Szentendre was rebuilt by Serbian, Dalmatian and Greek settlers after 1690, and it still looks it: church towers, cobbled lanes running down to the Danube and a dozen small museums. It’s the day trip you can do on a whim, by suburban train from the middle of Budapest.
Out by train, a slow morning in the old town, lunch by the river, and home in time for dinner. If it’s summer, come back on the boat.
Your day in Szentendre at a glance
- 09:30
The H5 from Batthyány tér
39 minutes up the river to the end of the line.
- 10:15
Fő tér and the Greek church
The main square, before the tour groups arrive.
- 11:00
Kovács Margit Ceramic Museum
An hour in one of the town’s most popular museums, open every day.
- 12:15
Church Hill
The sundial, the painted church and the view over the roofs.
- 13:15
Lunch on the river
Görög Kancsó, on the promenade at the bottom of Görög utca.
- 14:45
The Ferenczy Museum, or the promenade
Art indoors, or a slow walk by the water.
- 16:30
Back to Budapest
On the H5, or on the boat at 17:00 in summer.
Before you go: which day, and what to book
Pick your day first. On a Monday the open-air museum, the Ferenczy Museum and the Czóbel Museum are all shut, and so is the boat. The Kovács Margit Ceramic Museum is open every day, so a Monday still works, but Tuesday to Sunday is better.
Then check the season. The Hungarian Open Air Museum, which most people call the Skanzen, closes for the winter in mid-November and reopens in spring. Inside the Greek church on Fő tér you can only visit from April to September. The boat only runs for a few weeks in high summer.
There’s nothing to book for the plan below beyond your train ticket. If you’d rather not deal with tickets and timetables at all, the half-day tour does it for you.
Getting to Szentendre from Budapest and back
By train, the H5. The suburban train leaves Batthyány tér, on the M2 metro on the Buda bank, about every 20 minutes and takes 39 minutes to Szentendre. Read the destination on the front before you get on, because a lot of H5 trains only go as far as Békásmegyer. The line runs from early morning until nearly midnight, and the last train back leaves Szentendre at 23:34, so the evening is yours.
On the way it passes Aquincum, the Roman town in Óbuda, which is easy to add on the way home.
The ticket. A Budapest ticket, travelcard or Budapest Card only covers the H5 as far as Békásmegyer, the last stop inside the city. For the rest, buy the H5 suburban railway tour ticket, which covers Békásmegyer to Szentendre and back for the whole day, until two the next morning. It’s sold in the MÁV app and at MÁV ticket offices and machines, and not by the inspectors on board, so buy it before you go.
By coach. Buses from Újpest-Városkapu, on the M3, take 30 to 35 minutes. That’s quicker than the train, and handy if you’re staying on the Pest side near the M3.
By boat, in summer only. The excursion boat leaves Vigadó tér 5 at 10:30, calls at Batthyány tér ten minutes later, and reaches Szentendre at 12:00. The one back leaves Szentendre at 17:00 and is at Batthyány tér about an hour later. It doesn’t sail on Mondays, and the season is short: in 2026 it was planned for July and August, and low water on the Danube stopped it from mid-July. Buy ahead, because seats on the day aren’t guaranteed. Our guide to Danube cruises covers the boats that stay in the city.
On your own or on a tour
On your own is easy here, and it’s how I’d do it. The train is frequent, the town is small, and you choose which museum gets your time and how long lunch lasts. It’s also the only way to see the Skanzen, which no tour on this page includes.
On the tour you meet at the Eurama office on Apáczai Csere János utca, half an hour before the start, and look for the blue Eurama flag. The coach takes about 40 minutes, the guided walk and free time in town come to about an hour and forty minutes, and there’s a short stop at the Szamos Marzipan Museum, with entry included. It finishes back at the Eurama office.
The catches are that it’s well under two hours in Szentendre, there’s no food included, and it’s not suitable for wheelchair users. The tour comes home by boat only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in summer, when the river allows, and by coach the rest of the time. It suits a short stay, or a first visit when you’d like the town explained as you go.
Morning: Fő tér and the Greek church
About 09:30 to 11:00. Get the H5 from Batthyány tér around half past nine and you’re in Szentendre at ten past ten. The main square, Fő tér, is about 730 metres due north of the station, an easy walk into the old town.
Go early. On a summer Saturday I got here at midday and the lanes off the square were nose to tail with tour groups. Back on a weekday morning I had the square almost to myself. The town is at its best at the start and the end of the day.
The tower on the square belongs to the Blagoveštenska church, the Church of the Annunciation, built in 1752 on the site of a wooden church. Everyone calls it the Greek church. Look at the carved stone doorway and the oak doors, and at the worn fresco of Saint Constantine and Saint Helena above the side door. From April to September it’s open daily, with an entry charge, and the painted iconostasis inside was made in 1802 and 1803.
Late morning: the Kovács Margit Ceramic Museum
About 11:00 to 12:00. Just off the square at Vastagh György utca 1, this is the museum I’d pick if you only see one. The ceramic artist Margit Kovács, who died in 1977, gave her life’s work to the town, and more than 300 of her pieces are here, nearly all of them figures in clay.
