TradNatura Sport: Bicycle tours in Hungary

:· BICYCLE TOUR DETAILS

Our other bicycle tours:

• Castles and wines in northern Hungary
• Castles and spas in west Hungary
• Best selection of the Danube
• Legendary Tokaj wines and the enchanting River&Lake Tisza with Hortobágy Puszta

NATURE AND CULTURE IN SOUTH HUNGARY

If you take this wonderful cycling tour for lovers of history, culture and nature, wines and gourmet experiences, you will ride along the southern side of Lake Balaton, with fascinating views of the lake. You will cycle through some of the most unspoilt and hidden areas of South Hungary, and you will watch rare birds and the very rich wildlife of the forests in a wonderful National Park along the River Dráva and Danube. You will visit Early Christian Crypts, which belong to the World Heritage, the 12th century Cathedral, a Turkish mosque, the Zsolnay Porcelain Museum, or exhibitions of great Hungarian painters, Victor Vasarely, or Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, and many interesting sights in Pécs, one of the most beautiful capitals of the Hungarian culture. You will stay in wonderfully located very nice small castles and hotels, and taste excellent wines in one of the most famous cellars of the historic Villány wine-region.

ITINERARY:

Bicycle tour map

DAY 1: ARRIVAL IN BUDAPEST

Your hotel is situated right at the woods on the top of the Buda hills. Its lovely surroundings and swimming pool, sauna, or massage possibilities will make you feel well, and relaxed quickly. You will meet with your tourguide at the reception at 6pm, and have a welcome drink, information about the tour, and dinner in the cosy restaurant of the hotel.

View of Budapest

Buda Hills

Heroes Square

DAY 2: CYCLING ALONG LAKE BALATON

After taking a bustransfer, we have an easy cycling through nice villages along the southrern shore of Lake Balaton, the most famous holiday resort of Hungary, and the biggest lake of Middle Europe. Owing to its pleasant and clear water, swimming, sailig, windsurfing, fishing are rather popular sports here. We will enjoy the breathtaking scenery of the lake and the hills of the northern side, and we will stop at a nice beach for a lunch break, where you can have a refreshing swim in the lake. Tonight we stay in a nice Hunting Lodge with a horse breading farm at a peaceful place, near the mysterious Nagyberek marshland and nature reserve, a significant home of birds.
(cycling appr. 62 kms / 38 miles)

Having a rest

Sunset at Lake Balaton

Hunting lodge

DAY 3: THE UNKNOWN SOMOGY AND ZSELIC

We will stop in Buzsák, a small village which is very famous for its folk-art hand-embroidery. We will bicycle in the rural countryside among the Somogy hills, have a lunch at a nice small lake, and cycle through beautiful woods in the Zselic nature reserve, which is very rich of deer and wild-boar, and where the starlight is most beautiful throughout Europe. We will stay here at a lovely Country Club in a rather hidden place. This is a small paradise on Earth, where you can enjoy the antique atmosphere of an old Mansion, the wonderful view of the surrounding park with century-old trees, and an award winning Golf Course, a small thermal pool, the peacefulness of the nature, and their delicious specialities.
(cycling appr. 54 kms / 34 miles)

Beautiful landscape

Lovely old Mansion

and the surrounding park

DAY 4: CYCLING AT THE RIVER DRÁVA

We have a short busride and get through Szigetvár, where Captain Miklós Zrínyi and the heroic Hungarians, defending the castle, stopped the Turks in 1566, and saved the Habsburg Empire from a Turkish occupation. Even Cardinal Richelieu mentioned: "The question if the half moon or the cross was ruling Europe for centuries, it was decided in Szigetvár by a miracle." We cycle through sleeping villages in a very untouched area: the Ormánság, near the Dráva, which is the clearest river of Hungary, and famous for its beautiful backwaters, gallery forests, and very rich birdlife. We stop for a swim and a lunch at a charming little Thermal Bath, and cycling a bit further in the Danube-Dráva National Park. We get to Pécs, where we stay 2 nights at a very nice wellness hotel in the Mecsek Mountains, with a nice swimming pool and view.
(cycling appr. 63 kms / 39 miles)

Cycling near the Dráva

The picturesque Dráva

Our hotel in Pécs

DAY 5: PÉCS, A CAPITAL OF CULTURE

We will have a rather busy rest day, as this beautiful town offers so many sights to see... We will visit the most famous ones: a Turkish mosque, the beautiful 12th-century Cathedral, the Early Christian Crypts which belong to the World Heritage, and the Zsolnay Museum. (Zsolnay is the 2nd most famous porcelain factory of Hungary, where many beautiful roofs of famous buildings, such as Church Mathias in Budapest, were also made.) We can also visit the exhibitions of outstanding Hungarian painters, Vasarely or Csontváry, and there are numberless other sights too. It is also worth collecting some energy in a Café, or at the Hotel for the afternoon, when we are going to the beautiful lakes of Orfű, a very nice and idyllic holiday resort and water sport area in the Mecsek. There we can see a 200 years old watermill still in function, an old chapel built together with the parsonage, and a unique collection of old ovens, near the lovely restaurant where we are having dinner, and tasting their unique specialities made with Ramsons, which grows everywhere in the wood here. It is not only delicious, but very healthy too.

