Core & Trust · trust

Sources and Research

The source hierarchy behind Star Budapest’s practical advice, current facts and editorial judgments.

Updated 9 July 2026

The short version

What matters

Operator and public-institution sources come first.
Volatile details carry a checked date.
Readers can challenge a claim with a better source.

The order of evidence

The strongest source is usually the organisation that controls the thing being described: BKK for a fare and validation rule, an attraction for its ticketing conditions, or an event organiser for dates. Public institutions and standards bodies provide the next layer for history, climate, access and policy.

Tourism-board material can be useful for citywide orientation and finding an official operator, but it does not replace a venue’s own conditions. When sources disagree, the guide favours the controlling source, records the check date, and avoids pretending the conflict does not exist.

Sources: bkk-tickets, budapestinfo-welcome

What dates mean

A date beside a source says when Star Budapest reviewed that page, not that a price or schedule is frozen. Transport fares, museum hours, festival dates, accessibility works and bath rules can change after publication. A reader making a booking or a same-day journey should always follow the linked operator page.

Evergreen orientation works differently. The Danube, the contrast between Buda and Pest, and Budapest’s World Heritage landscape need context more than a countdown. Those pages still receive review cycles, but they do not dress permanent geography up as breaking news.

Sources: unesco-budapest, hungaromet-climate

What counts as a primary source

For a current ticket rule, a primary source is the transport authority that publishes and administers it. For a Parliament visit, it is the visitor office or official ticket seller identified by that office. For a weather or climate claim, it is the relevant public meteorological source. For an access condition, it is the transport provider or venue that can describe its own facilities and temporary changes.

This does not mean every official page is complete or perfectly written. It means the source is closest to the decision and has the authority to update it. Star Budapest adds the visitor-facing explanation, comparison and context; it should not replace the operator’s own live instruction with a confident paraphrase.

Sources: bkk-tickets, parliament-prices, bkk-accessibility, hungaromet-climate

How editorial judgment sits beside evidence

Not every useful sentence is a fact claim. A recommendation to group Buda into one day, to leave time around a booked landmark, or to choose a compact base is Star Budapest editorial judgment. It is based on city geography, transport patterns and a clear stated purpose, but it remains a judgment rather than an invented universal rule.

The distinction matters because it lets readers evaluate the guide honestly. Sources support the conditions that can be checked; editorial writing explains what those conditions may mean for a first visit. When a page offers a trade-off, it should make the reason visible instead of hiding behind a link.

Sources: unesco-budapest, budapestinfo-welcome, bkk-go

When a source is unavailable or incomplete

If the controlling source is unavailable, unclear or does not support a material claim, Star Budapest should not fill the gap with a confident guess. The claim can be removed, softened into clearly labelled editorial context, or revisited when a stronger source becomes available. A missing source is not permission to repeat an old assertion.

Links can fail, venues can redesign their sites, and temporary announcements can disappear. The research ledger records the source class and review date so a future editor can retrace the evidence instead of treating a citation as a decorative endnote.

Sources: bkk-tickets, budapestinfo-welcome

Help improve the record

A correction is welcome when it is specific: name the page, quote the sentence, describe what changed, and include the most authoritative link you can find. This is especially helpful for access barriers, temporary closures and rules that have moved faster than a scheduled editorial review.

Star Budapest does not promise that every external page will remain online forever. If a cited page disappears, the claim is rechecked against the best available primary source or removed rather than silently carried forward.

Sources: bkk-accessibility

Evidence, not footnotes in the dark