Lake Balaton and the Bakony
Lake Balaton, affectionately known to Hungarians as “Balcsi”, is the nation’s substitute for a coastline. Millions of people come here every summer to enjoy the lake’s remarkably clean, milky green waters, which, with an average depth of only 3m, are warm enough to swim in from May to October. Though few would subscribe to the old romantic view of Balaton as the “Hungarian sea”, it is still the largest freshwater lake in Europe – nearly 80km long and varying in width from 14km to a mere 1.5km at the point where the lake is almost cut in two by the Tihany peninsula – and all that remains of the ancient Pannonian Sea that once covered the region.
Though its history is hardly writ large, the region was first settled in the Iron Age, and has been a wine-growing centre since Roman times. During the sixteenth century, it formed the front line between Turkish and Habsburg-ruled Hungary, with an Ottoman fleet based at Siófok and an Austrian one at Balatonfüred. Spas and villas began to appear from 1765 onwards, but catered largely to the wealthy until the Communists began promoting holidays for the masses after World War II. During the 1960s, footloose youths started flocking here, and in the 1970s and 1980s there was a boom in private holiday homes and room-letting, fuelled by an influx of tourists from Germany and Austria. Today, visitors from these two countries still provide the bulk of tourists, although an increasing number of other foreigners are beginning to discover some of the undoubted charms of the lake, thanks in part due to the recent opening of the country’s second civilian airport, Sármellék, near Keszthely. If visiting, it’s best to do so outside July and August as this is the time when the natives descend upon the lake in their masses.
Balaton’s low-lying southern shore is largely characterized by a continuous chain of fairly indistinguishable resorts, though it does boast brash and bustling Siófok, indisputably the lake’s number-one party town, as well as some terrific wine regions a little further south. By contrast, waterfront development on the northern shore has been limited by reed beds and cooler, deeper water, and the attractions, such as the beautiful Tihany peninsula, elegant Balatonfüred, and the wine-producing Badacsony Hills, are of a less hedonistic bent, instead offering splendid scenery and sightseeing. The compact western end is perhaps the most appealing part of the lake, providing the setting for the delightful university town of Keszthely, the world’s second-largest thermal lake at nearby Hévíz and the reedy Kis-Balaton nature reserve, home to a bison reserve and a superb venue for bird-watching.
Midway between Budapest and Balaton lies Lake Velence, a miniature version of Balaton, beyond which is Székesfehérvár, well worth a visit for its romantic Belváros (Inner Town) and “Bory’s Castle”. The thickly wooded Bakony region to the north of Balaton is dotted with picturesque villages and ruined castles, and is the setting for the historic towns of Veszprém, Sümeg and Tapolca, plus the world-famous porcelain factory at Herend.
Lake Balaton is easily accessible from Budapest and Transdanubia. Trains from Budapest’s Déli Station run to all the main resorts, with daily InterCity services providing the fastest access to Keszthely (2hr 30min) via the southern shore. Buses to Székesfehérvár, Veszprém and Balaton leave from the Népliget depot. If you’re driving to Balaton, the M7, which passes the north shore of Lake Velence then down along the southern shore of Balaton towards the Croatian border, is the quickest road; to get to the northern shore, turn off the M7 onto Route 71 for Balatonfüred.
A great way to see – and get around – the lake is by ferry. From mid-April to October, passenger ferries run from Siófok to Balatonfüred and Tihany on the opposite bank, and between Fonyód and Badascony and Keszthely. During July and August, a number of other services shuttle back and forth across the lake connecting the smaller resorts. Between March and November, there is also a car ferry between Tihany-rév and Szántód-rév. Another attractive proposition is to cycle around the lake, now possible thanks to the well-signposted Balaton cycleway (Balaton Kőrűt).
Budapest to Lake Balaton >
Lake Balaton: the southern shore >
Lake Balaton: the northern shore >
The Bakony >
Highlights
Bory’s Castle, Székesfehérvár Take a wander around this marvellously eccentric mid-twentieth-century suburban folly.
Watersports on Lake Balaton The clean, shallow waters of Lake Balaton are ideal for sailing or windsurfing – head for Siófok, Balatonfüred or Keszthely.
Bison Reserve, Kápolnapuszta Get close to, and learn more about, these magnificent animals in Hungary’s largest buffalo park.
Tihany Exquisitely pretty village located in Hungary’s first national park.
Model Railway Museum, Keszthely Just one of several highly engaging museums in Balaton’s most charming lakeside town.
Thermal lake, Hévíz Wallow in temperatures of 30°C in Europe’s largest thermal lake.
Várhegy, Veszprém The elevated position of this beautifully preserved castle district affords terrific views of the Bakony Hills.
Porcelain factory, Herend Marvel at the supremely skilled craftsmanship on a tour around the world-famous factory.
Budapest to Lake Balaton
Most visitors from Budapest head straight for Lake Balaton, but there are a few attractions worth stopping off for en route. Just half an hour from the capital, the Brunswick Mansion at Martonvásár once played host to Beethoven and today holds outdoor concerts of his music in summer, while, a little further southwest, Lake Velence resembles a diminutive version of Balaton, with hills to the north and two contrasting shorelines. Beyond Lake Velence is the atmospheric town of Székesfehérvár, and some impressive Roman ruins at nearby Tác.
Martonvásár
Situated about halfway between Budapest and Velence, the small town of MARTONVÁSÁR is renowned for the neo-Gothic Brunswick Mansion (Brunszvik Kastély), set in a lovely park where Teréz Brunswick founded Hungary’s first nursery school in 1828; sadly, the mansion isn’t open to the public but the park is a wonderful place to stroll around (daily 8am–6pm; 500Ft). Beethoven came to the mansion several times in the early years of the nineteenth century, teaching music to Teréz and her sister, Josephine, who may have been the “immortal beloved” of Beethoven’s love letters, and the inspiration for his Moonlight and Appassionata sonatas. Some reckon, though, that his muse was Giulietta Guicciardi, the “beautiful devil” whom he also met here between 1800 and 1806.
A handful of Beethoven’s letters, as well as a medallion containing a lock of his hair, and a hammerklavier he might have played, are displayed in the Beethoven Memorial Museum (Beethoven Emlékmúzeum; Tues–Fri 10am–noon & 2–4pm, Sat & Sun 10am–noon & 2–6pm; 500Ft) adjoining the mansion. In addition there are numerous items belonging to the Brunswick family, including portraits, books and musical instruments, though the only guidance you can get on the exhibits in English is a small leaflet sold at the ticket desk (50Ft). Housed in a small hut to the left of the mansion, the Nursery Museum (Óvodamúzeum; mid-March to Oct Tues–Fri 10am–2pm, Sat & Sun 11am–5pm; Nov to mid-March same hours but closes 3pm Sat & Sun; 350Ft) offers a cramped display of artefacts, including a row of enamel potties set in a wooden bench, and photos from the past 150 years illustrating Hungary’s pioneering role in nursery education.
A more compelling reason to come to the mansion is for the summer evening concerts, held on an island in the middle of the park beneath a great bower of beech and sycamore. Armed with mosquito repellent and a couple of bottles from the bar-buffet, you can listen to the music as the sun sets through the trees. Tickets (2000–3000Ft) are available from the booth at the park entrance, or from the Central Box Office.
Arriving by train, it’s a ten-minute walk down Brunszvik utca to the park entrance, while buses drop you off at the post office by the traffic lights, from where it’s a two-minute walk. Should you wish to stay, there are a couple of places on Budai út, the main road towards Budapest (turn left at the traffic lights up from the park): the very simple Macska Pension at no. 21 (22/460-127; €26–35/6501–9000Ft), and the smart Hotel Marton, 450m further up at no. 83 (22/460-342, info@hotelmarton.hu; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft). The only restaurant here is Postakocsi at Fehérvári utca 1, on the corner of Dósza György út, leading up to the park.
Lake Velence
It’s hard not to smile when told that Velence, 50km from Budapest and just 15km from Székesfehérvár, is the Hungarian name for Venice, though the town probably came by the name because Italian craftsmen working in Székesfehérvár lived here in the Middle Ages, rather than from any more romantic similarities. Today, the 26 square kilometres of Lake Velence (Velencei-tó) serves as a lesser Balaton, though its resort aspect is balanced by a strong wildlife presence. Reeds cover up to a half of the lake’s surface, helping to maintain the quality of the water, and the western end is a nesting ground for some 30,000 birds, which migrate here in spring. According to legend, three sisters, who turned themselves into herons to escape the Turks, return home here every year. The lake itself is dotted with several resorts, with Velence to the east, and the conjoined settlements of Agárd and Gárdony on the southern shore, the most important destinations. The northern shore, meanwhile, contains more in the way of cultural and natural attractions.
Arrival and information
Arriving at the southern shore, orientation couldn’t be easier: wherever you get off the train, simply head for the lake. The northern shore is accessible by hourly buses from Székesfehérvár or by ferry from Agárd (May to mid-June & Sept to mid-Oct Sat & Sun every 1hr 30min; mid-June to Aug daily hourly; 500Ft one way), which docks at the small peninsula, Szúnyog Sziget (Mosquito Island), near Pákozd.
Information can be obtained from three Tourinform offices on the lake; in Gárdony, at Szabadság utca 16 (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 22/570-078, gardony@tourinform.hu), located across the road from the Ponty restaurant by the group of small apartment blocks; in Velence, at Halász utca 37 (same times; 22/507-030, velence@tourinform.hu); and at Pákozd.
Accommodation
Like Balaton, Lake Velence closes down from October to April and is very busy the rest of the year, so it’s worth booking accommodation in advance rather than just turning up. Apartments, cottages (€26–45/9001–11,500Ft) and private rooms (€16–25/4001–6500Ft) are bookable through Sol Tours in Gárdony, at Szabadság utca 12 (May–Sept Mon–Sat 9am–6pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; 22/570-158, www.soltours.hu) – they’ve also got an office in Velence at Ország utca 25 (April to mid-Oct Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–1pm; 22/470-497) – or you can rent direct from householders (look for Zimmer frei signs), although they may not be any cheaper than the rest of the accommodation on offer.
There are numerous campsites (all mid-April to mid-Oct), spread between the three resorts, the largest being Panoráma Camping, a lovely lakeside site on Kemping utca (22/472-043, www.campingpanorama.hu; chalets €16–25/4001–6500Ft) on the eastern shore, roughly 2km from Velence station; facilities include tennis courts, a minigolf course, water-bikes and restaurants. In Agárd, try Park Strand Camping, another large, well-equipped site located some 500m west of the train station at Chernel István út 56 (22/370-308), or the smaller Termál Camping (22/579-230), which also has a pension (€26–35/6501–9000Ft) and is down by the resort’s thermal baths on Határ utca; guests qualify for reduced admission prices to the baths.
Hotel Helios Tópart utca 34 22/589-330, www.hoteljuventus.hu. Just ten minutes’ walk from Velence station and very near the lake, this pleasant small hotel has comfortable en-suite rooms plus its own pool. There’s a free beach opposite, but you can use the strand and facilities of the nearby Hotel Juventus, run by the same people. May–Sept. €56–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Hotel Juventus Kis köz 6 22/589-330, www.hoteljuventus.hu. Peaceful, unprepossessing lakeside hotel 5min on from the Helios, with smart, colourful and comfortable rooms; pool, sauna and tennis courts alongside its own bit of beach. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Kis Szárcsa Vendégház Kazinczy utca 19 22/579-979, www.kisszarcsa.hu. Super five-room guesthouse in a residential area down towards the thermal baths in Agárd, hence only really practical if you have your own transport; all rooms have TV, radio, DVD players and wi-fi. €56–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Touring Hotel Tópart utca 1 22/370-019, www.touring.uw.hu. Small and friendly lakeside hotel a 10min walk west of Agárd station, beside the pier, with clean if somewhat dated rooms. Bikes, canoes and water-bikes can be rented here. May–Sept. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
The lake
The southern and eastern shores of the lake are one continuous strip of holiday homes and campsites, along an enclosed, mainly grassy, strand. If it weren’t for the individually named train stations, Velence, Gárdony and Agárd, you’d never realize that there were three separate settlements along the shore. The beaches alternate between ones where you have to pay for a swim and the dubious privilege of using the changing rooms, and szabad strand, free ones with fewer facilities, such as the strand a few minutes’ walk north of Velence train station in front of the Hotel Helios. Watersport facilities are widely available along this stretch of the lake, and it’s an ideal spot to learn windsurfing as the water is only 1–2m deep, warming up to an acceptable 22–26°C over summer – the best place to start is the water sports school in Agárd, at Topárt utca 17 (22/370-052). In winter, the lake often freezes solid and ice-skating becomes the favoured sport. For something less energetic, you can always head for the thermal baths (Gyógy és Termálfurdő) in Agárd, 1km or so south of the lake at the end of Határ utca (daily 8am–9pm; 1700Ft, 1300Ft after 6pm).
The most interesting of the lake’s sights are located on the less built-up northern shore, close to the peninsula where ferries dock (Szúnyog Sziget). A fifteen-minute walk along the road, then turning right up through the grassy path, brings you to Mészeg Hill, where an obelisk commemorates the Battle of Pákozd on September 29, 1848, the first Hungarian victory of the 1848–49 Revolution – there are some fine views of the lake and its extensive reed beds from this elevated position. In the building close by, there’s a small museum (March–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 600Ft) exhibiting various paraphernalia from the battlefield, as well as some photos of the unveiling of the obelisk in 1951, in addition to a Tourinform office, and a café (both same hours) serving light snacks.
A ten-minute walk downhill brings you to the Don Chapel, a memorial to the Hungarian soldiers who died in Russia during World War II, fighting on the side of the Nazis. This canopy-chapel is designed to ease an old wound for Hungarians, who lost over 100,000 men in Russia, mainly at the River Don, but were unable to mourn them during the Communist era. Just below the chapel is the Pákozd-Sukoró Arborétum (April–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 300Ft), a rather dreary collection of local trees, plants and rocks. A better reason for heading this way is to climb the wooden lookout tower (kilátó), which affords some splendid views of the lake and the Velence hills, some of the oldest in Hungary, formed from magma and granite. There is more geology above the village of PÁKOZD, thirty minutes’ walk under the motorway and left along the main road. Turning off the main road just past another 1848 monument, it’s a stiff walk up the 241-metre-high Pogány-kő (Pagan Rock), where several colossal “rocking stones” (ingókővek) – blocks of granite polished in the shapes of various animals – sway perceptibly in the wind.
Eating
The best of the lake’s restaurants are in Agárd, though there’s little to distinguish between them; schnitzels and stews are the order of the day, alongside the lake’s main fish, fogas (pike-perch), which is typically rolled in flour and paprika then fried. The Gulyás Csarda, just up from the train station on the main road, Balatoni utca, is the most personable place, with lots of wooden bench seating, chunky tables and peasant-like furnishings spread along the walls. Just across the road, the much larger Nádas Csarda does a good job of reeling in the tourists, while the Csutora, a fifteen-minute walk west along the same road at no. 131, is of a similar bent but has a slightly more varied menu. In Gárdony, the popular Ponty, 100m left along the main road as you exit the station at Szabadság utca 9, has a good selection of fresh fish and salads.
Székesfehérvár and around
Reputedly the site where Árpád pitched camp and founded his dynasty, SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR, 60km southwest of Budapest, was probably the first Hungarian town. Its name (pronounced “saik-esh-fehair-var”) comes from the white castle (fehérvár) founded by Prince Géza, whose son Stephen made it his royal seat (szék). As the centre of his efforts to civilize the Magyars, it was named in Latin “Alba Civitas” or “Alba Regia”. Since this medieval town was utterly destroyed by the Turks, Székesfehérvár today owes its Belváros to the Habsburgs, and its high-rise suburbs to the final German counterattack in 1945, which levelled almost everywhere else. The town’s narrow winding streets, its diverse museums and galleries, and the wonderful suburban folly known as Bory’s Castle, make it fully deserving of a visit. A particularly good time to be here is for the Royal Days International Folk Dance Festival, a week-long jamboree of music and dance taking place in mid-August.
Arrival and information
Székesfehérvár’s train station is 1km south of the centre; catch any bus heading up Prohászka Ottakár út, which subsequently becomes Várkörút, and get off near the Romkert. The well-run bus station is more conveniently located on Piac tér, just a few minutes’ walk from the Belváros. The very helpful Tourinform, inside the Hiemer House at Városház tér 1 (mid-May to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 9am–4pm; mid-Sept to mid-May Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; 22/537-261, www.tourinform-fejer.hu), has lots of good information to hand. The post office is on Szent István tér (Mon–Fri 8am–7pm) and there’s internet access at Cafe 19, on the second floor of the bus station building (Mon–Sat 9am–10pm, Sun till 8pm).
Accommodation
Székesfehérvár has a limited but decent stock of hotels, all fairly well scattered around town. Alternatively, private rooms (€16–25/4001–6500Ft) can be booked through Sol Tours, Kossuth utca 10 (June–Aug Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 9am–5pm; Sept–May Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; 22/385-321, www.soltours.hu), while Tourinform can advise on college accommodation (€15/4000Ft and under–25/4001–6500Ft) over the summer and at weekends throughout the year – most colleges, though, are on the outskirts of town. The Ifjúsági campsite is at Bregyó köz 1 (22/313-433; May–Sept), about fifteen minutes’ walk north of the centre (or buses #12 and #14).
Novotel Ady Endre utca 19–21 22/534-300, www.novotel-szekesfehervar.hu. Efficient, business-like chain hotel featuring all the requisite four-star comforts, including pristine rooms with a/c, internet, and tea-making facilities. Excellent buffet breakfast. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Rév Hotel József Attila utca 42 22/327-015, 327-061. This üdülőház (workers’ hotel), 500m east of the centre, has ten rooms, all extremely basic and with washbasin only, available throughout the year. €16–25/4001–6500Ft
Hotel Szárcsa Szárcsa utca 1 22/325-700, www.szarcsa.hu. Despite its unsightly location 1.5km south of town, this is easily the classiest place going; the rooms, coloured in deep greens and reds, come with gorgeous, wood-carved antique and period furnishings, and there’s also an outdoor pool, steam bath and jacuzzi. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Szent Gellért Hotel Mátyás király körút 1 22/510-810, szentgellert@axelero.hu. Bright hotel in a cracking location near the bus station and Belváros, containing a good mix of doubles and triple rooms, as well as dorms sleeping up to six. Dorm beds €16–25/4001–6500Ft, doubles €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Vadászkurt Panzió Berényi út 1 22/507-514, www.jagerhorn.hu. Welcoming pension a short way north of the centre, containing good-sized rooms with lots of stripped pine, each with a kitchenette. Bus #26A from the bus station and #32 from the train station. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
The Town
The majority of Székesfehérvár’s sights are within the immediate vicinity of the handsomely preserved Belváros, which occupies approximately the same area as the great castle once did. The one exception is Bory’s Castle, though this is easily reached by bus.
