Budapest public transport for visitors: BKK tickets, contactless on the metro, and the Buda Castle Funicular

💡 The Short Version: In Budapest a single ticket is HUF 500, the 90-minute ticket HUF 850, the 24-hour travelcard HUF 2,750 and the 72-hour travelcard HUF 5,750. A single ticket covers one vehicle, so a journey with a change needs a time-based ticket. Contactless Pay&GO works on the metro and the 100E only, and buys one single ticket at a time on the metro; on trams and other buses you need the BudapestGO app, a machine ticket or a pass. The 100E airport bus and the Buda Castle Funicular take none of these tickets, and the funicular is closed from 5 to 16 October 2026. The fine for no valid ticket is HUF 12,000 on the spot. Or book ahead: GetYourGuide’s Official Buda Castle Electric Hop-On Hop-Off Busad is from £15.30 (4.4 stars from 508 reviews).

Tickets and fares, compared

BKK sets the fares and runs the BudapestGO app, and BKV operates the metro, trams, buses and the funicular. A ticket is valid on almost every BKK service inside the city boundary, including the HÉV suburban railway within it (BKK). Pounds are rounded.

• Which to buy: three journeys with a change cost HUF 2,550 on 90-minute tickets, so the 24-hour travelcard at HUF 2,750 pays from the fourth, and from the sixth on single tickets. Three 24-hour travelcards are HUF 8,250 against HUF 5,750 for 72 hours.
• What none of them cover: the 24-hour and 72-hour travelcards and every ticket above are not valid on the 100E airport bus, the Buda Castle Funicular or the Zugliget chairlift. See Budapest Airport to the city centre.
• The 24-hour and 72-hour travelcards are also valid on MÁV trains in second class inside the Budapest boundary, but not on trains with a supplement.
• The mobile 24-hour or 72-hour travelcard is used together with the photo ID registered at purchase (an ID card, passport, card driving licence, Hungarian residence permit or student card), cannot be passed to another person, and is usable at the earliest 2 minutes after purchase. A paper travelcard needs no ID (BKK).

Contactless: Pay&GO is for the metro and the 100E

BKK extended Pay&GO to all four metro lines, M1 to M4, on 22 April 2026. Tap a bank card, phone or watch at the Pay&GO terminal as you enter the station and one single ticket is bought and validated in one go, with no app or registration, at the same price as any single ticket. It buys one ticket per tap, and it does not issue a paper ticket (BKK, Pay&GO; BKK, 22 April 2026).

• Where it does not work: trams and ordinary buses. The one bus that takes it is the 100E, whose device sells the airport ticket, up to five at a time.
• No travelcards: you cannot buy a 24-hour travelcard or any pass by tapping. BKK says a city-wide card system is planned from 2028.
• On inspection, tap the same card or phone on the inspector’s checker. It does not charge you again.
• A visitor who rides trams and buses still needs the BudapestGO app, a machine ticket or a pass.

BudapestGO, machines and where to validate

• BudapestGO is BKK’s free app, a journey planner and ticket shop in one. It sells single, time-based and 24-hour and 72-hour tickets, and tickets for another person, such as your child. You can browse without registering, though some features need an account (BKK).
• Machines: BKK ticket machines sell tickets at any hour, and customer service centres and ticket offices sell them in the day.
• On the spot: HUF 700 single tickets are sold on some tram lines and by stop staff, and by the driver or guard on night buses. The BKK call centre is open 06:00 to 24:00 on +36 1 3 255 255.
• Validating: a paper single ticket must be validated at the metro entrance in a validating machine before you enter the paid zone, and on other services on boarding. A mobile ticket must be validated by scanning the code at the metro entrance or outside the vehicle’s door, or by holding an unlocked phone to the NFC sticker. A time-based ticket is scanned again at every change of line, but not between metro lines.
• Front doors: boarding through the front door only applies to all single buses and some articulated buses.

Fines

The penalty fare is HUF 12,000 (about £27.60) if paid on the spot or within two working days, HUF 25,000 if paid after that but within 30 days, and HUF 50,000 beyond 30 days. A mobile ticket must be validated before you start the trip (BKK).

The Budapest Card

BKK sells its own Budapest Card, which includes public transport in Budapest, night routes and the suburban railways inside the city boundary too. It costs HUF 17,990 for 24 hours, 23,990 for 48 hours, 29,990 for 72 hours and 38,990 for 96 hours, with a 72-hour FLEXI card at HUF 27,990 and a 72-hour PLUS card at HUF 39,990 (BKK, Budapest Card). As a transport ticket it does not pay back: a 24-hour travelcard is HUF 2,750. It pays only for a plan that also uses its museums, a bath and a cruise. The Budapest Card does the sums, and the 100E is included in the PLUS card and as one choice on the FLEXI card, and the funicular only in the PLUS card.

