House of Terror, Budapest: 4,000 HUF at the door for UK visitors, no online tickets, closed on Mondays, and an exhibition under review

💡 The Short Version: UK visitors pay the full 4,000 HUF (about £9): the reduced ticket and the free first Sunday are for citizens of the European Economic Area. Tickets are sold only at the museum’s desk, with no online sale. It is closed on Mondays, and open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00. It closed from 15 to 21 September 2026 and reopened on 22 September. Hungary’s culture minister has ordered an expert review of the exhibition and said it can be visited as it stands until the review ends. There is no House of Terror ticket on GetYourGuide. Or book a tour: the Communist history tour with a House of Terror optionad (from £42, 2 hours) is the guided version.

The tickets, compared

Prices are from the museum’s admission page, converted at about 434 HUF to the pound. Every discount needs photo ID that clearly shows citizenship. The museum is run by the Foundation for Research on Central and Eastern European History and Society, and its own site is terrorhaza.hu.

• UK passports do not qualify for the EEA discounts, so the 2,000 HUF ticket and the free first Sunday are not open to UK visitors.
• There is no online sale. The museum says tickets are only available at the museum, with no online payment.
• Groups can book ahead for priority entry, and a group of more than 30 enters in two parts.
• The Budapest Card does not cover the House of Terror.

How to buy

• At the museum: buy at the desk at Andrássy út 60. The cash desk closes at 17:30.
• Groups: a booked group gets priority entry. A group that arrives without booking may have to wait a long time.
• Cloakroom: free and compulsory for backpacks of any size, bags larger than A3, luggage and umbrellas. Small lockers take a 100 HUF coin.
• Rules inside: no photography or video except of the tank on the ground floor, no food, drinks only in a tightly closed bottle, and children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

The 2026 closure and review

The museum closed to visitors on 15 September 2026, saying it was temporarily closed for technical reasons, and reopened on 22 September at 10:00. Hungary’s culture minister ordered an expert review of the exhibition, and said it can be visited in its current state until the review ends. Admission was free for the first week and the fees applied again from Tuesday 29 September. The exhibition described below is the one on show now, and the museum’s news page carries any change.

Tours worth paying for

The House of Terror has no ticket on GetYourGuide, so there is nothing to buy here ahead of the door. The tours below put the museum in a longer route. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

A tour of communist Budapest, with a House of Terror option

From £42 · 4.8 stars from 222 reviews · 2 hours

Budapest: Communist History Tour with House of Terror Optionad is a two-hour guided tour of communist-era Budapest, with the museum as an optional extra. The museum’s admission is 4,000 HUF (about £9), so check at booking whether it is included.

Memento Park, where the statues went

From £8 for entry · 4.5 stars from 54 reviews

Budapest: Memento Park Ticketad is entry to the park of communist-era statues. The park’s own ticket is 3,000 HUF (about £7) at the gate, and the Budapest Card makes it free. A guided tour with entryad starts at £20 and lasts 2 hours.

What to see

The building at Andrássy út 60 was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross party and later of the communist secret police, and the museum opened there on 24 February 2002. The exhibition runs in chronological order from the second floor down to the basement.

1. The second floor. Eight halls and a projection room, from the Nazi and Soviet occupations through the Arrow Cross, the Gulag, the rooms on the 1950s and the Soviet advisers, to Hungarian resistance. The marked starting date is 19 March 1944.
2. The first floor. Deportation, the interrogation room nicknamed “the gym”, the room of the secret police chief Gábor Péter, the justice room with scenes of the Imre Nagy trial, and the room on the churches and Cardinal Mindszenty.
3. The ground floor and yard. These are not strictly part of the exhibition. A tank stands in the yard, and photography is allowed there.
4. The basement. A slow lift with a short documentary takes visitors down to reconstructed cells, among them a wet cell, a “fox-hole” and a detention cell. The route ends with the Hall of Tears and the Perpetrators’ Wall.

What to skip: nothing on the route is optional, because it runs floor to floor in order. The ground floor is the one part you can pass quickly. Plan to be at the cash desk before 17:30.

The House of Terror at Andrássy út 60. Photo: Slyronit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hours, rules and getting there

• Closed 19 to 26 January: the holiday list also shows this closure.
• Leaving: visitors leave the exhibition when the closing staff arrive, collect their things by 17:50 and leave the building by 18:00.
• Children: under-14s must be accompanied by an adult.
• Entry refused: to anyone under the influence of alcohol, or in unsuitable clothing such as barefoot or swimwear.
• Getting there: Andrássy út 60 is on metro line M1, which runs under the avenue. Budapest public transport has the fares.

The museum is not on the Budapest Card. The Hungarian State Opera is a short walk along Andrássy út, and St Stephen’s Basilica and the Hungarian Parliament are the other Pest sights to book. The Dohány Street Synagogue tells the history of the same decades from another side. For the rest of the city’s bookings, see what to book before you go to Budapest. 3 days in Budapest and Budapest in one day build the plan round the bookings, including the Monday closure. The Hospital in the Rock covers the Cold War from underground, and Széchenyi Baths are on the same metro line (all the thermal baths compared). To sleep nearby, where to stay in Budapest compares the areas, and where to eat in Budapest lists places to eat.