Városház tér
Városház tér, the gorgeous, elongated main square, recalls Székesfehérvár’s revival under Maria Theresa, with its Baroque town hall, Franciscan church and Zopf-style Bishop’s Palace (Puspöki palota), built with stones from the ruined cathedral by Bishop Milassin, whose coat of arms appears on the gable. Opposite stands the eighteenth-century Franciscan church and monastery, on the corner of which is Megyessy’s fine relief of warring Turks and Hungarians; the monastery houses the Diocesan museum (Egyházmegyei Múzeum; Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 2–6pm; 1000Ft), featuring a glittering array of reliquaries, cups and ciboria, sculptures and altar pieces, and a room dedicated to Ottokár Prohászka, the town’s bishop from 1905 until his death in 1927; extolled as a theological modernist, Prohászka was no less renowned for his frequent anti-Semitic tirades.
A short walk east of the square, along pedestrianized Koronázó tér, brings you to the Romkert (Középkori Romkert; April–Oct Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; 600Ft), or “Garden of Ruins”, which holds the excavated foundations of the cathedral where King Stephen was buried. Designed for him by Italian architects in an attempt to rival St Mark’s in Venice, it hosted the coronations of 38 Hungarian kings. After the town fell to the Turks in 1543, the cathedral was plundered of its gold and jewels, and then blown up. In the mausoleum next to the entrance is a richly carved Roman sarcophagus found in 1803 and believed to hold the remains of King Stephen, minus his right hand which resides in St Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest. Unless you want to see the sarcophagus, you may as well save the entrance fee by viewing most of the ruins from Koronázó tér.
North of Városház tér
Running off to the north of Városház tér, Fő utca is so perfectly preserved that you expect to see crinoline-clad ladies emerging from the Black Eagle Pharmaceutical Museum at no. 5 (Fekete Sas Patika Múzeum; Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 400Ft). The eighteenth-century pharmacy operated right up until 1971, and there remains much to see, not least the original Baroque wood-carved fixtures and fittings – made in the local Jesuit workshop in 1758 – and displays on traditional remedies, though the showpiece items are a splendid horseshoe-shaped Empire-style table complete with glass cabinets, and a medicine press.
Next to the Baroque church of St John across the street (also founded by the Jesuits) is the permanent collection of the Szent István Király Museum (Tues–Sun: May–Sept 10am–4pm; Oct–April 10am–2pm; 600Ft), a lively exhibition on local history featuring a superb collection of archeological finds and domestic treasures from the Neolithic period through to the time of Turkish rule. Especially notable is the hoard of Celtic goods, including pottery, urns and jewellery, and a stone dedication block featuring a relief of Mithras, the sun god, ritually slaying the bull. The museum also puts on temporary shows of contemporary Hungarian art at Országzászló tér 3, at the top of Fő utca (Tues–Sun 2–4pm; 260Ft).
Around the back of St John’s Church, at Oskola utca 10, is the City Gallery (Városi Képtár; Tues–Sun: April–Oct 10am–6pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm; 800Ft), which has a brilliant display of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Hungarian art. The Deák Collection, which was bequeathed to the city by a local collector, is housed in three interconnecting medieval houses, with a labyrinth of small rooms exhibiting works by top Hungarian artists, such as Victor Vasarely, Rippl-Rónai, Jenő Barcsay and József Egry, whose typically warm Balaton scenes, Greeting and Lake Balaton Region with a House, are the highlights here. In the same block is a collection of sculptures by Erzsébet Schaár (same hours as the gallery; 400Ft); ask the people at the main desk to direct you to them.
South of Városház tér
More of the historic architecture is clustered south of Városház tér. Walking south down Arany János utca, you’ll pass the hulking St Stephen’s Cathedral (Szent István székesegyház), a much rebuilt Baroque edifice that dates back to the thirteenth century – crane your neck to view the impressive, oversized stone statues of Stephen, László and Imre. Standing in the cathedral’s shadow is the Chapel of St Anna, the only remnant of medieval Székesfehérvár spared by the Turks, who put it to use as a mosque – notice the Koranic inscriptions and arabesque murals.
Continuing south along Arany János utca, you’ll come to the fanciful Zopf-style Budenz House at no. 12 (Budenz ház; Tues–Sun: March–April & Oct 10am–2pm; May–Sept 10am–4pm; 500Ft), with a collection of beautiful old furniture and Hungarian art belonging to the Ybl family. The renowned architect Miklós Ybl (1814–91) was born here, and in one of the rooms downstairs you can see his drawing cabinet and photos of buildings he designed, including the Budapest Opera House. The house itself is over two hundred years old and named after its former owner Budenz József, a researcher of Finno-Ugrian languages and founder of Hungarian comparative linguistics. Further down the street, a left turn takes you into Petőfi utca; a plaque on the wall of the cinema marks the house where the ubiquitous Sándor Petőfi lived for a couple of months at the end of 1842 as a travelling actor – it’s now a popular jazz music club. Close by, at Megyeház utca 17, the Dolls’ House Museum (Fehérvári Babaház; March–Oct Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; 600Ft) features an exquisite collection of eighteenth-century dolls’ houses and porcelain dolls, while, for the boys, there’s a small assemblage of model toys.
Bory’s Castle
The town’s most popular, and curious, sight is Bory’s Castle (Bory Vár; March–Nov daily 9am–5pm; 600Ft), situated out in the eastern suburbs at Máriavölgy utca 54, beyond the microchip and TV factories. An extraordinary and wildly eclectic structure combining features of Scottish, Romanesque and Gothic architecture, it was built between 1923 and 1959 in an ordinary suburban street by a group of students directed by the architect and sculptor Jenő Bory (1879–1959). Originally just a small cottage with a vineyard, Bory gradually enlarged the premises so as to include a gallery, loggia and a large courtyard spotted with numerous columns and towers. The castle’s rooms (only open Sat & Sun 10am–noon & 3–5pm) are stuffed with paintings of Ilona Komocsin, Bory’s wife, while the colourful gardens are filled with statues of Hungarian kings and other eminent characters. Although the overall effect of Ilona’s multiple images is slightly morbid, the castle is a marvellous place to wander around and explore. Buses #26 and #26A from the bus station, and #32 from the train station, run regularly to the castle.
Eating and drinking
The town is not exactly blessed with an abundance of places to eat, though there are several restaurants worth investigating. The most interesting is the medieval-themed Castrum at Várkör út 3, where you can park yourself on a bench and tuck into stuffed, grilled and roast meat dishes and sup beer from ceramic jars. Elsewhere, the refined Kiskulacs Vendéglő at Budai út 26, with its elegant interior and rather more prosaic outdoor dining area, offers moderate to expensive Hungarian food plus an accomplished wine list, while Isolabella, in a small courtyard at Kossuth utca 14, is an imaginatively designed place with separate rooms for different cuisines (Mexican, Greek, Hungarian and Italian) and decor to match.
There are several enticing drinking possibilities on or around the fringes of Városház tér; for a daytime coffee, choose between the Pátria Kávéház at the square’s southern end; the large, glass-fronted Pele Cafe at its northern end; or the cosy Hiemer Cafe, housed in the building of the same name next to Tourinform. The best evening venues, meanwhile, are the Szin Kávéház on Vasvári Pál utca (Mon–Sat till 1am, Sun till 10pm), with a terrific terrace overlooking the Romkert, and the groovy Petőfi Mozi Music Pub, Arany János utca 22 (Wed–Sat 6pm–2am; www.petofimozi.org), where you can expect to hear live jazz at least two or three nights a week.
Tác
Tác, 10km south of Székesfehérvár and 3km off the M7 motorway, is the site of Hungary’s largest archeological park; by train (6 daily) you’ll need to get off at Szabadbattyán station and catch a local bus, or take a bus from Székesfehérvár’s bus terminal (every 2hr) and alight in the centre of the village at the Soviet war memorial (a rare sight in Hungary now), where signs point towards the Roman ruins of Gorsium, twenty minutes’ walk away (daily: April–Sept 10am–6pm; Oct–March 10am–4pm; 750Ft including entry to the museum). Gorsium began life as a military camp, but by the beginning of the second century had become the religious centre of Pannonia. Following heavy damage during the third century, Emperor Diocletian founded the city of Herculia over the ruins; it then remained a settlement of sorts until the late sixteenth century when it was finally destroyed by the Turks. Covering two square kilometres, the site has been under excavation since 1958, though to date barely a third has been uncovered. The foundations so far revealed include a palace, a temple, the forum, a theatre and a cemetery, with some well-preserved grave markers lining the paths of the site. It is worth getting a map at the entrance as it is hard to make sense of it otherwise. Carved stonework and other finds are displayed in a museum to the right of the entrance (same hours). The ruins host an annual festival called the “Floralia” at the end of April, which celebrates the arrival of spring; its highlights are a flower show, craft stalls, Greek plays and gladiatorial combat. Tickets (around 1500Ft) are available from Tourinform in Székesfehérvár.
Lake Balaton: the southern shore
The southern shore of Lake Balaton is almost entirely built up, with an endless procession of strand – the generic term for any kind of bathing place. Hungarians call these beaches, though they are in fact grassy sunbathing areas with concrete embankments along the shoreline. While the discerning head for Balatonvilágos, the masses plump for Siófok, which has no peers when it comes to partying. In Balatonszárszó you can even find a touch of history, while the South Balaton wine route covers the region around the villages of Balatonlelle, Balatonboglár and Kishegy, which are also notable for their festivals. Nature only reasserts itself at the western end of the lake, where the River Zala flows through the reeds into the Kis-Balaton (Little Balaton) – the location for a bird and bison reserve. All the resorts along the southern shore are accessible by train from Budapest or Székesfehérvár.
Balatonvilágos
Approaching the southern shore by train, you’ll catch your first glimpse of Balaton at BALATONVILÁGOS, a five-kilometre-long village that came into being following the amalgamation of two resorts, Aliga and Világos. Built on wooded cliffs along the shore, the village was once a favoured haunt of Party officials and boats were forbidden to dock in its harbour – even those seeking refuge from a storm. Today it is one of the lushest, least commercialized resorts around the lake, and whilst there’s little in the way of genuine excitement here, decent, affordable accommodation abounds – useful if you’re struggling to find anything in Siófok. Moreover, unlike many other resorts, it has what can be termed proper beaches; near the church on Zrínyi út is a paying beach (700Ft), while the free beach (szabad strand) is another 1km or so further on towards Balatonaliga.
The Tourinform office is at the eastern end of the resort in Balatonaliga, at Aligai út 1 (June–Aug daily 9am–5pm; Sept–May Mon–Fri 9am–1pm; 88/446-034, balatonvilagos@tourinform.hu) – alighting at the Balatonaliga train station, walk down the road, turn left, and then left again under the bridge. Most of the accommodation is located towards the western end of the village, so alight at Balatonvilágos station and head down the steep road. The extremely pleasant Napfény Hotel, at Rákóczi út 12 (88/480-632; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft), is by far the best place to stay, with nine intimate, air-conditioned rooms and a lovely lakeside beer garden. Five hundred metres further on, at no. 33, is the much larger but not quite as agreeable Dalma Panzió (88/480-883, www.dalmapanzio.hu; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft). There’s plenty of dirt-cheap accommodation in several workers’ hostels (all around 3000Ft for a dorm bed) along Rákóczi út and Zrínyi út, such as the Aranyhid üdülő (88/480-616), next door to the Napfény Hotel, and the Kék-Balaton üdülő at Zrinyi út 3 (88/480-827). Just up from the train station in Balatonaliga, the Hársfa Vendégfogadó (22/480-870; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft) is a quiet little guesthouse and is just about the best place to eat in the resort.
Storm warnings
From May to September Balaton is prone to occasional storms. Twenty-four storm signalling stations dotted around the lake indicate when storms are approaching, or when the wind is getting up, via a series of yellow flashing lights: thirty flashes per minute indicates winds of 40–60km per hour; sixty flashes per minute means winds of over 60km per hour. In the case of sixty flashes per minute it is forbidden to enter the water and windsurfers or sailors should head for land at once.
Siófok
SIÓFOK, 6km down the shore from Balatonvilágos, is the largest, busiest and most vibrant resort on Balaton: crammed with bars and restaurants, it has long been the choice venue for young party-goers and was the first to introduce strip bars and sex clubs to augment the traditional pleasures of boozing, guzzling, sunbathing and dancing. Though its vitality might appeal for a while, you’ll probably find that a day or two here will suffice – and finding accommodation can be tough.
Arrival and information
The centrally located bus and train stations are next to each other on Fő utca, the town’s main axis, while ferries to and from Balatonfüred on the northern shore dock to the west of Jókai Park, at the mouth of the Sió Canal. Information can be obtained from the incredibly busy Tourinform office, currently housed in the water tower (Víztorony) on Szabadság tér, but which is set to move just across the road (June–Aug daily 8am–7pm; Sept–May Mon–Fri 9am–4pm, Sat 9am–noon; 84/315-355, www.siofok.com). The post office (Mon–Fri 8am–7pm, Sat 8am–noon) is opposite the train station at Fő utca 186, and there’s internet access at Net-Game, Kálmán Imre sétány 11 (daily 10am–7pm).
Accommodation
There’s plenty of accommodation to go around in Siófok, though the town gets swamped during July and August, and booking ahead is strongly advised. Private rooms (€26–45/9001–11,500Ft) are bookable through Tourinform (see Arrival and information above) and Siótour at Batthyány utca 2/B (June–Aug Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat 9am–2pm; Sept–May Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 84/313-111, www.siotour.hu). If the accommodation situation looks bleak then head for Balatonvilágos, just three stops and fifteen minutes away on the train, where there are further options.
There are several campsites around, the largest and most accessible of which are Aranypart Camping, 5km east of the centre (bus #2) at Szent László utca 183–185 (84/353-399; chalets €36–45/9001–11,500Ft; May to mid-Sept), and Ezüstpart Camping, 4km west of the centre (bus #1 from the Baross Bridge) at Liszt Ferenc sétány 5 (84/350-374; chalets €26–35/6501–9000Ft; May–Sept). There are also two decent hostels around 2km west of the centre near the Balatonszéplak train station: the Villa Benjamin Hostel, at Siófoki utca 9 (84/350-704; €16–35/6501–9000Ft), has doubles and multi-bed rooms, while the much larger Touring Hostel at Cseresznye utca 1/0 (84/310-551, touring@siofok-hostel.com; €16–25/4001–6500Ft; May–Sept) has doubles with shared bathroom facilities.
Hotel Azur Vitorlás utca 11 84/501-415, www.hotelazur.hu. Siófok’s premier hotel offers a range of differently sized rooms (smaller ones have shower, larger ones bath and shower), all immaculately turned out and sumptuously furnished. The first-rate wellness centre has a superb indoor pool. €101/26,001Ft and over
Janus Atrium Hotel Fő utca 93–95 84/312-546, www.janushotel.hu. Serene hotel on the busy main road, with smooth, darkly furnished rooms boasting some classy touches; also possesses a gorgeous little basement pool and jacuzzi, and a pleasant atrium-style coffee house. March to mid-Nov. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Kisjuhász Panzió Széchenyi utca 14 84/311-289, kisjuhas@axelero.hu. Five minutes south of the rail and bus stations, this cordial pension has spotless a/c rooms with fridge. Triples and quads available too. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Park Hotel Batthyány Lajos utca 7 84/310-539, www.parkhotel.hu. Although hardly flush with character, this quiet hotel has decent, pine-furnished rooms with high ceilings, and is idyllically located in Jókai Park. €56–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Renegade Sport Hotel Petőfi sétány 4 84/311-506, www.renegadeworld.hu. Characterful hotel whose effortlessly cool rooms, each painted a different pastel colour, are furnished with low-slung wooden beds and wrought-iron lighting; despite its location right on the beachfront, the windows are fully soundproof. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Rózsa Panzió Karinthy Frigyes utca 5 &84/310-722. Located between the station and the beach, this is a large, peaceful pension with basic, modernish rooms. Triples, quads and apartments available. May–Sept. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
The town and beaches
With its high-rise hotels and packed beaches, there’s little trace of Siófok’s prewar reputation as a quietly elegant resort, nor much evidence of the town’s long history. The canal that the Romans began in 292 AD was later made use of by the Turks, who stationed a fleet of 10,000 men here to confront the Austro-Hungarian fleet across the water at Balatonfüred. A small gallery at the top of the 45-metre-high water tower on central Szabadság tér displays photos of Siófok a century ago and offers a view of the town today, though you have to climb over 120 steps to get there (above Tourinform, same hours; 400Ft).
Heading west from the water tower, there are a couple of small, rather curious attractions that’ll keep you entertained for an hour or so: at Fő utca 156, the Reptile Zoo (Hullő Reptil Zoo; daily June–Aug 10am–8pm, May & Sept 9am–6pm; 600Ft) houses a colourful assortment of reptiles and fish; just behind here, at Szűcs utca 4, the small Egg Museum (Tojás Múzeum; Tues–Sat 10am–6pm; 400Ft) is essentially a shop; the painting of eggs has long been a popular folk art in Hungary, and the cabinets here hold dozens of these exquisitely patterned eggs (in addition to crystal, china and ceramic ones), variously painted with religious, floral or zoomorphic motifs.
Heading east from the water tower, down Fő utca, you’ll soon reach the striking modern Lutheran Church (May–Sept daily 9am–noon & 3–7pm; Oct–April Sun only 10am–noon), designed by the visionary architect Imre Makovecz. It not only embodies his ideas about organic architecture and nationhood, but constitutes a rebuke to the immorality and materialism of Siófok – or at least that’s assumed to be the significance of the hollow-eyed face of an old man carved into the wooden facade. The points of the roof are meant to be the shoulders of his sheepskin coat.
Siófok’s most famous son is the operatic composer Imre Kálmán (1882–1953), who was born near the train station at Kálmán Imre sétány 5. There’s a fine bronze statue of Kálmán in a small bandstand in front of the station, and his former home has been turned into a museum (Tues–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 10am–1pm; 300Ft), its small rooms crammed with personal effects – including his piano, bureau and walking stick – as well as photos and programmes from such operettas as The Gypsy Princess and Countess Maritza, unfortunately without any English explanation. The streets between the train station and the shore are an enjoyable place to wander, with avenues of plane trees screening some magnificent turn-of-the-twentieth-century villas, many of them turned into garishly decorated restaurants or pensions.
