Worth it for a long trip, if you are a planner! - We got the 120hr Budapest Cards as we had 7 nights in this wonderful city and after some careful planning and working out costs, this definitely made things easier and more cost effective for us. I was a little apprehensive at first as I had seen *so* many bad reviews, BUT I'm so glad that I just went and got them, as it was 100% worth it! I need to say now, before I continue my review that if you like to plan in advance, pack lots into your schedule and check out the individual websites, opening times, routes etc then this card IS for you! If you don't and you're just going to "go with the flow" or you aren't good at keeping to plans or doing any research, I'd suggest not to get the card and maybe just get a travel card and a couple of tours maybe. You can buy the card online or at any of the BKK Customer Services places that are dotted around the city and also at the airport. If you buy online, you need to exchange your paper/pdf ticket for plastic cards before you can use them and these are also exchanged at the BKK Customer Service places. Easy to do, just make sure to take your passport/ID numbers with you, as these are put on the cards to make them "yours". We used the trams, metro, buses and trains a lot whilst we were there, as well as visiting quite a few museums. I am a big planner and my itinerary for our time there made my family very happy (even if it accidentally did include 30,000 steps the first day. Oopsy 😆). The public transport is extremely easy to use and the Card made everything even simpler as you can just walk straight onto the metro, trams and trains without doing anything at all and with buses, just flash your card on your way on. I won't bore everybody with *all* of the details of our entire trip, but I'll share a bit that was included with the card for those that are interested and want to carry on reading. One of our days was all in the Castle District and as well as the transport over there, the Card covers a lot of the attractions etc in that area. This meant for a nice day without getting our bank cards out every time we wanted to go into a museum, a gorgeous hall or a gallery. It also includes the little Budapest Castle Bus, which was an absolute godsend on such a hot day with all the walking around. If you like archaeology, then definitely work your way up to Aquincum, if you have a lot of time. It's not a large place and it is a little out of the way, but Google maps will help you with the public transport and it's a lovely place with lots of Roman history and a few little prehistoric finds too. There is a large supermarket in the vicinity that is absolutely fantastic for those that like to take home food and drink souvenirs for others or themselves. The best place that I actually found in Budapest! (Also called Aquincum, by the way). We did the GastroCellar wine tasting that comes with the card and one of us did the syrup and jam tasting and we shared around, so we got a taste of everything. It was a nice experience and I ended up buying a bottle of the white wine to take home as it was extremely tasty! We obviously did one of the daytime cruises along the river. We went early so that we had lots of time to explore Margaret Island. We went on the Duna Bella cruise and it includes a drink both ways. We chose the lemonade both ways, but you can choose champagne also. It includes a return ticket on the Zugliget Chairlift, which takes you up to a spectacular lookout tower and back down again. We chose this opportunity to use the Children's Railway to get to the chairlift, as one of the stops takes you to the top. We still rode down and back up again just for the experience! On our last day, to help with our achy feet from all the walking, we chose to go to the St Lukács Baths. It was certainly what we needed! And you just show your Budapest Card at the reception in exchange for a wristband that gets you in and around the complex. I won't go into detail as I already did a review for them, but totally worth it! Ignore any bad reviews and just research before you go, so you too can have a wonderful time like we did 😁 we spent half a day there!! We went to a few other museums and did many other things that were not included, but all in all we were extremely happy with our purchase of the Budapest Cards and would do it all again! Thank you

Very practical - The Budapest Card makes things easier and cheaper if you want to visit many museums. You can also buy them quite conveniently - there are stalls at important points in the city. In addition, most BKK trips are included, which makes things even more practical. I found them very useful.

Very useful for a day of... - Very useful for a day of sightseeing around Budapest. Good for using on the metro and a cruise on the Danube

Not good value - absolutely not worth it for the value public transportation is cheap in the first place and it hardly gets you into any of the expensive museums for free many of the museums that get you into our half off which I already got half off because I am a European citizen, so the card was basically a waste of money most of the restaurants it lists as cheap are either tourist traps which are overpriced anyway, or have closed down it didn’t even get me on the bus 100 E to the airport for free which was advertised. The only nice thing about it is public. Transportation was quite easy because you could just flash it instead of having to get Tickets.

it’s the first time I take a card to visit a capital that has no interest - No interest everything is paying the only things that are free it is useless it is completely useless the paid transport of the day passes it costs much less

Horrible Customer Services Budapest Card & Ikonik Hotel - Terrible experience, paid 77 euros including a service fee to get it delivered at the Ikonik Parliament hotel. Hotel lost it…. No one is doing anything except telling me I need to get it arranged between me and the hotel…. What a total mess and of this is the feeling thats given by the Hungarians as service towards customers and tourists I can imagine an idiot “dictator” like Orban does have a lots af friends in this pathetic country….. Will not go back ever again to this so called European country, looks indeed more like a Russian Lada service instead…. 🤮🤮🤮 Please take both, hotel and card provider, into account if you would like to get the experience of Eastern European customer services….

Cruise impossible - It is not clear how to book one of the 4 optional cruises included in the card. We went directly to the docks and a guy with the mobile bank "Budapest card" advised us to do an email to the Hungarian Group and so we did. We were answered with a reservation for 10 pm on Sunday 30 June. That evening, however, we discovered that there was no cruise. We protested by email and were told that they had wrongly indicated the exact day in the email itself. It ended like this on the last night of the holiday without being able to do probably the most iconic experience.

Annoyed - Although the card should allow access places refuse, what is more annoying is that if you are over 70 you have free access to many places, something not advised by the official tourist information office, Free access avoids the unnecessary cost of the card as over 65s are allowed free travel on public transport

Budapest transport warning - Warning! Don’t even think of getting on a tram, metro or bus in Budapest without buying a ticket in advance. You cannot pay once you’ve boarded and will be fined 12000 ft (£25 pp) on the spot. There are numerous inspectors catching foreigners on all forms of transport, no signs on how to pay anywhere and no where to buy a ticket before boarding. Apparently there’s a warning on the airport shuttle, but we got a taxi, so hadn’t a clue. You must download the app ‘Go Budapest’, and always validate/tap your mobile as you board. Transport is very cheap but they make their money from unwitting tourists.

You don't buy it. - there is nothing included, of main attractions, you have to move out of town to find the attractions that are included in the map, some museums / attractions make history even if they are included not