Hungary Itineraries

Hungary sits at the geographical and cultural heart of Central Europe — a country of just under ten million people whose unique language (unrelated to those of its neighbours and distantly related only to Finnish and Estonian), thermal baths, paprika-spiked cuisine, and bifurcated capital give it a character found nowhere else on the continent. Budapest, the capital, is one of the great European cities and the obvious centre of any trip. Built along both banks of the Danube — the flatter Pest on the east and the hillier Buda on the west, joined in 1873 — it offers an extraordinary concentration of architecture, from the neo-gothic Parliament building (one of the largest in Europe) and the royal Buda Castle to Art Nouveau gems, Ottoman-era thermal baths, and post-socialist ruin pubs housed in decayed tenement buildings. The views from Fisherman's Bastion across the river, particularly at dusk when the Parliament and Chain Bridge are lit, are among Europe's most photographed scenes. Thermal bathing is a defining Hungarian experience — the entire country sits on one of the world's largest thermal aquifers, and Budapest alone has more than a hundred mineral springs. The grand neo-baroque Széchenyi Baths and Art Nouveau Gellért Baths offer a thoroughly civilised afternoon's soak with locals playing chess in the steam. Budapest's food scene has transformed dramatically in the last decade, with sophisticated restaurants sitting alongside centuries-old classics like the chequered-tableclothed Gundel and the market halls selling lángos, paprika, and chimney cakes. Beyond the capital, Hungary opens into a landscape of great plains (the puszta), vineyard-covered hills, baroque towns, and thermal spa resorts. Eger, about two hours north-east of Budapest, is a perfectly preserved baroque town famous for its Valley of the Beautiful Women, where wine cellars cut into the tufa rock offer tastings of the robust red Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood). Tokaj, in the far north-east, produces one of the world's great dessert wines — Tokaji Aszú, famously called 'the wine of kings, the king of wines' by Louis XIV — and has been protected as a wine region since 1737. Lake Balaton, Central Europe's largest freshwater lake, is Hungary's summer playground, with vineyards on its northern shore and shallow swimming beaches on the south. Hungarian cuisine rewards adventurous eaters: goulash (gulyás — a soup rather than the stew most foreigners expect), paprikás csirke (chicken paprikash), fisherman's soup (halászlé), tender veal and beef dishes, and the beloved layered crêpes known as Gundel palacsinta. Pálinka, a potent fruit brandy, accompanies every gathering. Hungarians can seem reserved on first encounter but are warmly hospitable once engaged, and English is widely spoken in Budapest and major tourist areas.