Margaret Island (Margitsziget) is Budapest's great green escape — a 2.5-kilometre car-free island in the middle of the Danube, given over almost entirely to parkland. Administratively part of District XIII, it is reached on foot from the Margaret Bridge at the southern end and makes for a perfect half-day away from the traffic.
Walking or cycling the length of it you pass a Japanese garden, the ruins of a 13th-century Dominican convent (where the island's namesake, Princess Margaret, lived), a small zoo, an Art Nouveau water tower, and a rose garden. At the southern tip the musical fountain performs on the hour, choreographed to music. There are thermal-fed swimming complexes at both ends. Locals come to jog the rubberised running track that loops the whole island, or simply to sprawl on the grass — it is the closest thing central Budapest has to Central Park.