Thermal water under the capital, a lake the country treats as a sea, and a language related to almost nothing spoken around it. Hungary is small enough to cross in a morning and layered enough to hold a fortnight.
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Lake Balaton
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AllBudapest & the Danube BendTransdanubiaLake BalatonNorthern HungaryThe Great Plain
By Wimup EditorialUpdated September 202614 min read
Best months
May · Jun · Sep
Ideal length
7–10 days
Budget / day
$55–120
Language
Hungarian
Getting around
Intercity trains, coaches & trams
Region ▾Season ▾City or countryside ▾Thermal baths ▾Trip length ▾4 guides
Start in Budapest and give it four days rather than two: the baths, the market halls, the Jewish quarter and the museums fill them without repeating themselves. Then pick one direction. North on the Danube is the easiest day out, with Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom on one river bend. West is Lake Balaton, where the north shore has the vineyards, the abbey at Tihany and the quieter water, and the south shore has the shallow beaches and the summer noise. Northeast is wine country: Eger for the reds and its castle, Tokaj for the sweet whites, both reachable by train. East is the Great Plain, flatter and slower, with Hortobágy for the grassland, Debrecen for the city and Szeged for the food. A week covers Budapest and one of those. Two weeks covers Budapest and two, comfortably, because nothing here is more than four hours from anywhere else.
The yellow line under Andrássy Avenue, Budapest’s M1, opened in May 1896 and was the first electrified underground railway on the European mainland, beaten worldwide only by London. It still runs on its original alignment and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2002.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.
"Hungary is Budapest, and Budapest is a weekend."
The realityThe capital holds about a fifth of the population and rather less than a fifth of the reasons to come. Pécs has a Roman burial complex under its cathedral square and an Ottoman mosque still standing on the main square. Tokaj has been a demarcated wine region since 1737. Hortobágy is the largest continuous natural grassland in Europe. All three are on the UNESCO list, and none of them is in Budapest.
"Goulash is a stew."
The realityGulyás is a soup, thin enough to drink, and the word means herdsman rather than a recipe. The thick paprika stew that gets called goulash abroad is pörkölt, and if it arrives with sour cream stirred through and chicken in it, that is paprikás. Ordering gulyás expecting the stew is the most common menu mistake visitors make here.
"Everything is dirt cheap."
The realityIt was, and it is still good value against Vienna an hour away, but Budapest is no longer a bargain capital. Central restaurant prices, the popular baths and the summer Balaton shore have all caught up, and the gap between a tourist-strip bill and a neighbourhood one is wide enough to be worth walking two streets for. The countryside is where the old prices survive.
"It is a landlocked country with nothing to swim in."
The realityLake Balaton covers 592 square kilometres and is the largest lake in Central Europe, shallow enough on the southern shore to wade a long way out. Hévíz is a thermal lake you swim in year round. And the country sits on so much geothermal water that public baths are ordinary municipal infrastructure rather than a luxury, in small towns as much as in the capital.
"Hungarian is basically a Slavic language."
The realityIt is not related to the languages of any country Hungary borders. Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family, whose nearest widely spoken relatives are Finnish and Estonian, and even those are distant. That is why nothing on a Hungarian street sign can be guessed at from German, Croatian, Slovak or Romanian.
Goulash on every menuPaprika in everythingRuin bars and stag partiesThermal baths full of old men playing chessA sad, melancholy peopleCheap beer and cheaper wine
How to fit in
Greet with the surname first. Hungarian puts the family name before the given name, so Bartók Béla at home is Béla Bartók abroad, and forms will ask for them in that order.
Do not clink beer glasses. The custom traces to 1849, when Austrian officers were said to have toasted the execution of Hungarian generals with beer. Whether or not the story holds, the habit does, and glasses of wine and pálinka are clinked freely instead.
Say egészségedre before the first sip, not after. It is the toast, it is unpronounceable on the first attempt, and trying anyway is received well.
Shoes come off inside a home, and something for the table comes with you. Wine, pálinka or cake, not flowers in an even number, which are for funerals.
Learn the bath routine before you go in. Swimwear at all times in the mixed pools, a cap in the lap pool, sandals across the wet floors, and a padlock for the cabin, which is not provided at every bath.
Tap water is safe everywhere and asking for it is normal, though many restaurants will steer you to the bottled list first.
Queue by ticket, not by line. Post offices, pharmacies, banks and government offices run on a numbered ticket from a machine at the door, and standing patiently in the wrong place gets you nowhere.
Famous Hungarian faces
The names behind Hungarian science, invention, music, sport, screen and verse. Pick a field.
