Hungary People & Culture

i just came back from Budapest, it was a school trip, for 5 days and i liked it. i liked the architecture there, the termal baths were amazing, some things were really cheap o_O, but sometimes they tried to make us pay in euros to try to fool us, i saw that they try to do it a lot of times, but apart from this fact, i think i liked the city.i loved the night travel on the Duna. it was weird to see how many people there in during every nights there, even when is not friday-saturday.I was in the Atlantic Hotel, in Pest, and it was nice. Well, i don't think is nice if you go by yourself, since is full of italian groups of students.

Budapest is wonderful place. If you are looking for peaceful spots - got to Margaret's Sziget (read: Siget = Island), worth seeing is Japanese and Rose Garden The most famous Street in Budapest is Vaci Utca - you can find there masterpieces of human originality and individuality, in the evenings - the street is bursting with life - be careful of being invited to clubs by their doormen - looking at least devilishly ;) You absolutely must see this carnival of people's variety (DragQueens, Lesbians, Gays, street actors) If you are looking for rest - go to Szechenyi Furdo (Baths)!! Amazing hot water pools in 19th century yard... magnificient!! Budapest, however, in my opinion is very dirty and unpleasant at Underground Stations - but you cannot miss going the oldest in Europe Yellow Line Metro!

EGER, with 56 647 (very kind) people is one of the famous town in Hungary. With lot of very nice churches, thermal baths, a castle and a "minaret" from the 14-15 Jh. You can take a trip afoot over the small streets between nice old buildings.
The "Szépasszonyvölgy" is a recommended place for wine-lovers. The "Egri Bikavér" (Bull-blood) is international a known noble wine.
I advised to everyone to visit Eger.

Budapest! I love this city, and I spent the whole day wandering around the city by foot!! Walking from Buda to Pest area was a nice experience because I could see closely the daily life of the people, the fresh market colored with spices, the amazing construction of the parliament building, and also the legendary river, the Danube. I admired the Magyars, that is how they called the people of Hungary, because they still preserve their culture and history.
It seems that they are serious in tourism business. When I was there in 2004, I arrived in Budapest train station, there at the entrance was a group of a people that were ready to drive me to my hostel, and it was for free. First I was suspicious but then other tourists were joining us.
Budapest is also the best place for shopping. Everything is cheap, and you can fine locals as well as branded items.

When you arrive at Budapest airport and start looking for a means to get into the city, most people will recommand you the minibus services that go by the va rious hotels and hostels. Though it is relatively easy to get there by bus and metro too. It's ridiculously cheap and doesn't e ven take al that much longer. From either terminalk 1 or 2 there runs a bus nr 200 to the Köbánya-Kispest metro terminal. From there you can get just about anywhere within minutes. Tickets can be bought at various kiosks and vending machines at the bus stop.

Has an amazing heritage park!

Budapest! I love this city, and I spent the whole day wandering around the city by foot!! Walking from Buda to Pest area was a nice experience because I could see closely the daily life of the people, the fresh market colored with spices, the amazing construction of the parliament building, and also the legendary river, the Danube. I admired the Magyars, that is how they called the people of Hungary, because they still preserve their culture and history.
It seems that they are serious in tourism business. When I was there in 2004, I arrived in Budapest train station, there at the entrance was a group of a people that were ready to drive me to my hostel, and it was for free. First I was suspicious but then other tourists were joining us.
Budapest is also the best place for shopping. Everything is cheap, and you can fine locals as well as branded items.

Let's be realistic; when traveling through Eastern Europe, we (Americans and/or Blacks) must be very careful. After the dismantle of Communist Russia many Eastern European countries went into chaos and many are not familiar with Blacks (be especially careful if you are a woman). Though, I find that many Eastern Europeans have similar issues as Blacks do; the culture and color still matters. Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Czech, Slovakia, Poland, East Germany, Austria continues to recover.

Balaton - Hungary’s favourite summertime retreat! Lake Balaton – central Europe’s largest lake – offers 200km of shoreline, silky green water and a host of activities for young and old. Whether you’re after thrills and spills or gentle strolls, here you can enjoy life at your own pace. With volcanic hills and vineyards on the northern shore, friendly resorts to the south, and waterfront towns full of character all around, the beauty of Balaton is in its breathtaking diversity. The lake is perfect for family holidays, with safe beaches, shallow water and plenty to keep you entertained.

