Budapest for The Solo Traveller: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Ride the riverside tram past the Parliament, the Chain Bridge and the castle; get off wherever the view is best and walk.

A courtyard of food trucks where eating alone is normal; order a burger or langoş, find a stool and a beer.

A listening room with live jazz nightly, a good place on your own, with a seat at the bar near the stage.

Hungarian painting in the Royal Palace; go at opening to have the Munkácsy and Csontváry rooms to yourself, then then go up to the dome terrace.

A simple restaurant in the Great Market Hall with classic Hungarian lunch; sit alone at a small table by the window.

A local's thermal bath on the Buda side, with plain, unfussy pools and a mostly local crowd; swimsuits are required and nobody will bother you.

A brick-vaulted wine bar with Hungarian wines by the glass and cheese plates; sit at the bar and talk to the staff.

Walk up from Zugliget (bus 291) through the beech woods, about an hour, to the tower at the highest point in Budapest.

A bowl of goulash at the bar, in a few minutes, with no booking and nobody minding that you are on your own.

The headquarters of both Arrow Cross and communist secret police, now a museum of both regimes; allow two hours and bring something to think about.

Sixty pairs of iron shoes on the riverbank mark the victims shot here in 1944-45; early on a Monday you will be alone.

The largest synagogue in Europe, with a Moorish interior and a memorial garden; the ticket also covers the museum.

A leisurely lunch or coffee and cake in an old literary coffeehouse, a calm last stop before the airport bus.