Budapest Funicular: Tickets, Hours, Closed Days and the Cheaper Way Up
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The Budapest funicular, the Budavári Sikló, is open every day from 8:00 to 22:00 and carries you from Clark Ádám tér, at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, up to Szent György tér beside the Royal Palace. A one-way ticket costs 4,500 HUF (about $14) and a return 5,500 HUF (about $17); BKK passes are not valid, and it closes on alternate Mondays for maintenance.
It is a short, steep, lovely ride, and it is priced like a landmark rather than like transport. That shapes how to use it.
📋 At a Glance
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| 📍 Lower station | Clark Ádám tér, Buda end of the Chain Bridge, beside the Tunnel |
| 🏰 Upper station | Szent György tér, between the Royal Palace and Sándor Palace |
| 🕗 Hours | Daily 8:00 to 22:00, last tickets 21:50 |
| 🎫 Adult | 4,500 HUF one way, 5,500 HUF return |
| 🧒 Child, 3 to 14 | 2,000 HUF one way, 3,000 HUF return; under 3 free |
| 🚫 Not valid | BKK tickets and passes, pensioner discounts |
| 💳 Budapest Card Plus | One free return ride |
| 🔧 Closed | Mondays of odd weeks, see BKV’s closure list |
| ⏱️ Ride | About 95 seconds, a car every 5 to 10 minutes |
Fares, and the ticket that is not valid
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| One way, adult | 4,500 HUF (about $14) |
| Return, adult | 5,500 HUF (about $17) |
| One way, child 3 to 14 | 2,000 HUF (about $6) |
| Return, child 3 to 14 | 3,000 HUF (about $9) |
| Funicular + Boat, return, adult | 7,000 HUF (about $21) |
| Funicular + Boat, one way, adult | 6,000 HUF (about $18) |
| Children under 3 | Free |
Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the ticket office. Converted at 1 USD = 328 HUF, the ECB rate on 30 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.
The child rate runs from a third birthday to the day before the fifteenth. A one-way ticket is good for one ride in the direction you choose, so you can ride down instead of up. Funicular tickets stay valid for a year from purchase, and an unused half of a return keeps for the same year. The combined Funicular + Boat ticket, which pairs the ride with a BKV river boat, is valid for 30 days.
Holders of a Hungarian address card can buy cheaper resident tickets (2,500 HUF one way, 3,000 HUF return), at the funicular’s own ticket office only and on showing the card.
Your BKK pass will not get you on. The funicular sits outside the city’s ticket system: no single tickets, no 24 or 72 hour travelcards, no monthly passes, no free-travel documents and no pensioner discount.
The Budapest Card Plus is the exception. It includes one free return ride, which is collected on the spot at the station. The ordinary Budapest Card, in its 24 to 120 hour versions, does not include the funicular, so holders pay like everyone else.
You can buy tickets online at siklojegy.hu, run by BKV’s sales partner, which adds a convenience fee to each ticket.
Source: BKV, Buda Castle Funicular and BKV travel conditions, Budapest Card rules from BKV’s Budapest Card Plus page, fares checked 1 November 2026.
Hours and the closed Mondays
The funicular runs every day of the year from 8:00 to 22:00, and the ticket office stops selling at 21:50. There is no timetable: the two cars leave every 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how many people are waiting.
It does close, though, and the pattern catches people out. On Mondays of odd weeks it stays shut for maintenance. When that Monday is a public holiday, the work moves to the next working day. On top of that, it shuts for about a week in spring and up to two weeks in autumn for a planned overhaul; BKV posts the dates on its opening hours page.
The operator’s information line for the day’s status is +36 1 201 9128. Service can also stop for short spells for technical faults, bad weather or at the request of the guard at Sándor Palace next to the upper station; after a stoppage of more than 30 minutes, an unused ticket bought at the ticket office is refunded on the spot if you hand back the receipt as well.
Source: BKV opening hours and closures and BKK, Funicular, read on 1 November 2026.
When it is closed: three other ways up
| Way up | Cost | Where it leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Bus 16 from Clark Ádám tér | 500 HUF (about $1.50), 700 HUF bought on board | Castle District, near the palace |
| Bus 16A or 116 | 500 HUF (about $1.50) | Castle District |
| Várkert Bazár escalator, from Ybl Miklós tér | See varkertbazar.hu | Eastern approach to the palace |
| Funicular | 4,500 HUF one way | Szent György tér |
Bus 16 is the obvious stand-in. It stops at Clark Ádám tér, right beside the lower station, and climbs to the Castle District; BKV lists buses 16, 16A and 116 as the ones that reach the upper station. A single BKK ticket is 500 HUF bought in advance in the BudapestGO app or at a machine, and every pass works. Our BudapestGO and public transport guide covers buying tickets on your phone.
Várkert Bazár is the route up from the river. Walk in from Ybl Miklós tér and take the covered escalator up to the palace’s eastern approach. The garden it runs through is open 6:00 to 24:00. If you need the lift rather than the escalator, check varkertbazar.hu before you rely on it; our Várkert Bazár guide has the route.
