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...