Ernő Rubik
Ernő Rubik
Architect and designer who built the Cube in Budapest in 1974 as a teaching model for three-dimensional geometry, then spent a month solving it himself
Ferenc Puskás
Ferenc Puskás
Forward and captain of the Golden Team that beat England twice in the 1950s and reached the 1954 World Cup final, then a European Cup winner at Real Madrid
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Composer and pianist, born in 1811 at Doborján in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Raiding in Austria), and founder of the Budapest academy that carries his name
Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Composer who walked the villages with a phonograph recording folk songs, and built a modern music out of what he collected
Katalin Karikó
Katalin Karikó
Biochemist from Szolnok, awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the modified-mRNA work behind the COVID-19 vaccines
John von Neumann
John von Neumann
Mathematician born in Budapest in 1903, whose work shaped game theory, quantum mechanics and the architecture of the modern computer
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Chess grandmaster at 15, the strongest female player in the history of the game, and the only woman to have beaten a reigning world number one
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini
Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, the escape artist who made his name in America and never entirely dropped the Hungarian origin story
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on vitamin C, which he isolated in quantity from Szeged paprika
Ferenc Krausz
Ferenc Krausz
Physicist from Mór, awarded a share of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for generating attosecond pulses of light
Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Budapest-born physicist, one of the Hungarian emigres nicknamed the Martians, and a central figure in the American thermonuclear programme
Loránd Eötvös
Loránd Eötvös
Physicist whose torsion balance measured gravity precisely enough to become evidence for general relativity, and whose name is on Budapest’s main university
László Bíró
László Bíró
Journalist who patented the ballpoint pen in the 1930s, which is why the object is called a biro across much of the English-speaking world
Ányos Jedlik
Ányos Jedlik
Benedictine monk and physicist who built a working electric motor prototype in 1828 and described the dynamo principle before it was patented elsewhere
Kálmán Kandó
Kálmán Kandó
Engineer who pioneered high-voltage alternating-current traction and put Hungary among the first countries to electrify a main railway line
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Composer, and the author of a music-teaching method built on singing that is still used in schools around the world
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa
Film composer who won three Academy Awards, for Spellbound, A Double Life and Ben-Hur, while never letting go of the Hungarian folk material underneath
Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Conductor, music director of the Chicago Symphony for 22 years, and the winner of 31 Grammy Awards
Krisztina Egerszegi
Krisztina Egerszegi
Swimmer who took her first Olympic gold at 14 and finished with five, three of them at Barcelona in 1992
Katinka Hosszú
Katinka Hosszú
Swimmer nicknamed the Iron Lady, who won three golds at Rio 2016 and set a world record in the 400m individual medley
László Papp
László Papp
Boxer, and the first man to win Olympic gold in three consecutive Games, in 1948, 1952 and 1956
István Szabó
István Szabó
Director whose 1981 film Mephisto won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and who kept returning to what power does to an artist
László Nemes
László Nemes
Director of Son of Saul, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016, shot almost entirely over one man’s shoulder
Béla Tarr
Béla Tarr
Director of Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, whose long takes and black-and-white plains became a style other filmmakers borrowed
Sándor Petőfi
Sándor Petőfi
Poet of the 1848 revolution, who read the National Song aloud in Pest on the day it began and disappeared in battle the following year
Imre Kertész
Imre Kertész
Novelist and Auschwitz survivor, awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature for Fatelessness and the work that followed it
Attila József
Attila József
Poet of the interwar city, poor for most of his short life, and now the writer Hungarians quote most readily
Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Born Endre Friedmann in Budapest, war photographer across five conflicts and a founder of the Magnum agency
André Kertész
André Kertész
Photographer who left Budapest for Paris in 1925 and spent sixty years proving how much a small camera and an ordinary street could carry
Must-try Hungarian food
Paprika, sour cream and slow cooking, and far more than goulash. Pick a category.
Gulyás
A soup, not a stew: beef, potato, carrot and a lot of paprika in a thin broth, cooked over open fire in a bogrács when anyone is making a point of it.
Pörkölt
The thick paprika stew the rest of the world calls goulash. Beef, veal or game, onions cooked down to nothing, and no vegetables getting in the way.
Paprikás csirke
Chicken in a paprika and sour-cream sauce, served with nokedli, the small torn dumplings that exist to carry it.
Töltött káposzta
Cabbage leaves rolled around pork and rice, layered with sauerkraut and smoked meat, and better on the second day. The winter and Christmas dish.
Halászlé
Fisherman’s soup, deep red with paprika and made from river fish. Szeged strains it and adds carp fillet, Baja serves it over pasta and makes it hotter.
Lecsó
Peppers, tomato and onion stewed slowly in fat, with sausage or egg added at the end. The high-summer dish, made when the peppers are cheap.
