Take a Hungary Road Trip to see these Remarkable Places
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Looking for places to visit in Hungary, outside of the usual tourist destinations? Then follow our Hungary road trip through the west countryside, and visit these remarkable places. We promise you won’t be disappointed.
What you will find in this article:
7 Places to Visit in Hungary outside Budapest
We all know that the city of Budapest is one of the best places to visit in Hungary, and there are also other popular cities in Hungary to visit. But what if you don’t feel like a big city; or just want to take a break from sharing your Hungary sightseeing with a crowd? What if you want to visit small cities and towns, and see the Hungary countryside?
Then here’s the road trip for you. In 7 days you will not only experience the beautiful Hungarian landscape but also visit 7 memorable sights, which are unusual or outstanding. Some have already been judged to be of outstanding universal value, and are therefore on the UNESCO list of Hungary world heritage sites. Follow the route below, which we drove in our Bertita , for a relaxing adventure.
Gyor, one of the best places in Hungary
Our road trip in Hungary began in fine style. We picked the small city of Gyor to spend our first night. Not only did we have a fantastic spot to park and sleep, right by the river, but we also discovered a lovely, small city full of historical buildings and lots of space.
We stayed 2 nights and really enjoyed spending a day wandering around the historic centre of Győr. Although it’s a relatively quiet city, it is full of life and the people are very friendly. For our first experience of the country of Hungary, it gave us a very good impression. It’s certainly one of the beautiful places in Hungary to visit. And it had great ice-cream.
We arrived there from Bratislava in Slovakia, just 80 km away. (Vienna is about 120 km, and Budapest 130 km). It’s easy to reach, even if you fly into Europe and rent a car to follow this Hungary roadtrip.
Győr (pronounced jyeur) is the 6th largest city in Hungary. With a population of just over 130,000, it is still growing. But it’s size is one of its attractions. One of the main reasons for its growth must be the large Audi factory.
For detailed information about this remarkable city of Hungary, please read our dedicated post: Have You Heard of Gyor, a Lovely Place in Hungary?
Archabbey Pannonhalma, a site of Outstanding Universal Value
A little more than 20 km south from Gyor, is the Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment , which is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site.
The Archabbey Pannonhalma is one of the oldest historic monuments in Hungary. It has also been in almost continuous use since first settled in 996 by the Benedictines from Italy, Bohemia and Germany. These monks were responsible for converting the Hungarians to Christianity, founding the first school in Hungary in 1055, and creating the first document in the Hungarian language.
When visiting the monastery, you will experience its 1,000 year history in the progression of architectural styles incorporated in today’s structures. The oldest is the present Gothic-style church from 1224, which still contains remnants of its 2 predecessors.
The abbey has been through some turbulent times: fighting off Mongols in 1241; occupied by Ottoman Turks from 1594; closed in 1786 during the Age of Enlightenment; and controlled by the Communist state for 40 years. Despite this history, its modern incarnation still lives by the precepts that were used to establish it more than a millennium ago. Education has always been a focus of the site and they still have a school today. It also has a theological college and a nursing home.
Tourists are welcome and provide a significant proportion of the income of the monastery. You arrive at a parking lot below the Abbey, where you will find a modern Welcome Centre, with an information desk, gift shop and toilets. From there you take a pedestrian bridge and then a path through the forest to reach the site. Another remarkable place to visit on a road trip through Hungary.
This book is for travellers who are more interested in the sights than recommendations for restaurants or hotels.
Papa, home of the Blue Dye Museum
The Kékfestő Múzeum was the main reason we chose to make a stop in this small city on our road trip through western Hungary. It’s located in an original blue-dye factory, with most of the machinery left in place. For more detail and lots of photos, please visit our dedicated post: The Historic Blue-Dye Factory Museum in Pápa .
But there is more to see in Pápa.
