Ideas for what to see in Hungary

Hi Becky,

My husband and I are headed to Budapest for the first time next month, and in advance of our trip I've done a bunch of poking around the internet researching Hungary. The town of Pecs keeps popping up on my radar. Sadly, I don't believe we will be able to make it there on this trip, but thought I'd throw it out there as a suggestion for you to look into.

Have a great trip!

We spent a day in Szeged in S. Hungary this past August - charming city. We also spent a day in Eger which was great to wander about - you can also easily get to the 'valley of beautiful women' or some such area which is famous for the Tokaj wine.

I would suggest you get a hold of Lonely Planet's Hungary book and do some research - there are lots of places in Hungary that seem worthwhile visiting - it will come down to time and distance.

Eger is a pretty town and worth checking out. The Lonely Planet forum users suggest Pecs and the Lake Balaton area.

Becky - I also suggest Eger. We really enjoyed it. It's a cute town with several places to see and a great local market.

Thanks to all of you for the information. We will definitely plan to check out your ideas. Becky

Eger & Tokaj are the wine regions of Hungary, Eger known for the Red Wine and Tokaj for the White. Both lovely towns. Eger having an amazing fortress with museums, from the Turkish occupation. Along with it's own Minaret which you can climb & see an amazing 360 degree view. Lake Balaton is also nice, but most towns are very small villages with not much to do. I suggest Balatonfured, on the northside, it's one of the bigger towns on the lake, with a nice promenade-type walkway next to the water. In the summer you're guaranteed lots of crafts, music, wine, food. Not sure in April though. Very close is Tihany (you can see the hill from the promenade to your right) and there is a very old church & lovely shops with all sorts of hand-embroidered goods & lots of paprika. Except things to be a little pricey, as this is known as a tourist stop. But amazing view from the top, and plenty of good restaurants to choose from. http://www.tihany.hu/en_Nyito.htm#

Otherwise, most of Hungary is flat-lands (kind of like the Midwest USA), with not much to see. You can see the traditional Hungarian Puszta in Hortobagy, which are the Hungarian "cowboys" that train their horses commands with different sounds of the whip. Pretty neat, but not much else in that town. They are famous for their meat-filled palacsinta (which is like a crepe).

Enjoy!!

We love the country and have been to Hungary a couple of times already.
We visited of course Budapest, but also the lake Balaton area, Pecs, Eger, the castles around Sopron. On another trip we went to the east to Debrecen, Szeged and up north to the mountainous region of the country.

If you have just a week, then I would go west/south:
Budapest and Pécs/Sopron/Balaton areas would make up a nice itinerary.

I found here on RS a great link for things to do in Budapest: http://budapesting.com/best_of_budapest
Can't wait to go back to Hungary in the early Summer.

Is it worth to visit Balaton in February-March?

Eger is an easy trip from Budapest - one full day (I don't remember if we did one 1 or 2 nights, but we came all the way from Lake Balaton that day) there is probably enough - the old center is fairly compact. I think we stayed at a RS B&B - basically right on the edge of the castle wall. I would leave Lake Balaton for a trip other than winter. It was great in June and I'd love to go back, but it's a summertime place - a side note if you just want to do the "baths" in the area, winter would be ok, but for lakeside activities, boating, walking, cycling, summer would be better.