The lakeside features two main waterfront resort areas: Aranypart (Gold Shore) to the east of the Sió Canal, and Ezüstpart (Silver Shore) to the west. Though the central stretch of shoreline consists of paying beaches (daily mid-May to mid-Sept 7am–7pm; 1000Ft), there are free strand 1km further along at both resort areas. Having larger hotels and more nightlife in the vicinity, Aranypart is the livelier and noisier of the two. You can rent windsurfing boards and small sailing boats at most beaches, while horseriding and pleasure cruises can be arranged through Siótour.
Eating
Restaurants, both traditional Hungarian and more modern establishments, abound in Siófok, the best of them scattered along Fő utca. Petőfi sétány, meanwhile, is littered with snack bars. One terrific café is Marcipán, on the corner of Fő utca and Kele utca (daily 6am–9pm), where you can indulge in sweet and savoury treats and great coffee.
Amigo Pizzeria Fő utca 99. The pick of the restaurants along this street, this thoroughly modern, very large and very enjoyable place has an outstandingly varied menu including fish, poultry and beef, as well as a “sharpfood” menu (ie very hot) – the pizzas are fantastic too and there’s also a decent veggie menu.
Café Roxy Szabadság tér 1. Informal and very popular restaurant-cum-bar offering a choice selection of dishes including pickled salads, mixed grills and stuffed savoury pancakes, in addition to a breakfast menu. It’s also a good spot for a daytime coffee or evening glass of wine.
Csárdás Fő utca 105. Seasoned, old-fashioned joint with a reliably solid Hungarian menu, heavy on the pork and beef, but with established favourites such as dumplings, bean soup and Hortobágy pancakes; live Gypsy music in summer.
Fogas Fő utca 184. Little to choose between this and the Csárdás, but this large eatery opposite the train station is a touch more colourful, offers more in the way of game food, and has a delightful winter garden.
Magyar Halászcsárda Petőfi sétány 3. The most agreeable of the lakeside restaurants, this large two-floored establishment is just the business if it’s the wet stuff you’re after; fresh fish plucked straight from the lake then cooked just the way you like it.
Nightlife and entertainment
Indisputably Balaton’s number-one party town, Siófok boasts some serious nightlife, though it’s almost exclusively restricted to the period between June and early September. The main focus is Petőfi sétány, with bars and clubs rammed to bursting along its entire length. The big draw is the Coke Club, a self-contained cluster of bars on the main beach, while other popular venues include Renegade, owned by the hotel of the same name, and La Siesta. The two big-hitters for serious clubbers are the Palace Dance Club, 2km west of town at Deák Ferenc utca 2 (www.palace.hu), which regularly attracts big-name DJs and is served by a free shuttle bus from the water tower every hour from 9pm; and Flört (www.flort.hu), a high-energy techno club just off Fő utca at Sió utca 4 – both venues open daily mid-May to mid-September till around 5am and charge around 3000Ft entrance fee. There are also regular pop and rock concerts on one of the strand by the hotels in the centre of town – look out for flyers around town or check with Tourinform.
Siófok being the birthplace of Imre Kálmán, operetta plays a major part here, manifest in the annual Imre Kálmán Anniversary days each October, with performances of his works (usually in German) in the Imre Kálmán Cultural Centre (Kulturális Központ; box office Tues–Fri noon–8pm, Sat 10am–6pm; tickets 3000–4000Ft) behind the water tower on Fő tér. Throughout the rest of the year, the centre hosts a range of organ concerts and piano recitals.
The town’s two other main annual festivals are the Siófolk International Folklore Festival, a five-day event in early July with parades and dancing by troupes from around the world; and in mid-October the three-day Egg Festival (Tojásfesztivál), which celebrates the spherical wonder with music and dance, and lots of gastronomic happenings including an attempt to create the world’s biggest egg dish.
The southern shore to Kis-Balaton
Beyond Siófok the southern shore abounds with smaller resorts, such as Balatonszárszó, which boasts an interesting museum, and the villages of Balatonlelle and Balatonboglár, which lie at the heart of the region’s main wine road. The shore winds up at Kis-Balaton, site of a peaceful nature and bison reserve.
Szántód and around
The small village of SZÁNTÓD, 11km down from Siófok, is the point of departure for car ferries to Tihany-rév on the northern shore (daily: March–May & mid-Sept to Nov every hour, last ferry at 6pm; June to mid-Sept every 40min, last ferry at 10pm; 10min; 1400Ft per car, 500Ft per person & 300Ft per bike). If for some reason you need to stay here, try the friendly, hostel-like Rév Hotel, five minutes’ walk from the ferry at Szent István út 162 (84/348-245, revhotel@elender.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft; May–Sept), or Rév Camping, next door (84/348-859; June–Aug). The nearest train station is Szántód-Kőröshegy, some 2km south of the ferry dock near Route 7.
One kilometre back towards Siófok along this route is a cluster of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century farm buildings converted into a “tourist and cultural centre” at Szántódpuszta (daily: mid-April to May & Sept to mid-Oct 8am–5pm; June–Aug 8am–6pm; 800Ft). Puszta has two meanings: one is the flat plains of eastern Hungary, and the other, of which Szántódpuszta is a good example, is a large farmstead common in western Hungary. This complex of restored thatched buildings includes a manor house, built in 1716 and housing a local history exhibition with beautiful old photos, wine cellar (now a restaurant), granary, inn and blacksmith’s workshop (that’s sometimes in operation), whilst another keeps a small aquarium. The old stables, meanwhile, have been converted into an equestrian centre, with riding available (2500Ft per hr) and horse-shows (2000Ft) staged in summer. You can stay at the simple and old-fashioned Patkó Fogadó (84/348-714; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft; May to mid-Sept), run by the Helikon office at the entrance to the complex.
Balatonszárszó
Five kilometres on from Szántód, the small town of BALATONSZÁRSZO is one of the lake’s oldest, most serene resorts. However, it’s perhaps better known as the place where the tragic proletarian poet, Attila József (1905–37), took his own life. Dismissed by his literary peers and rejected by both his lover and the Communist Party, he threw himself under a local freight train on December 3, 1937. Attila spent his last days in a pension that’s now a memorial museum at József Attila utca 7 (April–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–noon & 1–6pm; 500Ft), a couple of streets south of the train station. The museum charts the poet’s life in chronological order with an impressive collection of his literary works, photos and personal effects, and concludes with the events of that fateful day, including newspaper cuttings, a piece of track and the crumpled, blood-stained shirt he was wearing when struck by the train; unfortunately all captions are in Hungarian only.
If you’re looking to stay here then your best bets are the comfortable Cseri Panzió, 400m south of the train station at Fő utca 30 (84/363-221, cseri@externet.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), or the less attractive but perfectly acceptable Főnix Hotel (84/362-961; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), 100m west of the station opposite the beach entrance. There’s camping at Zöldpont, an excellent little private site 100m up from the Cseri Panzió at Fő utca 40 (84/363-091; May–Sept).
Balatonlelle, Balatonboglár and around
During the Kádár era, the settlements of Balatonlelle and Balatonboglár were merged into a single entity called Boglárlelle, but since 1991 they have re-established their own identities and also made the most of the revival of the wine industry since then, becoming the main centre of wine tourism on the southern shore of the lake. The fifty-kilometre-long strip of land that makes up this, the fifth-largest wine region in the country, yields an equal number of quality red and white wines. For more information check out the South-Balaton Wine Route Association’s website, www.dbb.hu.
Balatonlelle and around
The tidy little resort of BALATONLELLE does its bit to attract tourists by staging the lively Wine Week Festival during the first week of August, featuring wine and music, and an arts and crafts fair. There’s some good accommodation here, too, the best of which is the lovely Viktória Panzió, some 400m west of the train station at Szent István utca 13 (85/554-233, viktoria@ferry.hu; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft), which has polished, well-furnished rooms; the Lelle Park, 200m east of the station at Köztársaság út 11 (85/450-317, www.lellepark.com; €56–100/22,501–26,000Ft; May–Sept), which has immaculate air-conditioned apartments, with full kitchen facilities, sleeping two to six people; and, around 1km along from here at no. 31, the bright Hotel Francoise (85/352-429; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft). The large and well-equipped Aranyhíd campsite is at Köztársaság út 53 (85/350-449; mid-May to mid-Sept). Both the Viktória and the Lelle Park have very good restaurants, while the latter also has a smart pub.
Wine lovers should also venture 3km inland to KISHEGY (you’ll have to walk or take a taxi if you don’t have your own transport), where you can taste and buy wine in the Szent Donatus winery at Kishegyi utca 42 (Mon–Fri 7.30am–noon & 12.30–6pm, Sat 10am–6pm; 85/454-701, www.garamvariszolobirtok.hu); expect to pay around 150–200Ft per glass. It’s another 2km to the Szent Donatus Csárda at the top of the hill (the staff at the winery can direct you), where you can get stuck into solid Hungarian fare and sample more wines while gazing over the lake (May to mid-Sept daily noon–10pm).
Balatonboglár and around
BALATONBOGLÁR, 3km west of Balatonlelle, plays host to several more good festivals, most notably the five-day Jazz and Wine Festival at the end of July, and the massive Grape Gathering Festival (Boglári Szüreti) from August 18 to 20, which takes place on two stages down by the Platán strand, with a big fair and a procession, a competition for the title of Wine Queen, nightly firework displays, and, of course, lots of wine. In neighbouring Várhegy, a spherical lookout tower commands a sweeping view from Keszthely to Tihany, while atop Temetődomb (Cemetery Hill), behind the two chapels, there are regular exhibitions by artists from June to August. Another fun time to be here is the last Saturday in July when the swim across Balaton takes place; each year several thousand greased-up swimmers set off from Révfülöp, 5.2km away on the northern shore, to Balatonboglár in this popular amateur swim-fest.
Arriving at the train station, exit left and it’s around 800m to Vörösmarty tér in the centre of town. Balatonboglár’s Tourinform office is a couple of minutes’ walk from here at Erzsébet utca 12–14 (June–Aug daily Mon–Sat 9am–7pm; Sept–May Mon–Fri 8am–4pm; 85/550-168, balatonboglar@tourinform.hu). You can book private rooms – and rent bikes (1500Ft per day) – through Fredo Tourist, located across the tracks at Tinódi utca 16 (June–Aug daily 8am–8pm, rest of year Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 85/350-288, fredo@fredotourist.hu). Vasutas Üdülő, 1.5km east of the station at Kodály Zoltán utca 45 (85/350-634; €15/4000Ft and under), has cheap beds, or for something marginally more comfortable, head along to Família Hotel at no. 64 (84/350-604; €26–35/6501–9000Ft; May–Sept). The Sellő Campsite (85/550-367; April–Sept) is on the west of the landing stage at Kikötő sétány 3.
There are some terrific places in Balatonboglár for wine-tasting, and few better than the Légli winery at Árpád utca 47 (daily 9am–5pm; 85/550-310, www.legliotto.hu), whose outstanding whites include Chardonnay (Landord), Sauvignon Blanc and the fabulous Légli 333 (cuvee) – tasting (2000Ft) typically comprises five or six wines and some nibbles, and although appointments are not necessary, you’re best off calling in advance. From Vörösmarty tér, walk to the top of Szabadság utca and it’s on the corner of Árpád utca and Attila utca.
During the first weekend of June the small village of SOMOGYBABOD, 12km south of Balatonboglár, stages the Somogybabod Off-Road Festival, an established event for off-road enthusiasts with lively concerts and huge beer tents complementing the series of races on the reconditioned track; more information can be obtained from Tourinform in Balatonboglár.
Kis-Balaton
At the far end of the lake, reeds obscure the mouth of the River Zala and stretch for many kilometres upstream to Kis-Balaton (Little Balaton). This lake once covered forty square kilometres, but was half-drained in the 1950s to provide irrigation for new crop land, and was nearly destroyed by the dumping of pollutants into the Zala during the 1980s. Its rehabilitation was begun in the 1980s, as attempts were made to improve the quality of water in Lake Balaton. The first stage of the process, diverting water back through the reed beds that act as a filter for the lake, has been completed, but there is much debate about how successful this has been, and whether further steps should be taken. It has certainly restored the area as a paradise for birds and bird lovers, with over eighty species of birds found here.
Located on the northeastern edge of the lake, near the village of Zalavár is the Kis-Balaton House (Kis-Balaton ház; March–Oct Tues–Sun 9am–noon & 1–6pm; 500Ft; 83/710-002), which demonstrates the workings of the water system, and has a small exhibition on the lake’s flora and fauna. Also within the grounds is a water playground for kids, a café, and a cycle hut where you can rent bikes (1000Ft per 2hr, 2000Ft per 5hr). Most of the lake is actually off limits to visitors, but there is designated access around 5km south of Zalavár on Kányavár Island, itself reached by a specially reconstructed timber bridge. If you would like to visit some of the lake’s closed off areas, you can do so on a guided “Safari” which takes place in June and July (Wed 11am & 2pm, Sat 2pm; 1500Ft), departing from the Kis-Balaton house and lasting around two hours. The easiest way to get to Zalavár is by hourly bus from Keszthely.
The settlement of Kápolnapuszta, about 20km south of Keszthely, is home to Hungary’s largest Bison Reserve (Bivalyrezervátum; daily 9am–7pm; 550Ft). Established in 1992 with just sixteen buffalo, the reserve now keeps some 200 of the animals, which account for about a third of Hungary’s total stock; prior to World War II there were over 200,000 buffalo in the territory of Hungary. A well marked-out trail – which takes approximately 45 minutes to walk – allows you to get close (but not too close – there’s an electric fence) to the animals, while regular information boards do an excellent job of explaining their various habits and activities. The buffalo are herded out to pasture from spring to late autumn, though they can still be visited indoors during the winter. Without your own transport, however, getting here is both tricky and time-consuming: the best way is to take a bus from Keszthely to either Balatonmagyaród or Sármellék, from where there are more frequent buses to Balatonmagyaród – from here, though, it’s still a good thirty-minute walk to the reserve.
Lake Balaton: the northern shore
The resorts of Balatonalmádi and Balatonfüred on the northern shore of the lake are more genteel than their southern counterparts, with a certain faded elegance, but the crowds of tourists are just as big, while the Tihany peninsula, and in particular the pretty village of Tihany, attracts even greater numbers. The shoreline beyond Tihany is dominated by holiday homes and nondescript resorts, although the local vineyards make a few visits to wine cellars a temptation. The biggest wine centre, however, is on the slopes of the Badacsony Hills, whose picturesque village, Badacsony, draws big crowds throughout the summer. For walkers, there is plenty to explore in the hinterland, including the volcanic shapes around Badacsony Hills. Buses run alongside the shore to the enjoyable university town of Keszthely, whilst trains follow the lake for most of its length before turning inland to Tapolca, where you should change for Keszthely.
Balatonalmádi
The first major settlement along the northern shore is BALATONALMÁDI, a resort since 1877, which now has a pleasantly faded air, although most visitors to this part of the shore pass straight through, favouring instead the more buoyant resort of Balatonfüred. However, its decent beaches, pleasant lakeside walks and varied cultural programme make it worth stopping off for. The best time to visit is during the Balatonalmádi Days at the end of July, a nine-day cultural festival featuring folk dancing, operetta and a big craft fair around the lakeside area. The grape harvest celebration in mid-September is a smaller event – a day of wine and music, with a grand procession through the town.
All the sights in the town are church-related. A few minutes’ walk west of the main square, Városház tér, the small Chapel of the Holy Right Hand (Szent Jobb Kápolna), tacked on to the left side of the Church of Szent Imre, at Óváry Ferenc utca 47, was originally located in the Royal Palace in Buda and housed the holy right hand of St Stephen, which is now in St Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest. During the reconstruction of Buda Palace after World War II, the chapel was spared from destruction by Stalinists, and rebuilt at Balatonalmádi in 1957. Peering through the bars of the gate you can see the impressive gold mosaic executed by Károly Lotz in 1896.
Two other unusual churches lie in the older suburb of Vörösberény, a thirty-minute slog uphill along Petőfi utca and Veszprémi út (or take one of the regular buses from the bus station). The Baroque parish church, built in 1779 for the Jesuits, contains interesting frescoes depicting the order’s founder, St Ignatius, as well as some contemporary figures; you can get the key from the plébánia, two houses behind the church. Just uphill stands a fortified thirteenth-century Calvinist church, whose shape has undergone many changes over the years; only fragments of frescoes and a couple of windows remain from the original. The key is available from the priest’s house (Református Lelkész Hivatal), directly below the church at Veszprémi út 105. On Friday evenings in July and August the church hosts concerts of Renaissance and Baroque music – check with Tourinform for details. If you’ve got time, and some energy, you could walk the Red Sandstone Path, a six-kilometre-long, circular trail which takes in the Ővári lookout tower in the forest to the north of town – you can pick up a guiding leaflet from Tourinform.
Balatonalmádi has a paying beach (May–Sept daily 8.30am–7pm; 500Ft) by Városház tér in the centre of town, and a free beach (szabad strand) half an hour’s walk west at Káptalanfüred.
Practicalities
The bus and train stations are situated at the top and bottom of the main square, Városház tér, respectively, while in July and August boats from Balatonfüred and Tihany arrive at the pier, ten minutes’ walk east of the main square through the lakeside park. Tourinform, between the stations on Városház tér (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–7pm, Sat & Sun 9am–5pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 8.30am–4.30pm; 88/594-081, balatonalmadi@tourinform.hu), has lots of information to hand. Although it can’t arrange private rooms, Balatontourist, 200m up from Városház tér at Petőfi utca 6 (May–Sept Mon–Sat 8.30am–6pm, Sun 9am–noon; Oct–April Mon–Fri 8.30am–4pm; 88/584-106, balmadi@balatontouristutazas.hu), does have a good selection of flats (€26–55/11,501–14,500Ft), sleeping between two and ten people. The post office is at Petőfi utca 19 (Mon–Fri 8am–4pm, Sat 9am–noon).
