How to get to the city from the airport

Getting the hang of a foreign airport is tricky – and so is figuring out how to get to the city center once your flight has landed. We’ve collected some useful information to make your travel easier.

About the airport

Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport is the biggest and most well-known airport in Hungary, with more than 10 million passengers traveling through it every year. It is named after a famous Hungarian composer, Ferenc (or Franz) Liszt, but is also known as Ferihegy after the name of a nearby hill.

The airport has four terminals, but commercial flights only use Terminal 2, which has two parts: 2A and 2B (Fun fact: Terminal 1 was used to film A Good Day to Die Hard). Terminal 2 is 22 kms away from the city center, but traveling between the two is pretty easy and quick.

To figure out which travel option is the best for you, consider the exact location you are heading to. If your destination is near a metro line, public transport is a quick and cheap option. If, however, you have a lot of luggage, and maneuvering them is difficult, or you are going somewhere which would require you to change lines a lot of times, you might want to take advantage of a taxi or a shuttle.

Public transport

When it comes to public transport and the airport, you first have to check when your flight is getting in, because this will determine which bus you’ll be able to take. The most important bus serving the airport is 200E, but it is replaced by night buses for a couple of hours, which comes with a slight change in its route.

You can buy tickets at the airport: BKK (the company managing public transport, Centre for Budapest Transport) has multiple customer service points on site, you can recognize them easily if you look for this logo:

Tickets are also available at the post office, newsagents, and BKK ticket machines, which have the same logo as above. Single line tickets are priced at 350 HUF, but you can read more about passes and different kind of tickets here. In order to get to Deák Ferenc tér, you need two tickets, so take this as a starting point when you plan your route. Don’t forget to check the BKK route planner, which tells you how to get to your exact destination. You will need one ticket for every time you change lines (the only exception is changing metro lines if you don’t come up to the surface). Keep in mind, that you can buy tickets from bus drivers and other BKK officials, but they cost 450 HUF.

Let’s look at the first leg of your journey:

Taxi

A taxi is without a doubt the most comfortable option to take when it comes to traveling from the airport. You can either book a taxi in advance, or just hop into one of the free cars waiting at the entrance. The taxi company serving the airport is Főtaxi. The drivers all speak at least one foreign language, and you can pay with credit card in all of the cars.

Hungarian taxis have fixed prices: there is a one-off basic fee of 450 HUF (1.50 EUR) and then 280 HUF/Km (0.95 EUR/Km). There might also be a waiting fee if the driver had to wait for you. A ride to the city center is usually around 6500 HUF (22 EUR), but this largely depends on where you want to go exactly and what the traffic is like. Getting to Deák Ferenc tér (20 kms) costs around 6200 HUF and takes about 25 minutes with no traffic, or 35 minutes if traffic is a bit worse.

Minibus

Shuttle service for Budapest Airport is provided by Minibud. You have to book your shuttle in advance, which you can do on the phone, or on their web page. To give you an idea about their prices, a one-way transfer from Terminal 2 to Deák Ferenc tér costs 4400 HUF for one adult. You can check the exact price on their website.

See, it’s easy. But if you are still not sure about how to get around in the city, just book a studentguide, who will do all this for you!