Things to Do in Budapest: 20 Picks Sorted by Time and Money

The best things to do in Budapest on a first trip are a thermal bath, the Parliament tour, the Castle District terraces at Fisherman’s Bastion and an evening beside the Danube, and seven of the twenty below cost nothing. If you only do one, make it Széchenyi Baths in City Park: entry with a locker is 13,200 HUF (about $41) from Monday to Thursday, and the doors open at 7:00 on weekdays.

The rest is a matter of fitting things into the hours you have, so the list is grouped by what each one costs you in time and money rather than by fame.

The Parliament across the Danube, seen from the Buda bank. Godot13 / MathKnight, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

📋 At a Glance

If you do one thing	Széchenyi Baths, on a weekday morning
Free and unmissable	Fisherman's Bastion terraces, the Danube promenade, the Chain Bridge after dark
Book before you travel	The Parliament tour
Monday trap	The House of Terror is closed
Saturday trap	The Dohány Street Synagogue is closed
Sunday trap	The Great Market Hall is closed
Rainy day	House of Terror, Hospital in the Rock, a bath
With kids	The Labyrinth, Margaret Island

The twenty, ranked

#	Thing to do	Group	Time it takes	Adult price
1	Széchenyi Baths	Half day	3-4 h	13,200 HUF Mon-Thu, 14,800 HUF Fri-Sun
2	Parliament tour	Under 2 h	1-1.5 h	14,000 HUF; EEA citizens 7,000 HUF
3	Fisherman’s Bastion	Free	30-60 min	Free; upper towers 1,700 HUF 9:00-19:00
4	Danube promenade and the Shoes on the Danube Bank	Free	1 h	Free
5	St Stephen’s Basilica and its dome terrace	Under 2 h	1 h	2,600 HUF church; 6,800 HUF with the terrace
6	House of Terror	Rainy day	2-3 h	4,000 HUF
7	Danube cruise after dark	Evening	1 h	€25 on Legenda’s evening boat
8	Gellért Hill and the Liberty Statue	Free	1.5-2 h	Free
9	Chain Bridge at night	Evening	30 min	Free
10	Great Market Hall, goulash and lángos	Free	1-2 h	Free entry
11	Dohány Street Synagogue	Under 2 h	1.5 h	On the operator’s site
12	Matthias Church	Under 2 h	45 min	3,400 HUF
13	Hospital in the Rock	Rainy day	1-1.5 h	€30 English tour
14	Ruin bars	Evening	2 h+	Your bar tab
15	Heroes’ Square, City Park and Vajdahunyad Castle	Free	1-2 h	Free
16	Margaret Island	With kids	2-3 h	Free
17	Opera House tour	Under 2 h	1 h	12,000 HUF
18	Labyrinth of Buda Castle	With kids	30-45 min	2,500 HUF; under-12s 600 HUF
19	Memento Park	Half day	3 h	3,000 HUF
20	One big museum	Half day	3-4 h	See our museum guide

Source: prices and hours checked on 17 October 2026 at szechenyifurdo.hu, the Parliament’s 2026 fee schedule, the District I council’s Fisherman’s Bastion notice, bazilikabudapest.hu, terrorhaza.hu, legenda.hu, citadella.hu, piaconline.hu, jewishtourhungary.com, matyas-templom.hu, sziklakorhaz.eu, opera.hu, labirintus.eu and mementopark.hu.

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter; Hospital in the Rock and Legenda list theirs in euros. Converted at 1 USD = 323 HUF, the ECB rate on 16 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.

Free things to do in Budapest

Fisherman’s Bastion

The famous view sits outside the turnstile. The lower terraces and arcades are open around the clock and cost nothing; only the upper towers charge, 1,700 HUF (about $5) between 9:00 and 19:00. Come before 9:00 or after the window shuts and the towers are free as well, and you also miss the crowd that packs the square from late morning. The weakness: there is no shelter but the arcades, so a wet, windy day makes for a short visit. Our Fisherman’s Bastion guide has the free days and the four ways up the hill.

The Danube promenade and the Shoes on the Danube Bank

The walk along the Pest embankment from the Chain Bridge to the Parliament is the best free hour in the city, with the Castle District facing you across the water the whole way. Just short of the Parliament, sixty pairs of cast-iron shoes stand at the water’s edge where Arrow Cross militiamen shot Jews into the river in 1944 and 1945. It is a memorial, so keep the photo session for the bastion. Our promenade walk gives the route, and the Shoes on the Danube Bank page gives the history.

