12 Best Castles in Hungary: 2026 Tickets, Hours and Trains

Hungary has 12 castles worth building a day around, and only two of them are in Budapest. The others stand on a volcanic plug above wine country, on a cliff over the Danube Bend, on hills above Lake Balaton and in small towns that a rented car reaches easily and a train reaches almost as well. Every price below is a 2026 figure from the castle’s own ticket page, and every closing day is the one that castle actually publishes.

Hungary pays in forints, not euros. The country has not adopted the single currency, so tills quote Ft, cash machines dispense Ft, and the euro, dollar and pound figures in this guide are conversions for orientation only.

The 12 castles at a glance

The 12 castles are listed below with the 2026 adult ticket, the day each one closes and the usual way in from Budapest.

1. Buda Castle, Budapest

Buda Castle costs nothing to walk around, which is the single most useful thing to know about it. Buda Castle’s courtyards, terraces and gardens on the southern end of Castle Hill are public space, open day and night, with no ticket checked at any gate. What you pay for is what sits inside: the Hungarian National Gallery, which holds Hungarian painting and sculpture from the medieval period onwards, and the Budapest History Museum (BTM Vármúzeum), which covers the city from its Roman layers to the present and takes in surviving rooms of the medieval royal palace.

The palace you see is mostly the Baroque rebuilding of 1749 to 1769, restored again after the siege of Budapest in 1944 and 1945 flattened it. Castle Hill and the Danube embankments have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1987.

The BTM Vármúzeum opens Monday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00, with last entry at 17.30. The Hungarian National Gallery keeps the same daily hours but closes on the last Monday of every month, which catches out visitors who assume a Budapest museum either shuts every Monday or none. Reach the hill on bus 16 from Deák Ferenc tér, on the funicular from Clark Ádám tér, or on foot up the steps from the Várkert Bazár.

2. Eger Castle

Eger Castle charges 4,800 Ft (about €13, $15, £11) for an adult in 2026, and that one ticket covers the whole Dobó István Castle Museum: the castle exhibitions, the Heroes’ Hall, the casemates, the prison display and the Gárdonyi Géza Memorial House down in the town. Students and pensioners in the 6 to 26 and 62 to 70 brackets pay 2,800 Ft (about €8, $9, £7), and under-sixes go free.

The castle is the site of the 1552 siege, when a garrison of roughly 2,000 under captain István Dobó held out for 38 days against an Ottoman army many times its size. Eger fell at the second attempt in 1596 and stayed Ottoman for 91 years, which is why the town still has the northernmost surviving minaret in Europe.

Two rules are worth planning around. The mine-watching corridors under the walls can only be entered on a guided tour, which costs 1,000 Ft (about €3, $3, £2) on top of the ticket. And the castle grounds keep much longer hours than the exhibitions: the gate is open daily from 6.00 to 22.00, while the ticket desks run 9.00 to 18.30 and the displays close at 18.00. The castle shuts on 24 and 25 December, opens free of charge on 26 December with the exhibitions closed, and waives the entry charge on Hungary’s national holidays of 15 March, 20 August and 23 October, when only the 800 Ft (about €2, $3, £2) service ticket is payable. Direct trains run from Budapest Keleti in roughly 2 hours, with some services changing at Füzesabony. From Eger station the fortress is a short bus ride or a 25-minute walk through the Baroque centre, and the rest of the town is covered in our guide to Eger.

3. Vajdahunyad Castle, Budapest

Vajdahunyad Castle is free to walk into, and the courtyard stays open around the clock outside festival days. It was built for the 1896 Millennium Exhibition as a deliberate patchwork of Hungarian building styles, Romanesque through Baroque, with its towers modelled on Hunyad Castle in what is now Hunedoara, Romania. The temporary version was so popular that it was rebuilt in stone and brick in the years that followed.

Inside the courtyard you will find the hooded statue of Anonymus, the anonymous royal chronicler, and a bust of Béla Lugosi set into the wall. The buildings house the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, which charges admission and closes on Mondays, opening Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 17.00. The gate tower is a separate ticket, open daily from 9.00 to 19.00, and it is 46 steps up.

Take metro line M1 to Hősök tere and walk 600 metres (0.4 miles) into the City Park. The Széchenyi Thermal Bath and the zoo are within a few minutes’ walk of the same gate, which makes this the easiest castle in Budapest to slot into an afternoon.

