Three towns sit on the great bend of the Danube north of Budapest: Esztergom with its basilica, Visegrád with its hilltop citadel, and Szentendre down by the water. A coach tour does all three in a day. On your own, pick two, because the three together don’t fit.
Book a tour for the full loop, or go by train and ferry for Esztergom and Visegrád. Both are below, with the closures that catch people out.
The Danube Bend at a glance
- Morning
Esztergom
The basilica on its hill, which the coach tours take you inside.
- Midday
Visegrád
The citadel above the bend, and lunch in the town below.
- Afternoon
Szentendre
An hour or so in the old town on the way back.
- Evening
Back in Budapest
By coach, or by boat on some summer days.
Before you go: tour or train, and which day
Decide how you’re going first. For all three towns, book a tour, and book it a few days ahead, because the tours don’t run every day outside summer. For Esztergom and Visegrád on your own, you need nothing in advance beyond a train ticket.
Then pick the day, with these closures in mind.
Mondays
The Visegrád Royal Palace is shut every Monday, and so are Solomon’s Tower and the Szentendre open-air museum. The Visegrád citadel and Esztergom basilica are open, so a Monday still works, but you’ll see less.
Weekdays
The bus up to the Visegrád citadel only runs at weekends and on holidays, and only from late March to late October. On any other day it’s the local taxi or your own legs.
December, January and February
From 1 to 23 December, and from 12 January to the end of February, the Visegrád citadel opens Friday to Sunday only, and it’s closed on 24 and 25 December. From 12 January to 27 February the crypt, treasury and dome at Esztergom are shut, and only the church is open.
Summer only
Solomon’s Tower in Visegrád opens only in high summer, roughly May to August, and not on Mondays or Tuesdays. The boats run in summer too, when the river allows.
The tour I’d book is the one below, with a live guide in English or Spanish and the Visegrád citadel ticket included.
Getting to the Danube Bend from Budapest
To Esztergom, by train. Trains leave Budapest-Nyugati at about 21 and 51 minutes past the hour and take about an hour and five minutes. They come back from Esztergom at 05 and 35 past, until late in the evening. Esztergom’s station is on the south side of town, over 2 km from the basilica, so take a taxi or allow for a good walk up through the town.
To Visegrád, by train and ferry. There’s no station in Visegrád. Take the train from Nyugati to Nagymaros-Visegrád on the opposite bank, about 40 minutes on a fast train and an hour on a slow one, then the ferry across. From Nagymaros it leaves at 08:00 and every hour on the hour until 20:00. Back from Visegrád it leaves every hour at quarter to, the last at 19:45.
By bus. Buses run to Visegrád about every hour from Újpest-Városkapu, on the M3, and between Visegrád and Esztergom about every hour too, along the river road.
To Szentendre. The H5 suburban train from Batthyány tér, 39 minutes. Everything about that trip, the ticket included, is on our Szentendre day trip page.
By boat. Don’t plan round it. The excursion boats up the Bend are a short summer service, and the hydrofoil to Visegrád and Esztergom sails on only about twenty days a year, with tickets sold in advance only. In 2026 low water on the Danube stopped every Danube Bend sailing from 13 July to 31 October. If one is running when you’re here, it’s a lovely way to come home.
On your own or on a tour
On a tour you get all three towns, and that’s the only practical way to do it in a day. The trade-off is time. You go inside the basilica at Esztergom, and on some tours the Visegrád citadel, and the rest is a viewpoint or a walk. Most tours come home by coach, and only by boat on some summer days when the water is right.
On your own you do two towns properly and choose your own lunch. Esztergom and Visegrád are the pair, on the plan further down, and Szentendre is better as its own half day.
There are three tours worth choosing between.
The Danube Bend day trip is the one I’d book, and it’s the box above. It meets at the Cityrama and Gray Line office at Báthory utca 19 and finishes at Deák Ferenc tér. It’s nine hours with a guide in English and Spanish, and the guide does both languages on the same coach. The Visegrád citadel ticket is included, and so is the boat home from May to September, though only from Thursday to Sunday and only when the water is right. Lunch isn’t included, and the long lunch break in Visegrád is the part people say they’d shorten for more time in Szentendre.
The tour with lunch suits you if you’d rather have the guide in French, German or Italian, or want lunch sorted. It’s nine and a half hours, with a three-course lunch in Visegrád, a photo stop on the Mária Valéria Bridge to Slovakia, and the boat home on summer Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Bring your passport or ID card. It meets at the Eurama office on Apáczai Csere János utca half an hour before the start, and there’s a pickup option.
The forest tour is the one for walkers. A group of no more than seven goes by people carrier into the hills, walks through the Danube-Ipoly National Park to the Visegrád citadel, then spends free time in Szentendre. Meals are at your own expense, and you choose to come back by van, boat or train. It meets outside St Anne’s Church on Batthyány tér, and it isn’t suitable for children under eight.
Morning: Esztergom and the basilica
About an hour inside. Both coach tours start at Esztergom, the furthest town up the river, with a photo stop by the Danube and then the basilica. It’s the main church of the Catholic Church in Hungary and the largest, 100 metres high, on a hill above the river with Slovakia on the far bank.