Unlike many resorts on the northern shore, Balatonalmádi has few appealing possibilities when it comes to accommodation. The standout option is the classy Ramada Hotel, 300m east of Városház tér at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 14 (88/620-620, www.ramadabalaton.hu; €101/26,001Ft and over), whose impeccably turned out rooms have superb lake views. Otherwise, there’s the mellow, five-room Hotel Viktória, a five-minute walk further along at no. 42 (88/438-940, viktoria@viktoriahotel.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), which also has a sauna, solarium and terraced restaurant. The cheapest option around is the Pedagógus Udülő (Teacher’s Holiday Home) at Dózsa Győrgy utca 13 (88/438-518; €15/4000Ft and under; May–Sept), just behind the Church of St Imre, offering basic rooms with basins and shared bathrooms. The best of the town’s several campsites is the large Yacht Camping (88/584-101, yacht@balatontourist.hu; bungalows €36–45/9001–11,500Ft; May to mid-Sept), some 600m to the right of the train station and across the tracks at Véghely utca 16 – the site boasts excellent amenities, including a minimarket, creche and sports facilities, and has direct access to the lake.
The town’s two outstanding restaurants are down by the ferry pier on Véghely Dezső út. The stylish Kikötő, at no. 5, is part of the Almadi Yacht Club but isn’t as haughty as you might expect, and boasts a decent international menu featuring Argentinian steak; and a few paces across the park, at no. 1, is the Liget Kávéház, a slightly more reserved place in a Baroque building with period furnishings, serving a limited but high-quality range of Hungarian meals and coffees.
Csopak
The dispersed village of CSOPAK, 9km down Route 71 towards Balatonfüred, has made a name for itself in recent years for its wine, and this is the main reason for visiting – whites predominate here, of which the best known is Olaszrizling. Csopak’s main annual event is the Wine Days Festival (Borhét), which takes place in the third week of August and, aside from wine, entails lots of singing and dancing down by the waterfront at the entrance to the strand. Otherwise, there are numerous cellars around the old village, and many houses advertise dens where you can pop in to taste – and buy – the local hock. One of the best in the village is the Varga Borház (daily 8am–7pm), located in the large factory-like building at Füredi utca 3, a fifteen-minute walk north of the village just off Route 71. Smaller cellars, where you can also eat as you taste the wines, include the Linczy Pince at Berekháti utca 34, a few minutes’ walk up from the train station (May–Oct daily 5–11pm), and the Söptei Pince at Istenfia utca 5, 200m down from the Varga Borház and then twenty minutes’ walk west along Füredi utca (May–Oct daily 11am–11pm).
Practicalities
Arriving by train, walk up the main street, Kossuth utca, to the old village, or, to get to the strand and the resort area, walk across Route 71 and then along Fürdő utca; the ferry is a couple of minutes’ walk beyond. There’s a small, seasonal, information office (June–Aug daily 8am–8pm) at the train station, while 200m along Kossuth utca, in a beautifully restored manor house at no. 16, the headquarters of the Balaton Uplands National Park (daily 9am–5pm; www.bfnpi.hu) has some good materials on the various sights along the lake’s northern shore, plus some excellent maps of the park itself if you fancy some walking – it also rents bikes.
Located within the park grounds is the lovely Park Villa (87/555-260, bfnp@bfnp.kvvm.hu; €26–35/6501–9000Ft; May–Sept), another restored building with modern, sunny rooms but no extras. There’s further accommodation down near the waterfront, namely the Ifjúsági Üdülő, a large, hostel-like complex a few minutes’ walk east of the strand at Sport utca 9 (87/446-505; dorm bed 2500Ft, doubles €16–35/6501–9000Ft; May–Sept; no IYHF discounts in July & Aug), which has basic rooms with showers; and the Hotel Piroska next door at nos. 5–7 (87/446-461; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft; mid-May to mid-Sept) which, though outwardly unappealing, has perfectly fine rooms with balconies overlooking the gardens.
There are some good places to eat here; two places within the village, both with outside seating and serving traditional Hungarian cuisine, are the Dobó Restaurant at the top of Kossuth utca (no. 103), and the Malom Csárda in an old watermill ten minutes’ walk up at Veszprémi út 3, on the main road. For something quite different, and just that little bit spicier, check out the El Paso steakhouse down towards the lake at Fürdő utca 24.
Balatonfüred
Seventeenth-century chronicles tell of pilgrims descending on BALATONFÜRED to “camp in scattered tents” and benefit from the mineral springs. Some 30,000 people come here every year for treatment at the springs, mingling with hordes of tourists, giving this popular Balaton resort a distinctive, sedate air. Füred, as it is often called, is split into two, with the older centre a couple of kilometres away from the lake; here you’ll find shops, churches and a market along its Baroque main street, Kossuth utca. Most visitors head for the resort area beside Balaton, whose centrepiece is the leafy Gyógy tér, with its sanatorium, springs and slicked-up nineteenth-century facades, leading down to a tree-lined lakeside promenade. On either side are beaches and a mix of modern hotels and antebellum villas.
Arrival and information
The bus and train stations are conveniently located next door to each other on Castricum tér – midway between the old town and the lakeside resort, both of which are within comfortable walking distance. Alternatively, bus #1 takes a roundabout route to the embankment before heading west along Széchenyi utca. Ferries from Siófok and Tihany dock at the pier at the western end of the promenade.
The Tourinform office is inside the Kisfaludy House at Kisfaludy utca 1 (July–Aug Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 10am–6pm; June & Sept Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–1pm; Oct–May Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 87/580-480, www.balatonfured.hu); there’s also a summer-only office (same times), 2km west of the centre at Széchenyi utca 47, by the Füred campsite.
The post office is at Zsigmond utca 14 (Mon–Fri 8am–4pm), and there’s internet access at Net Espresso, Horváth Mihály utca 3 (Mon–Fri 8am–10pm, Sat & Sun 10am–10pm), and CyberClub, Kőztársaság utca 6 (daily 11am–8pm).
Accommodation
The town has a reasonable stock of good-value accommodation but it’s advisable to book ahead, and essential in the period from the last weekend in July to August 20. During July and August budget accommodation (around 2500Ft for a dorm bed) can be found at the Széchenyi Ferenc Kollégium on Hősök tér, up in the main town (87/342-641), and the Lóczy Diákotthon Kollégium, just a short way north of the stations at Bartok Bela utca 4 (87/343-428). Twenty minutes’ walk west of the promenade (bus #1 or #1B or any Tihany bus), at Széchenyi utca 24, lies the huge Füred campsite (87/580-241, cfured@balatontourist.hu; mid-April to mid-Oct), offering a swimming pool, tennis, watersports and bungalows (€16–45/9001–11,500Ft) on the lakefront.
Hotel Annabella Deák Ferenc utca 25 87/889-431, www.danubiushotels.com/annabella. The town’s major package-tourist hotel, complete with tidy, if slightly tired, rooms all with balcony and some with views over to the lake. It also has indoor and outdoor pools and an enormous beer garden. April–Oct. €46–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Anna Grand Hotel Gyógy tér 1 87/580-315, www.annagrandhotel.hu. This wonderfully restored building now houses one of the lake’s most opulent hotels; from the cool marble lobby to the immaculate high-ceilinged rooms decorated in smooth, understated beige tones, the Anna simply oozes class. €101/26,001Ft and over
Hotel Blaha Lujza Blaha Lujza utca 4 87/581-210, www.hotelblaha.hu. Formerly the summer home of the nineteenth-century actress and singer Lujza Blaha, this handsome Neoclassical building has smartish rooms, some of which are quite small, so it’s worth paying the minimal extra for the larger ones; also sports a sauna, solarium, fitness centre and an accomplished restaurant. €56–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Korona Panzió Vörösmarty utca 4 87/343-278, www.koronapanzio.hu. Decent, family-run pension with neatly furnished rooms, some with balcony, just 5min from the train and bus stations and 10min from the waterfront. Good value. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Hotel Silver Resort Zákonyi Ferenc 4 87/583-000, www.silverresort.hu. Superbly located down by the marina, this inconspicuous low-rise runs the Anna Grand close with its impeccable, orange and brown coloured rooms, most of which have fabulous lakeside views. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Hotel Vasutas Erkel Ferenc utca 1 87/342-492, hotelvasutas@t-online.hu. Despite possessing zero atmosphere, this is one of the more agreeable workers’ hotels, with spartan but very clean rooms (superior ones have a/c) in a peaceful spot 150m north of the lake. €46–70/14,501–18,500Ft
The lakeside
Walking around Balatonfüred’s resort area makes you feel like an extra in Resnais’ film, Last Summer in Marienbad, and you almost expect to come across tubercular countesses and impoverished artists. Despite the crowds and a few high-rise hotels, this once elegant spa has managed to retain most of its old Central European charm. The tone is set by the elegant tree-lined promenade that runs east from the pier, where you can admire the view across to the Tihany promontory and the far side of the lake. The promenade is named Tagore sétány after the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who came here in 1926 and planted a tree near the pier in gratitude for his cure. Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and a host of other Indian figures have followed suit, as have various Nobel prize-winners and the odd Soviet cosmonaut.
A few minutes up from the middle of the promenade, you come to the aptly named Gyógy tér (Health Square). Its columned, pagoda-like Kossuth Well gushes carbonated water, while other springs feed the sanatorium and cardiac hospital on the northern and eastern sides of the square. Excavations suggest that the Romans were the first to exploit the springs, using the waters to treat stomach ailments and, when mixed with goats’ milk whey, as a cure for lung diseases. The hospital’s mineral baths are reserved for patients only. On the western side of the square stand two former trade union holiday homes; the beautifully renovated Anna Grand Hotel, and, similarly tarted up, the eighteenth-century Horváth House, one of the first inns in a land where innkeeping developed late, patronized by writers and politicians during the Reform era – a sanatorium for uranium miners during Communist times, it now accommodates luxury apartments.
Running westwards between the two is Blaha Lujza utca, named after the “Nation’s Nightingale”, who spent her summers here in a villa at no. 4 (now the Hotel Blaha Lujza) and had her tea at the Kedves Cukrászda across the road. Just past the hotel at the junction with Jókai utca stands the mid-nineteenth-century Round Church, modelled on the Pantheon in Rome. Across the road, the Jókai Memorial House (May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 600Ft) was built by the nineteenth-century novelist Mór Jókai, whose novels are often compared to those of Dickens; Queen Victoria is said to have been among his fans. He came to Balatonfüred at the age of 37, half expecting to die from a lung infection, and built the villa as a refuge; he didn’t die, however, until the ripe old age of 84. The museum preserves Jókai’s furniture, a selection of his paintings, sketches and books, and a handful of personal effects.
The Anna Ball and other events
The big event in Füred’s calendar is the Anna Ball on the last Saturday of July. Magnate Zsigmond Horváth held the first ball on Anna’s Day, July 26, 1825, in honour of his granddaughter Anna, and since the collapse of Communism this traditional social occasion has gained in stature. Crowds gather around Gyógy tér to watch the ball-goers, before they retire to the Anna Grand Hotel for the main ball. The following day the beauty queen elected at the ball is paraded around town in a horse-drawn carriage.
Besides the sailing competitions on the lake, Füred has two other regular events in August. On the second weekend of the month, keen swimmers set off on the 3.6km to Tihany – a challenge that usually attracts in excess of four thousand participants. The same weekend sees the start of the three-week Wine Festival (Borhetek), with stalls set up along the promenade, where you can taste local vintages. There are also concerts during summer in the Calvinist church on Kossuth utca in the main town (the whitewashed church rather than the red sandstone one at the top of Ady utca).
Eating and drinking
Decent eating possibilities are woefully thin on the ground in Balatonfüred; most of the lakeside restaurants are fairly samey – big, open-terraced places knocking up grilled meat and fish dishes for the masses, such as the Borcsa and Stefánia Vitorlás Étterem at either end of Tagore sétány. Away from the lakeside, the restaurant in the Hotel Blaha Lujza is just about the most appealing place in town, with some attractive dishes such as pheasant, deer and veal in paprika. A short walk up the road, at Zsigmond utca 1, the Arany Csillag is a refined little pizzeria offering some two dozen types of pizza, including stuffed ones, alongside fresh pasta and crisp salads.
By way of contrast there are several super cafés dotted around, best of which is the effortlessly cool Karolina, near the Silva Resort at Zákonyi sétány 4 – with soft lighting, fabulous furniture, and unbeatable coffee and cakes; the neighbouring Arany Mokka is a similarly classy affair. Elsewhere there’s Lujza Blaha’s favourite coffeeshop, the elegant Kedves Cukrászda at Blaha Lujza utca 7, and local favourite Bergmann, at the top of Zsigmond utca, whose cakes are a match for any in town. For a more vigorous bout of drinking, pop into the Macho Pub, a Mexican-themed haunt behind the train station at Vasút utca 4 (daily 8pm till late).
Balatonfüred activities
With wooded hills on one side and water on the other, Füred offers plentiful opportunities for recreation. Balatonfüred’s two main beaches (both mid-June to mid-Sept daily 9am–6pm; 750Ft) are located at the eastern end of Tagore sétány: the Eszterházy, and, fifteen minutes’ walk further east, the Kisfaludy. The Városi strand on Széchenyi utca west of the centre by the Hotel Marina is best for swimming (though not for kids, as it drops away quickly). Pedaloes and windsurfing boards are available at every strand and yachts can be rented from Opticonsor at Köztársaság utca 1 (87/341-188), Lisa Hajó at Füred Camping (06-30/9373-044) and the Fekete Péter School at Zákonyi utca 8 (06-30/9378-519), which also offers sailing lessons. You can rent bicycles (350Ft per hr, 2500Ft per day) from Tempo 21, near the stations at Ady Endre utca 52, or Bike Extrem, a little further up at no. 20. Tennis courts (2000Ft per hr) can be found at various locations, including the tennis centre next to the Hotel Margareta at Széchenyi utca 27 and at the Kiserdő Park in the centre of town. Tourinform can help arrange horseriding at the riding school in the Koloska Valley, a few kilometres outside town (87/340-280).
Tihany peninsula
A rocky finger of land that was declared Hungary’s first national park in 1952, the Tihany peninsula, 7km west of Balatonfüred, is historically associated with the Benedictine order and a castle (no longer in existence) that withstood 150 years of Turkish hostility. As one of the most beautiful regions of Balaton, Tihany gets swamped with visitors over summer, rivalling Szentendre as the most touristy place in Hungary, with folksy stalls lining the streets and parking as expensive as in Budapest. Nevertheless, it’s easy to escape the crowds by hiking into the interior.
The lakeshore road from Balatonfüred passes along the eastern side of the peninsula, through Diós (where Avar graves have been discovered) and Gödrös, entering Tihany village above the inner harbour (Belső Kikötő), where ferries from Balatonfüred and Siófok arrive. At the tip of the peninsula, 2km on, lies Tihany-rév, where car ferries cross to Szántód. Next to the ferry is the expensive Club Tihany resort complex. Besides the paying beaches by Club Tihany and the Tihany docks, there are free strand along the reedier shores between Gödrös and Diós, and south of Sajkod on the other side of the peninsula.
Arrival and information
Tihany is connected to Balatonfüred by hourly buses, which stop in the village by András tér below the abbey church. The peninsula is also connected by bus with Badacsony to the west. Ferries from Balatonfüred and Siófok (mid-April to Oct) arrive at the inner harbour, while from March to November the car ferry from Tihany-rév goes across to Szántód on the southern shore. Regular buses link the ferries with the upper village, or, alternatively, you could jump on the naff tourist train that stops below the abbey (June–Sept 9.30am–8.30pm, every 30min; 500Ft).
Information is available from Tourinform, located down from the abbey at Kossuth utca 20 (mid-April to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 10am–4pm; mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–7pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm; mid-Sept to mid-April Mon–Fri 10am–4pm; 87/538-104, www.tihany.hu). Internet access is available at Postakőz 1 (daily 10am–8pm), just behind the post office (Mon–Fri 8am–4pm). If you’d like to explore some of the inland areas but don’t fancy walking, bicycle rental is available at Kossuth utca 32 (May–Sept 10am–6pm; 2000Ft for half-day, 3000Ft for day).
Accommodation
There is a reasonable, if largely dull, choice of accommodation in the village, with prices not as high as you might expect here. There’s also a good stock of private rooms (€16–35/6501–9000Ft) and apartments (€36–45/9001–11,500Ft), bookable through Tihany Tourist at Kossuth utca 11 (daily: April–June & Sept–Oct 9am–5pm; July & Aug 9am–8pm; 87/448-481, www.tihanytourist.hu), or Balatontourist at Kossuth utca 12 (June–Aug Mon–Sat 8.30am–7pm, Sun 8.30am–1pm; Sept to mid-Oct Mon–Fri 8.30am–4.30pm, Sat 8.30am–1pm; 87/538-071, tihany@balatontourist.hu). Alternatively, if you simply wander the streets you’ll see plenty of Zimmer frei signs dotted around.
Adler Panzió Felsőkopaszhegyi 1/a 87/448-755, www.adler-tihany.hu. One kilometre south of the upper village, this homely place has large, a/c rooms with showers, some with small balcony, as well as a swimming pool, sauna and restaurant. Mid-March to Oct. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Allegro Hotel Batthyány utca 6 87/448-456, www.allegrohotel.hu. This delightful, boutique-style establishment is the most agreeable place in the village, offering attractive, good-sized, a/c rooms, in addition to a neat little swimming pool and garden terrace. Mid-March to Oct. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Kántás Panzió Csokonai utca 49 87/538-065, www.kantas-panzio-tihany.hu. Ordinary but restful, friendly, and very reasonably priced, six-room pension just down behind the post office. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Kolostor Panzió Kossuth Lajos utca 14 87/448-408. Located above a restaurant, this somewhat gloomy place has sombre, old-fashioned rooms decked out in lots of wood panelling, but it’s central and cheap. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Park Fürdőtelepi utca 1 87/448-611, www.hotelfured.hu. Tihany’s principal hotel is the Park, on the east side of the peninsula. The hotel’s two wings comprise the Kastély (Castle), a grand mansion confiscated by the Communist Party as its summer house, which has moderately impressive rooms, and the Park itself, a marginally cheaper, more modern building next door. Mid-April to mid-Oct. €56–85/18,501–22,500Ft
Tihany village and around
In contrast with Tihany-rév, TIHANY village, on the top of the hill halfway along the eastern side of the peninsula, is a traditional-looking place, full of old houses built of grey basalt tufa, with thatched roofs and porticoed terraces, their windows and doors outlined in white.
In days gone by, the village was dominated by a Benedictine abbey overlooking Balaton, established in 1055 at the request of Andrew I and founded, true to the biblical injunction, upon a rocky promontory; it was later transformed into a fortress, and eventually demolished in the seventeenth century. Andrew’s body lies in the crypt of the abbey church – the only one of the Árpád line to remain in the place where he was buried. The building itself is Baroque, the original having succumbed to the ravages of wars and time. Inside are virtuoso eighteenth-century woodcarvings by Sebestyén Stulhoff, who lived and worked in the abbey for 25 years after his fiancée died (her features are preserved in the face of an angel to the right of the altar), and grandiose frescoes by Károly Lotz, Székely and Deák-Ebner. The church (daily: May–Sept 9am–6pm; Oct–April 10am–3pm; 500Ft) provides a magnificent setting for organ concerts over summer – contact Tourinform for programme details. The abbey’s foundation deed, held at Pannonhalma Monastery in Transdanubia, is the earliest document to include Hungarian words among the Latin.