Head for one of the local spa towns and a warming wallow in the thermal waters of Hévíz or Zalakaros? There’s an embarrassment of riches for lovers of the great outdoors; take to the water for some sailing, windsurfing or fishing, or strike out into the national park for some horse-riding, cycling or birdwatching. And culture vultures can soak in the elegant ambience of Keszthely, visit Tihany’s abbey church or just settle at a pretty hillside restaurant for some fine food and a bottle of the region’s famous wine.

Not to be missed!!!
Balatonfured Wine Festival is held annually in mid August.
Open-air concerts and organ conerts in the Lutheran church during July and August
The Anna Ball

With an average depth of just two—three metres, the summertime water is warm as toast, and the gently sloping beaches of the southern shore represent a reassuringly safe playground.

This is a youngsters’ paradise. While the toddlers paddle and splash in the shallow water, the older children can shoot down waterslides, take to a pedalo, try their luck at fishing, join a game of volleyball or have a bash at wakeboarding, windsurfing or other watersports. Siófok is the liveliest spot. Away from the lake’s edge, water-babies might head for the massive aqua-park at Zalaegerszeg, complete with wave machines and a 300m-long artificial river, or for the more sedate pleasures to be enjoyed at the family-friendly spas of Zalakaros and Kehidakustány. At Tapolca, you can even go for a boat ride on a subterranean cave lake!

The varied landscape and bounteous wildlife provide a beautiful backdrop during a horse-riding tour or a day’s cycling. The Kápolnapuszta Reserve in the Balaton Uplands National Park is home to the traditional Hungarian buffalo. At Keszthely, the girls can wander around the Doll Museum while the boys revel in more bloodthirsty attractions at the Torture Museum. Alternatively, how about exploring the castles at Nagyvázsony, Sümeg or Szigliget, before watching displays of jousting and archery, and guzzling a medieval banquet?

Hungary is afloat on a rich reservoir of thermal water that breaks the surface through thousands of springs, and the Balaton region has more than its fair share of them. If you’re feeling stressed, have nagging aches or just fancy a lick of luxury to your bathing, this is the place to be. Furthermore, you don't need to come in summer – spa holidays can be taken all year round, and make a wonderfully different winter break. As well as enjoying a warming soak, you can also take advantage of a wide range of cheaply priced health and beauty treatments – from massages and mudpacks to physiotherapy and dental work. Put yourself in the hands of the qualified experts, and allow them to soothe your body and mind.

The spa town of Hévíz is nestled on the world’s second-largest thermal lake. The lake is open all year – the mineral-rich water rarely drops below 26ºC in temperature – and in winter you can wallow snugly as the steam rises from the surface. The thermal centres at Kehidakustány and Zalakaros are also open whatever the season, and are suitable for the whole family. Parents can indulge in treatments while the kids splash about in the ‘fun bath’. Zalakaros is recommended for the relief of arthritis thanks to a combination of medicinal baths and generations of expertise.

All these thermal complexes are well provided with spa hotels offering ‘wellness’ packages, and you’ll also find such hotels at Siófok, Balatonfüred, Bük and Tapolca – the latter perched above a deep cave whose humid air has long been known to alleviate asthma. there’s plenty for the wine buff or the gourmand. Take a trawl through the atmospheric cellars that stud the volcanic hills of the northern shore and sample some wonderfully refreshing white wines, before choosing a hillside restaurant in which to indulge in freshly caught Balaton fish and breathtaking views. Those truly in the know time their visit to coincide with one of the region’s many colourful festivals, when you can get a taste of traditional music, dance, crafts – and yet more food and drink!

Go to the opera in Budapest!!!!!

Go to the Sziget festival! It's one of the biggest festival in europe with over 50 places to listen to music!
http://www.sziget.hu/fesztival

The Jazz Garden: very nice food and good jazz music

Very beautiful city, worth visiting!Unfortunately, I don't find it too much interesting, so 5 days are enought for visiting all interesting places.Exception is Sziget Festival.Great organisation, music, people, and worth staying 7 days on festival for sure!:)

Sziget Festival is a big great music Festival in Budapest

Be sure to taste the authentic local specialty, the fish-soup. Best time to do that is during the annual cook-off festival, with lots of music, folk programs, craft-fair and of course lot of food and wines!

