Easter / Pessach holiday opening hours

April  15-18, 2022

 

April 15th – Good Friday  ( bank holiday)

Shops are closed. 

Most museums are open.

Thermal Baths:  – No closures – normal opening hours

Széchenyi thermal bath: 7:00am-8:00pm

Gellért thermal bath: 9:00am-7:00pm

Lukacs thermal bath: 7:00am-7:00pm

Rudas thermal bath: 6.00am-8:00pm and 10.00pm-2.00am
Dohany Synagogue : closed

Matthias Church: 9:00am-2:00pm open for visitors
Parliament is open throughout Easter 8:00am-4:00pm
Central Market and other food markets are closed
Street vendors sell Easter souvenirs and traditional Easter snacks around the center.

 

April, 16th Saturday

Most of the shops are open. 9:00am-1:00pm
Restaurants, shopping malls are all open.
Most museums are open

Thermal Baths:  – No closures – normal opening hours

Széchenyi thermal bath: 7:00am-8:00pm

Gellért thermal bath: 9:00am-7:00pm

Lukacs thermal bath: 7:00am-7:00pm

Rudas thermal bath: 6.00am-8:00pm and 10.00pm-2.00am

Dohany Synagogue is closed.

Matthias Church: closed for visitors
Parliament is open throughout Easter 8:00am-4:00pm
Grand Central Market and other food markets are open 6:00am-3:00pm
Street vendors sell Easter souvenirs and traditional Easter snacks around the center.

 

April 17th Sunday

Shops are closed.

Smaller seven-eleven stores, restaurants and cafes should be open as usual.
Most museums are open. 

Thermal Baths:  – No closures – normal opening hours

Széchenyi thermal bath: 7:00am-8:00pm

Gellért thermal bath: 9:00am-7:00pm

Lukacs thermal bath: 7:00am-7:00pm

Rudas thermal bath: 6.00am-8:00pm
Churches are open all day long.
Dohany Synagogue: closed

Matthias Church: open for visitors: 1:00pm-5.00pm
Parliament is open throughout Easter 8:00am-4:00pm
Grand Central Market and other food markets are closed.
Street vendors sell Easter souvenirs and traditional Easter snacks around the center.

 

April 18th Monday (bank holiday)

Supermarket chains, shopping malls, post offices and plazas are closed.
Restaurants, seven-eleven shops (24 hour shops), pubs and bars are open.
Most museums are open.
Thermal Baths are open as normal. 

Széchenyi thermal bath: 7:00am-8:00pm

Gellért thermal bath: 9:00am-7:00pm

Lukacs thermal bath: 7:00am-7:00pm

Rudas thermal bath: 6.00am-8:00pm

More info here.

Churches are open all day long.
Dohany Synagogue: open

Matthias Church: open
Parliament is open throughout Easter
Grand Central Market and other food markets are closed.
Street vendors sell Easter souvenirs and traditional Easter snacks around the center.

 

Our free tours go on a daily basis, see them here!

The Free Budapest Walking Tours Team is happy to announce that as spring is arriving, we are opening more and more starting times for our free tours in Budapest! 🙂

Let’s see some of the changes:

• The Free Budapest Tour (about and on the Pest side of the river, meeting point: Elisabeth square) will run every day at 10:30 am, from the week that starts with the 28th of March 2022
• The Free Buda Castle Tour (about and on the Buda side, meeting point: Batthyány square) will also run every day at 2:30 pm, from the week that starts with the 28th of March 2022
• The Free Jewish Quarter Tour (about the Jewish history and Jewish quarter of Budapest, meeting point: Elisabeth square) will run at 3:30 pm on the 17th & 19th of March 2022 (because there will be a Jewish holiday called Purim). From the 19th of March, every Saturday at 3:30 pm we will have a Jewish Tour in Budapest. From the 31st of March at 3:30pm , there will be a Free Jewish District Tour every Thursdays as well. On the 18th and 25th of April we will also run this free walking tour in Budapest.
• The Free Communism Tour (on the Pest side, about the Communist dictatorship in Hungary after World War 2, meeting point: Elisabeth square) will run on Fridays at 3:30 pm from the 25th of March. There will be a Free Communism Walk on the 17th of April as well (Easter Sunday)
• The Free Evening Tour (on and about the Pest side, meeting point: Elisabeth square) will run on the 2nd and 9th of April at 6:30 pm, and then from the 15th of April we will have it every Fridays and Saturdays at 6:30 pm
• The Free Street Art Tour will also start running soon, stay tuned for more info here and on our Facebook page as well!

Hungarian National Holiday on the 15th of March

Every year on the 15th of March we remember the 1848-49 revolution against the Austrian Empire. There will be celebrations in the city center; it is a bank holiday, shops, shopping malls (except for some non-stop grocery stores) will be closed, but museums, bathhouses for example will be open.

