Hungary: Budapest, Eger Wine Country and Lake Balaton

1. Day 1: Arrive in Budapest

   Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport to your hotel in central Pest

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), about 25 km south-east of the centre, where a driver meets you and takes you to a central hotel on the Pest side, within walking distance of the river. The rest of the day is free. An easy first walk is down to the Danube promenade, where the whole of Castle Hill faces you across the water, or along Andrássy Avenue towards the Opera. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the baths work, what to bring for the cellars, and where the easy and active options fall. Then your guide walks the group down to the Danube promenade for the view of the Chain Bridge and Castle Hill, and on to a welcome dinner of Hungarian cooking nearby: goulash soup, chicken paprikash and a first glass of Hungarian wine. Plan to land by about 4 pm to reach the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Short evening walk to the Danube promenade with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in central Pest

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: Budapest: Castle Hill and the Danube at dusk

   Pest across the Chain Bridge to Castle Hill, the Hungarian National Gallery, then an evening boat on the Danube

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 2 details

   We cross the river early and climb to Castle Hill before the tour buses arrive, when the Fisherman's Bastion terraces are quiet and the light is on Pest and the Parliament across the water. Your guide takes you into Matthias Church, with its patterned tile roof and painted interior, then along the medieval lanes of the Castle District to the royal palace. Here we spend an hour in the Hungarian National Gallery, which holds the country's own painters, from medieval altarpieces to Munkácsy and Mednyánszky, with a stop on the palace terrace for the view downriver. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the Castle District. The afternoon is free: rest, shop, or take the optional Parliament tour. As the light goes we meet on the Pest embankment for an evening boat on the Danube, about an hour past the Parliament, the bridges and the castle as they light up.

   Included

   • Castle Hill with your guide: the Fisherman's Bastion terraces and Matthias Church
   • The Hungarian National Gallery in the royal palace
   • Sit-down lunch in the Castle District
   • Evening boat on the Danube at dusk
   • Public transport tickets for the day

   Optional experiences

   • Hungarian Parliament guided tour (timed tickets, on request)

   Easier option: Ride the bus up Castle Hill instead of walking up, and back down after lunch.

   More active option: Walk up from the river by the stepped paths and on along the castle walls to the Vienna Gate.

   Free time: Afternoon free before the evening boat

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot, with a climb of about 60 m to Castle Hill and cobbled lanes at the top. The National Gallery is closed on Mondays, so we swap the order of days when needed.

   

3. Day 3: Budapest: the market and the Széchenyi Baths

   The Great Market Hall and central Pest on foot, then the Széchenyi Baths in City Park

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 3 details

   The morning is for eating. With a local food guide we start at the Great Market Hall, the big iron-and-brick hall by the Liberty Bridge that opened in 1897, while the stalls are being stocked and the shoppers are locals. We taste paprika in its sweet and hot grades, winter salami, pickles and a lángos, the fried dough eaten with sour cream and cheese, then walk on through the streets of Pest for strudel, a shot of pálinka for those who want one, and coffee and a cake in an old café. The walk finishes with a small sit-down lunch. In the early afternoon we take the metro under Andrássy Avenue, the oldest line on the European continent, to City Park and the Széchenyi Baths, built in 1913, with yellow neo-baroque wings around warm outdoor pools fed by a thermal spring. Stay an hour or the whole afternoon. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Market food walk with a local guide: the Great Market Hall and central Pest, with tastings
   • Sit-down lunch at the end of the walk
   • Széchenyi Baths entry with a locker or cabin
   • Public transport tickets for the day

   Optional experiences

   • A massage at the baths (book at the desk)

   Easier option: Skip the second half of the walk and go to the baths straight from the market by taxi with your guide's help.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on flat streets. The Great Market Hall is closed on Sundays, so we set the walk on a weekday or Saturday.

   

4. Day 4: Szentendre on the Danube, then Eger

   Budapest to Szentendre, then north-east to Eger

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Eger
   Day 4 details

   After breakfast we drive about 40 minutes up the Danube to Szentendre, a small town of painters on the river where Serbian merchants settled in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their churches still stand: your guide walks you up the lanes from the main square with its plague cross to the Belgrade Cathedral, the Serbian Orthodox cathedral on the hill, and to the lookout by the Catholic church over the rooftops and the river. There is time for the Margit Kovács museum of glazed ceramics, or for the galleries and marzipan shops, before lunch in the old town. In the early afternoon we drive about two hours east along the foot of the Mátra hills to Eger, a baroque town in a valley of vineyards below the Bükk hills. We check in for two nights near Dobó Square. The evening is free: take a slow first walk round the square and up to the minaret.

   Included

   • Szentendre old town with your guide: the main square, the Belgrade Cathedral and the hilltop lookout
   • Margit Kovács ceramics museum, Szentendre
   • Sit-down lunch in Szentendre
   • Drive to Eger

   Easier option: Stay on the main square and the river front in Szentendre and skip the climb to the cathedral.