Inside, look for the main altarpiece, the Assumption of Mary by Michelangelo Grigoletti. Beyond the church you can go down to the crypt, into the treasury and up to the dome, and the treasury is the one I’d never skip. It holds the Coronation Oath Cross, which Hungary’s kings swore on when they were crowned.
Down in the crypt, the walls holding up the dome are 17 metres thick. Bear in mind the basilica isn’t wheelchair accessible, in its own words.
Midday: Visegrád citadel and lunch
About two hours. The citadel was built in the 13th century, after the Mongol invasion, high above the bend, and the view from the walls is the reason to come: the river doubling back between wooded hills. Inside are exhibitions on the Holy Crown, the castle’s history and the royal meeting held here in 1335.
The Danube Bend day trip gives you about 50 minutes up here and then a long break in the town for lunch. On a tour that doesn’t include lunch, the Renaissance Étterem on Fő utca 11 is open every day from noon, with a terrace over the Danube and dining rooms done out in Renaissance style.
Afternoon: Szentendre
About an hour and a quarter. The last stop, on the way back, is Szentendre, the riverside town of church towers and lanes. That’s enough for a walk round the main square and a coffee, and not much more. If you’d like a proper day there, go on its own, by the H5 train. Our Szentendre day trip has the plan.
Evening: back to Budapest
The coach takes about 50 minutes back into the city. On my October trip it was the coach home, not the boat, and plenty of people on board hadn’t expected that. From October to April it always is, and in summer the boat only runs on the days the tour lists and when the water allows. If you do get the boat, the Parliament comes into view as you sail back into Budapest, and that’s the best view of it you’ll get. Our guide to the Parliament has the rest.
The tour runs from Esztergom, pin 1, furthest up the river, back down through Visegrád to Szentendre.
On your own: Esztergom and Visegrád in a day
Two towns, trains and a ferry, and a full day. It works best from Tuesday to Sunday, when the Visegrád palace is open, and outside the winter weeks when the citadel only opens at weekends.
- 08:21
Train from Nyugati
About an hour and five minutes to Esztergom.
- 09:45
Esztergom Basilica
The church, the treasury and the dome while it’s quiet.
- 12:00
Lunch at Prímás Pince
In the cellars under the basilica hill.
- 13:30
Bus to Visegrád
Along the river road.
- Afternoon
Visegrád citadel and palace
The view over the bend, then the king’s palace in the town.
- Evening
Ferry and train home
Across to Nagymaros, then the train back to Nyugati.
Morning in Esztergom, about 08:20 to 12:00. The 08:21 from Nyugati gets you in at about half past nine. From the station take a taxi up to the basilica, or walk it through the town. Climb the dome while you’re here in the morning, because in autumn and winter its ticket desk stops selling in the middle of the afternoon. Then do the treasury and the crypt. From the Panorama hall’s big half-round window you look straight down on the river and across to Štúrovo in Slovakia.
Lunch at Prímás Pince, about 12:00 to 13:15. Right under the basilica at Szent István tér 12, the restaurant is in a cellar system as old as the cathedral, nearly 3,000 square metres of it, with a wine tunnel and a café alongside. The kitchen opens at noon, Monday to Saturday until 20:00, and on Sundays the restaurant closes at 18:00.
Afternoon in Visegrád. Buses run along the river road to Visegrád about every hour, so check the next one when you arrive in the morning. In Visegrád the citadel is a long climb up wooded paths. The town’s own walk up to it and on to the Zsitvay lookout climbs 272 metres and takes two to three hours. Unless you want the walk, take the local taxi, City-Bus Visegrád, up and back, or on a weekend between late March and late October the citadel bus.
Watch the closing times. From late October to the end of November the citadel shuts at 16:00, and the Royal Palace at Fő utca 29 closes at 16:00 from November to February and 17:00 the rest of the year. On a short winter afternoon you’ll have time for one of them, and I’d choose the citadel. In December, when the citadel opens only Friday to Sunday and shuts at 15:00, turn the day round: Visegrád in the morning, then the bus to Esztergom for lunch and the basilica, and the train home from there. In summer you can do both, and Solomon’s Tower too if it’s open.
Home, from about 17:00. Walk down to the ferry, which crosses to Nagymaros at quarter to every hour until 19:45, and take the train back to Nyugati. On a long summer evening, have dinner at the Renaissance first. It’s open until ten.
The pins follow the day: Esztergom’s station and the basilica, lunch, then Visegrád and the ferry station at Nagymaros across the river.
Short on time, or got longer?
If you’ve only got half a day, go to Szentendre instead. It’s 39 minutes away and needs no planning.
If you’ve got longer, our week in Budapest puts the Danube Bend on one day and Gödöllő, the royal palace east of the city, on another. Vác, on the same train line as Nagymaros, is quiet and uncrowded, and worth a look if you’d like a third stop on another day.
If it rains, or it’s winter
Rain is harder on this day than on most. The views are the point at Visegrád, and they go in low cloud. Esztergom is the better half on a wet day, with the basilica, the treasury and lunch underground at Prímás Pince all indoors.
In winter, check the citadel’s weekend-only weeks and Esztergom’s mid-January to February closure before you book anything, and start early, because it gets dark by late afternoon.
For more plans, see all our Budapest itineraries, or the Danube Bend in our list of the best things to do in Budapest.
