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Take metro line 3 to the end of the line where you will find a bus station. Take the airport bus, it will stop at terminal 1, stay on the bus until the second to last stop before the airport. You will notice that the city ends quite abruptly, prior to this you will see a petrol station, this is the last petrol station for at least 10-15 km. From the second to last bus stop you will have to walk back to this station. There is no good place to hitch after this point for around 10-15km as the road is motorway. Later on there are more hitching opportunities and its easy to get dropped off somewhere useful. Alternatively outside terminal 1 of the airport is as good as most roadside locations however its probable that a only a proportion of traffic is traveling right out of the city.
You can also get the train from Nyugati Pályaudvar for HUF 550 huf to Üllő about 30 minutes by train, you walk through the town to a big round a bout where there is a mol petrol station. easy to get rides towards Szolnok/Oradea/Cluj.
=== M2 North towards [[Kraków]], [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]] {{European Route Number|77}} ===
There is one straight highway from Budapest to Warsaw. After construcion of M0 and M2 motorways getting out of Budapest became more difficult and made hitching on the border of the city quite pointless since most of the traffic is very local and going in wrong directions.
Some options:
1) Take a local train from Budapest-Nyugati station to Sződliget (550HUFHUF 550/2EUREUR 2) which goes very often, takes 33min. Road E77 (still a motorway there, but changes into regular rod very soon) is about 200m to the right (east) of the Sződliget station. Quick and easy, hitch on the road itself, not on the on-ramp.
2) Or try what Maxijazz reccommends below.
== Public Transport ==
Public transport in Budapest is really good. A single ticket is about €1,EUR 1.10 (10-bunch ticket is about €7EUR 7) and it seems like conductors don't check the stamps, so it might be possible to use them for a few days without getting caught.
After you buy your ticket, you have to validate it. There are red machines on buses and trams that punch a hole in a different place on your ticket each day, which is how they determine if you validated your ticket that day (or at least not the day before...) I haven't had a ticket checked on a bus or tram yet, but if you want to be safe, hang around the machine and if you see an inspector coming, punch your ticket immediately.
The old "I didn't know I had to validate the ticket" thing will not work with an inspector. The Hungarian transportation system is going bankrupt and they need those fines, so inspectors can be quite insistent but you shouldn't let yourself get frightened.
On the underground there are inspectors posted at the entrance to the platforms during all operational hours who will demand to see your ticket. Most of the time they check those who are entering and don't bother with people who are leaving the platform (e.g. Keleti Railwaystation Railway station is one exception), so if you see no conductors at the entrance then you are fine. Either you take your chance that there will be no checking at the exit, or take the bus/tram, you can get pretty much everywhere without the metro.
Inspectors are rare on buses and trams except for the most popular lines e.g. tram no. 4-6. Rush hours are usually safe when the trams/buses are too crowded for the inspectors to walk through the vehicles.
If you get caught without a valid ticket, the official fine on the spot is HUF 6000 HUF, which is about EUR 20 EUR. Do not let you be fooled with other amount, it is HUF 6000 HUF, and the received paper is valid for traveling that day. But if you are cool enough you can get away without paying at all.
On buses and trams you have the following options if you get caught:
== Sleeping in Budapest ==
Attention! Sleeping in the street is ILLEGAL '''illegal''' anywhere in Hungary according to a new law. If you want to sleep outside in summer, you can do so anywhere in Buda hills. (update, 2012)
There are a few really good places to spend the night if you don't want to spend any money for accommodation. In the summer, when it's warm, sleeping in parks should do the thing. The two big parks are Margitsziget (47.528694,19.047618) and Városliget (47.513566,19.085126). Margitsziget is an island in the Danube and it's a popular place to walk and escape from the busy city in the nice weather. Városliget is about the same. In both places you could find hidden places where nobody would bother you at night. Although there are sometimes people sill awake at nights, especially young ones, but they wouldn't do any harm to you. Homeless people are harmless.
There's a big unfinished apartment building at Rákóczi út 66 (between Blaha Lujza ter and Keleti station), climb over the fence and enjoy some 9th floor rooftop camping. (47.498479,19.074106)
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