Visiting Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest: An Actually Useful Guide for First Timers
Ahhh, fisherman’s Bastion is the most people-y place in Budapest, but so worth battling all the selfie sticks because it’s so DANG GORGEOUS.
For real, though. If you go to Budapest, you have to visit Fishermans Bastion, but you also need to know what to expect because we can guarantee it’s not what it looks like in 9.5/10 of the Instagram photos you’ve seen. Read: It’s got way more people unless you’re willing to get there for sunrise (which we recommend because it’s romantic!)
In this guide, we’re sharing all the deets you need to know about visiting so you don’t make any mistakes and can get the best photos. After living in Budapest, Caleb and I have been so many times that we’ve now lost count and know all the ins and outs about visiting this lookout with epic, panoramic views. Let’s get into it!
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Quick Navigation: 📕 History // 🚗 How To Get There // 💴 Prices & Hours // 📸 Views & Photo Spots //❗Tips
A Quick Guide To Budapest
When to go and how long: April, May, September or August for 2-7 days.
Where to stay: We love staying in the 7Seasons Hotel for the cheap, large rooms, friendly staff, and epic, central location.
How to get around: walking or tram.
Must-do foodie activities: this wine tasting, this local cooking class with flowing wine, or this food tour if you’re short on time and want to eat all the top traditional foods
History
Budapest’s Fisherman’s Bastion, or Halászbástya in Hungarian (try saying that after a few glasses of amazing Hungarian wine), is a neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque terrace in Budapest’s Castle District.
The Bastion was built between 1895 and 1902 and was designed by Frigyes Schulek to be a panoramic viewing platform. We would say that he REALLY understood the assignment because panoramic views? It has those in spades! It’s been voted the third most beautiful lookout point in Europe!
The seven towers represent the seven Hungarian tribes that founded the nation in 895 AD, and they were named after the fishermen who defended this part of the city walls in the Middle Ages.
How to Get There
Fisherman’s Bastion is located on the Buda side of the city, right along the edge of the Castle district, one of the best districts for first-timers to stay. The best ways to get there are:
- Walking – we think walking is the best way to get around the city. From the center of town, it’ll take you 30-40 minutes to walk, and it’s the perfect way to burn off the heavy Hungarian food (hey, sour cream in EVERYTHING!) and make room for a chimney cake! #priorities, right?
If you’re coming from the center of Pest, just cross the Danube River (we recommend crossing on the chain bridge, as it’s the prettiest. When you hit the huge roundabout across the bridge, go to the further side and turn right on Hunyadi Janos Street, and then keep going up the street, go up the stairs, and you’re there!
- By Uber/Bolt – From the city center, it’ll be about a 10-minute drive and cost you $8-$10.
- Metro – catch the M2 from either Astoria, Deak Ferenc er, or Kossuth Lajos Ter and get off at Batthyany ter. Then, walk up one of the roads that will take you to the Bastion.
- Funicular – You can take this from Clark Adam Square (right across the bridge) to the top of Castle Hill and walk for about 5 minutes.
- Bus – we recommend getting on right in the city center and Deak Ferenc Ter, take #16 to Castle Hill, and get off at Disz Ter.
PRACTICAL INFO: you can pay for the bus on board by tapping your credit card. However, we each had to have our own credit card, so keep that in mind!
- Tram – Don’t try to figure out a way to use the tram. We think trams are best for staying on one side of the river, and it gets confusing when you try to cross the Danube!
How Long To Stay
How long you’ll stay depends on a few factors:
- Are you going to take Instagram photos and need time to get “the shot?”
- Are you going to stay awhile and look around Matthias’ church?
- Are you paying for the ticket to get some extra views?
If you answered yes to any of those, take at least an hour to visit Fisherman’s Bastion.
If you’re just going to see some views and leave, you really only need 30 minutes. The whole Bastion area is pretty small, and you can walk from one side to the other in about 2 minutes, so 30 minutes gives you plenty of time to see the “things.”
Opening Hours
If you just want to visit the main, open-air part of Fishermans Bastion, it’s open 24/7 and even on holidays. That’s right, when that 3rd glass of Hungarian wine tells you it’s a good idea to look out over Budapest at 12 pm, YOU CAN.
Not that we’ve done that…..moving on. 👀
If you want to get tickets to some of the restricted areas for the views, your opening hours are:
- from 9 am to 7 pm (Jan 2nd to May 31st)
- from 9 am to 9 pm (Jun 1st to Sep 30th)
- from 9 am to 7 pm (Oct 1st to Jan 1st)
Tickets
If you’re all about saving some money when you can (you know, to have more cash to spend on food and wine. #priorities, the sequel), you’ll be as happy as we were to learn that it’s always free to wander around the lower terrace.