4. Visegrád Citadel

Visegrád Citadel charges 2,800 Ft (about €8, $9, £7) for adults and 1,400 Ft (about €4, $4, £3) for students and pensioners, with under-sixes and over-seventies free. The ticket desk shuts 30 minutes before the castle does.

The hilltop fortress and the palace below it were the seat of the Hungarian court for long stretches of the 14th century. The 1335 royal summit here brought together the rulers of Hungary, Bohemia and Poland to settle trade routes that bypassed Vienna. The Holy Crown of Hungary was kept at Visegrád until 1529, and in 1440 a lady-in-waiting named Helene Kottanner stole it out of the castle on Queen Elizabeth’s orders.

Hours change five times a year, so check before you set off: daily 9.00 to 18.00 from 1 April to 30 September, 9.00 to 17.00 in March and to 26 October, 9.00 to 16.00 to 30 November, 9.00 to 15.00 to 23 December, closed 24 and 25 December, then 9.00 to 16.00 to 11 January. From mid-January to the end of February it opens only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. There is no direct train. Take the train from Budapest Nyugati to Nagymaros-Visegrád, roughly 40 minutes, then the passenger ferry across the Danube, or take the Volánbusz coach that runs to Visegrád itself. A weekend and holiday shuttle bus climbs from the ferry landing towards the citadel between spring and late October.

5. Festetics Palace, Keszthely

Festetics Palace sells tickets by how much of it you want to see, starting at 5,200 Ft (about €14, $17, £12) for the palace plus one exhibition and rising to 8,500 Ft (about €23, $27, £20) for the palace plus five. A single exhibition on its own, excluding the palace rooms, is 2,500 Ft (about €7, $8, £6), and the 6 to 25 and over-62 brackets pay half. The palace closes on Mondays and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 17.00, with the ticket office closing at 16.30.

The Festetics family built the place over 140 years from 1745, and the version standing today is the 1880s enlargement by Viktor Rumpelmayer, who added the central tower and the neo-Baroque detailing. György Festetics founded the Georgikon agricultural college in Keszthely in 1797, one of the first of its kind anywhere in Europe, and the Helikon Library in the south wing is the room most visitors remember.

A guided tour of the palace is not required but is bookable at 15,000 Ft per group of up to 25, or 25,000 Ft in English, German or Italian. Direct trains run from Budapest Déli to Keszthely in roughly 3 hours, and the palace is a 15-minute walk from the station along the main street.

6. Royal Palace of Gödöllő

The Royal Palace of Gödöllő opens every day of the week from 10.00 to 18.00, with the ticket desk closing at 17.00, which makes it the easiest of Hungary’s great houses to fit around a Monday. Its Castle pass costs 8,500 Ft (about €23, $27, £20) for adults and 6,500 Ft (about €18, $21, £15) reduced, and covers the permanent exhibition, the chapel and a themed guided walk through the rooms.

Antal Grassalkovich I built the double-U-shaped Baroque palace in the 18th century. It became crown property in 1867 and was the Hungarian residence Empress Elisabeth, known as Sisi, actually liked, which is why the permanent display leans so heavily on her. She had a memorial park laid out in the upper garden after the death of her son Rudolf. The palace was badly damaged and partly turned into a care home after 1945, and restoration only began in 1981.

The palace and the national rail operator now sell a combined ticket that bundles the train fare with entry to the permanent exhibition, from 3,240 Ft reduced up to 9,490 Ft for the full-price version valid nationwide. Otherwise, take the H8 suburban railway (HÉV) from Örs vezér tere in Budapest and get off at Gödöllő, Szabadság tér, which puts you at the gates.

7. Sümeg Castle

Sümeg Castle costs 3,000 Ft (about €8, $10, £7) for adults, 1,500 Ft (about €4, $5, £4) for children aged 6 to 14 and for students and pensioners with a card, and nothing for under-sixes. One ticket covers every exhibition and programme inside the walls, and the castle opens every day of the year that the weather allows the climb.

That climb is the detail to plan for. You can only reach Sümeg Castle on foot, up a hill that rises clear of the flat country around it, so the car park at the bottom is as far as any vehicle goes. The reward is one of the most complete medieval fortresses left in Hungary, built under Béla IV in the 13th century, later held by the bishops of Veszprém, burned by Austrian troops in the 18th century and rebuilt across the 20th. A refurbishment finished in 2022 and a new interactive display opened in spring 2023.

