Entry runs in timed one-hour slots, so the hour is the thing you are really choosing. Book online and the slot you pick is the hour the staff are expecting you in, and you go straight past the desk rather than queue at it.
Nothing inside the exhibition costs extra: no second room to pay for and no audio guide to hire. The other place to buy is the desk inside the building, which sells whatever is left until 21:00.
Cinema Mystica tickets
Budapest: Cinema Mystica Entry Ticket
Best for: Walking the whole exhibition at your own pace, in a slot you pick
- 1 hour on the ticket, 60 to 90 minutes in practice
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- Entry to all ten rooms on both levels
- A one-hour time slot you choose when you book
- Fast-track entry past the ticket desk
- Starting times
- Shown on the booking calendar when you pick a date
- Booking cut-off
- Up to 5 minutes before your slot
- Ages
- Adult, child, infant, senior and student bands, picked when you book
- Guide
- None, and none needed. The rooms carry almost no text
- Bring
- Nothing. There is a cloakroom, but no suitcases
Why book ahead
- The hour is the thing you are buying. Book and you pick it; turn up and you take what is left in the slot you have walked into
- Fast-track entry is guaranteed inside your slot and nowhere else
- The ticket cancels free up to 24 hours ahead, so an evening slot three days out costs you nothing if the day falls apart
- The desk closes at 21:00 while the exhibition runs to 22:00, so the last hour is for people who already have a ticket
Ticket types
What the entry ticket covers
One ticket covers the whole exhibition: ten rooms, both levels, everything running in them. Nothing inside is sold separately and there is no shop or café in the exhibition itself, so once you are through the door the visit costs nothing more.
What you choose when you book is the date, the hour and who is going. The booking page has bands for adults, children, infants, seniors and students with ID, and it works out the party before you pay.
The child band starts at age 3 and there is an infant band below it, but the venue’s own house rules do not recommend the exhibition for children under 6, because of the light and sound effects. Being able to buy the ticket is not the same as the venue advising it, so make that call yourself.
What the one-hour slot actually means
The slot is when the venue expects you, not a stopwatch. Arrive inside it and you are taken straight through; the exhibition is free flow after that, and the published guidance of 60 to 90 minutes is advice rather than a limit.
Arrive outside it, or buy at the desk, and the venue says it cannot guarantee fast-track entry and you may need to wait. That is the whole of the penalty: nothing is forfeited and the ticket is still good.
Buying at the desk inside the building
The desk sells tickets for slots that still have room, during opening hours, and shuts at 21:00. It takes the same reduced tickets for students, pensioners and children as the booking page, and it is where the venue’s gift tickets are handed over.
Worth trying if you are already in the Belváros and it is early in the week. Not worth planning around, because you give up both the choice of hour and the guaranteed walk past the queue.
Groups of ten or more
The venue has its own rate for parties of ten and up, and it is arranged with Cinema Mystica rather than through the booking page. A class, a work outing or a large family is worth an email to the venue before anyone books individually.
Free Thursday guided tours at Cinema Mystica
Every Thursday the venue walks a group through the exhibition and explains what the rooms are doing and how they were built, which is the one thing the exhibition itself will not tell you. The English tour is at 11:00 and the Hungarian ones at 15:00 and 18:00.
It costs nothing, but it is not a separate ticket: you need a valid admission ticket bought online for that time slot. The venue posts the coming dates on its own site a fortnight or so ahead, so check them before you fix the day, then book the slot that matches.
Where to buy
Online. The booking page shows the dates, the hours left on each and the bands for your party, takes the booking up to five minutes before the slot, and cancels free up to 24 hours ahead. The ticket comes by email and is scanned off your phone at the entrance.
At the desk inside the Párisi Udvar. Open with the exhibition from 10:00 and closing at 21:00, selling into whichever slots still have space, with the same reduced tickets as the booking page.
How to book
Pick the hour before the date
Mornings are empty, evenings are quiet after about nine, and the middle of a weekend afternoon is when the interactive rooms get crowded out. Opening hours has the detail.
Set the party on the booking page
Adults, children, infants, seniors and students each have their own band. Students need ID with them.
Save the ticket to your phone
It arrives by email. Nothing to print, nothing to collect, nothing to swap at a desk.
Turn up inside your hour
Anywhere in the hour is fine, and earlier in it is better, because it leaves you the full 90 minutes if you want them.
Before you go
- Your ticket is for a date and an hour. Inside that hour you go straight in; outside it, fast-track is not guaranteed
- Nothing to swap. The ticket is scanned at the entrance and there is no separate check-in
- Students carry ID if that is the band you booked
- Under-14s must be with an adult, whoever bought the ticket, and the venue does not recommend the exhibition for children under 6
- Nothing inside costs extra, and there is no shop or café in the exhibition
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. After that the slot is yours whether you use it or not
- Leave the big bag and the suitcase. What can come in, and what the cloakroom will take, is in how to get there