Lumina Park is Budapest’s winter light trail, set up each year in the grounds of the Palatinus Bath on Margaret Island. This season’s theme is Alice in Wonderland, with more than 200 light installations along a 1.5 km trail and the rabbit hole, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts’ castle on the way. It runs from 20 October 2026 to 7 March 2027.
It is an evening outing, outdoors, in the cold. The gates open around sunset and shut at 21:00 (22:00 over Christmas), the park is closed on Mondays, and bus 26 stops at the entrance, which saves a 20-minute walk across the island in the dark.
- Visit length
- 1.5 to 2 hours on a 1.5 km trail
- Entry
- One ticket for one date, enter any time it is open
- Book ahead
- Online with free cancellation, or at the gate
- Opening hours
- 20 to 24 October: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:30 to 21:0025 to 31 October: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:001 November: Closed2 November to 21 December: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:0022 and 23 December: Daily 16:30 to 22:0024 December: Closed25 December to 10 January: Daily 16:30 to 22:0011 to 28 January: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:0029 January to 15 February: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:00 to 21:0016 February to 7 March: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:30 to 21:00Out of season (8 March to 19 October): Closed
- Best time
- A weekday, as soon as it opens
- Nearest stop
- Bus 26 Palatinus fürdőStops outside the Palatinus entrance
- Accessibility
- Outdoor trail after dark, no access information published
- Season
- 20 October 2026 to 7 March 2027, closed Mondays
- Paying inside
- Cards only at the snack bars, no cash
Lumina Park tickets
One ticket gets you in, for the date you choose, at any time the park is open that evening. There are no time slots to pick.
Budapest: Lumina Light Park Wonderworld Entry Ticket
Best for: The whole trail at your own pace, any time it is open on your date
- Your chosen date, in at any time during opening hours
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- Single entry to the light trail
- Ticket types
- Adult (19 to 64), child (18 and under), senior (65 and over), student with ID (26 and under)
- Under 2s
- Free, under the park's own rule
- Meeting point
- Lumina Park at the Palatinus Bath, Soó Rezső sétány 1, Margaret Island
- On the day
- Show the ticket you are sent at the entrance
- Bring
- Comfortable shoes and warm clothing
- Not suitable for
- People with epilepsy
- The ticket is for the date you book and cannot be used on another day, so check it against the opening hours first. The park is closed on Mondays (apart from 28 December and 4 January), 1 November and 24 December
- Last entry is an hour before closing, which is 20:00 on most evenings
- Under-2s go in free and need no ticket
What the ticket covers, buying at the gate and which band to book: Lumina Park tickets.
Highlights
Follow Alice through Wonderland
More than 200 light installations on a 1.5 km trail, with a new theme this season.
Find the playground and carousel
The park’s map marks both at the far end of the trail from the gate, near the food stop.
Catch the giant slide light show
The park’s map puts a light show on the giant slide, in the middle of the trail.
Plan your visit
Opening hours
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 20 October 2026 to 7 March 2027, from around sunset until 21:00. That means 16:30 from late October to January, 17:30 in the opening week, then 17:00 and 17:30 as the evenings lengthen. Over Christmas it stays open until 22:00, and it closes on Mondays (apart from 28 December and 4 January), 1 November and 24 December.
20 to 24 October: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:30 to 21:0025 to 31 October: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:001 November: Closed2 November to 21 December: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:0022 and 23 December: Daily 16:30 to 22:0024 December: Closed25 December to 10 January: Daily 16:30 to 22:0011 to 28 January: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 16:30 to 21:0029 January to 15 February: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:00 to 21:0016 February to 7 March: Mon closed, Tue to Sun 17:30 to 21:00Out of season (8 March to 19 October): ClosedEvery date, the Christmas hours and the quietest time to go: Lumina Park opening hours.
Getting there
Lumina is at the Palatinus Bath, in the middle of Margaret Island, and there is no metro on the island. Bus 26 from Nyugati pályaudvar, on metro M3, stops outside the entrance. Trams 4 and 6 stop on Margaret Bridge, about 20 minutes away on foot.
Nearest stops
Every route, the walk from the bridge and why not to drive: how to get to Lumina Park.