The metro

Lines M1, M2, M3 and M4 meet in the centre, with Deák Ferenc tér the hub where M1, M2 and M3 meet, a short walk from St Stephen’s Basilica. M1 runs under Andrássy út, and BKV calls it the first underground railway on the continent, opened in 1896 and part of the World Heritage; the Millennium Underground Museum is at Deák Ferenc tér station. Nyugati station is on M3 (the trains to Kecskemét for the Puszta horse show leave from it), Keleti station on M2 and M4 (the trains to Gödöllő and Eger leave from it), Déli station is the western end of M2 (the trains for Lake Balaton and Hévíz leave from it), Kelenföld on M4 is where the train for Vienna and Bratislava leaves, Astoria on M2 is the stop for the Dohány Street Synagogue, and Batthyány tér on M2 is where the HÉV to Szentendre starts (BKV). The metro does not run all night; the night network is below.

Trams, buses and the Castle

• Tram 2 runs along the Pest bank of the Danube from Jászai Mari tér to Közvágóhíd, past the Parliament, the Chain Bridge and the Gresham Palace, and BKV says one single ticket covers it.
• Trams 4 and 6 run round the Grand Boulevard in Pest, and tram 6 runs 24 hours. A full rebuild of the Grand Boulevard is planned for 2029 (BKK).
• Buses 16, 16A and 116 climb Castle Hill on an ordinary ticket: 16A and 116 run between Dísz tér and Széll Kálmán tér, and 16 between Deák Ferenc tér and Moszkva tér via the Castle District.
• The Castle Bus is a separate, private electric hop-on hop-off service from Clark Ádám tér, with five stops and a full round for HUF 6,500 (about £15.00); Budapest Card holders ride free (Castle Bus).

Tram 2 on the Pest embankment, with Buda Castle across the Danube. Photo: BKP, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Buda Castle Funicular

95 seconds · every 5 to 10 minutes · own tickets · closed 5 to 16 October 2026

The funicular climbs 50 m on 95 m of track from Clark Ádám tér, beside the Chain Bridge, to Szent György tér by the Castle. It runs every day from 08:00 to 22:00, and the ticket office closes at 21:50. It is closed for maintenance from 5 to 16 October 2026, and on Mondays of odd-numbered weeks it is out of service for maintenance unless the day is a public holiday (BKK).

A car on the Buda Castle Funicular, between the brick walls of its track. Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

• Tickets: online, HUF 4,500 one way and HUF 5,500 return, children 3 to 14 HUF 2,000 and HUF 3,000, under-3s free, each online ticket carrying a HUF 175 convenience fee (siklojegy.hu). No BKK ticket, travelcard or pass is valid, and pensioner discounts do not apply.
• Free with the 72-hour PLUS Budapest Card, for a round trip.
• Getting up without it: buses 16, 16A and 116 serve the upper station on an ordinary ticket. Buda Castle and the Hungarian National Gallery covers what is on the hill, and Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church and the Hospital in the Rock have their own guides.

Boats

BKK runs one ferry, the D14 between Csepel-Királyerdő and Soroksár, which takes Budapest travelcards. BKV’s own scheduled riverboat service is not operating because of the low water of the Danube (BKV). Danube river cruises says what runs.

At night

The metro stops for the night, but tram 6 runs 24 hours, and so do the 100E and 200E airport buses and a network of night buses with numbers beginning with 9. The night bus network was reorganised from the night of 1 to 2 July 2026, so plan the ride in BudapestGO; the six night hubs are Astoria, Deák Ferenc tér, Móricz Zsigmond körtér, Blaha Lujza tér, Örs vezér tere and Széll Kálmán tér. Ordinary fares apply, and a single ticket bought on a night bus is HUF 700. Tickets are checked all the time on tram 6 and by spot checks on night buses; BKK advises sitting near the driver or in the first tram car, and watching for pickpockets (BKK).

Taxis

Licensed taxis are yellow, with “minősített budapesti taxi” on the left front door and a fare table on the dashboard and rear doors. The tariff is the same for every company at every hour: a base fare of HUF 1,300, an airport base fare of HUF 2,100, HUF 520 per km and HUF 130 per minute below 15 km/h. BKK lists Bolt, City Taxi, Elit Taxi, Főtaxi and Uber Taxi as licensed (BKK). Budapest Airport to the city centre has the airport rules.

For the way in from the airport, see Budapest Airport to the city centre. For where to sleep, where to stay in Budapest compares the districts by how you reach them, and hotels near the Hungarian Parliament lists the hotels beside tram 2. For what to book before you go, see what to book before you go in Budapest. 3 days in Budapest and Budapest in one day plan the days, and day trips from Budapest start from the stations and the HÉV. For the sights, tram 2 passes the Hungarian Parliament, metro M1 reaches the Széchenyi Baths (the other thermal baths are compared in their own guide) and the House of Terror, and the Hungarian State Opera tours start on Andrássy út. Ruin bars and the river cruises are in District VII and on the Danube.