Cycling tours in Hungary - Castles and lakes-Budapest-Vienna

CASTLES AND LAKES BUDAPEST - VIENNA

Taking this beautiful bike tour, you will cycle from Budapest to Vienna, along the nicest areas of Lake Balaton and Lake Fertő, picturesque landscapes and historic wine regions, through untouched nature and woods, and charming villages of West Hungary. You will visit the world-famous Herend Porcelain Manufacture, splendid castles and Romanesque churches, nicest medieval towns: Kőszeg and Sopron, the healing Thermal Lake Hévíz, and interesting museums. You will stay in wonderfully located castles and historic buildings with special atmosphere, and taste excellent Hungarian wines and local specialities in small but outstanding restaurants and wine-cellars of Hungary. 

TOUR ITINERARY:

„I loved everything about the tour – you are a terrific host and hostess, so kind always. We know how hard you work to make our experience in Hungary the best it can be, and you have certainly succeeded, in every way.”
Diana – USA 

DAY 1: ARRIVAL IN BUDAPEST

Your hotel is situated at the woods on the top of the Buda Hills. Its lovely environment and swimming pool, sauna, or massage possibilities will make you feel well, and relaxed quickly. In the evening you will meet your tour guide at the reception, have a welcome drink, information about the tour, and dinner in the cosy restaurant of the hotel. 

DAY 2: BUDAPEST - TIHANY

We take a bus transfer, and visit the world-famous Herend Porcelain Manufactory. We will see how they make their beautiful products by hand, their famous patterns - named after royal or noble families, and learn about the history of the factory. After this interesting experience we cycle down the hills to the Tihany Peninsula which is one of the most beautiful points of Lake Balaton with geyser-cones, an Inner Lake, and a Benedictine abbey which is famous for its foundation document from 1055, and the grave of King 1st Andrew who founded the monastery. We stay here at a lovely hotel right at the lake, where we have a great opportunity to swim in the pleasant water. Later we will take a walk among the charming thatch-roofed village houses and souvenir shops, enjoy a wonderful view, and have dinner in a cosy restaurant there. (cycling 24km/15m appr.)

DAY 3: CYCLING ALONG LAKE BALATON

We cycle along the northern side of the biggest lake of Middle Europe, and the most visited resort area of Hungary. Swimming, sailing, windsurfing, fishing are all popular here. We can enjoy some of Hungary’s most beautiful landscapes here. The breath-taking panorama of the lake and the volcanic hills cannot be compared with anything else. Plenty of nicely renovated old thatched village houses make the area even more picturesque in the Káli Basin, which is a peaceful nature reserve, decorated with unique formations, such as „stone seas” and „basalt organs” of the surrounding hills. Riding among beautiful vineyards all around, we reach the famous Badacsony wine region, and then we get to a nice castle hotel with a lovely small park and swimming pool. We stay two nights here. (cycling 51km/32m appr.)

DAY 4: KESZTHELY AND HÉVÍZ

We start our program in Keszthely, an old town at Lake Balaton, where we visit the Festetics Castle. It’s one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces of Hungary with a fabulous English garden, rich furniture, and its biggest treasure, the Helikon Library, which has wonderfully preserved its original shape. By founding the first agricultural college of Europe, and organizing the Helikon festivals, the Festetics family developed Keszthely into a cultural center. After taking a walk or a rest in the town, we get to Hévíz, and dip into the 33-34 °C water of the second biggest thermal lake of the world. It is the most famous health resort of Hungary, wellknown throughout Europe as well. The wooden buildings and plenty of water-lilies on the lake make the sight here exceptionally beautiful. After getting relaxed in the healing water, we go back to our hotel.

DAY 5: BIKING FROM CASTLE TO CASTLE

Today we continue our tour in the nature through beautiful woods, along softly undulating lands and sleeping hamlets. We have two stops to see a small village church, and a Benedictine abbey. Both are significant memories of our Romanesque architecture. We take our bus for a shortwhile, and then we cycle further along picturesque landscapes and vineyards towards the foothills of the Alps, and arrive at a very charming 17th century castle in a small village, in the middle of a marvellous park in the wood, surrounded by ancient trees, a little stream, and a very friendly atmosphere. It is the island of peacefulness, where time stops, and silence finds home, so we stay here for two nights. (cycling 47km/29m appr.)

DAY 6: KŐSZEG AND THE “ÍROTTKŐ” NATURE PARK

In the morning we visit Kőszeg. It’s hard to find a prettier town in Hungary than this little one. Let’s walk around „the Sub-Alpine jewel-box”, as it is called. Every house in the town has its own story. Rich decorations like fresco-coat of arms, or sgraffito, and various styles make them individually remarkable. The central square, surrounded by the citywalls, takes us back to the Middle Ages. A great success was to defend the castle against the Turks by Captain Miklós Jurisics in 1532. After seeing the sights, we cycle in the wonderful forests among the hills of the Írottkő Nature Park with smashing views of the area. Passing by some ancient wine-cellars, we ride back to our hotel. Tonight we visit a quite unique „iron-curtain museum” among picturesque vineyards, where you can hear unbelievable but true stories from the period before we had the political changes in Hungary. We taste some local wine there, and then we have dinner in a lovely old restaurant. (cycling 24km/15m appr.)

DAY 7: CYCLING FROM KŐSZEG TO SOPRON

We roll down the hills through beautiful woods and quiet villages, and cycling along nice fields we get to a village, where „the greatest Hungarian”, Count István Széchenyi, a prominent statesman lived in the 19th century. It is really worth seeing the museum in his former castle, which gives us a good insight into his life and shows his outstanding work promoting Hungary’s transport, industry and agriculture, not to mention some of the world-famous Hungarian inventions. Just a short bike ride, and we arrive at a small village near Lake Fertő. The Castle Hotel where we stay for two nights, is connected with a small thermal bath, and a medical center, which was founded in the 18th century. Dinner we have in one of the most special restaurants of Hungary. (cycling appr.43km/27m)

DAY 8: SOPRON AND LAKE FERTŐ

We visit Sopron, the town which has won the Europe Prize for its well protected monuments. Walking through the Fire Tower (symbol of town) and the original city walls, a wonderful antique world will open out, offering abundance of historic buildings and cultural memories. We cycle from here through a lovely wood to Lake Fertő, one of the most interesting wild water areas of Central Europe, a steppe lake, which is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Its rather shallow water, covered by a lot of reeds, gets easily warm in summer. Observing almost 300 bird species, or fishing more than 30 kind of fish, sailing, boating, swimming are popular activities here. We take a boat trip, and then cycling along nice vineyards, we get back to our hotel. After some rest, we visit a very interesting quarry with enormous halls and a beautiful view of Lake Fertő. Then we taste some of the finest wines of the historic Sopron region, and have dinner in the excellent restaurant again. (appr.23km/14m cycling)

DAY 9: CYCLING FROM SOPRON TO VIENNA

We cycle among charming vineyards and villages along Lake Fertő, stop in the pretty town Rust which is famous for its stork nests, and we ride in the Fertő-Hanság National Park, until we reach the northernmost part of the lake. We have a bus transfer to Vienna, where we stay at a nice small family hotel, an Art Nouveau building of the 19th century with a beautiful garden in the finest residential area, not far from the famous Grinzing wine-area, where we have our farewell dinner in a nice Heuriger restaurant. (cycling: 45 km/28 m appr.)

DAY 10:

After breakfast you can enjoy the nice atmosphere of the hotel, and have some free time in Vienna, and we hope that you will get home - or with us to Budapest - with nice memories for a lifetime.