From the church, it’s a few minutes’ walk down Pisky sétány, a parapet overlooking the waterfront, to a small Open-Air Museum (Szabadtéri Múzeum; May–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 360Ft) exhibiting two well-preserved houses. The peasant house, with a beautiful entrance way, was built in the early nineteenth century and inhabited up until 1960; note the cross on the chimney, a common feature in this region. Behind this is an old Fishermen’s Guild House, its mud-brick walls clad in thin stone to give an impression of wealth. Inside are the old boats the fishermen used, and a “wooden dog” sledge for fishing on ice. In the traditional way, the mud floor of the veranda is washed with mud daily to deal with the dirt and cracks. Folk dancing performances are held on the open-air stage most Sunday evenings throughout July and August at 6pm.
Behind the museum at Batthyány utca 26 is a pottery house (Fazekasház; daily: May–Sept 9am–7pm, Oct–April till 4pm), where earthenware made from the red clay of the area and glazed in bright greens and blues is made and sold. Opposite, at no. 17, the seductively titled Marzipan House (Marcipán Ház; daily 10am–6pm; 400Ft) contains one room of marzipan-moulded Disney characters (and, somewhat bizarrely, models of Naomi Campbell and Karl Lagerfeld), while the other is brimming with a tempting assortment of marzipan, chocolates and confectionery. Continuing along the lakeside walk for another five minutes, you come to the scenic vantage point of Echo Hill. An echo can theoretically be produced by standing on a short concrete pedestal and projecting your voice onto the wall of the abbey church. Legend goes that the echo is the voice of a princess, drowned in the lake by the King of the Water following her refusal to fall in love with his son. By taking a well-marked path onwards, you can circumambulate the Óvár (Old Castle), a volcanic outcrop riddled with cells carved by Russian Orthodox monks in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, whence hot springs gush forth.
Back down in the village, on Kossuth utca, there are two more attractions, though, quite frankly, you’re best off saving your money: at no. 35, the Panoptikum (daily 10am–6pm; 1200Ft) features some rather dubious waxworks figures, mostly great Hungarian historical figures, but also some pirates, though where Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh fit in here is anyone’s guess; while, just around the corner, behind the post office on Posta-koz, Magyar História (daily 10am–6pm, show times hourly; 1000Ft) is a 45-minute audiovisual spectacle chronicling four thousand years of Hungarian history.
Inland walks
A trek inland will allow you to escape the crowds and enjoy the beauty of the peninsula, whose geology and microclimate have produced an unusual flora and fauna. The Inner Lake (Belső-tó), whose sunlit surface is visible from the abbey church, fills a volcanic crater 25m above the level of Balaton. From its southern bank, you can follow a path for a couple of kilometres through vineyards, orchards and lavender fields to the Aranyház geyser cones – rock funnels forced open by hot springs.
The northerly Outer Lake (Külső-tó) was drained for pasture in 1809, but started to be refilled in 1975. Its reed beds are harvested by hand over winter in the traditional manner, and provide a sanctuary for mallards, gadwalls and other birds. On the western side of the peninsula, a lookout tower atop Csúcs Hill (232m) offers a panoramic view of Balaton. The trail, marked in red, is a ninety-minute round-trip from Tihany village.
Eating
While bars and snack stalls cluster round the dock at Tihany-rév, restaurants are concentrated in the village, with some less expensive, less frequented wine cellars and restaurants in the streets around the Inner Lake. Homestyle Hungarian cuisine with frills is the rule in Tihany, and you’ll be paying over the odds in most restaurants – note that the majority of them are seasonal. For coffee and cakes head for the Rege Cukrászda, in the little courtyard just up from Tourinform – there are glorious views of the lake from the outdoor terrace; or Café 2 You, a frantic little place at the junction of Batthyány utca and Visszhang utca.
Ference Pince Csárda Cserhegy 9. This secluded, sprightly restaurant and wine cellar 1km south of the village is well worth the trek for its grilled and roast meat dishes and local wines – you’ll see the sign pinpointing its location 200m up a dusty track. April–Oct.
Fogas Csárda Kossuth utca 9. Great fish (grilled pike-perch, catfish, roast trout) is the order of the day in this perky little place on the main street, pleasantly cluttered with peasant-style decor and suitably attired waiters. March to mid-Nov.
Kecskeköröm Csárda Kossuth utca 19. This restaurant has a solid reputation, with game an established favourite, while its sloping terrace with wooden tables and benches gives it a relaxed, casual feel. April–Oct.
Oázis Major utca 47. Down towards the inner lake away from the crowded centre, this welcoming place offers wholesome Hungarian meals in a convivial atmosphere, though the highlight is the bright, flower-filled garden. April–Oct.
Pál Csárda Visszhang utca 19. Very popular place with a pretty, vine-shaded courtyard and a highly creditable regular menu, in addition to a different set menu each day. March–Oct.
Stég Pub and Pizzeria Kossuth utca 18. The least touristy eatery in the village, this informal gaff offers oven-baked pizzas and salads, and is also the best place for a beer. Open til 1am.
The Badacsony
A hulk of volcanic rock with four villages at its feet, backed by dead volcanoes ranged across the Tapolca basin, the Badacsony is one of Balaton’s most striking features. When the land that was to become Hungary first surfaced, molten magma erupted from the sea bed and cooled into a great semicircle of basalt columns, 210m high, which form Badacsony’s southeastern face. The rich volcanic soil of the lower slopes has supported vineyards since the Age of Migrations, when the Avars buried grape seeds with their dead to ensure that the afterlife wouldn’t be lacking in wine. Nowadays, the harvest consists of Zöldszilváni, Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris), Olaszrizling and Kéknyelő (Blue Stem); the last variety is exclusive to the region. The wine harvest festival in the village of Badacsony during the second week in September is a time of street processions, folk dancing and music – and of course lots of wine to be drunk. Out of season, Badascony is just about the most desolate place around the lake.
Arrival and information
Although trains and buses also call at the other villages – Badacsonytomaj, Badacsonylábdihegy and Badacsonytördemic – Badacsony proper is where everyone gets off, with ferries arriving from Balatonboglár, Fonyód and Szigliget. Badacsony’s train station is right in the centre of the village, just up from the ferry pier, while buses stop on the main street, Park utca. Beyond Badacsony the train line veers northwards up to Tapolca in the Bakony, so it’s easier to continue along the shore by bus, changing at Balatonederics if necessary.
Maps and information are available from Tourinform, 100m north of the train station at Park utca 14 (mid-June to Aug daily 9am–7pm; May to mid-June daily 9am–5pm; April & Sept Mon–Fri 9am–3pm; 87/431-046, badacsonytomaj@tourinform.hu), and the post office is close by at no. 3 (Mon–Fri 8am–4pm).
Accommodation
Given the popularity of the place, accommodation in Badacsony is scarce, though nearby Badacsonytomaj (2km east on the road to Balatonfüred) has further options, and there’s a brilliant hostel in Révülöp, further east along the lake. Moreover, there is a reasonable stock of private rooms (€16–35/6501–9000Ft) bookable through Miditourist, at Egry sétány 3 (daily: July & Aug 8am–8pm; May, June & Sept to mid-Oct 9am–6pm; 87/431-117, www.miditourist.hu) and Park utca 53 (June–Sept daily 8am–8pm; Oct–May Mon–Sat 9am–4pm; 87/431-028). Badacsony’s campsite is on the shore, fifteen minutes’ walk west of the ferry pier (87/531-041; mid-May to Sept), while, 1km or so beyond Badacsonytomaj, in Badacsonyörs, is the larger Balaton Camping (87/571-031; May to mid-Sept).
Badacsony Hostel Római út 1, Badacsonytomaj & 87/471-057. Five minutes up from the station, this friendly hostel offers accommodation in functional but clean two- to five-bedded rooms with shared bathrooms. April–Oct. Dorm bed €15/4000Ft and under
Borbarátok Panzió Római út 88, Badacsonytomaj 87/471-500, www.borbaratok.hu. The “Wine Friends” pension has six lovely rooms a 15min walk along from Badascony Hostel, with tidy, colourful rooms, and which also makes its own wine. April–Oct. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Hullám Hostel Füredi út 6 87/463-089, www.balatonhostel.hu. Not in Badacsony itself, but around 8km east of the village in Révülöp, this super, and extremely welcoming, hostel is one of the country's best; super clean three-, four- and six-bed dorms, as well as en-suite singles and doubles; internet, laundry and bike rental all available. Prominently sited, it's a 5min walk from the station along the main road (exit left). €16–45/9001–11,500Ft
Hotel Neptun Római út 170 87/431-293, www.borbaratok.hu. Just up the road from Tourinform, this sister hotel to the Borbarátok incorporates both a neat and colourful pension and a clean, bright hostel with shared bathrooms and a large communal area. April–Oct. Hostel doubles €16–25/4001–6500Ft, pension €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Hotel Volán Római út 168 87/431-013, info@vhotel.hu. Neo-Baroque heap with a 1980s annexe possessing purely functional rooms – note that the actual hotel entrance is on Egry sétány, just along from Miditourist. April–Oct. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Badacsony village and around
In high summer BADACSONY village is absolutely packed, and however you get here, you’ll arrive in the midst of a mass of stalls selling folksy crafts, wine and fried fish. Just over the level crossing at Egry sétány 12, the Egry József Museum (Egry József Emlékmúzeum; May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 450Ft) exhibits the works of local lad József Egry (1883–1951), one of Hungary’s foremost painters. Born into a poor family, Egry worked as a locksmith and roofer before winning a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Balaton after World War I, thus beginning a thirty-year love affair with the lake, as evinced by an exquisite series of paintings, which capture the changing light and moods of the lake beautifully. This wonderful collection also features some interesting family and self-portraits, as well as some of his sketches and photographs.
From May until October you can take one of the jeep-taxis (600Ft per person), which leave from in front of the Tourinform office on Park utca and whizz you, at alarmingly high speeds, 3km uphill through the vineyards to the charming Róza Szegedy House (Szegedy Róza Ház; May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 400Ft). Róza Szegedy met her future husband, poet Sándor Kisfaludy, on the slopes of the Badacsony in 1795, and when they married five years later they used her Badacsony house as a summer home; its views proved to be an inspiration to his poetry. As well as a selection of his literature, the museum contains some of her old furniture, including an ornate card table and her bed. The former wine-press room now houses a cool little wine bar (same times as museum), where you can sample and buy a selection of local wines.
From the museum you can follow a path up to the Rose Rock (Rózsakő), where it’s said that if a man and woman sit upon it with their backs to Balaton and think about each other, they’ll be married by the end of the year. The trail continues through the beechwoods to the Kisfaludy lookout tower (437m), about an hour’s walk from the museum, and on another twenty minutes to the Stone Gate (Kőkapu), two massive basalt towers flanking a precipitous drop. For longer hikes into the hills further north, offering an escape from the crowds, it’s a good idea to buy a 1:80,000-scale map of the region from one of the tourist offices. A four-kilometre walk northwest from the Stone Gate will bring you to Gulács-hegy, a perfectly conical hill (393m) near the Nemesgulács halt for trains en route to Tapolca. The Szent György-hegy (415m), on the far side of the tracks, boasts some impressive basalt organ pipes and the region’s finest vineyards, where Szürkebarát is produced. A few kilometres to the east, the 375-metre-high Csobánc-hegy is crowned by a ruined castle; this hike will probably take the best part of a day and leave you closer to Tapolca than Balaton. Don’t be alarmed if you hear bangs in the fields around you: it’s just the local way of scaring birds off the grape crop.
Three kilometres northeast of Badacsony, near the settlement of BADACSONYÖRS, signposts point up the hill to the Folly Aborétum (April–Oct Tues–Sun 9am–6pm; 350Ft), a stiff twenty-minute climb that rewards visitors with excellent views and a small park offering a peaceful contrast to Balaton. This private collection of cedars, cypresses and pines from all over the world was started by one doctor Gyula Folly in 1905, and takes about an hour to walk around.
Eating and drinking
The best of the restaurants hereabouts – and the only one open year round – is the Borbarátok (in the pension of the same name) where, in addition to the comely restaurant, you can also dine in either the cellar, gallery or sunny garden; the food is upscale Hungarian but also features some Transylvanian dishes, while the home-cultivated wine is first-rate, with tastings also possible (around 1500Ft for five wines). A remote spot, but with tremendous views, is the Kisfaludy Ház just up from the Róza Szegedy House, which offers excellent Hungarian food and live Gypsy music on summer evenings. In Badacsony itself, the Hárksert Vendéglő, in the Hotel Neptun, offers a more standard Hungarian menu, but is a pleasant antidote to the Halászkert at Park utca 5 – the definitive tourist restaurant, with pricey food, waiters touting at the entrance and musicians eagerly plucking away with a beady eye on your forint. These last three restaurants are open between April and October only. In addition, during the summer there are stacks of snack and wine stalls in between the train station and Park utca.
Szigliget
After the crowded Badacsony, the lush Szigliget peninsula is a marked contrast. Both the main road and the train line go inland of the picturesque village of SZIGLIGET, 5km west of Badacsony, giving it a pleasant secluded feel. Though the peninsula has been built up with holiday homes, these are mainly privately owned, and accommodation is almost entirely in private houses. Earlier inhabitants of the region included a people known as the Lads, who occupied this area when the Magyars entered the region in the tenth century.
The centre of the village, which lies on the west of the peninsula at the top of Kossuth utca, is dominated by a former Esterházy mansion (closed to the public), now a holiday resort for the Writers’ Union, and the ruins of Szigliget Castle (Szigligeti vár; March–Oct daily 9am–6pm; 450Ft), a twenty-minute signposted walk uphill. Originally commissioned in 1260 by Pannonhalma Monastery in the wake of the Mongol invasion, the present remains date from the sixteenth century. During the Turkish occupation, the Hungarian fleet moored at Szigliget under the protection of the castle, but in the seventeenth century lightning struck the castle and burnt it down. Although there remains a fair bit to see – including several of the towers, a section of the living quarters and part of the former stables – the main reason for visiting is to take in the superlative views of the lake and the Bakony Hills. Just below the castle is the Vár Vendéglő and the Várkávézo, the former a touristy, but decent enough, restaurant, the latter a pleasing little coffee house. A little further down, at Kossuth utca 3, is the Esterházy Wine Cellar (Eszterházi Pince; daily: June–Sept noon–10pm, Oct–May noon–4pm; 87/461-044), which offers tours of its enormous eighteenth-century cellars, whilst you can also purchase wine from the shop here. During the summer they also stage folklore programmes, comprising music, dance and food (July & Aug Mon, Wed & Fri 6pm; 5000Ft), and though these are generally the preserve of big tour groups, you could always try and see if there are places available. Heading down Kossuth utca for 2km you come to the strand, which is slightly quieter than your average Balaton beach (May–Sept daily 9am–6pm; 400Ft); boats from Keszthely and Badacsony arrive at the port 500m further on. Just before the turning for Badacsonytördemic, another couple of kilometres on, are the remains of a twelfth-century church with a restored octagonal tower.
Access to the village is by bus running between Tapolca and the train station at Badacsonytördemic (10 daily), serving all points around the peninsula. If you wish to stay here, pretty much your only option is to hunt down a private room, many of which are advertised along Kossuth utca.
Keszthely and around
A tradition of freethinking that dates back to the eighteenth century gives KESZTHELY a sense of superiority over other resorts, and its university ensures that life isn’t wholly taken over by tourism. Perched at the far western tip of the lake, and the hub of several ferry, bus and train routes, the town gracefully absorbs thousands of visitors during peak season and yet manages not to look bleak and abandoned the rest of the year. With the Belváros and Festetics Palace to admire, and a thermal lake awaiting bathers at nearby Hévíz, Keszthely is one of the most appealing and enjoyable towns on Balaton. It’s also the best place from which to approach the attractions at Kis-Balaton.
Arrival and information
Arriving at Fly Balaton airport, around 12km southwest of town near the village of Sármellék, the easiest and cheapest way into Keszthely (or HévÍz) is by using the BusExpress service (83/318-063, www.busexpress.hu), which offers door-to-door transfers for around 1500Ft – you must book in advance if travelling to the airport; a taxi will cost around 2000Ft. The train and bus stations, with services to Budapest, the Bakony and major towns in Transdanubia, are further south, at the bottom end of Mártírok útja, but most buses entering town drop passengers on downtown Fő tér, sparing them a 600-metre trudge along Kossuth utca, Keszthely’s main axis. Arriving by ferry near the main strand, you can walk up Erzsébet királyné útja to the centre in less than fifteen minutes.
Information can be obtained from Tourinform at Kossuth utca 28 (mid-June to Aug daily 9am–7pm; Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–noon; 83/314-144, www.keszthely.hu). The main post office is at no. 44 (Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 8am–noon), while there’s internet access available at the Stones Cyber-Cafe, at Kisfaludy utca 17.
Accommodation
There is no shortage of accommodation in Keszthely and even during July and August you should be able to find something. Dormitory beds (July & Aug; 2500Ft) are available at the Vajda Hostel, Gagarin utca 2 (83/311-361), and the VSZK Kollégium, just up from the stations on Mártírok útja (83/515-300). Keszthely Tours, at Kossuth utca 25 (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat 9am–1pm; 83/314-287, www.keszthelytourist.hu), have a good selection of affordable apartments (€36–55/11,501–14,500Ft) in town; alternatively, there are enough private rooms (€16–35/6501–9000Ft) to go around, particularly in the backstreets south of the station or, as a last resort, you could always head to nearby Hévíz. The town’s two campsites (both April–Oct) are Castrum Camping, a clean and pleasant site around 1km north of the stations at Móra Ferenc utca 48 (83/312-120), though it’s aimed predominantly at motorists; and Zalatour Camping, in large, attractive grounds some fifteen minutes’ walk south of the stations at Entz Gezá sétány (83/312-782) – it also has bungalows for four people (€16–35/6501–9000Ft).