Hours shift by season: 9.00 to 16.00 in January and February, 9.00 to 17.00 in March, April, November and December, 9.00 to 18.00 in May, June, September and October, and 9.00 to 19.00 in July and August. Group tours in Hungarian, English or German run about 25 to 30 minutes and cost 10,000 Ft per group, booked ahead. Lake Balaton is 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) south.

8. Bory Castle, Székesfehérvár

Bory Castle is the one castle on this list that no king ever saw, because a sculptor built it himself. Jenő Bory bought the land in 1912 and spent roughly forty summers pouring concrete into a private compound of towers, arcades, courtyards and staircases, working largely alone and mostly to please his wife, Ilona Komócsin, whose likeness turns up all over the site. He kept building until his death in 1959.

Adult entry is 4,000 Ft (about €11, $13, £9). Students with a card, pensioners over 65 and an accompanying adult bringing at least two children under 14 each pay 3,000 Ft (about €8, $10, £7), and children under 6 go free. It opens seven days a week, unlike most Hungarian museums: 9.00 to 17.00 from 2 March to 25 October, 9.00 to 16.00 from 26 October to 8 November, then 9.00 to 15.00 on weekdays and 9.00 to 16.00 at weekends through to 1 March.

Trains from Budapest reach Székesfehérvár in well under an hour and run often, since it sits on the main line towards Lake Balaton. The castle is out in the Öreghegy district rather than in the centre, so pick up a city bus at the station.

9. Boldogkő Castle

Boldogkő Castle prices its ticket by the day of the week, and the difference is worth understanding. Weekdays cost 2,500 Ft (about €7, $8, £6) for adults and 2,200 Ft for students and pensioners, and buy you the castle and its exhibitions. Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and Fridays in July and August cost 3,300 Ft (about €9, $11, £8), and that price includes the costumed guided tours, the knightly combat displays and the weapons-handling stand. For most visitors the weekend ticket is the better value of the two. Under-sixes are free and parking costs nothing.

The castle grew along the contours of an andesite crag in the Zemplén hills after the Mongol invasion, and a document of King András III first names it in 1295. It changed hands between the Aba, Perényi, Rákóczi and Andrássy families and was besieged by Ottoman, Habsburg and Kuruc forces in turn. The military history display inside runs to weapons, armour, coins and tin soldiers.

It opens all year, not just in summer: 9.00 to 17.30 from January to March, 9.00 to 18.00 in April and May, 9.00 to 20.00 from June to August, 9.00 to 18.00 in September and October and 9.00 to 16.00 from November. Boldogkőváralja has its own station on the line north of Szerencs, and the journey up from Budapest takes most of the morning, so this is a castle to pair with a night in the Tokaj wine region rather than a day trip.

10. Esztergom Castle

Esztergom Castle sells three different routes through the same building, priced by how long you have. The 30-minute Chapel route costs 2,000 Ft (about €6, $6, £5), the 45-minute Saint Stephen route 2,500 Ft (about €7, $8, £6), and the hour-long Great Palace route, which covers the whole castle including the prison and the great hall, 3,000 Ft (about €8, $10, £7). Reduced prices are exactly half. A combined ticket at 4,000 Ft (about €11, $13, £9) adds two other Esztergom museums and stays valid for five days.

Esztergom was the Hungarian capital and royal seat from the 10th century until the Mongol invasion of 1241 pushed Béla IV to Buda, after which the castle passed to the archbishops. Above it stands Esztergom Basilica, the largest church in Hungary, a separate 19th-century building with its own opening times and the Renaissance Bakócz Chapel rebuilt into its south side.

The castle museum closes on Mondays, opening 10.00 to 18.00 from 1 April to 31 October and 10.00 to 16.00 from 1 November to 31 March, with the last tickets sold half an hour before closing. Its stairs are original, narrow and low-ceilinged, and only a small part of it works with a wheelchair or a pushchair. Trains from Budapest Nyugati take roughly 1 hour 20 minutes.

11. Siklós Castle

Siklós Castle charges 3,900 Ft (about €11, $12, £9) for adults and 2,600 Ft (about €7, $8, £6) for students and pensioners under prices valid from 1 March 2026, and it closes on Mondays, opening Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30.

