On a boat after dark you have the floodlit Parliament on one bank, Buda Castle on the other and the lit bridges in between. If you only do one cruise, make it an hour-long evening sightseeing cruise. The dinner and drinks cruises take the same stretch of river more slowly, with a meal or a glass that keeps being refilled.
Most boats board on the Pest bank, on the stretch from the Chain Bridge down to Elisabeth Bridge, a few minutes from tram 2, and they sail all year. So the real choice is the time of day and what comes with the ticket.
Danube cruise tickets in Budapest
Budapest: Danube Evening Sightseeing Cruise + Audio Guide + 1 Drink
Best for: An hour past the floodlit Parliament and Castle with a drink in hand
- 1 hour
- Audio guide in 29 languages, no live guide
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- 1-hour evening sightseeing cruise
- Audio guide
- One drink: champagne, wine, beer, a soft drink or water
- Wi-Fi on board
- Boarding
- Legenda pier, 7 Jane Haining rakpart (Vigadó 7), Pest bank
- Departures
- Every 20 minutes through the evening
- Seats
- Open-deck seats are limited, first come first served
- Not included
- Food, extra drinks
- Wheelchairs
- Not every Legenda boat takes one; contact Legenda before booking
Budapest: Dinner Cruise + 1 Drink + Live Music
Best for: A long, unhurried dinner with the lit-up city at the window
- 2.5 hours
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- 4-course dinner, 3 courses for children
- Welcome drink
- Live music
- Wi-Fi on board
- Boarding
- 7 Jane Haining rakpart (Legenda pier), Pest bank
- Start
- 19:00, or 19:45 from 20 April to 3 September
- Seating
- In booking order; window tables not guaranteed
- Dress
- Smart casual
- Not included
- Live guide, extra drinks
- Good to know
- No vegan menu; not for under-3s; not wheelchair accessible
Unlimited Prosecco, Beer, Aperol & Limoncello Spritz Cruise
Best for: Friends who want the glasses kept full for the whole sail
- 75 minutes
- Audio commentary in English, recorded, no live guide
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- 75-minute cruise
- Welcome glass of Hungarian sparkling wine
- Unlimited sparkling wine and beer
- Self-service Aperol, Hugo, Rossini and Limoncello spritzers, lemonade and water
- Boarding
- Choose a pier when booking: Carl Lutz rakpart Dock 0, Akadémia 3 or Vigadó 8/A (Pest bank)
- Not included
- Premium spirits and cocktails, food (the bar is cashless), hotel pickup
- Changes
- No changes or refunds within 24 hours
- The evening cruise and the dinner cruise both board at Legenda’s pier on the Pest bank, about 7 minutes on foot from Vörösmarty tér
- Pick the departure by the sunset: in winter the evening boats start around dusk, in June and July the dark falls while you are on board
- Drinks are extra on both Legenda cruises beyond the one included, and food is not included on the prosecco cruise
- Length
- 50 minutes to 2.5 hours
- How often
- Legenda's evening boats leave every 20 minutes
- First evening boat
- From 15:40 in winter to 19:30 in summer
- Where to board
- The Pest bank between the Chain Bridge and Elisabeth Bridge, by tram 2
- Commentary
- Audio guides on sightseeing cruises, live music on dinner cruises
- Food and drink
- One drink, unlimited drinks or a four-course dinner
Daytime vs evening vs drinks vs dinner cruises in Budapest
| Daytime sightseeing | Evening sightseeing | Drinks cruise | Dinner cruise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How long | About 1 hour | 50 to 90 minutes | 60 to 75 minutes | 1.5 to 2.5 hours |
| When it sails | Late morning to mid-afternoon | Every evening, every 20 minutes on Legenda | Several departures each evening | One sailing a night, between 18:30 and 19:45 |
| What’s included | On Legenda, a welcome drink, lemonade or tea, an audio guide and an optional Margaret Island stop | Usually one drink and an audio guide | Unlimited sparkling wine, beer and spritzers, or unlimited prosecco | Usually four courses, a welcome drink and live music |
| What’s extra | Food | Food, more drinks | Food, premium spirits | Drinks, except on the River Diva |
| Where it boards | Legenda’s pier, Pest bank | Mostly the Pest bank; also Batthyány tér and Várkert Bazár in Buda | Vigadó 8/A, Akadémia 3, Dock 0 or Dock 11, Pest bank | Vigadó tér, Akadémia or Dock 11, Pest bank |
| Best for | Small children, Margaret Island | A first cruise and the lit city | Friends on a night out | A special evening |
The hour-long, sunset and drinks cruises are compared boat by boat on the evening and sunset cruises page, and the dinner cruises, with their menus, music and shows, on the Budapest dinner cruises page.
