Rick Steves recommended guides. And when I found Andrea has worked with him, I needed no further search. And she was exactly the same I expected. Right from the beginning she was very prompt in replying my many many queries over the period of a month and a half. We were a group of 20, and we took two days tour with her. She was absolute delight to be with. Very very knowledgeable and charming. We learned so much about the history of Budapest and Hungary. Her vehicles are very clean with excellent drivers. She gives you many suggestions for activities to be carried out in later part of the day. Andrea is the best in the business. I recommend her totally." Rupa Nageshkar "Our family still talks about the wonderful day we spent with Andrea Makkay in Budapest. We spent a full day enjoying the beauty, the history, and of course the incredible food. Andrea filled our day with a fascinating and enriching experience we had not expected. Our two married children, their spouses & our youngest (18) all enjoyed every minute. In fact we were surprised to realized we had spent the entire day with Andrea Makkay. She even helped set us up with activities the following day. She made each minute count. We will definitely be rebooking with Andrea when we return to Budapest." John A. "My wife and I booked Andrea based on recommendations in Rick Steves' guidebook, and we were not disappointed. Andrea is the best guide we've ever had in any city. From beginning to end, she designed tour stops(we had a driver on our tour) so that we would see items that interested us. In addition, she knew we would be doing a city tour from our Viking cruise that was leaving in a couple days and she avoid sites that we would see on that tour, maximizing what we could see in Budapest. She really kept a good pace but shared just the right amount of information so we weren't overwhelmed. She spoke very clear and good english. Our first stop was the monument and vista at Gellert Hill. This is a great place to start because you can trace the history of the city. We then visited the baths, the Cave Church, the Synagogue, Heroes Sqaure, had lunch at the market, St Stephen's Basilica, and walked from there to Parliament. We chose to be dropped off at the Christmas Market and Andrea even walked us to the market. Andrea really cared about us seeing all the sights in Budapest and having a wonderful experience. She made great recommendations on places to visit on the other days we were in Budapest. She even contacted us to make sure we knew that our Viking ship was at a different pier then we had expected it. Andrea certainly has set the mark high for other private guides were schedule." Scott Howard "We were a group of 8 friends visiting Budapest for the first time. We were lucky enough to have hired Andrea Makkay to be our guide for two 4-hour tours on two of our days in Budapest. She is extremely knowledgeable, very patient and was wonderful fun for us -- not to mention expert in negotiating the streets of Budapest with her driver. We would simply not have seen as much of this wonderful city without Andrea, who listened carefully to our interests and desired pace and crafted two delightful days for us. I would recommend anyone visiting Budapest to take a tour with Andrea." Linda Reston "Andrea, Thank you again for your wonderful tour of Budapest. We also had a great time the rest of the week, thanks to many of your suggestions. We enjoyed the thermal baths and many of the museums you suggested. When it came time to come home, we didn't want to leave--we could've spent another week in your beautiful and interesting city." Alison and John Dillow "We are back here in the states and are still glowing from our wonderful experience. Thank you again for taking such good care of us during our stay, especially with regard to changing hotels. Our trip would have been much different without your kind assistance and enthusiasm. Please let us know if you ever travel to Los Angeles or Las Vegas. Warm Regards!" Jeff and Nancy "Thank you for your guidance during our visit to your lovely city. We appreciated your flexibility in responding to the differing interests of our group, getting us comfortable with the transit system, as well as explanations that were more like conversations with friends than “scripted”. Lasting memories of our visit include the touching moment with the woman at the statue of Imre Nagy and the incredible folk music and dance performance later that night." Ron Friend "How are you? We arrived back in Hong Kong today. Once again, I must thank you for your lovely informative introduction to your beautiful city. There are still things and places that we did not get to see on this visit and we look forward to revisiting Budapest in the near future!" Clement Mak "Just a quick note to let you know that we made back home. We got home about 2 weeks ago, but we are still tired from our trip. The rest of the trip went well. We bumped into Rick Steves in Rome (he was leading one of his tour groups), and spoke with him for a few minutes. We mentioned what a great time we had with you as our guide in Budapest. Anyway, we want to thank you for all your help. We truly enjoyed visiting your country, and you made our experience that much better. We saw more than we expected, and look forward to visiting Hungary again in the future. If you are ever in Florida , please do not hesitate to contact us." Noel & Connie Orraca "I thought that I would simply pass on our thanks again for the very interesting tours of Budapest . After you left us we spent the rest of the afternoon in Szentendre.The next day we decided to stay in the city and walked in the Gellert Hill park and to the castle district where we visited the House of Hungarian wine and returned with a few bottles of our favourites. So we have left Lake Balaton for reason to visit Hungary again in the future!" Eric & Heidi