Hortobágyi palacsinta
Savoury pancakes rolled around minced meat and covered in paprika sauce, named for the grassland and served as a starter.
Jókai bableves
Bean soup with smoked pork knuckle, carrot and csipetke pinched noodles, named after the novelist who liked it.
Túrós csusza
Wide pasta with curd cheese, sour cream and crisp bacon on top. Sweet and salty at once, and eaten as a main course.
Mangalica
The curly-haired native pig, fatty enough that it nearly died out in the lean-meat decades and is now back on menus as sausage, cured loin and roast.
Libamáj
Goose liver, a Hungarian speciality for centuries, served hot with onions or cold as a terrine. Ask where it came from if that matters to you.
Lángos
Deep-fried flatbread, rubbed with garlic and loaded with sour cream and grated cheese. Market halls, lake shores and every festival gate.
Kürtőskalács
Chimney cake: sweet dough wound around a spit, rolled in sugar and turned over coals until the outside caramelises.
Kolbász
Smoked paprika sausage, sold by the metre at markets and grilled at every winter fair. Gyulai and csabai are the two names to look for.
Pogácsa
Small savoury scones, plain or with cracklings or cheese, sold in every bakery and eaten with wine or a beer.
Dobos torta
Sponge and chocolate buttercream under a sheet of hard caramel, invented by József Dobos in 1885 and cut into wedges ever since.
Somlói galuska
Three sponges, walnut, rum syrup, chocolate sauce and whipped cream in a glass. Not elegant, and not meant to be.
Rétes
Strudel pulled thin enough to read through, filled with sour cherry, poppy seed, curd cheese or apple.
Gundel palacsinta
Pancakes with walnut and raisin filling under a dark chocolate and rum sauce, from the Budapest restaurant that named them.
Túró Rudi
Curd cheese in a thin dark chocolate shell, sold cold in every corner shop, and the thing Hungarians abroad ask visitors to bring.
Krémes
Vanilla custard between two sheets of puff pastry, dusted with sugar. The default cake in any village confectionery.
Pálinka
Fruit brandy, distilled from plum, apricot, pear or cherry, and protected by law as a Hungarian product. Served neat and at room temperature.
Tokaji aszú
The sweet wine from botrytised grapes that made the Tokaj hills a demarcated region in 1737 and put them on the UNESCO list.
Egri Bikavér
Bull’s Blood: a red blend from Eger, tasted properly in the cellars of the Szépasszony valley rather than from a supermarket shelf.
Unicum
Bitter herbal liqueur in a round bottle, drunk as a digestif and made by the same family firm since 1790.
Fröccs
Wine and soda water, ordered by ratio rather than by name. Kisfröccs, nagyfröccs and házmester each mean a different split, and locals will explain them at length.
Hungary travel FAQ
Do you need a visa for Hungary?+
Hungary is in the Schengen area, so the Schengen rules apply rather than Hungarian ones. Visa-exempt nationalities, among them the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and Japan, may stay 90 days in any 180 across the whole zone, and days spent in Austria or Croatia count against the same allowance. Your passport must be valid for three months beyond the date you intend to leave and issued within the last ten years. The EU Entry/Exit System now registers non-EU travellers biometrically at external borders, so allow extra time on a first crossing. ETIAS, the separate travel authorisation, is not yet in force and cannot be applied for; check the European Commission’s own pages rather than a paid intermediary before you travel.
When is the best time to visit Hungary?+
May, June and September. The days are long, the terraces are open, the baths are still a pleasure rather than a relief, and neither the Balaton shore nor Budapest is at capacity. July and August are hot and busy: the lake fills, festival season runs, and the capital empties of locals in the way continental cities do. April and October are cooler and cheaper and work well for a city-only trip. Winter is dark and often grey, with one clear exception: the advent markets and the outdoor thermal pools are both better in the cold.
What currency does Hungary use, and can you pay by card?+
The forint (HUF). Hungary joined the EU in 2004 but has not adopted the euro, and everything is priced in forint. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in the cities, including on public transport and in taxis, and contactless is standard. Carry a little cash for markets, rural buses, bath lockers and small village places. Avoid the currency-exchange booths on the tourist streets and decline the offer to be charged in your own currency at a card terminal, which is where the poor rate hides.
How do you get around Hungary without a car?+
Easily, because the rail and coach networks both radiate from Budapest. MÁV trains reach Győr, Pécs, Debrecen, Szeged, Eger and the Balaton shore, and the intercity services are comfortable and cheap by western European standards. Volánbusz coaches cover what the trains miss. The catch is the shape of the network: crossing between two provincial cities often means changing in Budapest, so plan a loop as a set of returns from the capital. Budapest itself runs on metro, tram, trolleybus and bus under one ticket, and the HÉV suburban line carries you out to Szentendre.
