Budapest Tourist Information
Very useful information before you arrive to the city
Currency
The official currency in Hungary is Hungarian Forint (HUF). You can learn the current EUR-HUF exchange rate here.
Most of the shops, stores, ticket offices, museums can only take HUFs and only a few of them can take credit cards. Some restaurants, taxi companies, touristic sights, including Corvin Point Hostel can take HUFs and EURs as well.
Attention! We recommend not to change at trainstations or airports because they usually have bad rates. However having HUFs is necessary for buying tickets or passes to the metro/bus lines we recommend to change only 5 EUR - 20 EUR upon arrival. There is a very good Change Office next to Corvin Point Hostel, which usually have better rates than the banks have.
Transportation
In Budapest the public transportation is extremely effective. There are lots of buses, trams and metro lines you can use to get around in the city and they come really often.
Passes
To use the public transportation we recommend to buy one of these passes:
- 1 day pass: 1550 HUF
- 3 day pass: 3850 HUF
- 7 day pass: 4600 HUF
Buying one of these passes is the cheapest and most convenient way to use the public transportation in Budapest, because:
- The passes are valid on every kind of transportation on the territory of Budapest (all the buses, metros, trams)
- They are good for the night buses, so you can easily go home anytime form the party at night.
- You do not have to validate the passes every single time you are getting onto a bus, tram, or metro. You just have to carry it on you, and show the pass if you are asked to.
You can buy these passes in every metro station. The sooner you buy these passes the more you can benefit from it so we recommend you to get one at the moment you arrive to the city.
Tickets
There are different types of tickets you can use in the city:
- Single ticket: 320 HUF (valid for everything, most of the cases you need to buy this one)
- Transfer ticket [metro]: 490 HUF (you can change metro lines with this)
- Short section ticket [metro]: 260 HUF (valid for max 3 metro stops)
If you are using tickets, you have to know the following important things:
- You have to validate a ticket every single time you get on a bus, tram, or before you go down the metro platform (yellow boxes)
- You also have to validate your ticket when you change lines in the metro station
- If you make the slightest mistake with the tickets, the ticket inspectors will be so happy to fine you, since they know as a tourist it is very easy to make a mistake with the tickets
Night buses
All the trams, buses, and metros run until about midnight. After midnight there is a bunch of night buses running in the city all night long. They are coming every 10-20 minutes and most of them they drop you off only 1 minute from the hostel.
Taxi
In Budapest it is very easy to catch a taxi, but only at night can be a good idea because of the huge daytime traffic. On most of the taxis there is a huge advertisement about Airport Transfer Fees (~5000 HUF). That means: no matter where you are at in the city, the ride should be much less than a ride to the airport. Normally the taxi fee to the hostel should be:
- From Keleti trainstation: ~ 1500 – 2500 HUF
- From Népliget bus station: ~ 1000 – 2000 HUF
- From Airport: ~ 5000 HUF
If you decide to catch a taxi, it is much better to call one since these calls are registered therefore they never cheat. One of the safest and cheapest taxi company is:
- TAXI 4 : they speak English and they can be anywhere in the city in 5 min. You can also order a car with creditcard terminal so it is possible to pay with credit card as well.
Phone number: +36.1.444.4444