Which Danube cruise is right for you
Kinds of Danube cruise in Budapest
Take an evening sightseeing cruise first
This is the cruise most people mean, and the best one for a first look. You sail for about an hour past the floodlit Parliament, Buda Castle and the bridges, with a drink and an audio guide. Legenda’s boats leave its pier every 20 minutes through the evening, so the cruise can fit round your dinner plans.
Legenda’s boats have a glass-covered deck that can be taken off in good weather, and a few open-deck seats that go first come, first served. The company runs several boats, so you won’t know which one you get until you board.
There are plainer versions too. Mahart’s 50-minute night cruise leaves from Vigadó tér and, on some departures, from Batthyány tér, straight across the river from the Parliament. Portum’s hour from Dock 42 north of Margaret Bridge includes a drink but no commentary at all.
Time it for the sunset
The Parliament’s river front faces west, so the evening sun lands on it before the floodlights take over. A boat that leaves just before sunset gets both: the building in the last of the light, then floodlit.
Two cruises are sold for exactly that. Duna Cruises adjusts the route of its Tokaj Frizzante cruise around sunset, and La Perla sells its two earliest evening departures from Várkert Bazár, on the Buda bank, as sunset cruises, with a guaranteed seat and your own drinks. The sunset table gives the time in your month.
Book a dinner cruise for a long evening
A dinner cruise is an hour and a half to two and a half hours at a table, usually with four courses, a welcome drink and live music, while the boat goes up and down the lit river. It’s the slow version of the evening cruise, and it suits a special night more than a first look.
The choice between them comes down to the entertainment. Legenda’s candlelit dinner has live music; others add a Hungarian folk dance show or an operetta show, and the River Diva serves a buffet with unlimited drinks in the ticket. Everywhere else, drinks after the first one go on a bill.
Window tables are the catch. On Legenda you are seated in booking order and a window is not guaranteed; Silverline sells a window seat as a separate option.
Pick a drinks cruise for a night out
The unlimited prosecco and spritz cruise is 75 minutes with the glasses kept full: Hungarian sparkling wine, beer, and spritzers you pour yourself at the bar. There is recorded commentary in English and background music, and it leaves several times each evening from three piers, so a group can pick the one nearest dinner.
Food is not included and the bar takes cards only, so eat first. Silverline runs a one-hour version with unlimited prosecco from Dock 11, and in winter one with unlimited mulled wine.
Go by day for Margaret Island and small children
A daytime cruise shows you the buildings rather than the lights, and it is the better choice with children. On a spring morning the hour was just long enough for our toddlers before they got restless.
Legenda’s daytime cruise can stop at Margaret Island, with a 30-minute guided walk. Mahart’s daytime hop-on boat also calls at Batthyány tér and the island, on a day ticket of its own, though it skips the island when the river is very low.
For a meal by day there is a brunch cruise on the Gróf Széchenyi: a brunch buffet on board and an hour’s sailing.
Danube cruise piers in Budapest
Most cruises board on the Pest bank, at the pontoons on the lower quay between the Chain Bridge and Elisabeth Bridge, or at the Akadémia pontoons at the Pest end of the Chain Bridge. Tram 2 runs along the embankment above all of these. The rest are on the Buda bank, or further north past Margaret Bridge.
| Pier | Where | Who boards here | Nearest stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vigadó tér 5 and 5/A | Pest, on the quay below the Vigadó concert hall | Mahart’s evening cruise (5) and daytime hop-on boat (5/A) | Tram 2 Vigadó tér, 2 minutes |
| Vigadó 6 | Pest, just south of Vigadó tér 5 | Budapest Sightseeing’s folk dinner cruise | Tram 2 Vigadó tér, 3 minutes |
| Legenda, Dock 7 | Pest, at the Elisabeth Bridge end of the Vigadó tér quay | Legenda’s evening, daytime and dinner cruises | Tram 2 Vigadó tér, 3 minutes; M1 Vörösmarty tér, 7 minutes |
| Vigadó 8/A | Pest, on the Vigadó tér quay | The unlimited prosecco cruise (one of its three piers) | Tram 2 Vigadó tér |
| Duna Cruises, Dock 10 | Pest, at the Pest end of Elisabeth Bridge | The Kisfaludy paddle steamer and the Tokaj Frizzante cruise | Tram 2 Március 15. tér, 5 minutes |
| Silverline, Dock 11 | Pest, next to Dock 10 by Elisabeth Bridge | Silverline’s sightseeing, drinks and dinner cruises | Tram 2 Március 15. tér, 5 minutes |
| Akadémia 2 | Pest, below Széchenyi István tér at the Pest end of the Chain Bridge | The Gróf Széchenyi and Stadt Wien: folk dinner, wine and 90-minute evening cruises | Tram 2 Széchenyi István tér, 2 minutes |
| Akadémia 3 | Pest, just north of Akadémia 2, towards the Parliament | The River Diva dinner cruise, the unlimited prosecco cruise | Tram 2 Széchenyi István tér, 3 minutes; M2 Kossuth Lajos tér, 7 minutes |
| Carl Lutz rakpart Dock 0 | Pest, on Carl Lutz rakpart | The unlimited prosecco cruise (one of its three piers) | Check the meeting point on your booking |
| Batthyány tér | Buda, straight across the river from the Parliament | Mahart’s evening cruise from Batthyány tér; Purpleliner’s Parliament cruise, from Dokk 1/b | M2 Batthyány tér, 4 minutes |
| Várkert Bazár | Buda, below the Castle Garden Bazaar | La Perla’s rooftop cruise | Trams 19 and 41, Várkert Bazár |
| Portum, Dock 42 | Pest, north of Margaret Bridge, by Szent István park | Portum’s City Highlights cruise | Trams 2, 4 and 6 Jászai Mari tér, 13 minutes |
Expect steps down to the water: the pontoons sit on the lower quay, below the tram stops. Step-free boarding is the exception, so read the accessibility question at the bottom of the page before you book.
