Budapest Guide
Arrival
By air
Ferihegy Airport, 20km southeast of the centre, has three passenger terminals. Ferihegy 1 has been renovated and now serves as the terminal for no-frills airlines. Ferihegy 2A and 2B are the other side of the airport, ten-minutes' drive further out: Terminal 2A serves countries covered by the Schengen Agreement (including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden), while Ferihegy 2B covers the rest of the world (the UK, USA, Romania, etc). Terminal 1 handles both Schengen and non-Schengen traffic. Before leaving, it is worth checking which terminal you're flying from, as the Schengen divide was introduced in March 2008 and might be subject to revision. There are ATMs and tourist information desks in all the terminal buildings.
The easiest – and most expensive – way to get into the centre is an airport taxi. Now run by Zóna taxi, these charge a fixed fee to different zones (you'll pay around 5300Ft or €25 to the centre), and also offer return fares. Alternatively, Ferihegy's Tourinform offices (daily 8am–11pm) can help with booking an ordinary city cab around 5000Ft). A cheaper option is the Airport Shuttle ( 
1/296-8555, 
www.airportshuttle.hu ) minibus, which will take you directly to any address in the city. Tickets (2990Ft single, 4990Ft return; discounts available for groups of two or more) can be bought in the luggage claim hall while you are waiting for your bags, or in the main concourse; you give the address you're heading to and then have to wait five to twenty minutes until the driver calls your destination.
Public transport might be more inconvenient but it's not much slower, and it's certainly cheaper. Bus #200 departs every fifteen minutes from the stop between terminals 2A and 2B via terminal 1 to Kőbánya-Kispest metro station; from here, you can switch to the blue metro line to get to the centre. Total journey time is about thirty minutes from terminal 1 and 45 minutes from 2A and 2B, and both bus and metro tickets cost 270Ft each if bought from the newsagents in the terminals or from the machine by the bus stop. Buying a bus ticket from the driver on board will cost you 350Ft.
The quickest and cheapest route into the centre is to catch a mainline train from the station across the road from Ferihegy 1, which takes you to Nyugati Station for a mere 300Ft (discounts with Budapest Card); journey time is 22 minutes. You buy tickets at the Tourinform desk inside the terminal building, and trains go every half hour. Trains from Nyugati Station to the airport leave on the hour and 35 past the hour. You can get tickets – ask for tickets to Ferihegy – from the ticket offices by platform 13; the information window should be able to say which platform to go to. You'll want a train to Monor, Cegléd and Szolnok. Ferihegy 1 is the stop after Kőbánya-Kispest, and is poorly signed. You should also note that if the lifts are not working it is fifty steps up and down to get over the tracks to terminal 1 (and the stop for bus #200 if you're departing from 2A or 2B).