Underground Gift Shops of Budapest - Where to Send Santa this Christmas Season!

Yes, Budapest is that one city where you'll find the weirdest, cutest, most whimsical little gift shops - shops that will sell you confusion as well. You may stumble across the oddest little products and end up either with divination wax or politician candle heads to melt. Am I joking? No. Am I using real examples? Hell yes. The divination wax, I did not buy and kinda should have because I keep thinking about it.

This list - as most lists on this blog - is very subjective, of course, so take it with a pinch of salt. Also, some of these shops are rather unconventional and may be selling things you may not want to gift to your granny. Don't tell me I didn't warn ya.

With that being said, let's start with the most conventional one - my favourite Hungarian stationery brand:

1.) Bomo Art

Bomo Art has two locations in Budapest: one on the Buda side (2-6 Ybl Miklós Square) and one on the Pest one (14 Régiposta Street). Their products present true tactile joy, colours, mystery and are just perfect for journaling, doodling and letter writing. If you want to go more traditional but also quaint, they might be your best bet. Besides notebooks, wrapping paper, pens, ink, cards and gift tags, they also sell paper decor - silly little bikers and figurines you can assemble and hang up in your home. I wrote more about them at the end of this post: https://www.fearlessfrock.com/post/a-reader-s-dream-month-all-my-january-books-ranked-from-worst-to-best

Bomo art Budapest - stationery shop for Christmas

find Bomo Art here: https://www.bomoart.hu/en/contact

or here: https://www.instagram.com/bomoartbudapestofficial/?hl=en

2.) Lúdlabor - Contemporary Paper and Design Shop

Another (albeit very different) baby stationery brand is Lúdlabor, with their tiny, light and white, eerie little nook where everything is about illustrations, tales and joy. While Bomo Art has this heavier, more grandiose vibe, Lúdlabor operates mainly with comfort and kindness, an illustrated life in which a few literary points (writers) even ended up on stickers - an approach somewhat loosened up compared to Bomo Art.

And let me show you what I've got - not as a Christmas gift, simply because I could not not buy these...:

Find Lúdlabor here: https://ludlabor.com/

or here: https://www.instagram.com/ludlabor/

3.) Szimpla Design Shop

Szimpla Kert is Budapest's most famous party place: it has all the chaos, underground-ness, ruined pub madness, but it also has a charming and very well-stocked (pricey, though!) design shop. Szimpla is the first one on this list that does sell a few quite unconventional pieces (as in, some products are rather for adults, although they are always displayed in a very careful way - in a corner, under a paper sign warning the visitors). Szimpla is good at vintage vibes, products by small and independent businesses, and humour. If you are like me and like useless though very captivating little objects, Szimpla Design Shop will be a very good fit for you.

Szimpla Design Shop - gift shop of Budapest

And I really wanted to buy one of these pebbles but I didn't... (for now).

Find Szimpla Design Shop here: https://szimpladesign.com/

or here: https://www.instagram.com/szimpladesignshop/?hl=en

By the way. As Szimpla is located in the party area of Pest, you will see a lot of street art all around. Don't miss the little murals!

street art in Budapest - Szimpla Design Shop

Okay.

Last but absolutely not least, the most unorthodox, most controversial shop - the only contender on this list that somehow is located on the posh, Buda side (though around universities - and that might be an explanation) - is...

4.) Szia+

Szia+ is attached to a charity shop, and I'm still unsure whether they are one business or not - but it is a nice metaphor for saying: Szia+ kinda bridges everything with everything, styles, genres and controversial topics with controversial objects, so much so that I'm quite sure, some of their products would make many faint off their chairs. With that being said, they also support small businesses and have more affordable gifts than any of the shops on this list.