Before you go
- Bring a bank card. The snack bars inside take bank cards and SZÉP cards only, no cash
- Dress for more than an hour outdoors in a Budapest winter, in shoes you can walk 1.5 km in
- No dogs, and no bicycles, scooters “or any other rolling equipment”
- Under-14s must be with an adult, who is responsible for them
- Photos and video are fine for your own use. Drones are banned
- Look, do not climb. Adults may not step on the installations, and anything fenced off is not to be touched
- Not suitable for people with epilepsy, says the ticket seller
Accessibility
- No access information is published by the park, by the bath or by the ticket seller
- The trail is 1.5 km outdoors, in the dark, on the bath’s grounds. The park asks visitors to take care, not to run, and to keep to the marked paths, because there are cables and fixings off them
- Pushchairs and wheelchairs are not mentioned in the house rules, which ban “bicycles, scooters or any other rolling equipment”. With a baby, a carrier is the safe choice. If you use a wheelchair, email the park at luminapark@budapestspas.hu before you book, and take the ticket that cancels free up to 24 hours ahead
- Reduced tickets for disabled visitors and their companions are sold by the park itself
- Getting there is flat. The island has no hills and bus 26 stops at the entrance. Which stops BKK lists as wheelchair accessible is on the getting there page
What to see and do
The park’s own map shows one loop that starts and finishes at the same gate, so there is no wrong way round and nobody hurries you.
Follow Alice from the rabbit hole to the Queen of Hearts
The story is laid out stop by stop, with the names from Lewis Carroll’s book on the park’s map. By the gate is the rabbit hole, a run of arched light tunnels. Further round come a water cinema by a fountain, the clock, the Cheshire cats, the tea party, the Mad Hatter, a maze, a card zone and the Queen of Hearts’ castle.
Two stops are named as shows on the map: the water cinema, and the light show on the giant slide in the middle of the park. Allow a few minutes at each rather than walking straight past.
Children who know the story will want to find every character, so give them the map on your phone and let them lead. It turns an hour of walking into a hunt.
Let children onto the pieces they are allowed on
Lumina is made to be played in as well as looked at. The house rules let children step onto some of the installations, and sit in some, at their own risk; adults may not. In earlier seasons visitors also found buttons to press and lights set to music.
Those seasons had a queue for photos at almost every piece on a busy December evening. Midweek, in the first hour after opening, you will have far more of the trail to yourself.
The map also marks a playground and a carousel at the far end from the gate, and a stop called the Band near the food stop.
Warm up at the food stop on the far side
The food stop is at the top of the park’s map, the far end of the loop from the gate, with toilets beside it and more by the gate. The park has several snack bars selling hot drinks, and they take bank cards and Hungarian SZÉP cards only, so a pocket of forints is no use to you here.
Insider tips
Take bus 26 to the gate
The walk in from the tram stop on Margaret Bridge is about 20 minutes along a dark island in winter, and it feels longer on the way back with tired children. Bus 26 stops at the Palatinus entrance; if you came by tram, pick it up on the bridge.
Plan on 20:00, not 21:00
The ticket office closes and last entry is an hour before the park does. Turn up at quarter past eight for a nine o’clock closing and you will find the gate shut.
Go at opening on a weekday
The first hour after the gates open, Tuesday to Thursday, is the quietest time on the trail. When the sky is fully dark, which changes through the season, is on the opening hours page.
Do not cancel for snow
The park runs in snow, and a snowy evening is when the lights look their best. The house rules close it for storm warnings and other dangers such as a power cut, not for cold, so do not give up on a freezing night.
Nearby attractions
Lumina sits in the middle of Margaret Island, so everything else is a bus ride or a long walk away. The island itself is best seen by day.
Palatinus Bath
The bath whose grounds the trail is laid out in. The bath itself is open by day, all year.
Margaret Island
You are on it. The convent ruins and the Japanese garden are a daytime walk along the island’s main road.
Lukács Thermal Bath
About 30 minutes on foot, over the Buda half of Margaret Bridge. Bus 26 back towards Nyugati pályaudvar calls at the Buda end of the bridge, about five minutes from the bath.
Hungarian Parliament
About 35 minutes on foot, over the Pest half of Margaret Bridge and down the river. Tram 2 from Jászai Mari tér, at the Pest end of the bridge, runs past it.
Did you know?
- Lumina Park first opened in the winter of 2022 to 2023, set up by Budapest Spas, who run Palatinus, with the Polish company Lumina, to bring people to the island out of season.
- The theme changes every winter. In 2023 to 2024 it marked Budapest’s 150th birthday with a light Chain Bridge and a string-light metro; in 2024 to 2025 it was film heroes from King Arthur to Jurassic Park; in 2025 to 2026 fairy-tale worlds from Frozen to Pocahontas.
- Last season’s centrepiece was a Tree of Life built into the huge Japanese pagoda tree in the Palatinus grounds.
- More than 10 km of cable went into the 2025 to 2026 installations.
- Budapest is the only Lumina park in Hungary. The company’s others are in Poland and in Vilnius.