Budapest Local City Tips And Events

Interested in riding a bike in Budapest and you have no idea?  Best cycling tours in the city? Want to learn how to use MOL Bubi (Budapest city bike)? Let us take you through the bike routes, recommend the best bike café in the Hungarian capital, and tell you where to buy or rent a bike in the city. TLDR: Rent a bike to see the sights. Or to go around Margaret Island. City Park. Along the Danube river and city center. Enjoy!

Is Budapest Bike-Friendly?

You won’t believe how much this city changed in a little more than 13 years – Budapest used to be difficult for cyclists, but by now it’s become a really bike-friendly city. Thanks to year after year of successful Critical Mass demonstrations and other great grassroots work, the city has countless cycling paths, even car drivers have become more careful, and there’s a growing culture of biking in general.

What’s more, the new Budapest mayor is green! He just got elected and will continue making the city more green and more bike-friendly. Bike routes are everywhere, and there are nice trails in and around the city for day trips.

Cycling rules for biking in Budapest

If you're going to ride a bike in Budapest, you will see that there are bike routes all around – use those, and not the sidewalk. Other than that, certain one-way streets are marked for bikes as two-way, so you can go in from either direction. Sometimes bike lanes get very close to cars or could have sections on the pavement, next to pedestrians – watch out and be respectful.

The main rule is, wherever cycling isn’t forbidden (motorways, bridges, some overpasses), you can cycle, but as long as there is a bike lane, you have to use that. Biking on the sidewalk is forbidden (although many locals don’t know or don’t want to know this).

Credit: Website Budapest Bike by BKK - Rules for biking in Budapest

If you’re there for a short time Maverick Lodges offers Bed & Bike Package in Budapest. You can book it as a special rate when you book with the hostel.

Besides, you also have MOL Bubi Bikes, which is the Budapest city bike with docking stations all around town. You can use it by minute, first three minutes equals the card registration fee (120 HUF), and every further minute costs 40 HUF. If you want to get more serious, you can also get a used bike. The best way is the Used bikes for sale in Budapest Facebook group, where locals and expats sell bikes at great prices.

Budapest bike tours and maps

Services like the Budapest Bike Tour or BudaBike Tours let you use their bikes and give you an English speaking guide for around 30 euros per participant. Some offers include a free drink+dessert for day time tours, or a nice meal of goulash at the end. But frankly, you could just rent a bike and explore on your own, since a lot of the landmarks are pretty close to one another.

If you prefer to go on your own and visit some of Budapest's attractions by bicycle here is a cycling map. You can look up the public transport company’s official overview of cycling routes in Budapest:

Credit: Website Budapest bike hacks by BKK - Biking in Budapest

Also, you have more options to rent a bike. Yellow Zebra could be a cool spot to start out from (3 Galamb utca, next to Váci shopping street). You can enjoy the views from Pest and Buda side promenade, ride to Gellért Hotel, Liberty Bridge, an the Great Market Hall, and circle around the Opera House, the St Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament.

If you stay around Nyugati railway station, Bikebase Budapest is also a good option (19 Podmaniczky utca), and there are also 24/7 Donkey Republic bike rentals all around downtown.

Bike café in Budapest

At 11 Mester utca, you get it all in one: cool Budapest bike café called Mester Bike with nice cakes/pastries and a super friendly and professional bike store. They sell and repair bikes – no renting here, but worth coming to have your bike checked, or for the great coffee!

Credit: Facebook @mesterbike

Eurovelo: Bike from the Atlantic all the way to the Black Sea

EuroVelo is made up of 15 long-distance cycling routes across Europe. Super popular EuroVelo 6 connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea and it happens to pass through Budapest. The whole route is 4,400-km long, passing by rivers, castles, other cool stuff, through a by and large flat topography. In Hungary, it goes by the Danube between Rajka and Mohács, next to beautiful nature and cultural sights.