It is one of the largest castles in Hungary still standing more or less whole, with round bastions, a Gothic chapel with a rare prayer niche and a Baroque wing wrapping three sides of the yard. The Garai, Perényi and Batthyány families held it in turn, and the Batthyány coat of arms is carved over the entrance gate. Dorottya Kanizsai, who lived here in the 16th century, is remembered in Hungary for organising the burial of the dead after the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The Ottomans held Siklós from 1543 to 1686.

Siklós sits in the Villány wine district in the far south, well away from the Budapest day-trip radius. Take a train to Pécs, roughly 3 hours from Budapest, then a bus on to Siklós, and treat the Villány cellars as the second half of the day.

12. Szigliget Castle

Szigliget Castle is the cheapest full castle on this list at 2,000 Ft (about €6, $6, £5) for adults and 1,000 Ft (about €3, $3, £2) for children aged 6 to 18, and it opens every day of the year. Groups do not need to book ahead, and the last entry is 30 minutes before closing.

The fortress went up in the 1260s for the abbey of Pannonhalma on what was then an island in the marshes north of Lake Balaton, which is where the name comes from: sziget for island, liget for grove. It survived Ottoman attacks and a Habsburg siege, was abandoned in the 18th century and has been rebuilt in stages since. What you climb for is the view, which takes in the whole western basin of Balaton and the volcanic cones of the Tapolca Basin behind it.

Opening hours run 10.00 to 16.00 from November to February, 9.00 to 17.00 in March and October, 9.00 to 18.00 in April and September, 9.00 to 19.00 in May and 9.00 to 20.00 from June to August. The nearest station is Badacsonytördemic-Szigliget on the northern Balaton line, with a bus or a long walk from there into the village below the hill.

One Hungarian castle you cannot visit in 2026

The Castle of Diósgyőr in Miskolc is shut, and its own website says so: the queens’ castle is not receiving visitors while reconstruction continues. Miskolc’s cultural centre has been directing people to the Lovagi Tornák Tere arena next door for concerts and festivals instead. The work has slipped more than once and the reopening has most recently been talked about for late 2026, so check the castle’s own site before travelling rather than trusting a guide that still lists opening hours. Older write-ups describing the furnished royal rooms and the knights’ hall are describing the castle as it stood before the current works.

What a castle ticket costs in Hungary

A Hungarian castle ticket in 2026 runs from 2,000 Ft to 4,800 Ft for an adult at the sites in this guide, or roughly €6 to €13. Palaces that sell room-by-room routes, such as Festetics and Gödöllő, run higher because a single ticket covers several exhibitions at once.

Four things affect what you actually pay:

1. Currency. Hungary uses the forint and has not joined the euro, so a price quoted to you in euros is somebody’s conversion, usually a poor one. Pay in forints, and decline the card machine’s offer to charge you in your own currency.
2. Age brackets. The standard Hungarian reduction covers 6 to 26 and over-62, and it applies to citizens of the European Economic Area on production of a document. Under-sixes are free almost everywhere, and over-seventies from the EU are free at state museums.
3. National holidays. State-run museums waive the entry charge on 15 March, 20 August and 23 October. At Eger you still buy the 800 Ft service ticket on those days.
4. Cash. The larger sites take cards. Small hilltop ruins with a hut at the gate may not, so carry some forints.

Castle tickets are only one line on a Hungarian holiday budget, and they are rarely the line that surprises people. Restaurant bills, thermal bath entry and intercity fares move faster, and our guide to prices in Hungary sets out what each of those runs to in forints.

Reaching Hungary’s castles without a car

You can reach every castle in this guide by public transport, though four of them take a change and some patience. The pattern is simple: Hungarian railways radiate out of Budapest, so a castle on a main line is easy and a castle between two lines needs a bus.

• Straightforward by train. Eger, Esztergom, Székesfehérvár for Bory Castle and Keszthely for Festetics Palace all have direct services from a Budapest terminus.
• Train plus a short hop. Visegrád needs the train to Nagymaros-Visegrád and then the Danube ferry. Szigliget needs the Balaton line to Badacsonytördemic-Szigliget and a bus. Siklós needs a train to Pécs and a bus onwards.
• Suburban rail. Gödöllő is on the H8 line from Örs vezér tere, which is metro line M2 from central Budapest.
• Slow but possible. Boldogkőváralja and Sümeg both have stations, but the journeys involve a change and most of a morning.

Domestic rail fares are low by western European standards, and the seats on the summer services to Eger and Keszthely are the ones that go first. Book those two ahead through Hungarian train tickets rather than turning up at the terminus on a July Saturday. For the coach legs, and for onward runs to Vienna or Bratislava, Omio searches Hungarian rail and bus operators together.