Hotels and pensions
Hotel Bacchus Erzsébet királyné utca 18 83/510-450, www.bacchushotel.hu. Centrally located private hotel, with perfunctory, pine-furnished rooms, all with wi-fi and some with balcony. It boasts one of the best restaurants in town. €56–70/14,501–18,500Ft
Forras Panzió Római út 1 83/311-418, info@forraspanzio.hu. Brute ugly it may be, but this big and busy hostel-style place, a few blocks west of the stations, has clean, variously sized dorms, some with showers, some with shared facilities. €16–35/6501–9000Ft
Hotel Georgikon Georgikon utca 20 83/312-363, moor@georgikon.hu. Despite its grubby exterior and cheerless disposition, this renovated manor house, next to the Georgikon Museum, has clean, utilitarian rooms with a small kitchen area in each. Breakfast is extra. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Hotel Helikon Balaton-part 5 83/889-600, www.danubiusgroup.com. Lakeside high-rise with smoothly furnished, good-sized rooms, most with fantastic views; there’s a sauna, pool and tennis courts, and a causeway leading to its own small island just offshore. €71–85/18,501–22,500Ft
Múzeum Panzió Múzeum utca 3 &83/313-182. Just a 5min walk from the bus and train stations, on a leafy residential street, this is an agreeable little five-room pension run by a hospitable proprietor. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Párizsi Udvar Panzió Kastély utca 5 83/311-202. The “Parisian Court” is a fresh, good-looking pension in a plum location just by the palace gates; the three-bed rooms and apartments are particularly good value. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Tokajer Panzió Apát utca 21 83/319-875, www.pensiontokajer.hu. This homely pension has charmingly old-fashioned rooms spread across three adjoining buildings, and there are lots of extras too, including pool, whirlpool, exercise room, games room for kids, and bike rental. April–Oct. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
The Town
The majority of Keszthely’s sights are strung along the length of the main thoroughfare, Kossuth utca, culminating in the Festetics Palace and, just beyond here, the rather fine Hunting and Historical Model Railway Museum. The town’s beaches are within easy walking distance of the centre, across to the east.
Kossuth utca and around
Walking uphill along Mártírok útja from the train and bus stations, you’ll pass the Balaton Museum at the junction with Kossuth utca (May–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; Nov–April Tues–Sat 9am–5pm; 500Ft), which covers the region’s history and wildlife, with artefacts dating back to the first century AD, when road-building Romans disrupted the lifestyle of local Celtic tribes. Mock-up displays of fishing and thatching scenes are used to illustrate the life of the lakeside population. Heading on up Kossuth utca for ten minutes brings you to Fő tér, a strangely shaped square in the middle of which stands the Trinity Statue, erected in 1770. On the eastern side of the square, the much-remodelled Church of Our Lady of the Hungarians was originally constructed in the fourteenth century, and was at one point rebuilt as a fortress to repel the Turks, before becoming the property of György Festetics in 1799. Further reconstruction in the late nineteenth century included the addition of the neo-Gothic tower, and the church still retains a Gothic rose window above its portal.
North of Fő tér is the pedestrianized section of Kossuth utca, a colourful, bustling thoroughfare given over to cafés, buskers and strollers. Just beyond the Tourinform office, a plaque on the right, at Kossuth utca 22, marks the birthplace of Karl Goldmark. Born in 1830, the son of a poor Jewish cantor who enrolled him in Sopron’s school of music, Goldmark went on to study at the Vienna Conservatory. Almost shot as a rebel for giving concerts in Győr during the 1848 Revolution, he survived to compose Merlin, Zrínyi and The Queen of Sheba. In the courtyard through the archway is the newly restored synagogue, dating from 1852, though unfortunately it’s not possible to enter. A black obelisk nearby commemorates the 829 Jews who were deported from here in 1944.
Further along Kossuth utca, take a left down Bakacs utca where you’ll find a quartet of attractions (all daily: June–Sept 9am–6pm; Oct–May 10am–5pm; 300Ft each). The first one you come to is the Waxwork Museum (Panoptikum), featuring life-size models of legendary and eminent Hungarians such as King Stephen, Árpád and Petőfi; it’s made all the more enjoyable thanks to the English captions explaining each person’s role in Hungarian society. Just around the corner is the Shell Parliament (Csiga Parlament), an extraordinary seven-metre-long, 2.5-metre-high reconstruction of the Budapest Parliament building – extraordinary in the sense that it took one indefatigable woman, Ilona Miskei, fourteen years of her life to piece together 4.5 million Pannon sea-snail shells to get the finished result. The building next door houses the delightful Folk Costume Puppet Museum (Népi Babamúzeum), a vast collection of exquisite porcelain dolls dressed up in folk costumes representing the multifarious regions of Hungary. Upstairs, don’t miss the superb assemblage of beautifully carved, wooden model churches and gates, which are typically found in the Erdőhát region in northeastern Hungary. Fourthly, there’s the Torture Museum (Kinzó Múzeum), a rather comical collection of waxwork figures in various states of mutilation and dismemberment.
Ten minutes’ walk north, beyond the end of Kossuth utca and 200m down from the palace gates at Katona József utca 19, the Marzipan Museum and Pastry Shop (March–Dec Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 160Ft) is well worth a stop, not only to view the exquisitely made marzipan works, but also to sample one of the many tempting marzipan desserts.
The Festetics Palace
The imposing neo-Baroque Festetics Palace (Festetics kastély) assumed its present form in 1887, and with one hundred halls and rooms, some eighteen of which can be visited, it is one of the largest, and most expensive to visit, in Hungary (June Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; July & Aug daily 9am–6pm; Sept–May Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 1700Ft or 2000Ft if combined with the Coach Museum). The Festetics family is chiefly remembered for Count György, founder of Keszthely’s agricultural university, the Georgikon, in 1797. During the early nineteenth century, the palace’s salons attracted the leading lights of Magyar literature and became Hungary’s first public forum for criticism. More recently, there was a national scandal in 1989 when it was discovered that a porn version of the life of spy Mata Hari had been filmed here while school parties were touring other parts of the palace.
The highlights of the palace are a gilt, mirrored ballroom and the Helikon Library, a masterpiece of joinery by János Kerbl, built in 1801 and containing over 90,000 books in diverse languages, the oldest of which – Chronica Hungarorum – dates back to 1488. Chinese vases and tiled stoves jostle for space with portraits of the family racehorses and dachshunds (whose pedigrees are proudly noted), and the pelts and heads of tigers, bears and other animals shot by Count Windishgrätz. Wine buffs might care to check out the palace’s wine museum (600Ft), essentially a collection of many of the country’s finest wines, reposed within the original sixteenth-century cellars – a better reason to visit is for a tasting session, available by prior appointment (2500Ft; 30/267-2188).
Housed in the immaculately renovated former stables at the rear of the palace is the quite splendid Coach Museum (Hintómúzeum; same times; 800Ft or 2000Ft if combined with the palace), which proudly displays an assortment of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century carriages – principally parade and hunting coaches, though the oldest one here is a Hungarian bride coach from 1770.
The Hunting and Historical Model Railway Museum, and Georgikon
Occupying a former military warehouse west of the palace on Pal utca are the Hunting and Historical Model Railway Museums (Vadászati és Modellvasút-kíállítás; same times as Festetics Palace; 800Ft each or 1200Ft for both). The former features an impressive collection of hunting trophies from the 1930s, in addition to a brightly presented natural history section, with a wide variety of stuffed animals, all themed by continent. Up on the top floor, and emphatically not to be missed (for kids and adults alike), is one of Europe’s largest model railways; some 40m long, this fantastic creation replicates, in extraordinary detail, the original Vienna to Trieste line, including the famous Semmering mountain railway in southern Austria.
Ten minutes’ walk south of the museum, at Bercsényi utca 67, is the Georgikon, the first college of its kind in Europe when it was established in 1797. Students attending the three-year course lived and worked together in a cluster of whitewashed buildings, some of which have been converted into the Farmstead Museum (Majormúzeum; May–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 500Ft). Sheltered here is an impressive and voluminous gathering of dairy and viticultural equipment, cartwrights’ and blacksmiths’ tools, as well as old Ford tractors and two enormous steam ploughs manufactured by the British company John Fowler in 1912. The Georgikon was the forerunner of today’s Agricultural University, a green and daffodil-yellow pile halfway along Széchenyi utca.
Eating, drinking and entertainment
Keszthely’s restaurant scene is steady rather than spectacular, and if you’re here for any length of time you’ll probably find yourself visiting the same places. Rather dispiritingly, nightlife largely revolves around a string of tacky, neon-lit clubs and strip bars scattered around town.
Restaurants
Two appealing self-service places are Oázis, at Rákóczi tér 3 (Mon–Sat 11am–4pm), a vegetarian joint which has a different menu for each day of the week, as well as a decent salad bar, and the more wide-ranging Morzasázó, 200m further down the road at no. 12 (Mon–Fri 11am–7pm, Sat & Sun 11am–4pm).
Bacchus Erzsébet királyné utca 18. The Bacchus hotel’s handsome cellar restaurant features chunky tables and chairs culled from old bits of wine press, upturned ceramic lamps and other wine artefacts; the food, meanwhile, is an upscale take on familiar Hungarian dishes (hot stews, steaks on a platter) but also features plenty to keep veggies content (corn pie, egg dumplings, potato pancakes); first-rate wine too.
Béke Vendéglő Kossuth utca 50. Awkwardly pitched somewhere between bar and restaurant, this modern eatery offers reasonable homestyle Hungarian food, as well as a good choice of beers and wines.
Lakoma Balaton utca 9. A restful, understated place with an intriguing and wildly eclectic menu, offering dishes like kangaroo steak, stuffed snails, and, for the more adventurous, stew of cock’s balls. Happy, smiley service to accompany your food.
Margaréta Bercsényi út 60. The locals’ favourite, this bustling place might not look much, with its tightly packed ranks of plain wooden tables and thick bench seating, but its food – grilled pork and beef, stews, fish, savoury pancakes – and busy atmosphere make it the best value-for-money place in town.
Park Vörösmarty utca 1a. A distinctly modest and old-fashioned affair, where you can get stuck in to big plates of hearty Hungarian fare whilst a cimbalom player taps away in the background.
Cafés and bars
The most agreeable of the many cafés along Kossuth utca is the warm Korzó Café at no. 7, which has super cakes too, while Café Pelso, a smart, two-tiered wood and glass building on Fő tér, also has top-notch coffee – during the summer the top terrace opens up and it becomes a really vibrant place (May–Sept till midnight; Oct–April till 9pm).
Most drinking venues are, predictably enough, student focused and include the Easy Music House across from the post office at Kossuth Lajos utca 79, which has live dance and Latin music, and the Kolibri next door – both are similarly rowdy and stay open till the small hours. For something a little more sophisticated, there’s wine-tasting to be had in the beautiful eighteenth-century cellars of the Bacchus hotel (2500Ft for six wines plus snacks), or the cellars of the Festetics Palace.
Festivals and beaches
Keszthely has a rich festival tradition, the highlight being the week-long Balaton Festival each May. One of the largest festivals on Balaton, it brings pop and classical concerts, theatre programmes and art exhibitions to venues across town, including the lakeside, the palace, the Balaton Museum and the pedestrian stretch of Kossuth utca. In May of even-numbered years, the Helikon Festival of Chamber and Orchestral Music, a celebration featuring young musicians, takes place in the palace. Another regular event is the five-day Wine Festival, starting at the end of July/beginning of August, with folk music, dance performances and a plethora of stalls selling wine and offering tastings along the avenue just south of the Helikon hotel near the lake. The Theatre Festival, featuring plays by Shakespeare, is performed on an open-air stage in the palace grounds at the end of July/beginning of August. The palace is also the setting for frequent philharmonic concerts throughout July and August, while there are organ recitals at the Lutheran church. The summer months are further enlivened by rock, folk and jazz concerts on Fő tér, and buskers and jugglers along Kossuth utca.
Keszthely has three beaches (all May–Sept daily 8am–7/8pm). The main town beach is the clean and pleasant Városi strand (800Ft), located near the ferry dock and with its own quay; to the northeast of Városi, at the end of Lóczy Lajos utca, is the Libás strand (500Ft), while to the south, near the Zalatour campsite, there’s the Helikon strand (500Ft); which also has a giant water chute. You can rent pedaloes (1000Ft per hr) and windsurfing gear (800Ft per hr, 2500Ft per day) at all three beaches.
Hévíz
HÉVÍZ, 8km northeast of Keszthely, boasts the second-largest thermal lake (Gyógy-tó) in the world after Lake Tarawera in New Zealand. The temperature rarely drops below 30°C even during winter, when steam billows from the lake and its thermal stream, and Indian waterlilies flourish on its surface. The lake is replenished by up to eighty million litres of warm water a day gushing up from springs 1km underground, and is completely flushed out every couple of days.
Exploited since medieval times for curative purposes as well as for tanning leather, the lake was salubriously channelled into a bathhouse by Count György Festetics in 1795. By the end of the nineteenth century, Hévíz had become a grand resort, briefly favoured by crown princes and magnates like those other great spas of the Habsburg empire, Karlsbad and the Baths of Hercules. They’d be hard-pressed to recognize it today, with high-rise hotels, tacky bars and a raft of souvenir stalls setting the tone.
Although the wooden terraces and catwalks surrounding the baths (tófürdő; daily: July–Aug 8am–7.30pm; March–May & Sept–Nov 8.30am–5.30pm; Dec–Feb 9am–4.30pm; 3700Ft per day, 2900Ft for 5hr, 2100Ft for 3hr; www.spaheviz.hu) have a vaguely fin-de-siècle appearance, the general ambience is modern, with people sipping beer or reading newspapers while bobbing on the lake in rented inner tubes. Prolonged immersion isn’t recommended on account of the slightly radioactive water (the lake is not suitable for under-12s), though mud from the lake is used to treat locomotive disorders. The busiest months are May and September, when the water is at its optimum temperature for bathing. You can rent all the necessaries here, including cubicles (1200Ft), towels (900Ft) and rubber rings (500Ft).
A small museum (Tues–Sat 10am–6pm; 300Ft), inside the cinema building at Rákóczi utca 9, relays the history of the baths through old images and photos, whilst also paying tribute to the pioneering work of doctors Karóly Moll, inventor of the weight bath, and Vilmos Schulhof, one of the leading exponents in the field of baneology.
Practicalities
The bus station is on Deák tér, opposite the baths, from where it’s a short walk to the well-equipped Tourinform office at Rákóczi utca 2 (July & Aug Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–7pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 10am–4pm; 83/540-131). Just up the road at no. 8, Zalathermal (May–Sept Mon–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 9am–5pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–1pm; 83/341-048, info@zalatourheviz.hu) has a decent selection of private rooms (€16–25/4001–6500Ft), though Kossuth and Zrínyi utcas are both teeming with Zimmer frei signs anyway. At the southern end of the lake, the four-star Castrum Gyógycamping (83/343-198, heviz@castrum.eu) has tidy plots for tents and trailers and a neat little guesthouse (€36–45/9001–11,500Ft).
With half-hourly buses from Fő tér in Keszthely, there’s no need to linger in Hévíz, but, should you decide to stay, the town is bursting with accommodation, including several cheapish options: best-value is the very homely Astoria Panzió, close to the baths at Rákóczi utca 11 (83/340-393, www.astoriapanzio.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), with a mix of small and large air-conditioned rooms; while at Petőfi utca 18 (the street parallel), the Hotel Alba (83/343-123, hotel.alba@freemail.hu; €26–35/6501–9000Ft) is dated but extremely cheap.
Two more good-value hotels lie just across the road from each other on Széchenyi utca: at no. 21, the friendly and tidy Napfény (83/340-642, napf.hot@t-online.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft) also rents out bikes, and at no. 23, the Pannon (83/340-482, www.pannonhotelheviz.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft) features small, colourful rooms. If you want to go more upmarket, try the Beta Hotel Park at Petőfi utca 26 (83/341-190, www.danubiusgroup.com; €71–85/18,501–22,500Ft), an elegant thirty-room hotel housed in two villas linked by a walkway; its facilities include sauna, jacuzzi and fitness centre.
Hévíz’s few restaurants are fairly tourist-oriented. The two best places, both combining standard Hungarian and fish dishes, are somewhat inconveniently located fifteen minutes’ walk southwest of the centre on Tavirózsa utca, the street north of Kossuth utca; although there’s little to choose between the Tavirózsa at no. 4 and the Magyar Csárda at no. 1, the former is a touch more polished and has a better vegetarian range. Of those down by the baths, the Rózsakert on Rákóczi utca, offering lots of grilled meats, is about the best there is. Take coffee at the funky Macchiato café, Széchenyi utca 7.
The Bakony
The Bakony range cuts a swathe across central Transdanubia, as if scooped from the ground to provide space for the lake and piled as a natural embankment behind the lowlier Balaton highlands. Abundant vineyards testify to the richness of the volcanic soil, and mineheads to the mineral wealth beneath it. With dense woods and narrow ravines, the Bakony was the Hungarian equivalent of Sherwood Forest during the centuries of warfare and turmoil, and the setting for a dozen castles, the finest of which stand at Sümeg and Nagyvázsony. The regional capital, Veszprém, boasts a wealth of historic architecture and serves as a base for trips to Herend, location of the world-famous porcelain factory, while Tapolca is currently enjoying a revival, belying its old reputation as a dour mining centre.
Access to the western end of the Bakony is from Tapolca, where buses and trains go to Sümeg. Buses also run from Tapolca here via Nagyvázsony and Nemesvámos towards Veszprém, the main transport hub, from where buses serve all the Bakony villages and towns, as well as the major Route 8 to Herend.
Tapolca
Ten kilometres inland from Balaton, the charming small town of TAPOLCA was a relatively unimportant village until the 1960s, when it became the capital of Hungary’s mining industry. Today, it offers several interesting tourist attractions, as well as serving as something of a transport hub, with regular buses and trains from Keszthely, including nosztálgia steam trains in July and August, and services to and from Balatonfüred.
The town’s biggest draw is the Cave Lake (Tavasbarlang; July & Aug daily 9am–7pm, mid-March to June & Sept–Oct daily 10am–5pm; Nov to mid-March Sat only 10am–4pm; 1000Ft includes boat rental), a ten-minute walk east of the main square, Fő ter, on Kisfaludy utca. Discovered in 1902 during a well-digging, the cave was the first in Hungary to be opened to the public, in 1913, with electrical lighting installed a few years later. Used as an air-raid shelter during World War II, the cave was subsequently robbed of its water by mining, and so was closed down as a visitor attraction, only to reopen in 1990. Today around 250m of the main passage can be explored, 70m by foot, the rest by boat. The temperature of the cave is around 18ºC, so there’s no need for extra layers of clothing.
