The Hungarian State Opera House has no sightseeing hours, because nobody walks round it on their own. The building opens to visitors in two ways: on the guided tour, which leaves at 13:30, 15:00 and 16:30, and at a performance, in the evening or at a weekend matinée.
So the times that matter are the tour slots, the box office and the shop, and what moves them is the Opera’s own programme. A performance can cost you a tour slot. This page has every time the Opera publishes, how performance days change them, the gap at the end of summer, and when we would go.
Opening hours
There are no seasonal hours. The same times apply all year, apart from performance days and the gap at the end of summer.
Opera House tour times
| Tour | Days | Starts |
|---|---|---|
| Guided tour in English | Most days, when no performance takes the slot | 13:30, 15:00 and 16:30 |
| Guided tour in German, French, Spanish, Italian or Hungarian | Some days, not all | The same three slots |
| Guided tour in Greek | Arranged through the Opera’s tour office | By arrangement |
Every tour lasts an hour, with the concert on the grand staircase at the end.
Which language runs on which day, and which slot to book →
Box office, OperaShop and OperaBistro hours
| Where | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Box office, in the Opera House | Every day | 10:00 to 19:00 |
| OperaShop, in the Opera House | Every day | 12:00 to 19:00 |
| OperaBistro, on the ground floor | Tuesday to Sunday | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| Customer service, Hajós utca 11 | Tuesday to Thursday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Customer service, Hajós utca 11 | Friday | 10:00 to 14:00 |
| Tour office, by phone and email | Monday to Friday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
On a performance day the box office and the shop both stay open until the end of the first interval, and when there is a morning performance the shop opens at 10:00. The customer service office is the Opera’s desk for ticket questions, across Hajós utca from the artists’ entrance.
Tour times on performance days
The Opera’s rule is that there are no tours during performances. What that means for you depends on when the curtain goes up.
In the Opera’s calendars for late September and early October, an 11:00 matinée of Le Corsaire had taken out the 13:30 tour, and an 18:00 curtain had taken out the 16:30. A children’s show at 11:00 had left the 13:30 running, and evenings starting at 18:30 left all three slots. Two days in those two weeks had no English tour at all, and the Opera gives no reason.
Evening performances in the Opera House start at 18:00, 18:30 or 19:00, and the matinées at 11:00 fall mostly at weekends. So the programme tells you as much about your tour as the tour calendar does. Before you fix a day, look at both.
Best times to visit
Time of day
Sightseers get the afternoon and nothing else, from the first tour at 13:30 to the end of the last one at about half past five. On most days only the box office is open before midday.
Of the three slots, 13:30 is the one we would book. It is the first of the day and the least crowded, and the tours page explains why.
The evening belongs to the audience. If you want to see the auditorium full and the stage in use, that means a performance, with curtains between 18:00 and 19:00.
Day of the week
A weekday, if you want the first tour. The Opera House puts on its 11:00 matinées mostly at weekends, and a matinée can cost you the 13:30. An 18:00 curtain on any day of the week costs you the 16:30.
A day with no performance, or with one that starts at 18:30 or later, usually keeps all three slots. The Opera’s programme tells you which kind of day you have picked.
If you want lunch in the OperaBistro before the tour, avoid Monday, when it is closed.
Season
The tour runs all year, so there is no wrong season for the building itself.
Summer is not a closed season here either. The Opera’s season opens in early September, runs through the winter and spring, and keeps performances going through July and into the middle of August, so a summer trip can still include an evening in the auditorium.
The exception is the few weeks between the last summer performance and the opening of the new season, when a tour is not a certainty. Outside those weeks, three slots a day is the pattern, performance days aside.
How long to spend
An hour, the tour
Sixty minutes from the information desk in the entrance hall to the last scene sung on the grand staircase.
About two hours, lunch and the tour
The OperaBistro opens at 12:00 from Tuesday to Sunday, which fits lunch in before the 13:30 tour without leaving the building.
An evening, a performance
From about two and a half hours for a ballet to nearly four for Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, as the Opera lists them.
A day of it
The 13:30 tour and a performance the same evening. The box office is open all day, so you can buy a seat when you come for the tour.
Insider tips
Do your box office business early on a show day
For the half hour before a performance, the box office serves only people coming to that performance. If you want to buy for another night or ask about something else, go before then.
A missing slot is not a sold-out slot
In the Opera’s booking calendar, a tour that is full says sold out, and a tour that is not running is simply not there. A sold-out slot is still going ahead, so before you give up on it, look at the same date in the tour booking at the top of this page.