copilot

Am hoping for some advice on our tentative itinerary for 2 weeks in Hungary. Questions and some background on us are provided after the itinerary:

Day 1: arrive Budapest on late flight
Days 2-5: Budapest (4 full days)
Day 6: Day trip to Danube Bend: Szentendre and Visegrad
Day 7: Day trip to Danube Bend: Vac and TBD
Day 8: Day trip to Eger via train
Day 9: Pick up rental car; drive to Sopron, visit Fertod along the way.
Days 10-11: Sopron (with possible drives to Sarvar or Koszeg)
Day 12: Drive to Pecs
Days 13-14: Pecs and surrounding area
Day 15: Drive to Kecskemet
Days 16-17: Kecskemet area, and day trip to Szeged
Day 18: Drive back to Budapest for return flight

A bit of background: we are mid-30's and mid-40's, have traveled quite a bit in Europe and Asia, first time in Hungary. We enjoy interesting museums, local art/crafts, architecture, and just exploring small towns and back alleys. We love antique and flea markets - more for everyday objects than for high-end antiques. We tend to fit a lot of activities into each day, but don't want to rush from sight to sight; want time to wander and happen on unexpected places too. We like walking and nature, but a knee injury prevents us from hiking and more strenuous outdoor pursuits.

Our main questions at this point are:
1) We prefer not to change hotels too often, but also don't want to spend hours and hours on the road. Does it make sense to stay in Budapest that whole first week and just make day trips via train/bus to the Danube Bend and to Eger? Is one day enough in Eger?
2) Our last 3 days, we'll be staying at either Kecskemet or Szeged (and visiting the other as a day trip). Thoughts regarding which is better as a home base?
3) Obviously we could spend years in Hungary and not see everything, so I hope to see a sampling of different areas, but not be racing from town to town too much. Would like to get a bit off the beaten track, but realize that's tough for a first visit. Have we left anything wonderful out? Other than Eger, we hadn't planned anything in the Northern Uplands/Northeast part of the country, and I wonder if we should try to do more there. We also decided to remove Lake Balaton from our itinerary; it sounded pretty, but I think we'd rather have more time elsewhere, especially since we're not really that into the beach, swimming, hiking, etc.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated; thanks for your help!

marymarathons

We visited Hungary most recently in July 2005. I have family in Miskolc and this was my 4th visit to Hungary. Since we have family in this northeastern area I have spent most of my time in this area and am not familiar with other regions in Hungary-except for Budapest. We have visited Eger, Miskolc and Nyiregyhaza and the area around Tokaj. I would recommend an overnight stay in the area. Eger's history and sights -Castle/Cathedral - are fascinating. We stayed at the Hotel Senator House in Eger and loved it. The Bukk mountains north of Miskolc are lovely. We rode the scenic train up, did the cave tour and just strolled around. The hills of Tokaj are very pretty- my mother was born and raised in a tiny village near Tokaj.

tomboy

While waiting for the appointed hour of our tour of the Parliament in Budapest, we toured the Ethnography Museum (with one's back to the Parliament entrance, it's across the street to the left, about 45 degrees, maybe 400 feet). Very interesting displays of historic village/region costumes, living furnishings/tools, typical arts/crafts of the regions and era, etc. We found it fascinating.

Don't know the train schedule; you could walk Eger in a (long) day,, but perhaps the wine-related activities might take longer.