Madame Tussauds Budapest

Madame Tussauds Budapest -

13,990 HUF

3.5

Rating

3.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Great, very modern presentation
Great structure and beautiful rooms
Not the typical M.T. souvenir store

Flyctory.com Cons

Just 51 wax figures - and thus very expansive

Somehow I am a wax museum geek, I am sorry. Apart from the Budapest Ferris Wheel, Madame Tussauds was the only tourist attraction I visited in the Hungarian capital when I had a day there in early November 2023. There were, however, some more reasons for that: first, I wanted to visit the Underground Train Museum – but they only took cash and my Forint notes were not valid any more. Secondly I was very tired from traveling to Pittsburgh and Myrtle Beach before. And finally, I has the lucky opportunity to meet a wonderful friend again in Budapest. Nonetheless, let’s take you to the celebrities.

Madame Tussauds Budapest – Location & Admission

Madame Tussauds Budapest is located in the very heart of Budapest, close to Vörösmaty Ter. The square also features the closest metro station to the wax museum, serviced by line M1 only. All other lines and a couple of subway and bus connections (including the airport bus) leave from Deak Ferenc Ter, which is just a few steps away. Various other central attractions can be reached in a short distance.

Madame Tussauds Budapest is opening daily, from 10:00 to 18:00. The oridnary adult admssion to the wax museum is 13,990 HUF. This equals to a surprisingly high price of some 36 EUR. You will receive discounts and likely also beat the 10% I had. If you book online in advance for a fixed time, you already qualify for a reduced ticket price.

Madame Tussauds Budapest – The Visit

Apart from the ticket price, the visit felt already special at a beginning. I have never been to a Madame Tussauds location before, which has given me a personal introduction, explaining me the ticket, the rooms in general and the services they offer. Furthermore, I was quite confused when the lovely lady at the entrance encouraged me to you can touch anything. And feel free to sit on anything you like. Especially the touching thing is typically rather unwanted visitor behavior in other locations, I felt.

You can already see in the first picture that the presentation is amazing at Madame Tussauds Budapest. The rooms are rather large, beautifully decorated. Also, the first room working with a lot of screens and changing backgrounds is stunning. The quality of the wax figures is as good as Madame Tussauds typically provides. The room below is named Hungarian Spirit and shows some famous Hungarian people, from King Saint Stephen I to Dracula actor Bela Lugosi. My highlight was the area of painter Mihaly Munkacsy. You sit on a sofa, take a picture and then see how he is slowly “painting” you on a screen. One of many very cool features.

There is a nice focus on Hungarian people, including model Barbara Palvin or sports superstars like soccer legend Ferenc Puskas and swimming queen Katinka Hosszu. Of course you also run into international celebrities – you meet some of them in a beautiful room inspired by the Hungarian bathing culture… Just to find out that you actually made it to the very last room already. That’s the downside of Madame Tussauds Budapest. The May 2023 opened attraction just features 51 prominent people. That’s not enough, you will easily do the visit in one hour. For example, Madame Tussauds Berlin comes with 120 figures.

Madame Tussauds Budapest – Services

The staff of Madame Tussauds Budapest was awesome and very friendly. You felt welcome at the place. And even quite some locals fett to go there and take pictures with the alter egos of their stars. Not too surprisingly that your visit ends up in a gift shop. However, the Budapest one was not as stereotypical and predictable as Madame Tussauds stores are typically. The WiFi in the museum worked very well (which is very important if you want to make your beloved ones a bit of jealous).

Last, but not least in one of the rooms, there is a beautifully illuminated cafe. I would have definitely tried it if I had more time. In that room, there was also a special temporary wax statues (during my visit, it was David Beckham).

Madame Tussauds Budapest – My View

Madame Tussauds Budapest could really be a special outlet of this global Merlin Entertainments franchise. The presentation is excellent and some of the ideas and interactions are really cool. The staff is lovely and the cafe is the most beautiful one I have ever seen in a Madame Tussauds place. However, the Budapest wax museum comes with two issues: the first one is: it is too small. The second one, closely related to it: it is by far too expansive. Budapest is not the discount place in Europe any more. But the only pre-order single ticket for London (not the walk-up one) is about the same price. There is no justification for that, unfortunately.