It is around 50 km due South of Gyor (but we really recommend that you take the small detour to visit Pannonhalma Archabbey). Papa, one of Hungary’s smaller cities with a population of around 33,000, is an historical town noted for its Baroque architecture.
Fő tér, the main square, is dominated by the Great Church of St Stephen, an enormous Baroque structure built 1774-86. The other most important building is the Esterhazy Palace, constructed in 1783-4 for Count Ferenc. After being badly damaged during World War 2, it was neglected during the Communist era. Renovations began in 2000 and it is now possible to take guided tours through renovated Baroque halls and rooms.
The historic centre of Papa has Baroque dwelling houses, which are locally protected or listed as monuments of Hungary. Just wander through the city, and see what you discover.
Bakony-Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark
We left Papa to drive on southwards towards Lake Balaton. The most direct route crosses the Bakony Mountains and the Balaton Uplands National Park (Balaton Felvidéki Nemzeti Park), which now make up a large part of the Bakony-Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark. This is a relatively new designation by UNESCO, created in 2015. There are now 147 sites in 41 countries, although many of them were already recognised before the title was ratified.
UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. – from the UNESCO Global Geoparks site
It was a pleasant 75 km drive through a natural environment but, if you have time, it would certainly be worth exploring this area further. The beauty of taking a self-drive road trip is that you are free to vary your route on a whim. There are a variety of outdoor activities available including visitor sites, nature trails and guided geotours . This detailed site is in English.
Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe
Lake Balaton has been a popular tourist attraction for a very long time. Juergen had always wanted to see it, since he’d grown up in Germany hearing about it, seeing it on television and probably even learning about it in school. So, when planning a road trip to take through Hungary, we made this a priority.
We decided to visit the small town of Tihany, which is located on the only peninsula in Lake Balaton. Tihany peninsula and the north shore of the lake are included in the Bakony-Balaton Geopark. The whole peninsula has been a protected landscape since 1952, the first in Hungary. Its treasures include historical landmarks, geology, flora and fauna; it’s a fossil-rich area and also has many rare, valuable species of animals and plants. These treasures, along with its picturesque location, attract over 1 million tourists per year. It must be crazy in summer; we were there at the end of September and it was relatively quiet!
One of the dominant landmarks of this village is the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany; built in 1055, it’s not quite as old as the Pannonhalma Archabbey. The Ottomans converted it to a castle during their occupation; it was later completely destroyed and then rebuilt in the 18th century, in its current Baroque style. The abbey is open all year round, guided tours are available, and admission prices are reduced during winter.
There are a number of museums and exhibitions around the village, including a Doll’s Museum and a Waxwork of Hungarian Kings & Pirate Museum. We found a great deal of pleasure in just wandering the streets and appreciating the curiosities as we came upon them. There is a fantastic view of Lake Balaton from the terrace of the Abbey. And our search for ice-cream was rewarded with some unusual flavours including red wine with dark chocolate.
There is a vehicle ferry to cross the lake from Tihany to the southern shore. We chose to follow the lake along the north shore, around the eastern point for more water views.
Pecs, another Hungary World Heritage site
Another 180km from Tihany, through the Hungary countryside, we arrived in the southern city of Pécs. The main attraction in Pecs is the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae) .
But this is only one of many Hungary tourist attractions in its 5th largest city. With a small population just over 140,000, it is also one of the easy cities in Hungary to visit, just like Gyor. It’s not necessary to avoid all cities to enjoy a road trip in Hungary.
Zéchenyi Square is a lovely, open space, with many beautiful, historical buildings surrounding it. The Mosque of Pasha Qasim, right at the top of the square, is a symbol of the city. Now a Catholic church, but still revered as:
…an unequalled Ottoman monument of our country, the most important example of Turkish-Islamic architecture in Hungary. – from the Bishopric of Pecs information pamphlet
The Bishopric of Pecs has other interesting sites including the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, the Episcopal Palace, the Episcopal Treasury, and the Granary visitor centre, which gives information on all of the sites. From there you can visit the wine cellars below, and there is also a ‘secret passage’ from the cellar to the Episcopal Palace that was well-used during the Communist era.
