The 6 Best Ice Rinks in Budapest

If you skate once in Budapest, make it the City Park Ice Rink on a weekday evening, with Vajdahunyad Castle lit up at the far end of the ice. Every other rink in the city is smaller, closer to the Christmas markets, under a roof, free, or a night out, and the six below are ranked for a visitor, best first. The rest of the season, from the markets to the lights, is in our Christmas in Budapest guide.

The season runs from late October to March, but most outdoor rinks only open in the second half of November and the market rinks close in January. By 20 October 2026, only Széna tér and Óbuda had published this winter’s dates. For the others we give last season’s, labelled as last season’s, and add the new dates as each rink announces them.

Which one for you

Map of the ice rinks in Budapest

City Park is in the north-east of Pest, just beyond Heroes’ Square at the end of Andrássy út. Városháza Park is in the very centre, beside Deák Ferenc tér and a few minutes from both big Christmas markets. Across the river, Széna tér is on the Buda side next to Széll Kálmán tér, and Óbuda is further up the Buda bank to the north, on the H5 suburban train. Budapest Park is on the Pest riverbank south of the centre, past Petőfi Bridge, and Csepel is the island district beyond it, at the end of a ride on the H7.

1. Skate the big rink under Vajdahunyad Castle in City Park

This is the rink Budapest is known for, and nothing else in the city is in the same league for size or setting. The lake in front of Vajdahunyad Castle has been skated on since January 1870, and its 12,070 square metres of ice are, by its operator’s count, the largest outdoor artificial ice surface in Europe. The domed Neo-Baroque skating hall, where you buy tickets and lace up, dates from 1895.

Go after dark, when the castle and the hall are lit and the music is on, and go from Monday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday evenings, the holidays and the winter break are when it is fullest, and there is no barrier round the outer edge to hold on to, which makes a packed session hard work for a beginner. Last season it shut on weekday afternoons, so a weekday visit was a morning or an evening.

Tickets come only from the rink, online or at the desks, and a ticket is not for a fixed day. Skates are for hire, under-6s skate free and under-12s skate with an adult. It is a mid-priced ticket with hire on top. The 2026/27 opening date is not out yet. The rink opens in November when the weather allows, last season on 30 November, and it stayed open to 1 March. Hősök tere on metro M1 is the nearest station. Sessions, tickets and the rules are in our City Park Ice Rink guide.

2. Fit a skate between the markets in Városháza Park

The city’s Christmas fair puts a rink in the garden behind the City Hall, the most central ice in Budapest and the easiest to fit into an evening at the markets. Deák Ferenc tér, where metro lines M1, M2 and M3 meet, is at the corner of the park, and Advent Bazilika and Vörösmarty tér are both a few minutes’ walk away.

It is a small rink among the stalls, with skate hire and a warming hut. Last season an ice corridor led off it, and there was a light tunnel, at its best after dark. Come for half an hour on the ice between mulled wines rather than for a long skate. You pay to skate, with hire on top.

The city has not announced the 2026 fair yet. Last season the rink was open every day from 14 November 2025 to 31 January 2026, from the morning into the evening, and the rink has been part of the city’s fair since at least 2019. The stalls around it are in our Christmas markets guide.

3. Stay dry under the roof of the Jégkert rink on Széna tér

When it rains, or when you are in Budapest before the outdoor rinks open, this is the one. The Budai Jégpálya on Széna tér, run with the Jégkert bar beside it, is covered, and it is the first rink to open, this season on 23 October 2026, running into spring. Last winter it stayed open until the end of March.

It is small, 15 by 30 metres inside a boarded rink, so it is for an hour on the ice rather than a scenic skate. The rink’s timetable gives its hours as 10am to 10pm, but hockey, lessons, schools and curling have the ice for parts of most days, and the public sessions change week by week, so check the timetable on the rink’s website first. What it has that the outdoor rinks do not is late evenings: last winter there was night skating every evening until 11pm.

Above the rink there is a craft beer bar and restaurant with a covered, heated terrace beside the ice, and the changing rooms are heated. Gloves and hats cannot be hired, so bring them, and bring a spare pair of socks for hire skates. The ticket is at the dearer end for a rink this size, and cheaper on weekdays than from Friday afternoon to Sunday. It sits behind the old city wall opposite the Mammut 2 shopping centre, a short walk from Széll Kálmán tér on metro M2.

4. Skate for free at Advent in Óbuda

Óbuda’s Christmas market has the best free skating in the city. The rink sits on Fő tér, the old main square of a town that only merged with Buda and Pest in 1873, and the people on it are mostly Budapest families rather than visitors. Skate hire is cheap, there are penguins to push for small children, and there is a wooden changing cabin on the square.

