Budapest Ticket & Travel Pass Prices
Prices of tickets and passes for Budapest Public Transport
You can find out about the current ticket prices of the Budapest Transport Company (BKV for short in Hungarian) on BKV.hu. At the time of writing (see last update at the bottom), a daily pass is 1,650 HUF, while a 3 day pass is 4,150 HUF and a weekly pass is 4,950 HUF. See further current prices on the official website of Budapest Public Transport Company, BKV on bkv.hu
Simple / single tickets, which are only good for 1 trip on 1 vehicle, are 350 HUF now. But if you want to use 2 vehicles to get somewhere, e.g. the red metro line and then tram number 2, you can use a combined ticket for them, which is slightly cheaper than 2 simple tickets: 530 HUF instead of 2 x 350 HUF (700 HUF). When using a combined ticket, you need to validate it twice, once for the first trip, then on the next vehicle for the second trip. It sounds simple enough, right?
Budapest Card 72 hours
Well the system is more complicated, no wonder, even Hungarians can get confused when, how and what is allowed. So to make things more comfortable and cheaper, but at the same time more complicated, BKV has various ticket use scenarios. For instance,
- it is OK to use a single ticket for 2 metro lines, but not for 2 trams or 2 buses, or a metro and then a tram.
- The single ticket can be used for 2 metros but not for a return journey.
- The single ticket can be used for 2 metro lines (changing at Deak square) but only within 1 hour of the beginning of the journey (so you cannot get off at Deak to have a look around the river Danube, or to eat some snacks and then get back on another metro line with the same ticket)
- when using the single ticket for two metro lines, you need to validate the ticket only once, no need to validate it at Deak square (which was the old system before 2009)
If you only want to travel 3 stops with the metro, there is a super cheap special ticket for 300 HUF (max 3 stops on any line, which can be on 1 line or 2-3 metro lines combined). Another option to save money is to buy a bundle of tickets, i.e. 10 tickets in a booklet for 3,000 HUF, or buy passes. What travel pass should you buy? It depends on how long you wish to stay, there is 24 hour, 72 hour and even a 1 week long travel card in Budapest. Not to mention the family travel passes. All are great value for money.
Travel Pass prices in Budapest:
If you want the best value for money and peace of mind at the same time your best option is to buy regular travel passes/ travel cards in Budapest. You will be encouraged to buy the pricier Budapest cards but the discounts cannot be used well enough in its current form, so we are sorry to admit that it is a waste of money to buy them. Hopefully the Budapest Tourist Company will improve its deals in the near future.
- 24 hour Budapest travel pass: HUF 1,650
- 72 hour Budapest travel pass: HUF 4,150
- 1 week Budapest travel pass: HUF 4,950
Last updated: May 2018
