Kálvin tér is the stop to aim for. Three metro lines serve this museum across two stations, and the walk from either is flat and takes minutes. This page has every route in, the walks from the places nearby, where the door actually is, and the step-free way round the steps.
The main entrance is up the portico steps from Múzeum körút, and the ticket desks and shop are on that level, with the cloakroom a floor below. Anyone who cannot manage the steps goes to the gate on Bródy Sándor utca instead.
Location and address
By public transport
Budapest’s BKK network puts the museum within a few minutes of two interchange stations at opposite ends of the same stretch of boulevard. Buy a single ticket, a travel card or a Budapest Card before you board, and validate a single ticket before you travel.
By metro
Two stations, three lines:
- M3 (blue) and M4 (green), Kálvin tér: the closer of the two, about 230 m and three minutes on foot. Come up on the Múzeum körút side and walk north with the museum’s railings on your right.
- M2 (red), Astoria: about 550 m and eight minutes to the north, straight down Múzeum körút. The station has stairs and escalators only.
Kálvin tér is also where the M3 and M4 cross, so it is the easy option from Deák Ferenc tér, the southern Pest districts, Buda across the river on the M4, and the main railway stations.
By tram
Trams 47, 48 and 49 run the length of the Kiskörút, the inner ring road that the museum stands on, and stop at both ends of the walk: Kálvin tér M, about four minutes south, and Astoria M, about seven minutes north. Whichever comes first will do.
Tram 2, the riverbank route, does not come near. Change to it at Fővám tér, one stop beyond Kálvin tér on the M4.
By bus and trolleybus
The nearest stop of any kind is Kálvin tér M on Múzeum körút, about 130 m south of the entrance, used by bus 9 and trolleybus 72. That is a two-minute walk and the one to ask for.
- At Kálvin tér: buses 9, 15 and 223E, and trolleybuses 72 and 83
- At Astoria: buses 5, 7 and 8E, with 108E, 110, 112 and 133E stopping here too, and trolleybuses 72 and 74
From the airport
Bus 100E runs from Liszt Ferenc International Airport to Kálvin tér, which leaves you three minutes from the museum door. Few Budapest sights are that easy to reach straight off a plane. The 100E needs its own ticket, which a standard single does not cover.
By bike
Cycle lanes run along Múzeum körút directly in front of the museum. The two nearest MOL Bubi docks are 0805 Bródy Sándor utca at Múzeum körút, at the corner of the garden, and 0905 Kálvin tér.
On foot
Walking is how most people arrive, and the museum sits on the ring road that links a good deal of central Pest. The times below are walking routes, not straight lines.
From the Great Market Hall (about 10 minutes)
About 700 m. Leave the market by the main doors, cross to Vámház körút and follow the boulevard north through Kálvin tér, then straight on up Múzeum körút. The museum’s railings and trees appear on your right after the junction.
From the Dohány Street Synagogue (about 11 minutes)
About 820 m. Walk west along Dohány utca to Astoria, cross to the inner side of the ring road and head south down Múzeum körút. You approach the portico head on, which is the best way to see it.
From the Liberty Bridge (about 11 minutes)
About 840 m from the Pest end of the bridge. Follow Vámház körút north past the Great Market Hall and through Kálvin tér. A good route if you are coming over from Gellért Hill or the Buda side.
From Deák Ferenc tér (about 16 minutes)
About 1.2 km from the city’s main interchange, south down Károly körút and Múzeum körút, past Astoria on the way. Flat and fully paved, but the metro to Kálvin tér is quicker if you are in a hurry.
By car and taxi
The museum’s own recommendation for drivers is the underground car park on Pollack Mihály tér, the square immediately behind the building, which puts you a short walk from the Bródy Sándor utca side of the garden. Taxis and Bolt, the main ride-hailing app in Budapest, know the building as the Nemzeti Múzeum; give the address as Múzeum körút 14-16 so there is no confusion with the other museums on the ring road.
Accessibility
The museum is a protected historic monument, and it says in its own words that this limits access. Nothing here is impossible, but very little of it is self-service, so the practical advice is to arrive expecting to ask for help rather than to find your own way.
- The step-free entrance is on the left side of the building, the gate on Bródy Sándor utca. At weekends the gate is not staffed continuously: ring the bell, and the gate staff call a colleague who walks you in and helps with the ticket
- If there are two or more of you, one person can buy the tickets at the main desk up the portico steps while the other waits at the Bródy Sándor utca gate
- The same gate is the pushchair route. Pushchairs are pushed rather than carried folded, and children under two travel in the pushchair or a front carrier
- Ask staff to work the lift. The museum asks visitors to request assistance both for the lift and for the accessible toilets, and the lift is at the back of the building rather than off the entrance hall, so it is not something to go hunting for
- Accessible toilets and baby changing facilities are on the route from the accessible entrance
- Tactile objects are provided throughout the permanent exhibition for blind and partially sighted visitors, and there is a bronze model of the building and garden, with Braille, out in the Museum Garden
- Guided tours for groups of blind and partially sighted visitors are arranged in advance by email with the museum’s education department
- Getting here step-free: come in on the M4, where every station including Kálvin tér is step-free. Astoria on the M2 has stairs and escalators only, and the tram stops on this stretch of the ring road are not step-free. More than nine in ten Budapest buses are low-floor, and the pavements along Múzeum körút are flat and wide