Upstairs in the new wing they’ve rebuilt her Budapest home, potter’s wheel and all. In the last room are copies of her best-known pieces that blind and partially sighted visitors can touch. It’s open every day from 10:00 to 18:00, so it’s the one sure thing on a Monday.
Midday: up to Church Hill
About 12:15 to 13:00. Climb the lanes behind Fő tér to Templomdomb, Church Hill, home to the oldest building in town. The Catholic parish church at the top goes back to the 13th century and was rebuilt in its Baroque form in the early 1700s.
Find the sundial on the corner of the south-western buttress, carved from a single stone in the 1300s. Then go in if there’s no mass on. The frescoes round the altar were painted by the Szentendre artists’ colony in the 1930s, and they set the Bible stories against streets and corners of Szentendre itself. From the churchyard you look out over the town’s red roofs to the river.
The Czóbel Museum, one of the small museums given to painters connected with the town, is right beside the church on Templom tér, open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00.
Lunch on the Danube promenade
About 13:15 to 14:30. Walk down Görög utca, Greek Street, to the river. At the bottom, on the promenade at Dunakorzó 15, is Görög Kancsó, the Greek Jug. It’s been there since 1961, and the painter Imre Szánthó did its sign and the fresco of the Szentendre skyline that’s still on the wall inside.
The menu is Greek and Mediterranean, moussaka, souvlaki and grilled fish, with soups to start. It’s open every day from ten until ten, so a late lunch is no problem.
Afternoon: the Ferenczy Museum, or the river
About 14:45 to 16:30. For more art, the Ferenczy Museum at Kossuth Lajos utca 5 is on your way back to the station, open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00.
On a fine day I’d rather stay outside. Walk the promenade north along the water, then wind back through the lanes, where the small galleries and craft shops are. The artists’ colony was founded here in 1926, and the town has been full of painters ever since.
Evening: back to Budapest
From about 16:30. The H5 runs late, so there’s no rush. In summer, though, catch the 17:00 boat. It’s the reason a lot of people come, an hour on the water with the Parliament rising up ahead as you come back into the city. Board early if you want a seat on the top deck.
The boat drops you at Batthyány tér and then Vigadó tér, so dinner on either bank is a short walk away. Our one day in Budapest plan has a riverside dinner near Vigadó tér.
Map of your day in Szentendre
Pins 1 to 6 are the day in order, all within walking distance of each other. Pin 7 is the Skanzen, a bus ride north-west of the town, for the open-air museum version of the day.
Change the day to suit you
With the open-air museum
The Hungarian Open Air Museum gathers village houses, churches and farm buildings from all over Hungary on a big site outside the town, and in season it’s well worth the bus ride. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday from spring to late October, then for a few weekends into November, and it’s shut for the winter after mid-November.
It’s a bus ride from the station, and the timing is the whole trick. The local bus leaves from beside the H5 terminus, usually from platform 6, and takes about 12 minutes. On weekdays there’s one at 08:05 and then nothing until 10:25, then 13:05 and every hour until six. At weekends it’s 08:05, 10:25, 12:25 and every two hours after. The 09:30 H5 from Batthyány tér gets you there in good time for the 10:25.
Spend the morning there, come back on the 13:28 (14:48 at the weekend), and do the old town in the afternoon. Görög Kancsó serves until late, so lunch can wait.
On a Monday
Keep the morning as it is, because Fő tér, Church Hill and the Kovács Margit museum all work on a Monday. Skip the Czóbel and Ferenczy museums, which are shut, and give the afternoon to the river and the lanes instead. There’s no boat on Mondays, so it’s the train both ways.
In Advent
Szentendre has its own Christmas market, from the start of Dumtsa Jenő utca through Fő tér to Cár Lázár tér, opening on 29 November in 2026. On Saturdays and Sundays from 29 November to 27 December 2026 there’s an Advent boat as well: 10:30 from Vigadó tér, into Szentendre at 12:00, and back at 15:30.
It gets dark early, so the market is at its best on the walk back to the station. For the markets in the city, see our Christmas markets guide.
Add Aquincum
The Roman town at Aquincum is on the H5, about a quarter of an hour out of Batthyány tér, so you can stop on the way home. It’s closed on Mondays, and in winter the outdoor ruins only open in dry weather, so on a winter day do Aquincum first and Szentendre after.
Short on time, or got longer?
If you’ve only got a morning, do Fő tér, the Kovács Margit museum and a coffee by the river, and take the train back by one. That’s the town’s best in three hours.
If you’ve got a whole week in Budapest, give the other out-of-town day to the Danube Bend, which takes in Visegrád and Esztergom further up the river. Our week in Budapest fits both in.
If you’d rather stay in the city, Margaret Island gives you the river and a long walk under the trees without leaving Budapest.
If it rains, or it’s winter
Szentendre in the rain is a museum day, and that’s no hardship here. The Kovács Margit and Ferenczy museums and lunch at Görög Kancsó fill it easily, and the boat is off anyway once summer’s over.
In winter, plan without the Skanzen and the Greek church’s interior. It gets dark early, so start by ten and be back on the train by late afternoon, unless you’re staying on for the Advent market.
For more ideas, see all our Budapest itineraries or the best things to do in Budapest.
