Budapest has one official city card and one bundle that borrows the word pass. The Budapest Card, run by the public transport company BKK, gives you unlimited public transport, free entry to more than 30 museums and attractions, Lukács Thermal Bath, a Danube cruise and two guided walks, for 24 to 96 hours.
The Budapest Pass is a Tiqets package of three tickets: a Danube cruise, a day at Széchenyi and an audio guide app.
Neither covers the Hungarian Parliament, and only the Budapest Pass gets you into Széchenyi. That one fact settles the choice for a lot of first trips, so this page puts the options side by side and says who should buy which, including the visitors who need nothing more than a transport travelcard.
The options side by side
The Budapest Card comes in six versions. Four Classic cards differ only in length, and two 72-hour cards change what is included. The Plus adds to the Classic, and the Flexi swaps its long free list for five picks of your own.
Budapest Card: Public Transport, 30+ Top Attractions & Tours
Every version: the official card for 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours, plus the 72-Hour Plus and the 72-Hour FLEXI. Unlimited public transport, free museums, Lukács Thermal Bath, a Danube cruise and the two guided walks. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Budapest Pass
For Széchenyi and a cruise: a 1.5-hour Danube cruise with a welcome drink, a full day entry ticket for Széchenyi and the POPGuide audio guide app, each booked for your own dates, plus a code for 10% off later Tiqets bookings. No public transport. Non-refundable.
Budapest Card: 30+ Attractions with Szt. Lukacs Thermal Bath and Pool
The Classic card from Tiqets: the same official card for 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours, collected from a hotel desk in the centre or at the airport. Cancellation is possible until 23:59 on the day before.
- The Budapest Card is a physical card. Whoever you buy it from, you get a voucher first and swap it for the card in Budapest
- The card is personal. It carries your passport or ID number, and two people cannot share one
- It does not skip any queue, and it cannot be used to book a time slot online. You show it at the ticket desk
How they compare
| Budapest Card Classic | Budapest Card 72 hours Plus | Budapest Card 72 hours Flexi | Budapest Pass | BKK travelcard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | The official city card | The Classic with extras | The official card with a short free list you choose | Three Tiqets tickets sold together | A public transport ticket |
| How long | 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours | 72 hours | 72 hours | No clock. Each ticket has its own date | 24 or 72 hours |
| Public transport | Unlimited, within Budapest | Unlimited, within Budapest | Unlimited, within Budapest | None | Unlimited, within Budapest |
| Airport bus 100E | No | Yes, once each way | If you choose it | No | No |
| Free entry | More than 30 museums and attractions, once each | The same list | Five choices from seven, one of them a single museum or the SkyDeck | None | None |
| Thermal bath | Lukács free. Széchenyi and Rudas 20% off | Lukács free. Széchenyi and Rudas 20% off | Lukács, if you choose it | Széchenyi, full day entry | None |
| Danube cruise | One, from four | One, from four | One, if you choose it | 1.5 hours with a welcome drink | None |
| Guided walks | Buda and Pest, in English | Buda and Pest, in English | If you choose them | None. An audio guide app instead | None |
| How you get it | Voucher, swapped for a card in Budapest | Voucher, swapped for a card in Budapest | Voucher, swapped for a card in Budapest | Tickets by email | BKK’s app, ticket machines and customer centres |
| Sold by | GetYourGuide and Tiqets | GetYourGuide | GetYourGuide | Tiqets | BKK only |
| Best for | Museum days and a lot of tram rides | A 72-hour trip that starts and ends on the airport bus | Three days with a handful of fixed plans | First-timers who want Széchenyi and a cruise anyway | Everyone whose list is short |
The full free list, the discounts and how collection works: Budapest Card guide. The two upgraded cards against the Classic: Budapest Card Plus and Flexi. What is in the bundle and how its dates work: Budapest Pass guide.
Which one is right for you
When no card is worth buying
The Budapest Card earns its price in museums. If your list is the Parliament, Széchenyi, St Stephen’s Basilica, the Dohány Street Synagogue and a walk along the river, the card covers none of them free. The Parliament is not on it at all, and the other three are discounts of 10 or 20%, claimed at the ticket desk, with no time slot.
For that trip the better plan is a travelcard and two tickets booked ahead for the things that sell out: Hungarian Parliament tickets and Széchenyi Thermal Bath tickets. The Basilica and the Dohány Street Synagogue can be booked the same way. You give up nothing, because a card would not have let you book any of those slots in the first place.
A longer stay with one museum in it is the same story. The longest card runs 96 hours, so pay for that museum at the door and cover the transport with travelcards.
Transport-only travelcards
BKK sells the transport half of the Budapest Card on its own, as the 24-hour and the 72-hour Budapest travelcard. They cover the same network as the card, which is almost every metro, tram, trolleybus and bus line within the city boundary, the suburban railway inside it and the D14 boat, with unlimited rides and no validating. Like the Classic card, they are not valid on the 100E airport bus.
They cost a fraction of the card, and they are the honest answer for anyone whose plans are mostly outdoors. Buy them in the BudapestGO app, from any BKK ticket machine or at a customer centre. Our partners do not sell them. Tickets, the airport buses and how inspections work: getting around Budapest.