If you decided to visit Budapest, you should know that it is a wonderful city, very pleasant to walk on foot (weather permitting). For sure, the capital of Hungary is very large, but its huge network of public transport allows you to move around the city easily, both in the Buda and in Pest zone. For this reason, taking a taxi is quite expensive.
I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about moving around Budapest.
Tickets, prices and schedules
BKK company manages all public transport in Budapest: metro, buses, trams, trolleybuses and the Buda Castle Funicular.
In general, public transport in Budapest works from 4.30 am to 11 pm, but there are night buses too.
Single ticket costs 350 HUF (a bit more than 1 euro) and it’s for one trip only; if you have to change the line, you can buy the transfer ticket (530 HUF). If you plan to use public transport very often during your trip to Budapest, you can save money by buying a block of 10 tickets (3.000 HUF), a 24-hour travelcard (1.650 HUF), a 72-hour one (4.150 HUF) or a 7-day one (4.950 HUF).
You can buy the tickets in the vending machines located in the tram stops and in the subway stations.
Keep in mind: there are a lot of inspectors on the buses and in the metro stations, so trying to travel without a ticket could be risky, and also expensive if you get caught (the fines are from 8.000 to 32.500 HUF – from 25 to more than 100 euros).
Metro
Budapest Metro is the second oldest subway system in Europe. It has four lines passing through the city centre, three of them join together in Déak Ferec Square.
A trip on the Metro line 1 (Millenniumi Földalatti Vasút, also called FAV or MillFaV, the yellow one) will transport you in the nineteenth century: this line was opened in 1896 as a tribute to the millennial anniversary of Magyars tribes’arrival (founders of the Kingdom of Hungary). The stops of this metro line have details inspired by that period, so your metro trip will take place in a very suggestive vintage air. Not by chance that this metro line is an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002.
Unlike on the other public transport, you can use an individual ticket on different metro lines in 80 minutes as maximum.
Buses, trams and trolleybuses
The buses, trams and trolleybus network covers all the city in a very efficient way, so moving around Budapest on public transport is super easy.
If you want to know how to reach the city centre from the airport (and vice versa) with public transport, I recommend you to read the specific post.
If you need to move around Budapest at night, you can easily take a night bus. You can recognize them by reading the bus number (they all start with number 9) and by checking the time (they start working at 11 pm).
Trams are a good option for moving around Budapest faster than by bus, and they also cover almost the entire city and suburbs.
Do you want to know something curious? Once in Budapest, you will notice that the trolleybus line numbering starts from number 70. That’s because the Soviet dictator Stalin gave the fist trolleybus fleet as a present to the city of Budapest on occasion of his 70th birthday.
I can’t forget to talk about the funicular, the fastest way to reach Buda Hill (until 10 pm). It is the second oldest in Europe, built 1870 to reach the Castle Theatre and ministries located on the hill. Buda Castle Funicular is one of the things I talked about in the post “4 unusual things to do in Buda”.
Useful tools
On the BKK website you can see a large number of public transport maps, even divided by zones. I also recommend you to download the app BKK FUTÁR, so you can check the arrival times of buses, trams and trolleybus while waiting, a very useful tool for moving around Budapest.
Budapest is very well organised about public transport, and it won’t be hard for you to move quickly around the city. Because – being honest – even if you are a great explorer and you like to walk around, there will be a moment in which you will need public transport. The city is too big to go all over by foot. 🙂
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