When to take a Danube cruise
If the lights are the point, sail after dark. The floodlights on the Parliament, the Castle and the bridges come on at dusk and usually go off at 23:00 in summer and 22:00 in winter, so a late departure can come back to a darker city.
If you want daylight and lights in one go, leave about half an hour before sunset. The operators move their evening timetables with the sun: Legenda’s first evening boat leaves at 15:40 in December and not until 19:30 in June and July.
| Date | Sunset | Properly dark |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January | 16:00 | 16:40 |
| 1 February | 16:45 | 17:15 |
| 1 March | 17:25 | 18:00 |
| 1 April | 19:10 | 19:45 |
| 1 May | 19:55 | 20:30 |
| 1 June | 20:30 | 21:10 |
| 1 July | 20:45 | 21:25 |
| 1 August | 20:20 | 20:55 |
| 1 September | 19:25 | 20:00 |
| 1 October | 18:25 | 18:55 |
| 1 November | 16:30 | 17:00 |
| 1 December | 15:55 | 16:30 |
Times are for central Budapest and shift by a minute or two from year to year.
Summer or winter. Legenda, Mahart, Silverline and Portum all run evening cruises through the winter. In winter the evening boats start around sunset and most sail in the dark, the boats are heated and closed in, and the open deck is cold. In summer the evening boats leave later and the dark falls while you are on the water. One May evening the Parliament’s lights came on at about 20:30, while we were still out on the river.
Low and high water. The cruises through the city kept sailing through the low water of summer 2026, when the boats up to the Danube Bend stopped. Very low or very high water can still cut a sailing or move it to another pier, which is one more reason to check the voucher on the day.
Is a Danube cruise worth it
Yes, for an evening sightseeing cruise. An hour on the river shows you the Parliament, the Castle and the bridges lit up together, and it is the thing we’d keep for the last night of a trip. Book a departure after dark, and an hour is enough: the longer cruises add time on board, a meal or a show, not a different view.
A dinner cruise is worth it as a night out rather than as a meal. Book it for the occasion, the music and the view from the table, and pick by the entertainment you want.
If the budget is tight, the river is free from the embankments. The Parliament at night page has the best places to see it lit from both banks.
How a Danube cruise works on the day
Book the departure before you go
Pick the time against the sunset table above. Each ticket card gives that cruise’s cancellation terms, and the dinner cruise is the one to book first: it has one sailing a night.
Check the pier on your voucher
The voucher names the pier, and it is the one to trust on the day: operators sometimes move a boat to another pontoon, and the prosecco cruise sails from whichever of its three piers you chose when booking.
Get down to the quay early
Silverline asks you to board 10 minutes before a sightseeing cruise, 20 before a drinks cruise and 30 before a dinner, and rebooks late arrivals only for an extra charge. For Legenda’s pier, walk from Vörösmarty tér to Vigadó tér, take the stairs down, cross at the lights and turn left: the Legenda signs are about 50 metres along.
Show the voucher on your phone
Show it at the entrance. On the evening cruise you take any free seat, and there are only a few on the open deck. On the dinner cruise your table is arranged in advance, in booking order.
Insider tips
Ride tram 2 for the free version
Tram 2 is the river cruise you can ride on a transport ticket. It runs along the Pest embankment past the Parliament and the Pest piers from Akadémia down to Elisabeth Bridge. Sit on the river side.
Bring your own earphones
The audio guides on Duna Cruises, the Gróf Széchenyi and La Perla play on your own phone, and earphones are not included.
Take a layer for the deck
Even on a heated boat, the photos are outside. Wrap up for ten minutes on the open deck as you pass the Parliament, then go back in.
Check your departure on 20 August
On St Stephen’s Day, the national holiday, Legenda warns that its timetable may change, and Silverline’s operetta dinner cruise that night includes the fireworks.