Gellért Hill and the Liberty Statue

Fisherman’s Bastion shows you Pest; Gellért Hill shows you both halves of the city at once, from higher up. The park inside the Citadella walls and the Liberty Statue are free, open 6:00 to midnight from April to October and 8:00 to 22:00 from November to March. The exhibition inside the walls is a separate 4,900 HUF ticket and a separate decision. It is a proper climb from the river, so wear shoes made for walking. Routes are in our Gellért Hill guide.

The Great Market Hall, plus goulash and lángos

The big hall at the Pest end of Szabadság Bridge is free to walk into: paprika and salami on the ground floor, snack counters upstairs. It opens Monday 6:00 to 17:00, Tuesday to Friday 6:00 to 18:00 and Saturday 6:00 to 15:00, and closes on Sundays and public holidays, which catches people out on 23 October. For a proper bowl rather than a market snack, read our goulash guide and our lángos guide; the hall itself has its own guide.

Heroes’ Square, City Park and Vajdahunyad Castle

At the top of Andrássy út, Heroes’ Square lines up Hungary’s chieftains and kings, and City Park opens up behind it. Inside the park, Vajdahunyad Castle looks medieval but was built for the 1896 millennium exhibition, stitched together from copies of real buildings in four styles. Walking around costs nothing, and Széchenyi Baths sits in the same park, so this pairs naturally with the top pick. More in our Heroes’ Square guide and Vajdahunyad Castle guide.

Things to do in under two hours

The Parliament tour

The building everyone photographs from the Buda bank is also the interior most worth paying for. Adults from outside the EEA pay 14,000 HUF (about $43), EEA citizens 7,000 HUF (about $22), students aged 6 to 24 half of their rate, and under-sixes go free. Timed slots for the day you want can be gone by the time you arrive, so book on the Parliament’s official ticket shop before you travel, and check parlament.hu for days when official events close the building. Our Parliament tour guide compares the official ticket with the resold bundles.

St Stephen’s Basilica and its dome terrace

One building, two tickets: the church is 2,600 HUF, the panorama terrace with the treasury 5,000 HUF, and the combined ticket 6,800 HUF. The terrace ticket does not get you into the church, so buy the combined one if you want both. Two lifts do most of the climb, but the last stretch to the terrace is on foot. The church opens Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 18:00 and from 13:00 on Sundays, the terrace daily 9:00 to 19:00; buying online skips the ticket-office line, but discounts are only sold at the office. Full detail in our Basilica guide.

Matthias Church

The church the Bastion wraps around, with a patterned tile roof you will recognize from every postcard. A church ticket is 3,400 HUF and can be used on any day of the calendar year, not only the date you pick. The tower is separate: 4,000 HUF for a timed slot with a short guided climb of 197 steps and no lift. Hours shift around services, so look at the day’s opening times on the church’s site. Our Matthias Church guide covers what to look for inside.

The Dohány Street Synagogue

The largest synagogue in Europe, at the edge of the old Jewish quarter. It closes every Saturday. In October it opens Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 18:00 and Friday 10:00 to 16:00; from 2 November, Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 16:00 and Friday 10:00 to 14:00, and it is closed on 1 November. Entry stops an hour before closing. Check the current ticket price on jewishtourhungary.com before you go; our Dohány guide has the dress code and the walk to the quarter’s other synagogues.

The Opera House tour

The 60-minute English tour runs daily at 13:30, 15:00 and 16:30, costs 12,000 HUF, and ends with a short concert by young singers on the grand staircase. Tickets go on sale a week ahead. When the stage is rehearsing, the auditorium is off the route and the tour shows other rooms instead. Our Opera House guide covers performances as well as tours.

Worth half a day

Széchenyi Baths

The yellow palace in City Park with steaming outdoor pools is the bath most first-timers pick, and the right one to start with. Entry with a locker is 13,200 HUF from Monday to Thursday and 14,800 HUF from Friday to Sunday; the Good Morning ticket, for entry before 9:00, is 10,500 HUF and 11,800 HUF. Day tickets are sold, and checked, on the swimming-pool side, on Állatkerti körút. It opens 7:00 to 20:00 from Monday to Thursday, 7:00 to 22:00 on Fridays and 8:00 to 20:00 at weekends, and on 23 to 25 October it runs as a peak day, from 8:00, at 15,800 HUF.