Just behind Fő tér to the south is the wonderfully serene and picturesque Mill Lake (Malom-tó), fed by thermal springs and bisected by a low footbridge and the Hotel Gabriella, housed in an eighteenth-century watermill – the mill wheel, with its slowly turning blades, still hangs precariously outside. A delightful strolling spot, the smaller, narrower lake (Kis-tó) is fringed by weeping willows whilst the larger lake (Nagy-tó) is encircled by softly coloured buildings and a couple of cafés. On summer Sunday evenings at 8pm, the pontoon on the larger lake stages free classical concerts. In the group of buildings behind the hotel, signs point you to an old school housing the School Museum (Iskola or Városi Múzeum; June–Aug Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; Sept–May Tues–Fri 10am–4pm; 500Ft). Reconstructed in 1813, it operated as a school until 1884, after which time it became the residence of the local choir-master; inside you can view a rather unexciting assemblage of books, desks and school uniforms among other accessories from a hundred years ago, and the teacher’s bedroom next door. Across the lake from the hotel, the Szent Antal Wine Museum (Bormúzeum; May–Sept Sat & Sun 9am–9pm; 450Ft) houses an exhibition on the history of Balaton wines; tastings are included in the entry price and you can buy a selection of wines from the region.
Practicalities
While the train station is 1.5km southwest of the town centre, served by regular buses or a fifteen-minute walk along Dózsa György utca, the bus station is on Deák Ferenc utca, a minute’s walk from Fő tér. Information can be obtained from Tourinform at Fő tér 17 (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 9am–5pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 87/510-777, www.tapolca.hu). The post office is at Deák Ferenc utca 19 (Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 8am–noon).
If you fancy stopping overnight, there is plentiful accommodation in town, the plushest place being the immaculate four-star Hotel Pelion, 400m north of the Cave Lake at Kőztársaság 10 (87/513-100, www.hunguesthotels.hu; €101/26,001Ft and over) – its facilities include indoor and outdoor thermal pools, tennis and squash courts, and, somewhat uniquely, a medicinal grotto. Right next to the Cave Lake, at Kisfaludy utca 1, sits the Szent György Panzió (87/413-809, gardos2@t-online.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), a fine, mustard-coloured building with boxy but bright rooms. Although they’re nothing particularly special, all rooms in the Hotel Gabriella, at Batsányi tér 7 (87/511-070, www.hotelgabriella.hu; €36–55/11,501–14,500Ft), have terrific views overlooking the Mill Lake; while some 100m east of here at Arany János utca 14, there is the Varjú Fogadő (87/510-522, www.varjufogado.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), whose modern, spacious and colourful rooms, and spotless bathrooms, make it the best deal of the lot. For a private room (€16–25/4001–6500Ft) head to Balatontourist, just off Fő tér at Arany János utca 2 (Mon–Fri 9am–4pm, Sat 9–11.30am; 87/510-131, tapolca@balatontouristutazas.hu).
Both the Szent György Panzió and Hotel Gabriella have the best restaurants in town; the former, a gorgeously decorated place with enticing chef’s specials, is marginally more superior, though the latter does have a fabulous terrace overlooking the lake. For coffee, cakes and ices head to the Dream Team Café on the corner of Fő tér and Kossuth utca.
Sümeg
SÜMEG, 14km north of Tapolca, has always drawn crowds of tourists, thanks to its dramatic-looking castle dating from the eighteenth century, when Sümeg was the seat of the bishops of Veszprém. All of Sümeg’s sights are located less than a couple of minutes’ walk from Kossuth Lajos utca, the town’s main thoroughfare.
Arrival, information and accommodation
Arriving in Sümeg by train, head along Darnay Kálmán utca, which segues into Lukonich Gábor utca, before turning left at the stone church and onto Kossuth Lajos utca; the bus station is on Florián tér, at the southern end of Kossuth Lajos utca. There’s information at the small Tourinform office at Kossuth utca 15 (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 9am–5pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–4pm; 87/550-276, sumeg@tourinform.hu), whilst Balatontourist in the adjoining office (Mon–Fri 8.30am–4pm, Sat 8.30am–noon; 87/550-259, sumeg@balatontouristutazas.hu) can arrange private accommodation (€16–25/4001–6500Ft).
There’s no shortage of hotels in town, with pride of place going to Hotel Kapitány at Tóth Tivadar utca 19, round the far side of the Várhegy (87/550-166, www.hotelkapitany.hu; €56–101/26,001Ft and over); it has two sections, the rooms in the newer, modern wing are super smart, while those in the older, original wing are gloomy and careworn – note that the price of these does not include use of the hotel’s extensive wellness facilities, while, for both wings, you’ll pay extra for the (admittedly great) views up to the castle. In the centre, at Kossuth Lajos utca 13, the utilitarian Kisfaludy hotel (&87/352-128; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft) also has rooms sleeping four to six people. Up past the Franciscan church, at Vak Bottyán utca 2, is the Hotel Vár (87/352-352, hotelvar@axelero.hu; €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft; mid-March to mid-Nov), an outwardly unappealing, chunky stone-walled building, which conceals big, colourful and modern wood-furnished rooms, including some triples and quads. Cheapest of all is the basic student accommodation at Vároldal utca 5, above the Bishop’s Stables near the castle (87/550-087; dorm bed 3000Ft, doubles €16–25/4001–6500Ft), although only the most fanatical equine-lover is likely to be enticed by the horsey smells.
The Town
Baroque mansions line Deák utca, which leads down from Kossuth Lajos utca to the Church of the Ascension (March–Sept Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 1–6pm, Sun 1–6pm; Oct–Feb Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 1–3pm, Sun 1–6pm); if it’s shut, ask for the key at the plébánia, across the road at Biró Marton utca 3. Outwardly unprepossessing, the church contains magnificent frescoes by Maulbertsch, who, with a team of assistants, managed to cover the whole interior within eighteen months, mostly in biblical scenes. Exceptions are the rear wall, which depicts his patron, Bishop Biró (1696–1762), and the wall facing the choir, which shows the churches Biró sponsored in Sümeg and Zalaegerszeg. In the former, the man kneeling before the bishop has Maulbertsch’s features, as does the shepherd in the Adoration scene.
Retracing your steps to cross Kossuth utca you come to Kisfaludy tér. To the left is the Town Museum (Városi Múzeum; May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 8am–4pm; 400Ft), whose oddly jumbled collection includes local archeological finds, some ecclesiastical artwork, and exhibits pertaining to the local pottery industry, which was one of the foremost guilds in the region during the late nineteenth century. Most of the space here, however, is given over to furniture and other objects belonging to Sándor Kisfaludy (1772–1844), the romantic poet of Balaton who was born in this house. Poetry aside, Kisfaludy was one of the leading figures of the Hungarian language reform movement, and was also instrumental in establishing Auróra, Hungary’s first literary journal.
Up from the square behind the trees stands the crumbling, overgrown Bishop’s Palace (Püspöki Palota; May–Sept Wed–Sun 10am–6pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 8am–4pm; 400Ft), commissioned by Márton Biró, the Bishop of Veszprém, in the mid-eighteenth century. Although the palace is still being painstakingly renovated, you can at present view the old oval chapel, replete with beautiful ceiling frescoes and also featuring a fine high altar complete with sculptures of King Stephen’s sons, Imre and László; it’s also possible to visit the wine cellar, part of which is now an excellent wine bar and shop (Mon–Fri 11am–4.30pm), although proper tasting sessions are reserved for groups only. On the right side of the square is the second-oldest building in town after the castle, the Franciscan Church and monastery, originally dating from the seventeenth century, though the present church owes more to alterations the following century. The church hosts special celebrations on September 13, when the miraculous statue of the Virgin draws crowds of believers.
Heading up Vak Bottyán utca to the right of the church, a five-minute walk brings you to the former Bishop’s Stables (Váristálló), where some forty horses are still kept today; the riding school (Capári Lovasiskola) here offers an excellent programme, including lessons for beginners, trots around the yard and cross-country rides (2500–3500Ft). You can also just wander around the stables to view the horses or take a look at the small Hussar exhibition tucked away in a corner of the stable office (daily 9am–6pm; free). Just beyond the stables is a cluster of souvenir stalls that leads up from Route 84 to the entrance of the castle.
Sümeg Castle
The most impressive sight in town is Sümeg Castle (Sümeg vár; daily: May–Oct 9am–7pm; Nov–April 9am–4pm weather permitting; 1000Ft), one of the best-preserved fortifications in Hungary and worth visiting for its tremendous views alone. Dominating Sümeg from a conical limestone massif, a unique Cretaceous outcropping among the basalt of the Bakony, the castle was built during the thirteenth century as a defence against marauding Mongols. It was reinforced several times over the next few hundred years, proving impregnable to the Turks, but eventually falling to the Habsburgs in 1713. Beyond the remains of the castle chapel – albeit now with a wooden roof – and a modest exhibition of weaponry, there’s precious little to see, but the views really are quite superb. It’s a reasonably steep ten-minute climb up to the castle, but if this is beyond you, take one of the minitaxis which leave from the top of Vároldal utca, where the path to the castle begins (April–Oct; 400Ft, 700Ft return).
Down below the castle, a specially constructed arena (Várjátékok) – designed to evoke an authentic medieval atmosphere with its wooden bench seating, striped canopies and colourful battle standards – has been created; from late June through August, it hosts a full and lively programme of jousting and other martial games (details from Tourinform).
Eating and drinking
Eating choices in town are thin on the ground: by far the most enjoyable restaurant is the medieval-styled King Saint László in the Hotel Kapitány, and while the menu isn’t particularly extensive, the food is top drawer, with beef and game dominant. Elsewhere, other half-decent restaurants include the Kisfaludy, inside the hotel of the same name, which knocks up cheap Hungarian food, and Scotti, opposite the Kisfaludy Museum, providing the full gamut from pizzas and spaghetti to steak and fish. Otherwise, there’s the Vár Csárda up by the castle, though it’s a rather hollow place aimed squarely at tourists.
Nagyvázsony and Nemesvámos
NAGYVÁZSONY, a sleepy market town 20km from Tapolca (and also accessible by bus from Balatonfüred), harbours Kinizsi Castle (April–Oct Tues–Sun 9am–5pm; 500Ft), given by King Mátyás to Pál Kinizsi, a local miller who made good as a commander. Formidably strong, he is said to have wielded a dead Turk as a bludgeon and danced a triumphal jig while holding three Turks, one of them between his teeth. During the sixteenth century, this was one of the border fortresses between Turkish and Habsburg-ruled Hungary. It is now a ruin, except for the pale thirty-metre-high stone keep housing an exhibition of weapons and fetters, and the inevitable waxworks display of people being tortured, while the chapel across the way contains Kinizsi’s red marble sarcophagus. Throughout July and August, jousting displays are held within the castle grounds, in addition to classical concerts.
If you wish to stay, the very cordial Malomkő Panzió on the high street, Kinizsi utca 47–49 (88/264-165, www.malomko.hu; €36–45/9001–11,500Ft), offers bright rooms, a covered pool and a terrific little restaurant, or, a shade closer to the castle, you’ll find the Vázsonykő Panzió at Sörház utca 2 (80/264-344, 264-707; €26–35/6501–9000Ft; mid-April to Nov), where you can also get good Hungarian home cooking and wine.
Approaching Veszprém, you can’t miss the roadside Betyár Csárda (mid-April to mid-Oct daily noon–midnight), an eighteenth-century inn, 600m before the village of NEMESVÁMOS. If you ignore the odd modern fixture and today’s clientele, it’s possible to imagine it as it once must have been: servants hurrying from the tap-room with its huge casks to the cellar, where swineherds, wayfarers and outlaws caroused, seated upon sections of tree trunk. Poor though most were, Bakony folk were proud of their masterless lives among the oak forests, esteeming the kondás, with his herd of pigs, and the highwaymen who robbed rich merchants. These highwaymen called themselves szegénylegények (“poor lads”), and the most audacious, Jóska Savanyú, claimed the tavern as his home. Although the food and atmosphere are undeniably enjoyable, it’s all rather hammed up for the tourists, with kitsch folklore programmes at 6pm each day throughout July and August.
Another 300m past the inn, a right turn brings you to the village of Nemesvámos itself, 2km beyond which are the ruins of a Roman villa (Római Kovi Villagazdaság; May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; 600Ft). Its reconstructed frescoes and mosaics convey an impression of the lifestyle of wealthy Roman colonists in the early centuries of the Christian era.
Veszprém
VESZPRÉM, 15km northwest of Lake Balaton, spreads over five hills cobbled together by a maze of streets that twist up towards its old quarter on a precipitous crag overlooking the Bakony Hills. Like Székesfehérvár, it became an episcopal see in the reign of Prince Géza, who was converted to Christianity in 975. It was here in 997 that King Stephen crushed a pagan rebellion with the help of knights sent by Henry of Bavaria, father of his queen, Gizella. During medieval times, Veszprém was the seat of the queen’s household and the site of her coronation – hence its title the “Queen’s Town”. Utterly devastated during the sixteenth century and rebuilt after 1711, its castle district (Várhegy) and downtown parks are now juxtaposed with apartment buildings, a technical university and chemical factories. Considering its proximity to the lake, Veszprém makes a good base for visiting the Balaton resorts without having to stay there, and is also good for excursions to Nagyvázsony, Nemesvámos and Herend.
Arrival and information
Arriving at the train station 2km out to the north, catch bus #2 or #4 to the tall tower block near downtown Szabadság tér (built by the Communists so that the view of the town would not be dominated by the castle and cathedral); the bus station is more conveniently situated five minutes’ walk northeast of the town centre on Piac tér. From Szabadság tér, you can head north towards the Várhegy or strike out into the lower town. Drivers coming in from the west cross the 150-metre-long Valley Bridge over the River Séd, glimpsing the Várhegy en route to the centre.
Information is available from Tourinform, by the Heroes’ Gate at Vár utca 4 (June–Aug Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm; May & Sept Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm; Oct–April Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; 88/404-548, www.veszpreminfo.hu); between June and August it also organizes a free two-hour city walking tour – check with the office for days and times. The post office is on Kossuth utca (Mon–Fri 8am–7pm, Sat 8am–noon).
Accommodation
The town is blessed with numerous very fine hotels and pensions, but if you’re looking for something a little cheaper, Balatontourist, at Kossuth utca 25 (Mon–Fri 8.30am–5pm; 88/544-488, veszprem@balatontouristutazas.hu), has plenty of private rooms (€16–25/4001–6500Ft). In July and August there is cheap accommodation in the student hostel at Egyetem utca 12, beyond Veszprém University, 1km south of the centre (88/429-811; bus #2Y, #4, #8 or #14Y; dorm bed 2500Ft), and at the Theological Academy (Hittudomány Akadémia; 88/426-116; dorm bed 2500Ft) at Jutási út 11, which is easier to reach, being twenty minutes’ walk up the main road from the bus station – buses into town pass it. The tiny Erdeicampsite, out by the zoo at Kittenberger Kálmán utca 14 (88/326-751; mid-April to mid-Oct), also has a motel attached (€16–25/4001–6500Ft).
Hotel Betekints Veszprémvölgyi utca 4 88/579-280, www.betekints.hu. Classy hotel down in the Fejes Valley northwest of town, featuring all the requisite comforts of a four-star: big, plush rooms with large beds, chairs and sofa, and immaculate bathrooms. Price includes use of pool, sauna and fitness suite. €86–100/22,501–26,000Ft
Diana Panzió József Attila utca 30 88/421-061, info@panziodiana.hu. Quiet ten-room pension with large, though slightly dowdy, rooms and a good restaurant in an attractive villa on the road towards Tapolca (bus #4 from the train station or town centre). €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Éllő Panzió József Attila utca 25 88/420-097, www.ellopanzio.hu. Opposite the Diana, this smart, secure villa has fancily furnished, richly hued rooms with spectacularly clean bathrooms. Three wheelchair-accessible rooms too. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Gizella Hotel Jókai Mór utca 48 88/579-490, www.hotelgizella.hu. Characterful hotel in a beautifully restored eighteenth-century building just below Castle Hill; many of the original details, including the Baroque ceilings and wooden beams, have been retained and the rooms sparkle with character – the best value-for-money hotel in town.€71–85/18,501–22,500Ft
Oliva Panzió Buhim utca 14–16 88/403-875, www.oliva.hu. Marvellous pension in the heart of the old centre offering eleven cool, olive-green, dark-wood-furnished rooms with a/c, mini-bar and wi-fi, plus one of the best restaurants in town. €71–85/18,501–22,500Ft
Péter Pál Panzió Dózsa György út 3 88/328-091, http://peterpal.hu. Engaging little pension with bright, somewhat small, rooms in the main part, and larger, quirkier rooms in a renovated annexe, a couple displaying the original bare-brick walls. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
Hotel Tapó Pajta utca 19 88/591-450, www.tapo.hu. Located on the bank of the River Séd with views across to the castle district, this stylish place has smooth, designer-furnished rooms and a first-class restaurant to boot. €46–55/11,501–14,500Ft
Hotel Veszprém Budapest út 6 88/424-677, www.hotelveszprem.hu. Ignore the grim exterior and depressing reception – the rooms in this 1970s low-rise are perfectly reasonable; those at the back overlooking Kossuth utca are considerably quieter. €36–45/9001–11,500Ft
The Town
The Várhegy (Castle District) is the heart of Veszprém, a spiny, cobbled thoroughfare that harbours the town’s most worthwhile museums and galleries, and its most important ecclesiastical architecture. Beyond here, handsome Óváros tér is a lovely place to stroll around, while the remaining attractions are dispersed between the somewhat more prosaic lower town area, and over to the west, near the impressive viaduct.
Óváros tér
The castle district is presaged by Óváros tér, a handsome, tree-laden cobbled plaza overlooked by Art Nouveau buildings on one side and Baroque and Rococo edifices on the other. Most are painted in pinks, blues and the shade known as “Maria Theresa yellow” – the colour scheme the empress ordained for public buildings throughout the Habsburg Empire. The most prominent of these is the Baroque Town Hall (Városháza), originally built as the home of the Kaposvári family, and, opposite, at no. 3, the custard-coloured Pósa House (Pósaház), which features a striking pediment with a crown, and cherubs playfully holding a garland. Initially the residence of the Cistercian order of Zirc, the house was then passed over to local bookseller and printer, Endre Pósa. Over on the opposite, eastern, side of the square, the Kinizsi House is the most flamboyant example of Secessionist architecture in the area, its facade spotted with bright green and yellow mouldings.