Which thermal bath should you actually go to?+
Depends what you want from it. Széchenyi in the City Park is the big yellow one from the postcards, mostly outdoors, busiest and best in cold weather. Gellért is the art nouveau one, smaller, tiled and calmer. Rudas and Király are Ottoman baths from the sixteenth century, with domed pools and single-sex days that you should check before turning up. Outside the capital, Hévíz is a thermal lake you float in year round, and Miskolctapolca puts the water inside a cave. Take a towel, flip-flops and a padlock, and expect a cap to be required in any lap pool.
Is Budapest enough on its own?+
For a first long weekend, yes, and stretching it thin to add a second base is usually a mistake. Four days in the capital is not padding. Beyond that, the return is better outside it: Szentendre and Esztergom are day trips on public transport, Eger and Pécs are two hours out and both worth a night, and the Balaton shore is a different holiday rather than an extension of a city break. The pattern that works is Budapest plus one region, chosen by season.
Know before you go
The essentials for planning a Hungarian trip.
Currency
Forint (HUF), not the euro
Hungary has been in the EU since 2004 and has not adopted the euro, so everything is priced in forint. Cards work almost everywhere in the cities, including on transport, and cash is worth carrying for markets, village buses and bath lockers. Decline dynamic currency conversion at the terminal and skip the exchange booths on the tourist streets.
Language
Hungarian, and it is not related to its neighbours
Hungarian is Finno-Ugric, in the same family as Finnish and Estonian and unrelated to German, Slovak, Croatian or Romanian, so nothing can be guessed from a sign. English is widely spoken in Budapest and among younger people; German is common near the Austrian border. Learning köszönöm and kérem is worth the ten minutes it takes.
Calling code
+36
Hungarian mobile numbers run to nine digits after the code. EU roaming rules mean an EU SIM works here at domestic rates; other visitors will find prepaid SIMs and eSIMs sold in phone shops and at the airport on presentation of a passport.
Time zone
CET, UTC+1, with summer time
Central European Time, moving to UTC+2 for central European summer time between late March and late October. Same clock as Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw.
Power
230V, 50Hz, plug types C and F
The standard European round two-pin. British, American and Australian plugs all need an adapter, and anything not rated for 230V needs a converter as well.
Emergency
112, free from any phone
112 reaches police, ambulance and fire and is answered in Hungarian and English. The older single-service numbers still work: 107 for police, 104 for ambulance, 105 for fire.
Visa
Schengen rules, 90 days in any 180
Hungary joined the Schengen area in 2007, so the zone’s rules apply. Visa-exempt visitors get 90 days in any 180 across the whole area, not per country. The EU Entry/Exit System now takes biometrics from non-EU travellers at external borders; ETIAS is not yet operational.
Getting around
Trains and coaches out of Budapest
MÁV rail and Volánbusz coaches both radiate from the capital, which is fast for a return trip and slow for a cross-country hop, since two provincial cities are often connected only through Budapest. In the capital, one ticket covers metro, tram, trolleybus, bus and the HÉV suburban line, and it must be validated before boarding.
Driving
On the right, and a motorway e-vignette
Traffic keeps right. Motorways require a prepaid electronic vignette bought before you join one, sold online and at filling stations near the borders. The drink-drive limit is zero, enforced strictly, and dipped headlights are required outside built-up areas day and night.
Tipping
10 to 15 percent, unless it is already on the bill
A service charge (szervízdíj) is now added by many Budapest restaurants, usually 12 to 15 percent, and where it appears nothing further is expected. Where it does not, 10 to 15 percent is normal. Tip in forint rather than euros, and hand the total to the server rather than leaving coins on the table.
Tap water
Safe everywhere
Mains water is drinkable across the country, including in the smallest villages, and asking for tap water in a restaurant is normal even where the bottled list is offered first.
Thermal baths
Bring a towel, flip-flops and a padlock
Public baths are ordinary municipal infrastructure here rather than a treat, and they have their own etiquette: swimwear at all times in mixed pools, a cap in the lap pool, sandals across wet floors, and a padlock for the cabin, which is not always supplied. Some Ottoman baths still run single-sex days, so check before turning up.
When to visit Hungary
One landlocked country, four clear seasons, and a lake that decides the summer.
Best: May, June and September, warm without the August crush Peak: July and August, Balaton season and festival season together Good: April, October and December, cooler and cheaper, baths and markets open Quietest: January to March and November, grey days and the lowest prices
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