Mobile internet in Budapest: a visitor’s guide

Roaming here, in three lines

• EU and EEA plans: roam like at home applies, within the fair-use limit.
• UK plans: it depends on your operator since Brexit.
• Plans from outside Europe: usually roaming charges or a daily pass.

The rules in full, country by country, are in our guide to Internet in Hungary.

From the airport into the city

The airport sits east of the city and there is no metro line to the door: you get in by bus to a metro terminus, or by a booked transfer or taxi. That is a decision made on the phone while you walk through arrivals — which bus, which metro line after it, how long the whole thing takes, and whether it is worth the transfer instead. The message to your accommodation about your arrival time goes the same way.

Airport Wi-Fi usually wants a registration or gives you a short free slot, so landing with data already on is worth more than it sounds. An eSIM is installed at home over Wi-Fi and only starts counting when the phone first connects in Hungary.

Underground, and on the two sides of the river

In the metro tunnels coverage depends on the line and on the station: some stretches and platforms have it and others do not, and the deep line is a long way down, so plan for a live route to stall between stops and catch up at the surface. Anything you truly need down there — the ticket, the address, the next connection — is better loaded before you go down the stairs.

Above ground the trouble is the position rather than the signal. On the Buda side the streets climb, turn and narrow between high walls, and the courtyards on the Pest side do the same on the flat: GPS bounces off the buildings and the dot on the map drifts a street or two before it settles. Walking a few metres into the open fixes it faster than reopening the app, and an offline map of the city downloaded beforehand keeps the streets and the search working either way.

Forints, tickets and the rest of the phone

• The money: Hungary uses the forint, not the euro. Buying the eSIM online before you travel, at the price you see on the site, means it is not one more thing to sort out at a counter in a currency you do not use day to day.
• Timed tickets: baths, museums and viewpoints put you in a slot and the ticket is shown from the phone at the door. Save it offline too, in case the queue has a bad signal.
• Maps and public transport: constant, and the reason to download the offline map before the trip.
• The usual background: messages, photos going up and the odd video call home.

How much data

It depends on the days, on whether you watch video and on whether you share with a laptop. How much data do I need turns that into a number from what you actually do.

Prices for Hungary

Hungary data eSIMs: 3 GB for €4.49, 5 GB for €6.79, 10 GB for €11.29 and 20 GB for €16.99. Local networks (Telenor Hungary (5G), Vodafone (5G)), hotspot allowed, no speed cap from us, and topping up does not mean reinstalling. It is data only, so your own line keeps your number.