See you soon on our free tours in Budapest! 🙂

 

Dear Travelers / Budapest Lovers! Let the Trip to Budapest Free Walking Tours Team recommend you some programs to check out before or after joining our free tours in Budapest 🙂

1. Indoor Beer Festival – 18-19th February in the InterContinental Hotel : The country’s first winter beer festival is taking place this weekend in Budapest. You can find international craft beers, APA, IPA, stout and they also show you the cultural history of these drinks. If you buy your ticket, you have unlimited consumption.
2. Carnival (Farsang in Hungarian) – 18-19th in Tompa street : it is Carnival season and this time of the year Hungarians organize parties where people dress up in (funny) costumes. In the 9th district of Budapest, in Tompa street, the catering units (restaurants, bars, cafés like B-terv Kávézó, Crafty bar, Manfred bakery, Paletta, San Ramon Caffee) will have Carnival menus or programs. Other bars in Budapest will also have costume parties for sure in these coming days/weeks.
3. Freeze Festival – 18-20th February, City Park Ice Rink (Városligeti műlyégpálya in Hungarian) : For three days, the City Park Ice Rink will be the venue for this Food Truck Show, music and sports programs. From February 18th to the 20th, the well-known bands of the Hungarian music industry will give concerts, while the ice skating rink will be a place for the participants of the hockey cup, bubble hockey and curling lessons. You can only pay in cash at the event!
4. Street Food Station – 14-20th February, Könyves Kálmán ringroad 3., next to the gas station : Have a look at and try the food trucks that offer waffels (WafelLand), pulled pork sandwiches (ZabáljCsak!), thai food (by Chaiyo Thai Food Truck) and pizzaburgers (by Pizz’ Burger). There is no entrance fee or preliminary registration, and there is no mandatory consumption plus the venue is family and pet friendly!

Hope we could help you with these recommendations, have fun and see you soon on our Free Budapest Walking Tours and Private Tours! 🙂

Ongoing renovation works in Budapest 2022

Dear Travelers, in this blog post we would like to inform you about some ongoing renovation works and closures in Budapest, we hope that we can make it easier for you to orient yourselves in the Hungarian capital city this way and see everything you would like in a less stressful way! 🙂

1. Chain Bridge: The most iconic bridge of Budapest, also the first permanent suspension bridge connecting the two sides of the river Danube ready by the 1850’s. There is a long renovation project going on at the moment, supposedly it is going to be ready by the end of 2023. Until that you can choose the closest 2 bridges (white Elisabeth bridge and yellow Margaret bridge) to cross or there is a ferry boat crossing between Pest and Buda right next to the Chain bridge, but there are some phases of the renovation when the boat is not running, please check on THIS website)
2. Liberty Statue and Citadel on Gellért hill: The highest point of the city center of Budapest, with the altitude of about 235 meters, it has one of the nicest views as well. On the top you can find the Liberty statue and the Citadel, a Fortress built in the 1800’s. The renovation works will last supposedly until the end of 2023. They are building new paths/stairs leading up to the top, new lookout terraces, new green areas and a huge park, a new lake and café. Do not be fooled by the closures around the Liberty Statue while the renovation is going on, you can still go up to the top of the hill to see the views, just follow any paths going upstairs!
3. Blaha Lujza sqaure: one of the most important traffic junctions in the city center of Budapest (more precisely on the Pest side), it is a metro station as well, metro line nr.2 runs through it. The renovation works are planned to be finished in the first half of the year 2023.
4. Metro line nr. 3: they are planning to finish the renovations works by the beginning of the year 2023, until that at some sections of the metro line nr.3 replacement buses are running. There are informative boards at the stops/sections where there are works going and replacement buses are running.

We hope you found it useful to read about these ongoing renovations works in our city and see you soon on our Free Budapest Walking Tours, you can find our daily free tour schedule HERE.

Christmas Market Time in Budapest in 2021

It is that time of the year again… Christmas will be here soon, and so are the Christmas Markets in Budapest. Unfortunately, last year our large Christmas markets were not organized because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but this year they are back, so let us recommend a few locations to you where you can enjoy spicy hot wine, quality presents and souvenirs! These markets offer great opportunities to spend 1 or 2 hours in the city center after you learned about Hungary and Budapest on our free walking tours… 🙂

Vörösmarty Square Christmas Market

Open till the end of 31st of December 2021 (it closes at 1am during the night of the 1st of Jan.), located on the Vörösmarty square, absolutely in the city center, at the final stop of the Metro line nr.1 (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because it was the first metro line of Continental- Europe in the year 1896).

The square itself has been fully renovated a few years ago and they made the “corridors” between the little wooden houses selling all kinds of goods more spacious than before. This Christmas Market has been organized on the same square in the last about 25 years and has been voted to be one of the best of these kind of fairs. It is a special one, because only Hungarian hand-made products can be sold by Hungarian craftsmen and designers.

Advent by the Saint Stephen’s Basilica

You can visit this Christmas Market on the square in front of the biggest Roman Catholic church of Budapest until the 1st of January 2022. In the online voting of the European Best Destinations, this market in received almost 25,000 votes from 163 countries and was chosen to be the best in Europe for the second year!

These are the two largest and best Christmas Markets this year in the Hungarian capital, but you can also find some nice smaller ones throughout the city center, like at the

• Corvin sétány (Corvin promenade)
• Fő square in Óbuda (Old Buda)
• Batthyány square (the meeting point of our Free Buda Castle Tour)

Batthyány square, Free Buda Castle Tour meeting point

Wishing you nice winter days and safe travels, see you on our Free Budapest Walking Tours and Private Tours soon! 🙂