Hungary in 7 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)

Seven days on a budget is enough to get past Budapest and into real regional Hungary: two lean capital days, then a Danube Bend day trip, an Eger wine overnight, a Lake Balaton overnight, and a Pécs overnight, all connected by MÁV train, with a slower final day back to Budapest. Every price below is in forints (HUF), never euros, Hungary is EU and Schengen but has not adopted the euro, and that’s the single most common error in older Hungary trip guides.

Need less time? This site also runs 3-day , 4-day and 6-day Hungary itineraries that use the same Budapest-plus-regions spine with fewer regional stops.

Book these before you go:

Day Focus Region / transit Rough daily spend (HUF)
1 Budapest arrival: Parliament exterior, St Stephen’s Basilica, Great Market Hall Budapest (Pest) 16,000-24,000
2 Buda Castle Hill, Fisherman’s Bastion, a thermal bath, a ruin bar Budapest (Buda) 20,000-28,000
3 Danube Bend day trip by HÉV commuter train Budapest to Szentendre 14,000-20,000
4 MÁV train to Eger: castle, Bull’s Blood wine cellars, overnight Budapest to Eger 24,000-34,000
5 Back through Budapest to Lake Balaton, Tihany peninsula, overnight Eger to Budapest to Balaton 26,000-36,000
6 Tihany morning, then MÁV south to Pécs, Early Christian Necropolis, overnight Balaton to Pécs 24,000-32,000
7 MÁV back to Budapest, Great Market Hall, a last bath, departure Pécs to Budapest 14,000-20,000

Day 1: Budapest, the cheap side of Pest

Clear immigration at Ferenc Liszt International (BUD) with just a passport if you hold a US, UK, Canadian, Australian or EU/EEA one, Hungary is Schengen and visa-free stays run up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Skip the airport currency-exchange counter, and skip any “no commission” booth on Váci utca later too, both are a known rip-off; a bank-affiliated ATM set to charge you in forints, not your home currency, is reliably cheaper.

There’s no metro or direct rail line to BUD, so take the cheaper 200E bus plus M3 metro combo into town rather than a taxi, and load the BudapestGO app for the metro, tram and bus network, every ticket needs validating before you board. Spend the afternoon on the Pest side: the Hungarian Parliament building on the riverbank (the interior needs an advance-booked guided tour and security screening, skip it on this budget if you haven’t already booked), St Stephen’s Basilica for a rooftop view, and the Great Market Hall for cheap lángos or a bowl of gulyás, a soup, not the thick stew some tourist menus serve.

Day 2: Buda Castle Hill and a thermal bath, not Gellért

Cross to Buda for Castle Hill: Fisherman’s Bastion has free viewing terraces, Matthias Church, and the Buda Castle courtyard, all walkable uphill instead of paying for the funicular both ways. Save your one bath afternoon for Széchenyi or Rudas, not Gellért, which has been closed for renovation since October 2025 and isn’t due back before 2028, so any list still sending you there is out of date. Széchenyi is the grand Neo-Baroque outdoor-pool experience with the classic chess-players-in-steam scene; Rudas is the smaller Ottoman-era pool and often a few thousand forint cheaper. In the evening, a ruin bar like Szimpla Kert in the Jewish Quarter is the cheapest way to spend a Budapest night.

Day 3: The Danube Bend by HÉV, the cheap way

The Danube Bend is the one regional side trip on this list that fits into a single day without an overnight. The HÉV commuter train from Batthyány tér to Szentendre takes roughly 40 minutes and costs a small supplement above a standard Budapest ticket once you cross the fare-zone boundary, check the current fare at bkk.hu before you go. Szentendre itself is a free-to-wander riverside old town with a handful of small museums if you want to spend on one.

If you have extra time and forints, a bus or seasonal boat onward to Visegrád adds a hilltop castle-ruin view over the river bend, but don’t try to add Esztergom on the same day too, that turns a half day into a rushed full one. Be back in Budapest by evening either way; this is a day trip, not the start of the overnight leg.

Day 4: Eger, castle and Bull’s Blood wine

Take an early MÁV train from Keleti station to Eger, roughly 1 hour 50 minutes covering about 132 km, check the live timetable and fare at jegy.mav.hu the night before. Eger is a baroque town built around its 1552 siege history: walk up to Eger Castle for the fortifications and a rooftop view, then head to the Valley of the Beautiful Women, a short walk or short taxi from the center, a row of wine cellars pouring Egri Bikavér, the Bull’s Blood red blend Eger is known for.