You won’t get *as* epic views as the upper terrace…but it’s free?
If you want to visit the upper terrace, you can buy Fisherman Bastion tickets for HUF 1200 ($3.50 per person during the ticketed hours from the ticket booth or ticket vending machine across from Matthias church.
PRO TIP: want to visit both terraces for free? Go to the Bastion outside of the ticketed hours listed above because then the WHOLE thing is free to wander! You just turn the turnstile gates leading up to the turrets and wander around. This is what we did for sunrise photos, and it’s also perfect for nighttime photography!
You can also visit between Dec 24th and Jan 2nd because then everything is free all day long.
Views and Photo Spots
If you’re visiting Fisherman Bastion in Budapest, you probably want some epic shots to spice up your Instagram feed, ya? It’s one of the main reasons tourists are flocking to Budapest! Here are the most beautiful and famous landmarks you can see from the Bastion so you don’t miss them:
- The Danube River (if you miss this one, we can’t help you 😅)
- The Hungarian Parliament Building
- Széchenyi Chain Bridge
- The Budapest Eye
- St. Stephen’s Basilica (Szent Istvan Bazilika)
All of these iconic landmarks look STUNNING from this viewpoint, so get your phones ready and snap away – especially if you come for sunrise as we did!
PRO TIP: Our favorite shot is the shot of me sitting on the ledge overlooking the city, BUT it was a little dangerous to take. Like, if I made one small move, I would have fallen to my literal death. So, be careful, okay? No “perfect photo” is worth dying over.
Fisherman’s Bastion itself looks great in all seasons – we’ve been in both Summer and winter – but winter is our favorite! We were lucky enough to get snow, and LOOK AT IT. It makes our Instagram feed look so EXTRA.
COUPLES TIP: check out the famous archway coming up from the grand staircase. It’s a cute spot for a sitting down couple photo like the one we took above.
Make Sure To Visit Matthias Church
You can’t miss the church when you walk around Fisherman’s Bastion because it’s right in the middle, and it’s so freaking stunning! Its gothic style, colorful tiles, spires, gargoyles, and windows on the outside make this one of the most beautiful churches in Europe, in our opinion.
The inside is beautiful, too, but we do think it reminds us of many other beautiful churches in Europe. If you’ve seen a bunch of them, you could skip going inside and saving some bucks. However, going up the tower will give you some eye-poppingly beautiful views of the city!
You can get tickets online here, and it’s HUF 2900 per person for the church or HUF 3400 for the tower and includes a 10-minute guided tour.
PRACTICAL INFO: you can use your ticket to the church ANY day and time of the year. However, you have to pick a specific day and time for the tower. You should also know there are 197 steps to get to the top of the tower, with no elevator or bathroom! Pee-break before!
The opening hours are: Monday to Friday: 9am-5pm, Saturday: 9am-12am, Sunday: 1pm-5pm
Tips For Visiting
- Go outside of the ticketed times for free entry. Honestly, we didn’t know it was free, so we were like, “UGH, look at those rude influencers breaking the rules to get Instagram photos” when we saw them going through the turnstile at 7am. Guess we could have too. 😅
- For amazing views of the Bastion: if you’re coming from Buda Castle, walk along the walls to Fisherman’s Bastion instead of going back down to the street because it’s less busy and has lovely views. To get there, walk up the stairs past Aranybastya restaurant and turn right on the street to walk towards the Bastion.
- Go at sunrise: you’ll have fewer people (but still a few flowy dress girls running around) and the most BEAUTIFUL view, especially if it’s a clear day.
- If you get cold, go to the Starbucks in the Hilton – I know you don’t want to drink Starbucks in Hungary. But if you visit in winter like we did once and you’re taking pics at sunrise, you gonna be COLD! The Starbucks opens fairly early, and you can get a coffee or tea to warm up!
Fisherman’s Bastion is seriously one of the most beautiful places in all of Budapest (and maybe all of Europe?) and we loved visiting when we lived the city! We hope all our tips for visiting helped,but if you have any questions about checking it out, leave a comment and we’ll get right back to you!
Now that you’ve got one of the main tourist sites done, you need to visit some hidden gems! We’re here to help with our guide to hidden gems in Budapest, especially if you like food and wine!
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