Budapest right now

The renovated Citadella complex on Gellért Hill has started running a regular calendar of evening events alongside its cafés and gift shop. Confirmed dates include salsa and bachata nights (September 29, 30 and October 7, 2,800 Ft with a welcome drink), an Art Nouveau drawing workshop (September 30), and a murder-mystery cocktail party (October 20). Book through the venue's own calendar at citadellaexperience.hu, since some evenings cap numbers.

BKK has published the exact closure schedule for the 41st SPAR Budapest Marathon. It starts on Friday, October 9: Pázmány Péter sétány in District XI, where the marathon starts and finishes, is closed from 9:00 until Sunday evening, and buses 107, 153 and 154 are diverted or shortened from then. On Saturday the RISKA 10 km starts at 9:00 and the ProActiv Minimaraton at 11:00. Saturday's closures include the Buda lower embankment 7:00-14:30, the Pest lower embankment 7:00-11:30, Műegyetem rakpart 9:00-17:00, the Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) 9:00-10:15 and the Szabadság híd (Liberty Bridge) 9:15-10:35, and trams 2, 2B, 23, 19, 41, 47, 48 and 49 are split or rerouted between roughly 9:00 and 10:40. Sunday's marathon is the bigger disruption. The Lánchíd closes 9:00-10:15, Andrássy út and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 9:00-11:00 and the Szabadság híd 9:20-15:00, while the Pest lower embankment stays shut 6:30-15:45 and the Árpád híd and Margaret Island area are affected until early afternoon. On Sunday trams 2, 2B and 23 run in two separate sections 9:30-14:40, trams 47 and 49 are cut back or rerouted 9:30-14:40, trams 19 and 41 are rerouted 9:00-10:00 and trolleybus 83 is diverted 9:30-14:50. BKK recommends taking the metro. Roads reopen as soon as the runners have passed, so check BKK's live updates on race day itself.

ELTE Füvészkert's Garden of Lights light show opens for its final season on October 23, running to January 3, 2027, themed around Beauty and the Beast this year. It's open Monday to Thursday and Sunday 17:00-20:00, and Friday-Saturday 17:00-21:00, closed December 23-24. An early-bird 20% discount on day tickets and season passes runs through October 22 at midnight, on the operator's own ticketing site.

Budapest Közút has picked a contractor to renovate the K-bridge linking Óbuda to Hajógyári-sziget (Shipyard Island), with work expected to start in mid-October 2026. The south footpath and roadway are done first, finishing by June 2027, then the north footpath and corrosion protection run September to December 2027. The bridge is closed to road traffic for the whole renovation, but one footpath stays open to pedestrians throughout. Work pauses during the island's big summer events, including Sziget Festival.

Rudas' own site states the bath is currently inaccessible to mobility-impaired visitors for unspecified technical reasons, with no date given for when access will resume. This sits alongside two other live closures: the thermal-wing shower, out from September 2 to 28, and the Turkish-bath showers and OEP changing room, out from September 21 to October 4. If accessible entry matters for your visit, check directly with the bath before you go.

Budapest Közút closes the Buda ramp of Elisabeth Bridge leading to Rudas Baths in full from 10:00 on September 21, for expansion-joint repair running to November 15. The Attila úti ramp toward Krisztinaváros stays open on one lane, with a single overnight full closure planned for October 5-6. Buses 7, 107, 907, 933, 933A and 941 divert via Szarvas tér and Krisztina körút to Szent Gellért rakpart, with temporary stops near Döbrentei tér and by the riverside next to the baths. The Hegyalja úti ramp is unaffected.

MÁV has put the Cegléd and Debrecen main lines on a modified timetable from August 30 to November 4 while track work runs between Pilis and Albertirsa. The suburban Z50 trains moved most: from Nyugati pályaudvar they now leave at 24 past the hour, 24 to 31 minutes later than before, and reach Cegléd at 37 past, while the return leaves Cegléd at 19 past and arrives at Nyugati at 33 past, with the hourly service and the roughly half-hourly peak service kept. The long-distance trains shift less, the Napfény towards Szeged, the Cívis InterRégió and the S50 only slightly, the Békés InterCity and the international trains on the Békéscsaba line typically by 5 to 15 minutes, and the Nyírség InterCity is back at Nyugati but still runs via Újszász between Budapest and Szolnok. Between September 14 and 16 a MÁVBusz replaces two night trains between Pilis and Cegléd, so check your departure in the app rather than trusting a printed time.

The 26th ARC exhibition has been up since September 18 at the Buda bridgehead of Petőfi híd, on the BME car park on Goldmann György tér. This year's theme is IDEGRENDSZERVÁLTÁS, a pun that folds regime change into the nervous system. Anyone could submit, and a jury picked which entries go up as giant billboard-format prints. It is outdoors, free and open around the clock, so it slots into a walk along the Buda embankment instead of costing you an afternoon. It runs to October 18.

The famous part of Széchenyi is the courtyard, and the operator has now dated the maintenance on all three of its pools. The leisure pool with the whirlpool goes first, out September 7 to 18. The 38 degree thermal pool, the one in every photograph, is out September 21 to October 2. The lap pool follows October 5 to 16. They never overlap, so the courtyard is never empty and you always have two of the three, but a September trip built around the whirlpool or an October one built around lengths needs the dates checked first. The indoor thermal pools, the medical pools and the saunas run throughout, but the indoor swimming pool is its own closure and is out from September 1 to 18.