This is the one region on this trip worth budgeting a bit more for, a few tastings plus castle admission add up against the leaner Budapest days. Book a cheap guesthouse room in Eger for the night rather than a rushed same-day return; an overnight is what actually lets you enjoy the cellars instead of racing the last train back.

Day 5: Back through Budapest, on to Lake Balaton

There’s no direct line from Eger to Lake Balaton, Hungary’s rail network fans out from Budapest in a star pattern, not a connect-the-dots loop, so the honest plan is a morning MÁV train from Eger back to Keleti (roughly 1 hour 50 minutes again), then across the city to Budapest-Déli for a train on to Balaton, Balatonfüred runs about 2 hours, Siófok closer to 1.5. That’s most of a travel day, budget for it rather than pretending you’ll also sightsee that morning.

Once you’re at the lake, Central Europe’s largest freshwater lake, not a sea or coastline, head straight for the Tihany peninsula, reachable by local bus or a short boat hop from Balatonfüred, for the abbey views and lavender in season. Book a cheap guesthouse near the water rather than a lakefront resort room; this is a summer swimming destination and the resort premium is real in July and August.

Day 6: Tihany morning, then Pécs and an early-Christian UNESCO site

Use the morning for whatever you didn’t get to at Tihany the evening before, then take a MÁV connection south to Pécs, budget several hours with at least one change and check the live routing at jegy.mav.hu rather than assuming a single direct train. Pécs has a genuinely Mediterranean feel for a Hungarian city, near the Croatian border, and its main draw is the Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae), a UNESCO World Heritage site of 4th-century underground burial chambers, listed in 2000. Add the former Gazi Kasim Pasha Mosque, now a church, and the Zsolnay porcelain heritage if you have the afternoon for it. Book a cheap Pécs guesthouse for the night; this leg needs the overnight to be worth the transfer.

Day 7: Back to Budapest the slow way, or swap for Tokaj or Hortobágy

The default plan on this budget is a MÁV train back to Budapest, roughly 2 to 2.5 hours, arriving with enough of the day left for a last lángos or bowl of gulyás at the Great Market Hall and one more thermal-bath afternoon before you head to the airport.

If Tokaj’s sweet wine or the Hortobágy puszta appeals more than Pécs, swap one of them in for day 6 rather than stacking a fourth region on top: Tokaj and Hortobágy sit northeast and east of Budapest, the opposite direction from Pécs in the south, and trying to hit all three on one rail loop turns days 6 and 7 into pure transit with no time on the ground. Pick one direction, south to Pécs or northeast to wine and puszta country, and give it the overnight it needs.

Does Hungary use the euro?

No. Hungary is an EU and Schengen member but has not adopted the euro, and there’s no confirmed target date for it to do so. The currency is the Hungarian forint (HUF), with roughly HUF 315-320 to the US dollar and HUF 355-365 to the euro as of mid-2026, rates move, so treat any conversion as approximate. Pricing this trip in euros, as some older itinerary drafts do, is simply wrong.

How many days do you need in Hungary?

Seven days is enough for Budapest plus a real regional loop, which is what this itinerary does: two capital days, then Danube Bend, Eger, Balaton and Pécs, each earning either a day trip or an overnight depending on the distance. Budapest alone justifies 2-3 days on its own; Eger, Balaton and Pécs are all genuinely better with a night than a rushed same-day return, and even at seven days, trying to add a fifth region like Tokaj or Hortobágy on top rather than swapping it in stretches the rail transfers too thin.

Is Hungary safe, and do I need ETIAS to visit?

Yes, it’s a safe, low-key country to travel by rail alone, and no, not yet for ETIAS. Hungary carries the US State Department’s Level 1 travel advisory , its safest tier, and the UK’s FCDO travel advice flags the same low-key risk profile, pickpockets on Budapest’s trams and a taxi-driver-to-scam-bar commission racket near nightlife areas, not violent crime. Use Bolt or an official Főtaxi rather than a driver who approaches you on the street.

Hungary has been a full Schengen member since 2007, so US, UK, Canadian, Australian and EU/EEA passport holders enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, and there are no routine border checks arriving from Austria, Slovakia or Slovenia. The EU’s ETIAS travel-authorization system is not yet operational, it’s been delayed multiple times and is currently expected around 2027, check the live status at travel-europe.europa.eu/etias before you book rather than treating it as a current requirement. For the official regional overview if you want to reshuffle this route, see Hungary’s national tourism board .

One concrete tip: buy each MÁV ticket the night before at jegy.mav.hu rather than at the station counter, the early InterCity trains on the Eger and Pécs legs are the ones that get you a full day on the ground instead of half of one.