A most wonderful city, the Pearl of the Danube! Buda and Pest, situated on the two banks, are great, one being mountainous with castles and old mansions, and the other being low with parks, restaurants and nightlife. It is a true spa-city, one of the main attractions being the thermal baths. Make sure you visit the Szecsenyi Baths: old beautiful building (newly renovated), healing water with lots of minerals and micro-elements and fountains/waves/jakuzzi for fun! Can be visited around the year as the water is warm/hot, so you won't freeze even in winter in the open-air pools. Bliss!
Gellert Baths (in Gellert hotel): probably the most expensive baths located in a fancy hotel on Buda side with a pool on the roof. It has separate sections for men and women for those who consider it fun :)
Underground: the yellow line ("Foldalatti") is over 100 y.o. and is the oldest on the continent! It is 11 stops long and runs through the centre of the city on Pest side. There are 2 more longer lines (looking exactly like trains in Moscow!), and a 4th is being constructed now.
Hungarian cuisine is famous for gulyas, paprika and halaszle (fish soup), which I recommend trying in small family-owned restaurants you will find all over the place.
And after a dinner, take a walk in the night city: take Szecsenyi Chain Bridge to cross the Danube from Pest to Buda or back And as you are walking at night, you can see many lights glittering in the sky - they are in Buda hills calling you up to enjoy the panorama of the night city. Go up the Gellert hill and enjoy the purple -pink colors of the city when it is waking up in the morning...

I spent 3 years there and keep coming back. I love the city and hope you will enjoy it, too.

Badacsony is a tiny place on the northern part of Lake Balaton in Hungary. If you ever consider to visit Europe's biggest lake, you should really put this part on your map.

Hungarians are very friendly with tourists - around the lake they are mostly living from that. You can find to rent a nice apartment around that area easily even on the web, and there are more than enough places to choose where to eat next. Food is overall excellent in Hungary, as Hungarians are crazy about their kitchen :-) It's spicy (but not unbearably), and there are a lot of varieties you've might not tried before, but it's worth it!

About the famous Hungarian wine... It's not as famous as it could be due to producing the right quantity in this little country to export it - okay, okay, practically we're drinking it before we could sell it to anyone in Europe except of the neighbourhood countries...
The point is, Badacsony, and the whole northern area of the Lake Balaton is famous (in Hungary) for the hills looking towards South, what is so excellent for producing great wines - white or red, you name it, it's worth a couple of tries!

The Lake is "deep" on the norhtern side, well, not that deep, but deeper than the southern part. So you can definately have some great swims, and you don't have to worry about the quality of the water anymore - it became a lot clearer with the past few years, and if you like to get around the fish - well, there are possibilities to do that too, it's an appreciated sport in that area.

I'm recommending it everyone get to visit Badacsony once - biking around the area (you can make a round trinp around the lake in two days or so), or just walk, you'll find it really relaxing - good food, excellent wine, great service

Ps.: Most of the young Hungarians are speaking at least English or German, especially around the touristic places! So no worries about the communication...

Be sure to taste the authentic local specialty, the fish-soup. Best time to do that is during the annual cook-off festival, with lots of music, folk programs, craft-fair and of course lot of food and wines!

Horse- and carriage riding, hiking, boating and fishing, observing of many different species of birds, nature-camps (great for kids!!!), craft-fairs.

Balaton - Hungary’s favourite summertime retreat! Lake Balaton – central Europe’s largest lake – offers 200km of shoreline, silky green water and a host of activities for young and old. Whether you’re after thrills and spills or gentle strolls, here you can enjoy life at your own pace. With volcanic hills and vineyards on the northern shore, friendly resorts to the south, and waterfront towns full of character all around, the beauty of Balaton is in its breathtaking diversity. The lake is perfect for family holidays, with safe beaches, shallow water and plenty to keep you entertained.

Head for one of the local spa towns and a warming wallow in the thermal waters of Hévíz or Zalakaros? There’s an embarrassment of riches for lovers of the great outdoors; take to the water for some sailing, windsurfing or fishing, or strike out into the national park for some horse-riding, cycling or birdwatching. And culture vultures can soak in the elegant ambience of Keszthely, visit Tihany’s abbey church or just settle at a pretty hillside restaurant for some fine food and a bottle of the region’s famous wine.

Not to be missed!!!
Balatonfured Wine Festival is held annually in mid August.
Open-air concerts and organ conerts in the Lutheran church during July and August
The Anna Ball

With an average depth of just two—three metres, the summertime water is warm as toast, and the gently sloping beaches of the southern shore represent a reassuringly safe playground.

