Fireworks on the 20th of August over Budapest and the river Danube

20th August – National Holiday

Dear Travelers!

Please note that the 20th of August is a National and bank holiday every year in Hungary. Shopping malls, banks, shop are closed except for some non-stop supermarkets in the city centre.

On this day we celebrate the foundation of the Hungarian state by our first king, Saint Stephen (or Stephen the 1st, who was canonised later).  If you would like to learn more about this, please feel free to join any of our free walking tours in Budapest. We do not run all our free tours as usual, but

we run the following free tours on the 20th of August

  • 10:30 Free Budapest Tours
  • 15:30 Free Jewish quarter Tour

You can join without a booking as well, but if you would like to make sure, you can book your walk on the subpage of each of our free tours by clicking on the “Book now” button.

On the rest of the weekend all our tours run as usual, please see the Daily tour schedule HERE.

Free programs on the 20th of August

Every year (except for last year 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic…) the state organizes huge fireworks in the city centre on the banks of the Danube which is free to join. Please note that there probably will be a crowd, but You can watch the fireworks from the banks of the Danube between Rakoczi bridge and Arpad bridge on both sides of the river. You can also go up to the top of the Gellert hill and the Castle hill.

Some of our museums are also free to visit on the 20th of August!

These museums are: The National Gallery, the National Museum, the Natural History Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, the Aquicum Museum (Roman ruins) and the Hungarian Museum of Agriculture.

Hope to see a lot of you on our Free Budapest Walking Tours soon! 🙂