The rink outlasts the market. It opens on 27 November 2026, with the market, and stays open after the stalls go on 23 December, until 15 January 2027. It is open from 8am to 8pm, and until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, but on weekday mornings until noon the district’s schools have it, and the public get on only if no class has booked. Go on a weekday afternoon or evening, or at the weekend. The district runs a second free rink at the Békásmegyer market on the same dates, further out.

Take the H5 suburban train (HÉV) from Batthyány tér, on metro M2, to Szentlélek tér, two minutes from the square. The market itself is in our Christmas markets guide.

5. Make a night of it at KoriPark in Budapest Park

In summer Budapest Park is the city’s big open-air concert venue on the Pest riverbank, and in winter it turns into KoriPark, the rink to choose for a night out rather than for quiet laps. Last season the ice covered more than 2,200 square metres, with a Christmas tree in the middle to skate round, lights and photo spots, a hütte for hot drinks, and DJ sets and themed party nights alongside family sessions.

The nearest stop is Közvágóhíd, at the end of tram 2, which runs down the Pest riverbank from the centre. The 2026 season has not been announced yet. Last season KoriPark ran from 28 November 2025 to 1 February 2026, in the afternoons and evenings on weekdays and all day at weekends, with skates and penguin walkers for hire in limited numbers. The skating stops now and then while the ice is resurfaced. Buy online for the themed nights.

6. Follow the ice corridor at Csepel Ice Park

For skaters who find going round in circles dull, Csepel is worth the trip. By its own account it is the only two-level ice park in Hungary, with slopes, rises and a 400-metre ice corridor running on a gentle gradient through a light tunnel. The skating carries on even while the ice is being resurfaced.

It is in District XXI on Csepel island, south of the centre, so make an afternoon of it. The H7 suburban train from Boráros tér runs to Szent Imre tér, next to the rink. The ticket is mid-priced, under-3s go free, skates are for hire in sizes 25 to 50, and penguin and teddy-bear aids are hired by the half hour for small children.

The 2026 season has not been announced yet. Last season it opened on 21 November 2025, every day from 8am to 9pm with last entry at 8.30pm, and ran to the end of February.

When the skating season starts and ends

The rinks open and close weeks apart, so the date of your trip decides which ones you can use. Dates marked “last season” are from the winter of 2025/26; we add the new ones as each rink publishes them.

Skating over Christmas and New Year

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are short days or closed days at every rink that publishes its holiday hours, and they are exactly when most visitors are in town. Look at the rink’s own website the evening before. For everything else that opens on the holidays, see what’s open over Christmas and New Year.

City Park counts the winter break as peak time, and in the last week before it the rink kept its mornings for school groups. Városháza Park opened every day last season but did not publish holiday hours, and Széna tér and Csepel posted theirs just before Christmas last year.

Indoor ice rinks, out of season and in bad weather

Rain or snow does not normally close City Park, but a warm spell can change the hours, and the smaller outdoor rinks can close in rain or mild weather. On a wet day, or in October or March, the covered rink on Széna tér is the answer.

For skating at any time of year there is the Vasas Jégcentrum, a hall with two indoor rinks of 1,800 square metres each that opened in 2003 and runs summer and winter, at Homoktövis utca 1 in Újpest. It has public sessions on several days most weeks, set week by week around the clubs, with skate hire and free helmets and pads with hired skates. It is a ride on bus 122E from Újpest-Városkapu on metro M3, a long way from the centre, so it is only for someone set on skating out of season.

Before you go

• Gloves and a hat. City Park strongly recommends gloves, and Széna tér cannot hire them out
• Cash for the skate deposit at City Park
• ID for a student or pensioner ticket
• A signed consent form for a 12 to 14 year old skating at City Park without a parent, downloaded from the rink’s website
• Spare socks if you are hiring skates
• As little as possible. Bags and rucksacks stay off the ice at City Park and Vasas, and City Park’s lockers are free with the ticket
• Weekday mornings at the Óbuda rinks and the other district rinks often go to school groups, so plan for the afternoon

Other ice rinks in Budapest

Several district councils run small outdoor rinks of their own over the winter, mostly free and aimed at the families who live there. Last season Józsefváros had a free rink on Horváth Mihály tér, kept for school groups until 2pm on school days and closed on 24 and 31 December and 1 January, and Újpest had one on Szent István tér by its town hall, at the end of metro M3. They are handy if you are staying nearby, but no reason to cross the city.

Verdict

Skate at City Park, on a Monday to Thursday evening, and then warm up at Széchenyi next door. With small children or no wish to queue, take the HÉV to Óbuda for free skating on a weekday afternoon, and if you are on the markets trail in the centre, fit in half an hour at Városháza Park. In October, March or the rain, head for the covered rink on Széna tér. The rest of the season is in our Christmas in Budapest guide, and what is on day by day in our December guide.