The Parliament is at its best after dark. The whole building is floodlit from dusk, the river front turns gold against a black sky, and the Danube doubles it. It costs nothing to see, and the only decision is where you stand, or whether you see it from a boat.
This page covers when the lights are on, the free places to see them from, and the evening cruises that pass the building.
Evening Danube cruises past the Parliament
Budapest: Danube Evening Sightseeing Cruise + Audio Guide + 1 Drink
Best for: An hour on the river after dark, with commentary in your own language
- 1 hour
- Audio guide in 29 languages
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- 1-hour evening sightseeing cruise
- Audio guide
- One drink: champagne, wine, beer, a soft drink or water
- Wi-Fi on board
- Boarding
- Jane Haining rakpart 7, in the centre of Pest
- Not included
- Food and extra drinks
- Changes
- You can move the date up to 24 hours before
Budapest: By Night Sightseeing Cruise with Welcome Drink
Best for: The floodlit Parliament from the water, with the option to board right across from it
- 50 minutes
- Audio guide in English, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish or Hungarian
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- Evening sightseeing cruise
- A welcome drink: prosecco or fruit juice
- Audio guide
- Choose
- Boarding at Vigadó tér or Batthyány tér, and an unlimited prosecco option on Fridays and Saturdays
- Boarding
- Your voucher is scanned as you board
- Weather
- Runs in the rain
- Also
- Reserve now and pay later
- The one-hour cruise boards on the Pest bank at Jane Haining rakpart. The 50-minute cruise boards at Vigadó tér in Pest or, on its Parliament Panorama option, at Batthyány tér in Buda
- The 50-minute cruise’s audio guide plays on your own phone, so bring headphones for that one
- The one-hour cruise is listed as wheelchair accessible; the 50-minute one is not suitable for wheelchair users
Best places to see the Parliament at night
Stand on the Buda bank at Batthyány tér
This is the postcard view: the full river front, dome in the middle, straight across the water. Batthyány tér is one stop from Kossuth Lajos tér on metro M2, so you can be there in minutes from the Pest side.
Walk down to the riverside path for the reflection, rather than photographing from the square above it. Go at dusk rather than full dark if you want some colour left in the sky behind the building.
Look down from the Fisherman's Bastion
From Castle Hill you look down on the Parliament across the river, with the whole of Pest spread out behind it. The arcades of the Fisherman’s Bastion are free at any hour, and once the ticket hours end in the evening the upper lookout is free as well.
The river front faces west, so the evening sun lands on it before the floodlights take over. Arrive before sunset and you get both.
Cross the Chain Bridge for the angle from the river
The Széchenyi Chain Bridge gives you the Parliament at a slant, upstream, with the river in front of it. It is the natural route between the two banks after dinner in the centre.
Ride tram 2 along the Pest bank
Tram 2 runs along the Pest riverbank and stops at Kossuth Lajos tér, at the foot of the building. Sit on the river side for Buda Castle across the water, and look up as it pulls in beside the Parliament. It runs on an ordinary transport ticket.
Walk round Kossuth Square
The land side is lit too, and it is the one view most people never see. From the square you are close enough to pick out the statues on the facade and the pinnacles against the sky. Pair it with the Shoes on the Danube memorial, a few minutes’ walk south along the Pest bank.
Seeing the Parliament from a night cruise
The two cruises differ less in the view than in the details. Both pass the Parliament, Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge, and both can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead.
The one-hour evening cruise with audio guide and a drink
An hour on the river between the Buda and Pest banks, run by Legenda. The route takes in the Chain Bridge, the Elisabeth Bridge, the Parliament, Buda Castle and Margaret Island, with an audio guide in English and 28 other languages.
- Included: the cruise, the audio guide, one drink (champagne, wine, beer, a soft drink or mineral water) and wifi on board
- Not included: food and further drinks
- Boards at 7 Jane Haining rakpart on the Pest bank. Show the voucher on your phone
- Listed as wheelchair accessible
- Free cancellation, and rescheduling, up to 24 hours ahead
The 50-minute night cruise with a welcome drink
Mahart’s night cruise, with a glass of Törley prosecco or fruit juice for each passenger. There is an open upper deck and a closed lower deck, heated and air-conditioned, with a bar and toilets. The audio guide is in English, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish and Hungarian, played on your own phone from a QR code.
- Boards at Vigadó tér, Mahart dock 5, or at Batthyány tér pier 1 on the Parliament Panorama option
- An Unlimited Prosecco option runs on Fridays and Saturdays
- Not included: snacks, further drinks, wifi and headphones
- Not suitable for wheelchair users, and dogs are welcome
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, and you can reserve now and pay later
Before you go
- There are no evening tours inside. The last visits end at 18:00 from April to October and 16:00 from November to March, so do the inside by day and come back for the lights
- Book a departure after dark. An early boat in summer can pass the Parliament and the palace before the floodlights are on
- Take a layer. The open deck is where the view is, and it is colder on the water than on the bank
- Check which pier. The two cruises board in three different places, two in Pest and one in Buda
- Both cruises run in the rain, but the operators can cancel in extreme river conditions, such as a flood or very low water
Insider tips
Get on deck early
Seating on the open deck is first come, first served, and it fills first. Board as soon as boarding opens if you want the Parliament side of the rail.
Do the view before dinner, not after
The lights come on at dusk, which in summer is late and in winter is before most people have eaten. In winter you can see the building lit, have dinner and still be back on the bank at a normal hour.
Combine the Bastion and the bank
Watch the sun go down from the Fisherman’s Bastion, then walk down Castle Hill to the Buda riverside for the Parliament lit up and reflected. It is the one plan that gets you both views in an evening.