Three of these castles sit awkwardly for trains, and Boldogkő, Sümeg and Siklós all make more sense on a driving loop that takes in the wine regions around them. If you would rather drive, compare hire rates through DiscoverCars and pick the car up in Budapest or at a regional station rather than at the airport, where the surcharges are higher. Ticket machines, validation rules and the difference between a Volánbusz and a MÁV fare all take a little learning, and our guide to transportation in Hungary covers them before you arrive.

Where to stay near the castles

Eger and Keszthely are the two castle towns worth sleeping in rather than passing through. Eger has a compact Baroque centre, the Valley of the Beautiful Women wine cellars on its edge and a thermal bath, all within walking distance of the fortress. Keszthely gives you the palace, a lakefront and the western end of Balaton. Castle taverns at Sümeg and Boldogkő serve the same regional dishes covered in our guide to traditional Hungarian food, so lunch inside the walls is a reasonable plan at both.

Gödöllő, Visegrád and Esztergom all work as day trips from Budapest, so most visitors base themselves in the capital and travel out. For the southern and northeastern castles, an overnight in Pécs or in the Tokaj region cuts the travelling in half. Rooms in the small castle towns are limited and fill up around summer festivals, so book early through hotels in Hungary if your dates are fixed. Our country guide to Hungary covers the regions these castles sit in.

Castles in Hungary FAQ

Is Buda Castle free to enter?

Buda Castle’s courtyards, terraces and gardens are free and open day and night, with no ticket checked at any gate. You pay only to go inside the museums, which are the Hungarian National Gallery and the BTM Vármúzeum. The same applies at Vajdahunyad Castle in the City Park, where the courtyard is free and the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture charges.

Which castle in Hungary is worth the trip if you only visit one?

Eger Castle is the one to pick if you visit a single castle outside Budapest. It has a direct train from Budapest Keleti in about 2 hours, one 4,800 Ft ticket that covers every exhibition, a genuine siege story attached to the walls you are standing on, and a wine district and a thermal bath in the same town.

Do you need a guided tour to go inside a Hungarian castle?

No, almost every castle in this guide is self-guided, and only specific sections require a guide. The mine-watching corridors under Eger Castle can only be entered on a tour, at 1,000 Ft on top of the ticket. Festetics Palace, Esztergom and the BTM Vármúzeum all sell optional group tours in English at a per-group rate.

Which day of the week catches out castle visitors in Hungary?

Monday closes more Hungarian castles than any other day, including Festetics Palace, Esztergom Castle Museum, Siklós Castle and the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture at Vajdahunyad. The Hungarian National Gallery is the trap inside the trap: it opens most Mondays but closes on the last Monday of every month.

How many days do you need to see several Hungarian castles?

Four days covers a sensible circuit. Give day one to Buda Castle and Vajdahunyad in Budapest, day two to Visegrád and Esztergom along the Danube Bend, day three to Eger, and day four to Gödöllő or Székesfehérvár. Keszthely, Sümeg, Szigliget and Siklós belong to a separate Balaton or southern trip rather than to a Budapest base.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Five details from the castles’ own 2026 ticket pages will save you money or a wasted journey.

1. Go to Boldogkő at a weekend, not midweek. The 3,300 Ft weekend and holiday ticket includes the costumed tours, the combat displays and the weapons stand; the cheaper 2,500 Ft weekday ticket includes none of them.
2. Plan Sümeg on foot. Vehicles stop at the car park at the bottom of the hill, and the only way into the castle is to walk up, which rules it out in bad weather and makes it hard going with a pushchair.
3. Time Eger for a national holiday if the dates work. On 15 March, 20 August and 23 October the exhibitions are free and you pay only the 800 Ft service ticket instead of 4,800 Ft.
4. Check Visegrád’s calendar in winter. From mid-January to the end of February the citadel opens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only, and it closes altogether on 24 and 25 December.
5. Buy the Gödöllő rail-and-entry combination at the station. The national rail operator sells a single ticket covering the journey and the palace’s permanent exhibition, from 3,240 Ft at the reduced rate.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Hungary for independent travellers, including the castles, palaces and fortresses worth a ticket, the trains and ferries that reach them, and the towns worth an overnight stay. We update this page when Hungarian ticket prices, opening days and reconstruction closures change.