The castle district
From Óváros tér, the path leads up to the Várhegy (Castle District), accessed via the Heroes’ Gate, a neo-Romanesque portal erected in 1936 to commemorate the dead of World War I. In the courtyard to the left of the gate the 48-metre-high Baroque Firetower (Tűztorony; April–Oct daily 10am–6pm; 300Ft) offers exceptional views of Veszprém’s rooftops and the Bakony hills, while a traditional recruiting tune is played every hour on the hour by a carillon in the dome. Housed in a renovated building in the same courtyard is the Gallery of Modern Art (Vass Gyűjtemény; May–Oct daily 10am–6pm; Nov–April Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 500Ft), an enjoyable and smartly presented little exhibition of mostly abstract works.
Continue for five minutes along Vár utca, past well-preserved eighteenth-century buildings, and you’ll come to a Piarist Church and Monastery (Piarista templom; May to mid-Oct Tues–Sun 10am–5pm), now used for temporary exhibitions, whose facade bears three Greek letters encapsulating the Piarist credo “Mary, Mother, God”. Across the street, at no. 29, stands the recently renovated Dubniczay Palace, a handsome Baroque edifice built in 1751 according to the designs of Canon Istvan Dubniczay. Today the palace accommodates two fabulous museums: occupying the greater part of the building is the Carl László Collection (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 800Ft), an eclectic sweep of modern art acquired by the eponymous medic and playwright; beautifully presented, the collection comprises lithographics, prints, collages and mixed fabric compositions, in addition to a smattering of industrial and pop art.
Located to the rear of the palace, in the room originally used as a barn but which also incorporates part of the old castle walls, is the Brick Collection of the Hungarian Construction Industry Museum (same times; 300Ft), which is actually a whole lot more interesting than it sounds; this Tegularium is a fascinating assemblage of variously sized, shaped and coloured stamped bricks, including many marked with royal or religious motifs, coats of arms, or imprinted with the names of brick-factory owners – during the early twentieth century there were more than half a dozen brick factories in the region, the last one closing down in 1960.
Immediately beyond the palace, the street broadens out into the main square, Szentháromság tér (Trinity Square), in the centre of which is the Trinity Statue, erected in 1750 on the orders of Bishop Márton Padányi Biró. The square’s single most impressive, and dominant, building is the Bishop’s Palace (Püspöki Palota; May to mid-Oct Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 500Ft), a typically massive Baroque pile by Jakab Fellner, with the distinction of having had the first flush toilets in Hungary, installed in the late eighteenth century. It’s possible to view some half a dozen of the palace’s rooms, the most impressive of which is the Dining Hall, by virtue of its ceiling frescoes depicting the four seasons, and the wall paintings of Veszprém and Sümeg castles as they probably once were. During the palace’s construction, workmen unearthed a vaulted chamber believed to be part of Queen Gizella’s palace, which stood on the site until the fourteenth century. Dubbed the Gizella Chapel (Gizella-kápolna; May to mid-Oct Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 200Ft), this tiny space contains Byzantine-style frescoes of the Apostles from the thirteenth century. Across the square, at no. 35, you can view the Gizella Museum (Gizella királyné Múzeum; same times; 400Ft), which keeps a small but rich collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ecclesiastical objects, such as votive statues, chasubles, vestments and paintings.
Behind the Trinity Statue looms the St Michael Cathedral, whose interior is every bit as austere as its exterior. Having been razed and resurrected half a dozen times since the eleventh century, its current neo-Romanesque incarnation, dating from 1907–10, has only a Gothic crypt to show for its origins – its most prominent tomb is that of Bishop Biró himself. However, a glass dome behind the cathedral shelters the excavated remains of St George’s Chapel (Szent György kápolna; May to mid-Oct Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; 200Ft; access from Vár utca), where Stephen’s son Imre is said to have taken an oath of celibacy. His canonization, like that of Stephen and the latter-day King László, cemented the Árpáds’ adherence to Catholicism and gave the Hungarians their own saints with whom to identify. Statues of Stephen and Gizella duly watch over the parapet at the far end of Vár utca, while a flight of steps round the far side of the cathedral leads down to Benedek Hill, the spur which commands a fine panoramic view of the Séd Valley and the Bakony Hills.
The lower town
Returning to Óváros tér, head down Rákóczi utca, and at the lights in Szabadság tér turn right onto Óvári Ferenc út to find the Art Nouveau Petőfi Theatre (Petőfi Színház), built in 1908. The first large building in Hungary to be constructed from reinforced concrete, it boasts a circular stained-glass window entitled The Magic of Folk Art, whose symbolic figures represent the attachment of Hungarians to their land. Its designer, Sándor Nagy, was one of the Gödöllő Pre-Raphaelites; another of his designs, The Hunting of the Magic Deer, a depiction of a Magyar myth, decorates the rear of the building. The interior is no less impressive, and, if you can, it’s well worth trying to catch a performance here.
A five-minute walk past the Eclectic-style County Hall brings you to the Dezső Laczkó Museum, behind the trees at Erzsébet sétány 1 (Tues–Sun: April–Sept 10am–6pm; Oct–March noon–4pm; 650Ft), which features an array of local history exhibits from all periods, including Bronze Age pottery and Roman mosaics unearthed in the villa at Balácapuszta, regional folk costumes, and material on the Bakony’s highwaymen. Standing somewhat incongruously next door is the Bakony House (May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; entry on the same ticket), a 1930s clone of a traditional homestead, filled with peasant artefacts.
West of town
Two more sights lurk to the west of the castle district, either side of the impressive, fifty-metre-high St Stephen’s viaduct. About ten minutes’ walk along Jókai Mór utca, below the castle, is an antique watermill – one of many that once lined the banks of the Séd – and, passing under the viaduct, on Kittenburger Kálmán utca, is the Kittenberger Zoo (daily: May–Sept 9am–6pm; April & Oct 9am–5pm; Nov–March 9am–3pm; 1300Ft), named after the eponymous nineteenth-century zoologist; one of Hungary’s more respectable zoos, the well-kept enclosures harbour an impressive collection of animals, including Sri Lankan leopards, Sumatran tigers and Iberian wolves, while a specially designed African savannah keeps a variety of species native to that continent.
Eating
The best restaurants in town are generally those in the hotels and pensions, but that is certainly no bad thing here – indeed you’ll find few better ones anywhere in the region. For a quick snack, head to the popular Mackó Snack, Megyeház tér 2, where you can grab burgers and salads. The covered market (Mon–Fri 6am–6pm, Sat 6am–2pm), next to the bus station, is a good place to pick up bread, fruit and dairy products.
Café Piazza Óváros tér 4. Cosy, engaging little place in which to enjoy light meals of pizza, pasta, soups and salads – good breakfast options too.
Elefánt Bisztro Óváros tér 6. A few steps along from Ćafe Piazza, this relaxing bistro is very similar, though the menu is slightly more limited and a touch more expensive.
Oliva Buhim utca 14–16. The restaurant in the Oliva pension, with its eclectic menu (including Thai wok dishes) and wine list, mellow decor and Mediterranean-style grill garden, is the most satisfying place to eat in town – moreover, there’s live jazz at weekends in the summer.
Tapó Pajta utca 19. Stylish place in the hotel of the same name, which leans heavily towards game dishes, a theme continued by the animal heads on the walls and the wooden/fur seating. Pop into the adjoining Safari Bar afterwards for a drink.
Várkert Vár utca 17. Housed within a handsome brick-vaulted cellar, this restaurant-cum-café/club up in the castle district is just the spot for an informal bite to eat, with lamb, duck, goose, and rooster’s testicles amongst the items on its varied menu.
Villa Medici Kittenburger Kálmán utca 1. Located 1km northwest of town out in the Fejes Valley, inside the hotel of the same name, this very posh and fantastically pricey restaurant offers international fare of the highest order. No less impressive, but a touch cheaper, is the Nosztálgia restaurant immediately next door, which sticks to Hungarian cuisine.
Drinking and entertainment
The town is surprisingly devoid of commendable cafés, but one worth trying is Marica, at Kossuth utca 5, where you can take a cappuccino whilst sitting on a raised wooden deck terrace admiring the concrete surrounds. Similarly, there are few obvious drinking venues around, but your best bet is the happy Várkert Ćafe and Club, where you can catch DJs and live bands (all different genres) most weekends. Otherwise, there’s the faux-Irish Skorpió Bar at Virág utca 1, or the Havanna Cocktail Bar at Kossuth utca 25, which, in addition to its repertoire of fancy cocktails, has a tastefully designed gaming room out back – all the above are open until at least 1 or 2am at weekends.
Theatre in Veszprém is enormously popular, with performances at the Petőfi Színház usually selling out fast; tickets can be purchased at the box office inside the theatre (Mon–Thurs 8am–4pm, Fri 8am–3pm; 88/424-235; 2500–3000Ft). One of the largest events in the Veszprém calendar is the Gizella Days Arts Festival (Gizella Napok), held every year in the second week of May in honour of István’s wife. To mark the occasion, a series of concerts, exhibitions and dance events is held in the castle district and in the cultural centre at Dózsa György utca 2.
Herend and around
Twelve kilometres west of Veszprém, HEREND’s famous porcelain factory makes for an enjoyable side-trip or an interesting stopover en route to Pápa or Szombathely, in Transdanubia. A pottery was founded in the village by Vince Stingl in 1826, and in 1851 Herend porcelain gained international renown when Queen Victoria ordered a chinoiserie dinner service at the Great Exhibition. Other famous buyers have included Tsar Alexander II, Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Shah of Iran and the British royal family. The factory remains one of the largest porcelain manufacturers in the world, exporting over 75 percent of its products – mainly to Japan and America – and employing some 1600 people, all of whom must attend a three-year training school before beginning in the factory.
A five-minute walk from the bus station, at Kossuth Lajos utca 140, is the visitor complex, the highlight of which is the mini-factory (mid-April to mid-Oct daily 9.30am–5pm; mid-Oct to mid-April Tues–Sat 9.30am–4pm; 1800Ft, includes entrance to museum; www.porcelanium.com), where you can see how porcelain is made; the fascinating forty-minute tour starts with a short film on the history of Herend porcelain before you are whisked around the various stages of production, observing plaster mould-makers, clay basket-weavers, glazers and painters all demonstrating their supreme, and highly individual, skills. Your guide will be keen to point out that, for all the technological advances, every single piece made here is still done by hand.
The visitor centre’s well-presented museum (mid-April to mid-Oct daily 9am–4.30pm; mid-Oct to mid-April Tues–Sat 9am–3.30pm), just across the courtyard, displays a vast number of hand-painted dinner services, vases and statuettes; although many pieces are rather over the top and just a little too fanciful, it is nevertheless an impressive collection – in particular, look out for the ornamental wine canteen with pierced walls from 1867 and a Chinese Imari Plate from the 1850s.
Adjacent to the factory is the hugely elegant, and very expensive, Apicus restaurant (mid-April to mid-Oct Tues–Sat noon–6pm) and coffee house (mid-April to mid-Oct daily 9am–6pm; mid-Oct to mid-April Tues–Sat 9am–5pm); coffee is served, naturally enough, from the finest Herend porcelain cups. Each summer the centre puts on a number of open-air programmes with brass-band music, folk dancing, plays and the like.
After Herend the scenery deteriorates around Ajka, but 6km beyond Devecser (where the rail line turns northwards towards Celldömölk) there’s a great view of the Bakony from a lookout tower near Sómlóvásárhely.
Travel details
Trains
Balatonfüred to: Budapest (every 1–2hr; 2hr 15min–3hr); Székesfehérvár (every 1–2hr; 1hr 15min–1hr 30min); Tapolca (every 1–2hr; 50min–1hr 20min).
Balatonszentgyörgy to: Keszthely (hourly; 15min); Nagykanizsa (every 1–2hr; 40–50min).
Keszthely to: Balatonszentgyörgy (hourly; 15min); Budapest (3 daily; 3hr 30min); Tapolca (hourly; 30min).
Siófok to: Budapest (hourly June–Sept, otherwise 8 daily; 1hr 45min); Székesfehérvár (hourly; 40–50min).
Székesfehérvár to: Balatonfüred (every 1–2hr; 1hr 15min–1hr 30min); Budapest (every 1hr–1hr 30min; 1hr–1hr 15min); Komárom (5 daily; 1hr 30min); Siófok (hourly; 40–50min); Szombathely (6 daily; 2hr 30min); Veszprém (hourly; 40min–1hr).
Tapolca to: Balatonfüred (every 1–2hr; 50min–1hr 20min); Celldömölk (8 daily; 1hr–1hr 20min); Keszthely (hourly; 30min); Sümeg (every 1hr 30min–2hr; 25min).
Veszprém to: Budapest (6 daily; 1hr 45min–2hr 15min); Györ (4 daily; 2hr 15min); Székesfehérvár (hourly; 40min–1hr); Szombathely (10 daily; 1hr 45min–2hr 30min).
Buses
Badacsony to: Keszthely (8 daily; 1hr).
Balatonalmádi to: Balatonfüred (10 daily; 25min); Budapest (4 daily; 2hr); Csopak (8 daily; 15min); Veszprém (every 30–40min; 25min).
Balatonfüred to: Balatonalmádi (10 daily; 25min); Budapest (5 daily; 2hr 15min); Győr (5 daily; 2hr); Nagyvázsony (3 daily; 45min); Sopron (2 daily; 4hr); Székesfehérvár (7 daily; 1hr 15min); Tapolca (4 daily except Sun; 1hr 30min); Tihany (hourly; 30min); Veszprém (every 30min–1hr 30min; 30min).
Hévíz to: Keszthely (every 30min; 15min); Zalaegerszeg (every 45min; 45min).
Keszthely to: Badacsony (9 daily; 1hr); Balatonmagyaród (Mon–Fri 2 daily; 40min); Budapest (6 daily; 3hr 45min); Hévíz (every 30min; 15min); Pécs (3 daily; 3hr 45min); Sármellék (Mon–Fri every 1hr–1hr 30min; Sat & Sun 8 daily; 30min); Sopron (2 daily; 3hr); Sümeg (every 40–60min; 1hr); Tapolca (hourly; 40min); Zalaegerszeg (every 45min–1hr; 1hr); Zalavár (Mon–Fri every 1hr–1hr 30min; Sat & Sun 8 daily; 40min).
Siófok to: Budapest (4 daily; 1hr 45min–2hr 15min); Pécs (4 daily; 2hr 30min); Szekszárd (5 daily; 1hr 45min); Veszprém (6 daily; 1hr 30min).
Sümeg to: Györ (5 daily; 2hr 15min); Keszthely (9 daily; 45min); Pápa (6 daily; 1hr 20min); Sárvár (Mon-Fri 5 daily, Sat & Sun 3 daily; 1hr 15min); Sopron (3 daily; 2hr 15min); Tapolca (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun 5 daily; 35min).
Székesfehérvár to: Balatonfüred (7 daily; 1hr 15min); Budapest (every 30–45min; 1hr); Dunaujváros (10 daily; 1hr); Győr (6 daily; 1hr 40min); Kalocsa (2 daily; 3hr); Martonvásár (7–10 daily; 40min); Pákozd (hourly; 20min); Pécs (2 daily; 4hr); Siófok (5 daily; 1hr); Szekszárd (6 daily; 2hr); Tác (7 daily; 30min); Velence (8–10 daily; 40min); Veszprém (every 30min–1hr; 1hr).
Tapolca to: Balatonfüred (2 daily except Sun; 1hr 30min); Keszthely (hourly; 40min); Nagyvázsony (12 daily; 45min); Sümeg (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun 6 daily; 30min); Szigliget (Mon–Fri 10 daily, Sat & Sun 6 daily; 25min); Veszprém (Mon–Fri every 45min–1hr, Sat & Sun 8 daily; 1hr).
Tihany to: Balatonfüred (hourly; 30min); Veszprém (4 daily; 45min).
Veszprém to: Balatonfüred (every 1hr–1hr 30min; 30min); Budapest (every 45–90min; 2hr 15min); Györ (8 daily; 2hr); Herend (every 30–40min; 30min); Nagyvázsony (7 daily; 25min); Nemesvámos (hourly; 25min); Siófok (8 daily; 1hr 30min); Székesfehérvár (every 45min–1hr 30min; 1hr); Tapolca (hourly; 1hr); Zirc (every 30–40min; 45min).
Ferries
Badacsony to: Balatonboglár (July–Aug 4 daily; 1hr); Balatonföldvár (July–Aug 1 daily; 2hr 45min); Fonyód (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 6 daily; June 8 daily; July–Aug 9 daily; 25min); Keszthely (July–Aug 4 daily; 2hr); Siófok (June–Aug 1 daily; 4hr 30min); Szigliget (July–Aug 4 daily; 30min); Tihany (June–Aug 2 daily; 3hr).
Balatonboglár to: Badacsony (July–Aug 4 daily; 45min); Révfülöp (June 4 daily; July–Aug 6 daily; 25min).
Balatonföldvár to: Balatonfüred (July–Aug 1 daily; 1hr); Tihany (June 4 daily; July–Aug 5 daily; 30min).
Balatonfüred to: Balatonalmádi (July–Aug 2 daily; 1hr 30min); Balatonföldvár (July–Aug 1 daily; 1hr); Siófok (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 4 daily; June 8 daily; July–Aug 9 daily; 1hr); Tihany (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 3 daily; June 7 daily; July–Aug 9 daily; 20min).
Fonyód to: Badacsony (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 5 daily; June 8 daily; July–Aug 9 daily; 25min); Keszthely (1 daily; 3hr).
Keszthely to: Badacsony (July–Aug 4 daily; 2hr); Szigliget (July–Aug 4 daily; 1hr 30min).
Révfülöp to: Balatonboglár (June 4 daily; July–Aug 6 daily; 25min).
Siófok to: Badacsony (July–Aug 2 daily; 4hr 30min); Balatonfüred (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 4 daily; June 7 daily; July–Aug 8 daily; 50min); Tihany (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 3 daily; June 7 daily; July–Aug 8 daily; 1hr 20min).
Szántódrév to: Tihany-rév (March–Nov every 40–60min; 10min).
Szigliget to: Badacsony (July–Aug 5 daily; 25min); Keszthely (July–Aug 4 daily; 1hr 30min).
Tihany to: Badacsony (July–Aug 2 daily; 3hr); Balatonalmádi (July–Aug 2 daily; 2hr); Balatonföldvár (July–Aug 5 daily; 35min); Balatonfüred (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 3 daily; June 8 daily; July–Aug 10 daily; 30min); Siófok (mid-April to May & Sept–Oct 3 daily; June–Aug 7 daily; 1hr 15min).
Tihany-rév to: Szántódrév (March–Nov every 40min–1hr; 10min).