About Hungary

Hungary is a small country, but has so much to show you. Although Hungary is a landlocked country, it is a land of waters, featuring the largest lake in Europe. The culture of the Hungarian people shows great variety too. Strong traditions and regional specialities have built up in all aspects of life from food to music and dance, from clothing to decor. These traditional values have been maintained through the ages, though of course the modern world also has an influence. The larger cities and particularly the capital, are powerhouses of groundbreaking innovation, contemporary art and modern music.

1000 + 1 reasons to visit Hungary

It has Central Europe's largest lake lake called Balaton, perfect for family vacations. Budapest has become the capital of classical and pop festivals and it is wonderful city. Swimsuits are necessities as Hungary has hot water to spare. Goulash isn't what you think it is, the signature national dish is gulyás, which you probably know as goulash. Tokaji is the Wine of Kings, Tokaji is so good that Louis XIV of France called it the "Wine of Kings, the King of Wine." Hungarians are sports mad: Hungarians love sports and are extremely proud of the fact that, per capita, the country has one of the highest tallies of Olympic medals (482 across both winter and summer games).

Famous Hungarians

Hungarians are talented and smart; just ask the people at Nobel. The country has one of the highest rankings, per capita, for Nobel laureates, with 13 winners also invented many things, from the biro ballpoint pen (named for inventor László Bíró) to computer science (János Neumann) to Rubik's cube.  Also resourceful bunch and they are featured heavily in lists of internationally significant inventors, musicians, artists and sport stars like: Albert Szent-Györgyi,  Ede (Edward) Teller, Charles Simonyi, Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Tony Curtis, Bela Lugosi,  Zsa Zsa Gabor, the world famous football player Ferenc Puskás, the tenis genius Monica Seles, Harry Houdini, just to mention a few.

World Class Culinary Experiences

To understand Hungarian cuisine, one has to take a peek into the past. Today's Hungarian cuisine is a synthesis of ancient Asiatic components mixed with Germanic, Italian and Slavic elements. The food of Hungary can be considered a melting pot of the continent, with its own original cuisine from the Magyar people. The nomadic past of the Hungarians is apparent in the prominence of meat (mainly poultry, pork and beef) in Hungarian cuisine as well as the amount of dishes cooked over open fire – just think of goulash, pörkölt (stew) or the fisherman's soup. In the 15th century, King Matthias and his Neapolitan wife introduced new ingredients and spices like garlic and onions – things we couldn't imagine a proper Hungarian dish without today. 

Budapest

Travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler asked the readers about the best cities in Europe. In their Readers’ Choice Awards, Budapest got the flattering third place, with 83 727 votes and lovely critique from the magazine’s editors. We already know that Budapest is one of the best cities of the world. So we are not very surprised to see that our capital is chosen the third best city in the world, according to the readers of Condé Nast Traveler. The well-known travel magazine asked their readers to vote, and they published their list, called Readers’ Choice Awards recently. On this list, topped by the Italian city, Florence, Budapest is the third one, followed by Prague, Rome and Barcelona.