Szentendre · Backpacking

A single BKK ticket is 500 Ft and covers you to the city boundary; beyond it you need a supplementary HÉV ticket, 400 to 600 Ft depending on the distance band, with the 30 km band at 600 Ft. The Skanzen is 4,000 Ft full price and 2,000 Ft for ages 6 to 26, while Fő tér, the climb to Templomdomb and the river promenade cost nothing at all.

6,200 Ft, or 3,100 Ft at the half-price rate, buys unlimited travel on the H5 between Békásmegyer and Szentendre for up to ten people travelling together in one vehicle, valid from midnight until 02:00 the following morning. It needs no validation and works out cheaper than singles for four or more.

On selected pre-season and off-season dates the open-air museum sells a sétálójegy at 1,200 Ft instead of the 4,000 Ft full ticket. Check which dates it applies to before planning around it, and note the museum is closed Mondays and normally runs 09:00–17:00.

Fő tér and its plague cross, the lanes climbing to the hilltop church, the terrace view over the red roofs and the Danube promenade all cost nothing. The museums are the only things here you actually pay for, so pick one rather than all of them.

Rooms here are not cheap for a town forty minutes from Budapest, and it closes early enough that an evening costs you nothing but also gives you nothing. Come out for the afternoon, stay for the light, take the HÉV back.