This is a youngsters’ paradise. While the toddlers paddle and splash in the shallow water, the older children can shoot down waterslides, take to a pedalo, try their luck at fishing, join a game of volleyball or have a bash at wakeboarding, windsurfing or other watersports. Siófok is the liveliest spot. Away from the lake’s edge, water-babies might head for the massive aqua-park at Zalaegerszeg, complete with wave machines and a 300m-long artificial river, or for the more sedate pleasures to be enjoyed at the family-friendly spas of Zalakaros and Kehidakustány. At Tapolca, you can even go for a boat ride on a subterranean cave lake!

The varied landscape and bounteous wildlife provide a beautiful backdrop during a horse-riding tour or a day’s cycling. The Kápolnapuszta Reserve in the Balaton Uplands National Park is home to the traditional Hungarian buffalo. At Keszthely, the girls can wander around the Doll Museum while the boys revel in more bloodthirsty attractions at the Torture Museum. Alternatively, how about exploring the castles at Nagyvázsony, Sümeg or Szigliget, before watching displays of jousting and archery, and guzzling a medieval banquet?

Hungary is afloat on a rich reservoir of thermal water that breaks the surface through thousands of springs, and the Balaton region has more than its fair share of them. If you’re feeling stressed, have nagging aches or just fancy a lick of luxury to your bathing, this is the place to be. Furthermore, you don't need to come in summer – spa holidays can be taken all year round, and make a wonderfully different winter break. As well as enjoying a warming soak, you can also take advantage of a wide range of cheaply priced health and beauty treatments – from massages and mudpacks to physiotherapy and dental work. Put yourself in the hands of the qualified experts, and allow them to soothe your body and mind.

The spa town of Hévíz is nestled on the world’s second-largest thermal lake. The lake is open all year – the mineral-rich water rarely drops below 26ºC in temperature – and in winter you can wallow snugly as the steam rises from the surface. The thermal centres at Kehidakustány and Zalakaros are also open whatever the season, and are suitable for the whole family. Parents can indulge in treatments while the kids splash about in the ‘fun bath’. Zalakaros is recommended for the relief of arthritis thanks to a combination of medicinal baths and generations of expertise.

All these thermal complexes are well provided with spa hotels offering ‘wellness’ packages, and you’ll also find such hotels at Siófok, Balatonfüred, Bük and Tapolca – the latter perched above a deep cave whose humid air has long been known to alleviate asthma. there’s plenty for the wine buff or the gourmand. Take a trawl through the atmospheric cellars that stud the volcanic hills of the northern shore and sample some wonderfully refreshing white wines, before choosing a hillside restaurant in which to indulge in freshly caught Balaton fish and breathtaking views. Those truly in the know time their visit to coincide with one of the region’s many colourful festivals, when you can get a taste of traditional music, dance, crafts – and yet more food and drink!

Une des perles de l'Europe de l'est.
Les bains publics sont superbes je vous interdit d'aller a Budapest sans y faire un tour se serai trop dommage.
Le palais ou siège le parlement est aussi très intéressant on le voie en passant dans sur les quais du Danube.
Pour les fan de musique en tous genres, l'été, une festival a lieu sur une île au milieu de Budapest (au milieu du Danube) le sziget est un petit peut le woostock de l'Europe.
Un musée de statues de l'ex URSS peut aussi intéressés certains d'entre vous.

Unfortunately don't remember much from my trip there, apart from the fact that the restaurant Gundls was amazing, especially its famous pancakes!

They have great parties in winter when the lake is so frozen that you can walk on it!!! Food is great, try one of their familiar ranches!!

Situated on the Danube Bend, Szentendre makes a great day trip from Budapest. A haven for painters sculptors, wander its cobbled streets visit one of its many galleries.

Try a chicken burger as you dine with the ghouls in the Darkness restaurant off St Istvans

A strange mix of middle European, Soviet and American influences. You see a grey concrete government building that belongs in the east next to a Macdonalds.

No guidebook has insider stories written by people who actually lived in the Communism and experienced it. During the Free Communist Walking Tour history politics, ideology, economy, mentality, suppress of the Communist decades are explained, along with the chronology of the key events, brainwash process, social conditions, human rights, secret agens and cult of the party bosses behind the Iron Curtain. Sights of this interactive adventure include the 1956 uprising areas, the bronze bullet memorial, the flag with the hole and the eternal flame, the secret entrance of a military bunker, the last Communist memorial in the inner city and other symbols of "Soviet friendship". The tour ends at a typical Communist building where the most interesting relics of the "good old times" can be seen and touched too, such as Communist propaganda board games, propaganda posters and postcards, school report books, employer books, party membership book, pioneer membership book, the famous red and blue passports, some Communist high tech items and many more.