Bus 16, 16A or 116 to Szentháromság tér is the way almost everyone should come: the stop is on the square in front of Matthias Church and the cave door is three minutes from it. The walk is the part that catches people out, because the entrance is an unmarked wooden door on a side street with nothing to tell you what is behind it.
The nicest arrival is the funicular from Clark Ádám tér, which lands you at the southern end of the district for a walk north through the old town. Do not come by car. The Castle District is a protected zone behind barriers and there is nowhere at the cave to leave one.
Location and address
The two meeting points
The short tour meets at the cave door on Dárda utca 2. The long tour meets at the Holy Trinity Column on Szentháromság tér, opposite Matthias Church, and walks to the entrance together.
The two are about four minutes apart, which is enough to miss a tour. Your voucher names the one that applies to the option you booked, and that is the only version to trust.
By public transport
Castle Hill has no metro and no tram on top. Everything arrives by the three Castle buses, by the funicular, or on foot up the slope.
By bus
Three routes stop at Szentháromság tér, on the square in front of Matthias Church and about 3 minutes from the cave door:
- Bus 16 runs Deák Ferenc tér M in Pest to Széll Kálmán tér M in Buda, across the Chain Bridge and over the hill. The one most visitors want
- Bus 16A runs Széll Kálmán tér M to Dísz tér
- Bus 116 runs Fény utcai piac to Dísz tér
From the stop, walk back along Országház utca with Matthias Church behind you and take the first left into Dárda utca. Buses 16 and 216 run coordinated between Deák Ferenc tér and Dísz tér, which is every four minutes or so at the morning peak. Dísz tér, where the 216 from Pest ends, is about 6 minutes south of the cave through the old town.
By metro
No line goes up the hill, so the metro is always a change:
- M2 (red), Batthyány tér: about 16 minutes on foot, at river level, with the whole hill to climb. Stairs and escalators only
- M2 (red), Széll Kálmán tér: about 13 minutes on foot up the western slope, or bus 16 or 16A from the square to Szentháromság tér
- M1, M2 or M3, Deák Ferenc tér: stay above ground and take bus 16 across the Chain Bridge
By funicular
The funicular climbs from Clark Ádám tér, at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, to Szent György tér by the palace. It runs every day from 08:00 to 22:00, with the ticket office closing at 21:50, and it does not run on the Mondays of odd weeks while it is maintained.
It has its own ticket and BKK tickets and passes are not valid on it, so it is a ride rather than a way of saving money. From the top station the cave is about 11 minutes north through the Castle District, on the level.
On foot
The Castle District is small and the cave sits in its quiet north-western corner, so every walk below is short. All of them are on cobbles.
From Matthias Church (about 4 minutes)
Stand with the church behind you and walk north-west along Országház utca, then take the first left into Dárda utca. This is the same walk the tour operator gives, and it is the one to use if you are meeting at the cave rather than at the column.
From Fisherman's Bastion (about 6 minutes)
Come out of the arcades on to Szentháromság tér, pass the Holy Trinity Column and Matthias Church, and carry on along Országház utca to the Dárda utca turning. Allow longer than the map says if the square is busy, which on a summer afternoon it will be.
From Buda Castle and the palace (about 12 minutes)
From Szent György tér walk north up Tárnok utca or Úri utca, through the length of the old town, and turn left off Országház utca at Dárda utca. A flat, straight walk once you are up, and it takes you the length of the old town’s painted house fronts.
From the Vienna Gate (about 8 minutes)
Coming in at the northern end, from Bécsi kapu tér, walk south down Országház utca and take the right turn into Dárda utca. The easiest approach if you are arriving on foot from Széll Kálmán tér.
By car and taxi
By taxi, ask for Szentháromság tér rather than Dárda utca: the square is the landmark every driver knows, and the walk from it is three minutes. Clark Ádám tér at the foot of the hill is the other easy drop-off, with bus 16 or the funicular from there.
Accessibility
- The cave is not step-free, and the tours are not sold to wheelchair users, to anyone with a mobility impairment or to anyone with a visual impairment. There are stairs down from the street and no lift
- Getting to the street is a different question, and that part can be step-free: the Castle Garden Bazaar’s lifts and escalator from the river, or the high-capacity lifts at the Palota út stop on the west side, both reach the top of the hill
- Over 90% of Budapest’s buses are low-floor, and the Szentháromság tér stop is on the level with the square
- The surface up here is cobbles and setts everywhere, including the last stretch of Dárda utca
- For an underground site that does take wheelchairs, the Hospital in the Rock at Lovas út 4/c is about 5 minutes away on the western slope. It says the hospital part of its route can be done with a wheelchair or other mobility aid and the machinery section cannot, and a lift at the foot of the castle wall opposite Matthias Church drops you on to Lovas utca