Source: bus fares from BKK, station bus lines from BKV, garden hours from varkertbazar.hu, checked 1 November 2026.
Where the two stations are
The lower station stands on Clark Ádám tér, the roundabout at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, right beside the mouth of the Tunnel. Buses 16 and 105 and trams 19 and 41 all stop on the square. If you walk across the bridge from Pest, it is straight ahead of you.
The upper station is on Szent György tér, between the Royal Palace and Sándor Palace, the President’s office. Step out and you are on the palace terraces of Buda Castle. Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church are a walk north along the top of the hill.
Everyone gets off at both ends. If you want to ride back down, you leave the car, go through the gate and queue again with a new or return ticket.
Queues, and the hour to come
The lower station is where the waiting happens. Through the middle of the day, and on summer afternoons in particular, the line at Clark Ádám tér can stretch well beyond the gate. Come in the first hour after 8:00, or in the evening after the day-trippers have gone, and you will often walk straight on. The evening ride has a bonus: the Chain Bridge and the Pest bank are lit up below you.
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Ride it or skip it?
Ride it once. The climb is short, but the view of the river opening up behind you as the car rises is the reason people have ridden it since 1870, and no bus window gives you that. The ride lasts about a minute and a half and costs 4,500 HUF, and a midday queue can take longer than the ride itself.
So the sensible plan is one way, not return. Go up by funicular in the morning, wander the palace terraces and the Castle District, and come down on foot or on bus 16 later. Or take the bus up and ride the funicular down in the evening, when the queue is short and the city is lit. A couple on return tickets spends 11,000 HUF on two short rides; on bus tickets the same couple spends 1,000 HUF each way.
Accessibility: the cars are built as three stepped compartments so that each sits level on the 30 degree slope. If you use a wheelchair, call +36 1 201 9128 before you go to check step-free access. Children under 6 ride only with an adult, and one adult can bring at most two children under 3.
A few house rules: no ice cream, open drinks or eating in the cabins, and nothing bigger than hand luggage. Small pets ride free in a carrier; a larger dog needs a full-price ticket, a muzzle and a lead.
Source: travel conditions from BKV, checked 1 November 2026.
From steam to the 1986 rebuild
Count Ödön Széchenyi, son of the statesman István Széchenyi, pushed the line through, modeled on the funicular in Lyon, to give the ministry clerks and theatergoers of the Castle District an easier way up than the hill. It opened in 1870 as the Budai Hegypálya, the Buda Hill Railway, and BKV counts it as the second such railway in the world. A steam engine at the bottom helped the two counterweighted cars, linked by cables so that one went up as the other came down.
A bomb hit the upper station during the siege of Budapest at the end of 1944. Rather than repair it, the city cleared the remains and put the Castle District on buses. Rebuilding started only in the mid-1980s.
The new funicular reopened in 1986 on its original line, now electric, with glass station buildings shaped after the old ones. The two cars are called Margit and Gellért, after the island and the hill on either side, and each keeps the stepped three-compartment shape of the original, with room for 24 passengers. The track is 95 meters long, rises 50 meters and stands at 30 degrees. Since 1987 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Danube banks and the Buda Castle Quarter.
Source: history from BKV, 150 years of the Budavári Sikló, BKV, the rebuilding and BKK, Funicular, read on 1 November 2026.
For the rest of the ride around town, our metro guide covers the four lines and the tickets that do work everywhere else.
Good to know
How much is the Budapest funicular?
A full-price one-way ticket is 4,500 HUF and a return is 5,500 HUF. Children from 3 until the day before their 15th birthday pay 2,000 HUF one way or 3,000 HUF return, and children under 3 ride free. A one-way ticket covers one ride in the direction of your choice, and tickets stay valid for a year from purchase. There is no pensioner or student discount.
Is the funicular included in the Budapest Card or a BKK pass?
BKK single tickets, travelcards and monthly passes are not valid on the funicular. The Budapest Card Plus includes one free return ride, which you collect at the funicular ticket office. The ordinary 24 to 120 hour Budapest Card does not include it, so holders buy a funicular ticket separately.
When is the Budapest funicular closed?
It runs every day from 8:00 to 22:00. It closes for maintenance on Mondays of odd weeks (the next working day when that Monday is a public holiday); BKV lists the year's closed days on its opening hours page. The operator's information line is +36 1 201 9128.
Is the Budapest funicular worth it?
Once, one way, for the view of the Chain Bridge and the Pest bank unfolding as you climb. The ride is short and the price is high for its length, so a return ticket rarely makes sense. Go up by funicular and come down on foot or by bus 16, or do it the other way round.
How long does the funicular ride take?
About a minute and a half. BKK gives the journey time between Clark Ádám tér and the Castle as 95 seconds, and the cars run every 5 to 10 minutes depending on demand. On a busy afternoon the queue at the lower station takes far longer than the ride itself.
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Prices checked 2026-10-26. Booking through these links supports the site at no extra cost to you. How this works.