Backpacking Hungary: A 10-Day Guide

This ten-day route is for travelers who want Hungary’s capital followed by its lake shore and its two warmest, most southern cities, with time to swim, eat and sit in squares rather than race between sights. It moves at a moderate pace with stays of two to three nights, and you’ll rely on intercity trains, long-distance buses and a short local bus out to the Tihany peninsula.

Days 1-3: Budapest, the Pest side

Base yourself in Pest’s District VI or VII and explore Budapest on foot from there. St. Stephen’s Basilica rises 96 meters, deliberately the same height as the Parliament, and its side chapel holds the mummified right hand of Hungary’s first king. Climb or ride up to the dome balcony for a 360-degree view over the red rooftops.

A ten-minute walk takes you to the Dohány Street Synagogue and Jewish Museum, the largest synagogue in Europe, with onion-domed towers and a garden holding a metal weeping willow engraved with the names of Holocaust victims. The surrounding streets of the old … read more 👉

This ten-day route is for travelers who want Hungary’s capital followed by its lake shore and its two warmest, most southern cities, with time to swim, eat and sit in squares rather than race between sights. It moves at a moderate pace with stays of two to three nights, and you’ll rely on intercity trains, long-distance buses and a short local bus out to the Tihany peninsula.

Days 1-3: Budapest, the Pest side

Base yourself in Pest’s District VI or VII and explore Budapest on foot from there. St. Stephen’s Basilica rises 96 meters, deliberately the same height as the Parliament, and its side chapel holds the mummified right hand of Hungary’s first king. Climb or ride up to the dome balcony for a 360-degree view over the red rooftops.

A ten-minute walk takes you to the Dohány Street Synagogue and Jewish Museum, the largest synagogue in Europe, with onion-domed towers and a garden holding a metal weeping willow engraved with the names of Holocaust victims. The surrounding streets of the old Jewish Quarter are now where the ruin bars fill crumbling courtyards after dark; Szimpla Kert is the original.

On day 3, walk up Andrássy Avenue to the Hungarian State Opera House. Daytime guided tours show off the gilded neo-Renaissance auditorium, and seats for an evening performance can cost far less than in Vienna. Fit in the Great Market Hall at the foot of Liberty Bridge for paprika, sausages and a lángos (fried dough with sour cream and cheese) from the upstairs food stalls.

Days 4-5: Balatonfüred, Tihany and the Balaton Uplands

The train to Balatonfüred takes about 2 hours, and you swap city heat for the largest lake in Central Europe. Lake Balaton is shallow and warms quickly, so Balatonfüred Beach on the north shore makes for easy swimming from June to early September. The Tagore promenade, with its plane trees and sailing club, is the evening walk.

On day 5, a 20-minute bus takes you to Tihany, a peninsula jutting into the lake. Its Benedictine Abbey was founded in 1055, and the founding charter contains some of the oldest surviving written words in Hungarian. Lavender fields bloom here from mid-June to July. Walk into the Balaton Uplands on the loop around the peninsula’s inner lake up to the Óvár hill, where hermit monks carved cells into the volcanic rock; the trail is about 2 to 3 hours and rarely busy.

Days 6-7: Pécs

The trip south to Pécs is the route’s one long travel day, so allow 3.5 to 4.5 hours by bus or by train with a change. It pays back at once. The main square is anchored by the green-domed Mosque of Pasha Qasim, a 16th-century Ottoman building now used as a Catholic church, and the early Christian burial chambers under the cathedral square are UNESCO-listed. Spend your full day at the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, where the ceramics factory’s iridescent eosin glaze tiles cover everything from fountains to roofs, then catch the sunset from the slopes of the Mecsek hills above town.

Days 8-9: Szeged

A direct bus heads east to Szeged in about 3.5 to 4 hours, with a free day between this and the previous long transfer. Rebuilt after a catastrophic flood in 1879, the city is a showcase of Art Nouveau facades, with the Reök Palace the most flamboyant. The twin-towered Votive Church dominates Dóm tér, where an open-air theater festival runs each summer. Eat halászlé, the fiery paprika fish soup, at a riverside restaurant along the Tisza, and visit the Pick salami and paprika museum to see why this corner of the plain matters so much to the national kitchen.

Day 10: Back to Budapest

The train back to Budapest takes about 2.5 hours, leaving you an evening for one last ruin bar or a riverside dinner before departure.

For a wine-scented side trip, Villány, a small town less than an hour south of Pécs by train, lines one main street with family cellars pouring the country’s most structured reds.