Weekday mornings are the calm ones; weekend and summer afternoons bring a queue at the door and a crowd in the water. Our thermal baths guide compares Széchenyi with Rudas and Lukács if you would rather soak somewhere quieter.

Bathers in Széchenyi’s outdoor pool, below the yellow wings and copper domes. Guillaume Baviere, CC BY 2.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Memento Park

The communist-era statues that once stood in the city’s squares, gathered in a field on the far edge of Buda. Admission is 3,000 HUF, free with the Budapest Card, and it opens every day. Most of it is outdoors and the journey takes as long as the visit, so save it for a dry day. Our Memento Park guide has the statue-by-statue walk and the bus connections.

One big museum

Budapest has more museums than a short trip can hold, and the useful question is which one earns an afternoon. Our museums worth visiting ranks sixteen of them by the hours they cost, door to door, with prices and closing days.

Things to do in Budapest at night

The floodlit Royal Palace, the Chain Bridge and the Parliament from Gellért Hill after dark. Petr Šmerkl, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

A Danube cruise after dark

An hour on the water is the cheapest way to see both lit banks at once. Legenda’s evening boat, the Danube Legend, costs €25 for an adult; its daytime boat, the Duna Bella, is €20, and children up to nine travel free on both. Time it for after dark, when the Parliament and the bridges are lit. Our Danube cruise guide compares the operators and the piers.

The Chain Bridge at night

Walk across from Pest after dark and the Castle District sits floodlit straight ahead, with the stone lions guarding each end. It costs nothing and takes half an hour with the stops for photos. Our Chain Bridge at night guide has the best viewpoints on both banks.

Ruin bars

Bars built into the courtyards of crumbling apartment houses in the old Jewish quarter, with mismatched furniture and a room for every mood. Szimpla Kert is the original and the place to start. By late evening the rooms are loud and packed, so come early if you want to look around rather than queue for the bar. Our ruin bars guide ranks the others, and the Szimpla Kert guide has its hours.

When it rains

The House of Terror

The museum of Hungary’s Nazi and communist dictatorships, in the building where both regimes’ political police held their prisoners. Admission is 4,000 HUF, sold only at the museum, with no online tickets. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, the cash desk closes at 17:30, and it is closed on Mondays. Since its reopening on 22 September the museum has warned of longer waits at the entrance, so arrive at 10:00, before the school groups fill the small rooms, and take the audio guide, because the rooms are hard to follow without it. Our House of Terror guide covers the route floor by floor.

Hospital in the Rock

A wartime hospital and Cold War nuclear bunker inside Castle Hill, seen only on a guided tour. The English tour is €30, charged in forints at the day’s MNB rate, and the Hungarian one is 9,500 HUF. It opens daily 10:00 to 19:00, with the last tour at 18:00. Children under six are not admitted and the museum does not recommend it under twelve; the Budapest Card takes 10% off. Our Hospital in the Rock guide explains what each room was for.

With kids

The Labyrinth of Buda Castle

Cool, dark cellars under the Castle District, walked on your own by following arrows. It takes about half an hour, the temperature inside stays at 16 to 18 °C, so bring a layer even in August. An adult ticket is 2,500 HUF, under-12s pay 600 HUF, and two adults with two children under 12 pay 5,000 HUF. It opens daily 11:00 to 18:00. Our Labyrinth guide says what is down there.

Margaret Island

A long green island in the middle of the Danube, mostly free of cars, where children can run, cycle and burn off a morning of museums. It costs nothing to go, and it sits between the Margaret and Árpád bridges, easy to reach from either bank. Our Margaret Island guide has the details, and the family guide lists more for children.

Putting it into days

A day and a half is enough for the top five; our 36 hours in Budapest lays them out in order. Three days takes in most of this page at a walking pace, and our 3 days in Budapest itinerary does the sequencing for you. If you plan to use public transport heavily and visit Memento Park or Hospital in the Rock, read the Budapest Card guide before buying one: the card gets you into Memento Park free, takes 10% off Hospital in the Rock and cuts the Basilica church ticket to 2,100 HUF. For a longer list of zero-cost options, see free things to do in Budapest, and for a wet day, our rainy day guide.