   Free time: Evening free in Eger

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot on cobbled and sloping lanes.

   

5. Day 5: Eger: the castle and the Valley of the Beautiful Women

   Eger Castle, the Lyceum and the minaret, then the Valley of the Beautiful Women

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Eger
   Day 5 details

   We are at Eger Castle when it opens. In 1552 a small garrison under István Dobó held this hill for more than a month against a much larger Ottoman army, a story every Hungarian child knows; your guide tells it on the walls, then we see the casemates under the bastions and the view over the town. Down in town we cross to the Lyceum, the great 18th-century college building, and climb its tower to the camera obscura, which projects a live image of the streets onto a table, as it has since the 18th century. The slim minaret nearby is a reminder of the Ottoman years that followed. Lunch is in town, and the afternoon is free: rest, or try the Turkish bath. In the early evening we walk out to the Valley of the Beautiful Women, a horseshoe of cellars cut into the soft rock, for a tasting of Bull's Blood and Eger Star with dinner in a cellar.

   Included

   • Eger Castle at opening with your guide, with the casemates
   • The Lyceum and its camera obscura
   • Sit-down lunch in Eger
   • Wine tasting and dinner in a cellar in the Valley of the Beautiful Women
   • Return to the hotel by van after dinner

   Optional experiences

   • The Eger Turkish bath (thermal baths, in town)
   • The minaret climb (narrow spiral stairs)

   Easier option: Stay on the lower castle courtyards and skip the casemates and the Lyceum tower stairs; take the van to the valley as well as back.

   More active option: Walk with your guide from the valley up the vineyard track to the Eged hill viewpoint over the town before the tasting, about an hour more.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Eger

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot, with a steep ramp up to the castle and a spiral staircase of several hundred steps up the Lyceum tower. Cellars are cool, so bring a layer.

   

6. Day 6: To Lake Balaton: Tihany and its vineyards

   Eger to Budapest's ring road, south-west on the M7 to Lake Balaton, then the Tihany peninsula

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tihany
   Day 6 details

   This is the one long drive, about 260 km and three and a quarter to three and a half hours, so we leave Eger at 8:30 and break it with a coffee stop on the way round Budapest. We reach the Tihany peninsula, which juts into the north shore of Lake Balaton, in time for lunch looking over the water. Afterwards we visit Tihany Abbey on the ridge, a Benedictine house founded in 1055 by King Andrew I, who is buried in its crypt; its founding charter holds some of the oldest written Hungarian words. Then we walk: along the rim to the Inner Lake, a crater lake in the middle of the peninsula, past lavender fields and through vineyards, to the hermits' cells cut into the rock at Óvár. We finish at a small winery with a tasting of Balaton whites, and the farewell dinner is by the lake.

   Included

   • Drive from Eger to Lake Balaton with a coffee stop
   • Lunch on the Tihany peninsula
   • Tihany Abbey and the crypt of King Andrew I
   • Guided walk to the Inner Lake, the vineyards and the Óvár hermits' cells
   • Wine tasting at a Balaton winery
   • Farewell dinner by the lake

   Easier option: Stay in the village by the abbey and its viewpoint, and meet the walkers at the winery by van.

   More active option: Carry on from Óvár up to the Csúcs-hegy lookout, the highest point of the peninsula, about an hour more.

   Activity: The longest drive of the trip, broken by a coffee stop and ending in lunch. The walk is about 4 km and 2 hours, with about 100 m of climbing on dirt paths.

   

7. Day 7: Lake Balaton and home

   Tihany to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) or central Budapest

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   Take an early swim or a walk on the shore while the lake is flat and the ferries are just starting to cross to Szántód, then have a slow breakfast. Mid-morning we drive back to Budapest, about 155 km and two hours, past Lake Velence and round the city to the airport. We reach Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport around 1 pm, and your guide sees you to the check-in hall and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are staying on in Budapest, we drop you at a central hotel instead; many guests add a night or two to see the Parliament or the Jewish Quarter at their own pace. If you are carrying on to Vienna or Prague, our capitals trips start and finish nearby, and the train to Vienna takes about two and a half hours from Keleti station. Leave enough time for security at BUD in summer.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) or a central Budapest hotel

   Free time: Early morning free by the lake

   Activity: Book a flight from Budapest leaving after about 3:30 pm.

   

Wildlife and weather: May, June and September are warm and comfortable for walking; July and August can pass 30 C, when we keep the walking to the mornings and the lake is warm enough for a swim. The harvest in Eger and around Balaton runs in September and October, and Tihany's lavender is in flower from about mid-June to mid-July.

• Budapest3 nights
• Eger2 nights
• Tihany1 night