Need to buy some Hungarian forint?

Forint exchange

The forint is the legal tender of Hungary, and has existed in various forms since 1325. Since then, several new currencies have been introduced, but after hyper-inflation in the early 20th century, the forint was brought back in 1946.

In Hungary, it’s important to see which stores do and don’t accept card payments. A good way to tell is by looking at the shop window for logos of card providers such as MasterCard.

Tipping is very common here and, especially in the case of taxis, it might be considered quite rude if you do not tip (unless of course you have reason to complain). 10% is the expected amount, whereas in restaurants you should aim for between 10 and 15%.

Door and bathroom attendants are very common in Hungary, and there is an expectation that they will be tipped for their services – 100 forints will suffice, so keep plenty of coins to hand for this.

Frequently used banknotes

Banknotes used most often are 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 forints. Coins used most commonly are 50, 100 and 200 forints.

Although the vast majority of prices are in forints, a handful of services are priced in euros, such as international train tickets, where paying in either currency is acceptable.