How to Get to Buda Castle

Bus 16 runs from Deák Ferenc tér in central Pest across the Chain Bridge and up through the Castle District to Széll Kálmán tér in Buda. The 216 does the same climb from Deák Ferenc tér and ends at Dísz tér. Get off at Dísz tér, about 270 m north of Szent György tér and the palace, on the level.

• From Pest: 16 or 216 from Deák Ferenc tér. The two are timetabled together and run every few minutes at peak times
• From Buda: 16 or 16A from Széll Kálmán tér (metro M2), or 116 from Fény utcai piac
• From the west side: the 16 and 216 also call at Palota út, gyorslift, at the foot of the lifts up to the Lion Court

Ordinary BKK tickets and passes are valid, and the Budapest Card covers them. A single ticket has to be validated on board.

The public Castle bus is not the same as the Castle Bus, a private electric minibus that loops round the hilltop from Clark Ádám tér on its own ticket: Budapest Castle Bus.

The funicular runs from Clark Ádám tér, at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, up to Szent György tér beside Sándor Palace: 95 metres of track, 50 metres of climb, about a minute and a half, with the Chain Bridge and the river opening up behind you. Its two cars, Gellért and Margit, carry 24 people each in three stepped cabins.

• Hours: 08:00 to 22:00 every day, with the ticket office closing at 21:50. It leaves every 5 to 10 minutes as people arrive
• Maintenance: it does not run on Mondays of odd-numbered weeks, or on the next working day when that Monday is a public holiday
• Tickets: it has its own ticket, sold as a return, at the lower station or online in advance. BKK tickets, passes and pensioner concessions are not valid. Under-3s ride free, ages 3 to 15 pay less, and the Budapest Card PLUS includes it

Ride it up and walk down. The way down through the southern gardens and the Castle Garden Bazaar is the nicer half, and it saves the queue for the return trip.

Trams 19 and 41 run along the Buda embankment and stop at Clark Ádám tér, by the funicular, and at Várkert Bazár, at the foot of the Castle Garden Bazaar’s escalator. Bus 105 from Pest also stops at Clark Ádám tér. From either stop you go up by funicular, by escalator and lift, or on foot.

Metro M2 is no use on its own: Batthyány tér is about 1 km north at river level with the whole hill in between. Change to the 16 or 16A at Széll Kálmán tér instead.

Miklós Ybl’s Castle Garden Bazaar, the arcaded terraces on the riverbank below the palace, is the free way up from the Pest side. Cross the Chain Bridge, turn left along the embankment for about 600 m, and go in through the Neo-Renaissance garden, open from 06:00 to midnight.

A lift, an escalator and another lift take you up to the eastern access road at the palace’s south-east corner, with an information point at the top and a flat few minutes to the courtyards.

The lifts here go out of service now and then, so if you cannot manage the stairs, check at the information point in the Bazaar before you commit.

On the west side of the hill, at the Palota út, gyorslift bus stop, two high-capacity lifts rise to the former stables level and smaller lifts carry on up to the Lion Court, right beside the museum entrances. This is the route the Castle Headquarters names as the step-free fallback when the Bazaar’s lifts are down, and the National Széchényi Library’s own fast lift starts from the same spot.

From the Buda end of the Chain Bridge, the steep road between the old castle walls climbs from beside the funicular’s lower station straight up to the Savoy Terrace. It is short and all uphill. The Castle Headquarters’ step-free alternative goes south along the embankment, up through the Castle Garden Bazaar’s lifts and across the southern gardens to the palace, about 15 minutes.

Walk south along Tárnok utca through the old town to Dísz tér, then on across Szent György tér to the palace. It is about 600 m on the level, cobbled all the way, and it is the order most people do the hill in: church and Bastion first, palace second.