You’ll find the tourist information on Zechenyi Square, where you can get a map of the important and interesting sites in Pecs and lots of helpful information about them from the friendly staff. We visited the interior of the Mosque and then made our way to the World Heritage sites of Pecs: the Early Christian Memorials.
They are underground tombs from the 4th century, which are interesting in structural, architectural and artistic terms. The tombs were underground burial chambers, which originally had memorial chapels above ground. They are also richly decorated with Christian-themed murals. The organisation of the site is excellent: you can wander through and see inside many of the tombs, and various audio-visual displays help you understand how things were originally. These tombs were in the cemetery of the Roman town of Sopianae and were discovered buried under today’s city of Pecs.
Other attractions in the city of Pecs include:
- The Synagogue of the Jewish Neolog community from 1869
- Varoshaza (City Hall), with its clock tower, on Zechenyi Square
- Zsolnay Fountain, which is also a symbol of Pecs, in front of City Hall
- Megyeháza (County Hall) opposite City Hall
- Postapalota (Post Office Palace), with its incredible facade, built in 1904, and still fully operational
- Old city walls
- Interesting architecture, including decorative tilework
Take your time to visit Pécs. It has a lot to offer.
Villany Wine Region, wine tourism steeped in tradition
Between the city of Pécs and the Croatian border, you will pass through Hungary’s most southern vineyards – the Villany Wine Region. If you leave the main road, as we did, you will discover endless vistas of vines, protected streets of cellars (pincefalu) in villages like Palkonya, and some of Hungary’s best red wines. These wines have PDO status – Protected Designation of Origin – as defined by the EU.
We confess to discovering this region and its treasures by chance. Looking for a place to spend the night, we left the highway and headed for some small towns. As we passed through Palkonya, we suddenly noticed what looked like a small village with a lot of very small houses. Immediately, we stopped – as you can when you are taking a road trip – and wandered through. We worked out that they were pressing rooms with a cellar underground. Later research provided us with the name – pincefalu or cellar village.
Villany’s success as a wine region is grounded in a long tradition. There is documentary evidence that the Romans produced wine here, and other evidence that viticulture was practised back to Neolithic times. Today, tradition and modern technology are combined to make this a very popular destination for Wine Tourism in Hungary, a rapidly growing sector of the tourism industry in this country. The area is so compact that it’s possible to cycle or walk when touring the local wineries.
The Villany wine region lies is within 50 km of Pecs.
This book is for travellers who are more interested in the sights than recommendations for restaurants or hotels.
Are you ready for a Hungary Road Trip to see remarkable places?
There are some truly beautiful places in Hungary, including the capital city of Budapest. Here are 7 of them that we discovered on our road trip, outside of the capital or other more popular areas of Hungary. World Heritage sites; abbeys, mosques and synagogues; Baroque and other architecture styles; impressive landscapes; a wine region; and also great ice-cream. What more could you want?
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An Extensive Road Trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina
We were just passing through since we were running out of time in the Schengen. So we took this 7 day Hungary road trip through the western part of the country to take us into Croatia, and out of the Schengen. It was the first time in Hungary for both of us and I can honestly tell you that we were so impressed by what we saw that we have vowed to return as soon as possible.
Now we give you the opportunity to follow in our footsteps. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Please let us know (in the comments below) if you do!
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Amazing! I know nothing about traveling all over the country, what a wonderful looking place to explore.
Thanks for sharing! Would love to go on a road trip there someday.
We visited Budapest just last summer and are thinking about seeing more of Hungary. This post may push us over the edge~
Thank you, Marvin. I know you won’t be disappointed by exploring just any one of these interesting and unusual places in the western part of the country. As we said in the post, we loved it as a first taste of Hungary and vow to return as soon as we can. And a road trip is the best way to go, in our opinion.