Cathedral of Pécs

Old ovens

Lovely Ramson soup

DAY 6: VILLÁNY, THE VILLAGE OF RED WINE

We cycle in beautiful woods down the Mecsek Hills, where we can stop at a small Stalactite Cave and an interesting Bat Museum, where you can learn about their mysterious life. After cycling in the beautiful countryside, we get through Harkány, the most frequented spa in South Hungary. Its thermal water is specially recommended against rheumatic or skin diseases. Tonight we stay in a very nice small hotel in Villány, the centre of the most popular red wine region of Hungary. The charming wine cellars everywhere make the atmosphere really lovely here, and the Sub-Mediterranean climate on the limestone slopes provides the finest red wines of Hungary. Laboratory tests of clinics certify that the wines of the very kind family we will visit, are specially good for your health, so we will have a fantastic wine tasting in their medieval cellar, wich houses a special wine treasury too. They were the "Best wine makers of Hungary" in 1996, and their gourmet masterpieces, such as the venison stew we will taste, are also absolutely excellent.
(cycling appr. 59 kms / 37 miles)

Wine cellars in Villány

We will taste these wines

in this 200 years old cellar

DAY 7: IN THE UNTOUCHED NATURE AT THE DANUBE

We pass by a memorial park of the Battle of Mohács of 1526, when the long Turkish occupation was started in Hungary, and we visit a unique and very interesting Stork-Museum, where we can learn all about the life and habits of these lovely birds. You can see them even in the garden and on the roof of the museum. Then we will take canoe tour on a small and romantic side-arm of the Danube, and enjoy the peacefulness of the undisturbed woods, as well as the largest population of black storks and white-tailed eagles in Hungary, and many egrets, herons, spoonbills, kingfishers and other birds do here. After this nice experience we have a lunch break at an idyllic grove at the Danube, where we can watch a herd of the Great Hungarian Grey Cattle grazing among the willow bosks. We take the ferry to cross the river, and cycling on a big island we arrive at another special place, where we stay at a manor, surrounded by a wonderful park with ancient trees. The recently renovated hunting castles were built by Archduke Frederick and Albrecht Habsburg at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The Neo-baroque castle and a porch house provides first class accommodation, and the smaller castle houses an interesting hunting exhibition. You can see here deer-antlers which are world-record trophies, as this is an excellent hunting area, even William II. Emperor of Germany, and Francis Joseph I. Emperor of Austria were guests here. For dinner we will taste some delicious game specialities served in Herend china, as for the aristocrats.
(cycling appr. 39 kms / 24 miles)

Storks

Hungarian Grey Cattle

Neo-baroque castle

DAY 8: IN THE GEMENC FOREST

After a short busride we arrive at one of the largest flood plain forests of Europe, the Gemenc Game Reserve. This is a paradise for lovers of nature, and well-known for its outstanding red deer and wild boar population. We will take the small forest train to get deeper into the woods, where colorful willow, ash and elm trees, white or yellow water lilies on the deadarms of the Danube make the landscape really picturesque. This is an ideal habitat for many birds: night herons, purple and grey herons, black storks, great white egrets, greylag geese, ducks, cormorants, even bitterns nest here, and beavers, otters, turtles and bats can also be found. We will stop at a look-out tower to admire the beautiful scenery or the wildlife, and we can visit exhibitions about the local forestry, apiculture, fishing and ethnography. After having a lunch-break, we leave this lovely area for Budapest, where you can have a nice rest on the terrace or in the swimming pool of the hotel, where we will have our farewell dinner.

Nice landscape in Gemenc

Cycling on the dam

A friendly wild boar

DAY 9:

After enjoying breakfast in the nice atmosphere of your hotel, we hope that you will leave with nice memories for a lifetime.

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

• 8 nights accommodation in superb 4 or 3 star castles, mansions or small hotels, in beautiful and quiet surroundings, with familiar and antique atmosphere, all rather high quality, always with private facilities.
• 8 times breakfast, and 3 course gourmet dinners, always with some drinks and excellent wines.
• Delicious picnics in beautiful spots in the nature, and refreshing drinks during cycling.
• Wine tasting in an ancient wine cellar of one of the best wine makers of Hungary.
• Full English speaking guiding during cycling and the programmes of the whole tour, with 1st class service of 2 professional and friendly guides, one cycling with you, one driving the back-up bus.
• Full technical support, and special trailer for all the bikes, and to transport all the luggage.
• Air conditioned support bus, available for the whole group, throughout the tour, making possible to cycle along the most beautiful and quiet parts of the route, and providing a flexible alternative for those who want to rest at any time.
• All the bustransfers, private guided sightseeing tours, and visits mentioned in the itinerary.
• A romantic narrow-gauge train ride in the Gemenc game reserve.
• All the museum, church, and bath tickets, and the canoe tour at the Danube, written in the programme.
• Very good quality hybrid bikes with 24 gears, front suspension, handbrakes, and panniers.
• Souvenir water-bottle and TNS T-shirt.
• Sights - Most beautiful routes in nature reserves or woods, with low or no car traffic.
• Transfers in Budapest between your hotel and the airport or stations.

OPTIONAL (not included):

• Extra nights in Budapest.
• Relaxing massage possibilities.

NOT INCLUDED:

• Your travel between Budapest and your home, before and after the tour.
• Travel and health insurance.

TOUR PRICE: