Metro M4 to Fővám tér is the answer to this one. The station exits onto the square in front of the hall, and there is no walk to speak of. Four tram routes, a trolleybus and a bus line stop on the same square.
The nicer way in is on foot. Váci utca, the pedestrian street, ends at the hall’s front door, and from the Buda side the walk over Liberty Bridge drops you almost at it. This page has each route, the walking times, the car park underneath the building and the step-free way in.
Location and address
By public transport
Everything stops at Fővám tér, which is the square the hall faces: metro M4, trams 2, 47, 48 and 49, trolleybus 83 and bus 15.
By metro
M4 (green line), Fővám tér. The station is under the square in front of the hall and its exits come up beside the building, so this is as close as Budapest public transport gets to a front door.
M4 runs from Kelenföld in Buda through Szent Gellért tér, across the river to Fővám tér and Kálvin tér, then on to Rákóczi tér and Keleti railway station. Change at Kálvin tér for the M3 blue line and at Keleti for the M2 red line.
Every station on M4 has lifts, which makes this the step-free route in from anywhere on the line.
By tram
Four routes stop at Fővám tér M, on the square:
- Trams 47, 48 and 49 run down the Kiskörút, the inner ring, from Deák Ferenc tér and Astoria, stop here, and cross Liberty Bridge into Buda. They are the useful ones from the centre of Pest
- Tram 2 runs the Pest riverbank from Jászai Mari tér, past the Parliament and the Chain Bridge, stops at the market and carries on south to Közvágóhíd. It is the sightseeing route rather than the fast one
The pleasant combination is to arrive on the 47 or 49 from Astoria and leave down to the embankment for tram 2 along the river.
By trolleybus and bus
Trolleybus 83 turns round here: Fővám tér M is the outer end of its loop out to Népliget and back, so it is the one service that cannot take you past the market by mistake.
Bus 15 threads through the middle of Pest between Gyöngyösi utca in the north and Kálvin tér, stopping on the square here on the way. It is the most useful surface route if stairs are a problem, because Budapest’s buses are mostly low-floor and its trams here are not.
Two lines people expect to find here do not serve it. The H5 suburban railway runs from Batthyány tér on the Buda side, and the H7 terminates at Boráros tér, about 15 minutes’ walk south-east.
On foot
The hall sits at the southern corner of the tourist centre, so most of central Pest is a walk away. Times below are for the walking route, not the straight line.
From Váci utca and Vörösmarty tér (about 18 minutes)
Váci utca is the pedestrian street that ends at the hall, so this is a single walk with nothing to remember. From Vörösmarty tér at the northern end, keep walking south for about 1.3 km; the street narrows in its southern half and the market’s brick gable closes off the far end.
From the Gellért, over Liberty Bridge (about 11 minutes)
From the Gellért Baths and Szent Gellért tér, walk onto Liberty Bridge and cross to Pest. It is the green one with the mythical birds on its posts, and the market is straight ahead as you come off it. Roughly 800 m in all, and the best arrival of any route.
From Kálvin tér (about 7 minutes)
From Kálvin tér, where the M3 blue line and trams 47 and 49 meet, walk south-west down Vámház körút. The hall is at the end of it, on the left. The shortest walk in from any metro line other than M4.
From the Hungarian National Museum (about 10 minutes)
From the Hungarian National Museum on Múzeum körút, walk south to Kálvin tér and turn down Vámház körút. About 700 m. The two make an easy pair in a morning, the museum first and the market for lunch.
By car and taxi
Taxis and ride-hailing apps can drop you on the square or on Vámház körút. Ask for “Nagycsarnok, Fővám tér” rather than the English name, which not every driver uses. Fővám tér itself is a busy junction where the ring road meets the bridge, so expect to be set down at the kerb rather than at the entrance.
Accessibility
- The step-free route is metro M4. Every station on the line has lifts, and Fővám tér comes up on the square beside the hall
- The ground floor has no steps across it. Pecz built the trading floor to fall gently along the diagonal of the building precisely so that no step would get in the way of a handcart, which leaves one continuous level from end to end
- The gallery and the cellar are reached by stairs. No source we could find states whether a public passenger lift serves them now, so do not count on it
- The trams here are not low-floor. Routes 2, 47, 48 and 49 are all high-floor vehicles. More than 90 per cent of Budapest’s buses are low-floor, so bus 15 is the better surface option
- Two guided tours are sold as wheelchair accessible, the private market and tasting tour and the two-hour Lángos tour, both on our tours page