Fun and entertainment Hungary

Timetable

Concerts, plays and operas start around 7.7.30 or 8 p.m., bar concerts at 9 p.m. and discotheques around 10-11 p.m. It's worth noting that most Hungarians go out on Friday and Saturday nights (and to a lesser extent on Thursday nights). The rest of the week - except in summer - most bars and clubs close at 2 a.m. at most, and on Sundays there's not a cat in sight, although with tourists, there's always a crowd. Happy hours are rare in Hungary, except in Irish pubs/international bars.

Budget & Tips

Club tickets may be free (especially for women), but if they're not, they'll cost you around 1,500 Ft (€4). The same applies to art-house movies. Concerts, plays, operas and other shows are far from costing a fortune in Hungary. A concert costs between €10 and €30. Discounts are systematically available for pensioners (on presentation of their card) and students. In Budapest, at the MUPA's Bartók Béla Hall, tickets are 500 Ft for students who purchase them 1 hour before the concert. Napi bontás recommends the best evenings day by day, Klubadatok A-tól Z-ig presents an alphabetical classification of places that move, zene is devoted to concerts, színház to theater, mozi to cinema. There's also the free monthly English-language magazine Funzine (www.funzine.hu).

Ruined bars and kert often offer decent food at reasonable prices.

To be booked

Advance tickets are recommended for the most popular shows and concerts, especially operas.

Night transport

Getting around Budapest at night is easy and inexpensive. Metro services end at around 11:10 p.m. (and resume at 4:30 a.m.), except for line 4, which ends at 11:40 p.m. on weekdays and midnight 40 on Friday and Saturday nights. Streetcar line 6, which criss-crosses the main boulevards between Pest and Buda, runs all night long. There are also dozens of night buses (every 30 minutes) departing from Blaha Lujza, Astoria and other traffic junctions, all with a number starting with 9. Otherwise, there are buses and city bicycles (among others).

Age restrictions

Nightclubs are not open to under-18s. We regularly ask for your identity card to check.

What's very local

Try your hand at táncház! Concert halls and bars regularly offer the public the chance to put on their shoes for an evening of folk dancing (Hungarian, Greek...) accompanied by musicians. These sessions are often preceded by dance classes. The vast majority of cultural establishments - with the exception of most cinemas - close in summer (and move outdoors for festivals, notably the Summer Festival - see "Festivities"). Some bars screen summer films on their terraces.

In nightclubs, you may not be allowed in with even a small backpack, and face control is de rigueur in trendy clubs (rare otherwise). The dress code is often very flexible, although some clubs prohibit the wearing of jeans.

Children will love the puppet theaters, which can be found in several cities (although they may not understand much, as the shows are in Hungarian). Large concert halls often have special concerts for young children and their parents (a kind of musical awakening).

Smokers

Smoking is no longer permitted in Hungarian establishments, except on outdoor terraces.