Nuut

Dear Fodorites

I am leaving for Hungary in three days.
We have 8 nights in Hungary.
I plan to visit Pecs (2 nights), Eger (2 nights), Budapest (4 nights). Unfortunately we arrive late in Budapest, so the 4 nights in Budapest are more like 3 days/4 nights. I plan two day trips from Budapest. One to the Donau bend (Szentendre, Visegrad etc.) and one to Holloko. I am afraid that we would have too little time left for Budapest, basically one full day. I thought to combine the trip to Szentendre and Holloko into one very long day trip. I also thought of eliminating the trip to Holloko. I checked the Holloko website yesterday and it seems so nice, the kind of place I would love.

Any advice would be appreciated. We are flexible with the rest of the trip, so could elliminate one day there if you think we should rather see Holloko out of Eger for example. We are on our own, but using public transport.

Anneke

Clifton

If it's any help, I do think if one of your days can be accounted for mostly in Eger, then staying one night would give you a fair amount of time to see the attractions there in the city center.

Most Eger sites relate to churches, walking the streets - things without opening hours. the castle and climbing the minaret would be exceptions. I'd compare the best of Eger (the center) to seeing one area of Budapest, such as Castle Hill. Not to say that it's not different, but that it's compact and mostly open when you want to see it. I'd take a night there and give it to Budapest.

Can't answer on Holloko. We considered going, but had seen so many villages by that time (we'd been in Romania just a few days prior) that we didn't feel like seeing another and wanted to get back to Budapest, which we really, unexpectedly, fell for. We had 4.5-ish days in Budapest, and began planning immediately what we'd do the next trip.

Perhaps you could visit Eger, overnight there, then swing through Holloko the next day enroute? The roads are pretty good in that area and the trips around fairly fast.

Have a great trip.

tomboy

I recall (from May) that Holloko is about 30 minutes from the motorway between Eger and Budapest. My wife was more struck with it than I. Its one street is about 500 feet long, lined with houses which, although each is different, seem all about the same. There's the usual souvenir store next to the parking lot, and another store. We didn't see the castle(?) due to rain. There were 4 women dressed in folk garb outside store #2, but they never got off their seats, even with the bus tour that came in while we were there. We probably spent 30 minutes there, so that's 90 minutes total elapsed time off the motorway. I really don't know what one would do there for 2 hours.
I suppose my viewpoint appears somewhat jaded, at least in part because 2 days earlier, while waiting to go on the 1:00 tour of the Parliament in Budapest, we went across the street to the Ethnography Museum. This has ROOMS full of artifacts, folk costumes, photos, antiques, replica rooms from 200 years ago, colored eggs, etc. We probably spent 1-1/2 hours there. So in summary, I'd say that if you seek two hours of a Holloko type experience, go to the Ethnography Museum. It will be more well rounded (for example, if folk costumes is your thing, you'd see 40 or 50 from various regions of Hungary, as opposed to 4). Were I do go again, I would do so, and just drive straight from Budapest to Eger, or vice versa, depending on your direction of travel. Hope this's helpful.

socal

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the Holloko experience can be replicated to some degree by taking in the Hungarian Open air Museum up the road from Szentendre. From everything that I've read in my Baedeker's Hungary this place has pretty much of what you'd find in Holloko, and it looks like it's only an HEV and a short taxi ride away from Budapest. Maybe some others can post here as to the entry cost and how to get there from the center of town, with or without a car....cheers

Ozarksbill

Back from a visit to Hungary and elsewhere some weeks ago, I would recommend both Szentendre/Visegrad which is reachable as you say by Danube cruise and also Holloko which is a folk village. Don't think this is really possible in one day with the distance to be covered. Our tour had built into it some special dining places and entertainment, including a home meal prepared by one of the Holloko singers.

Don't know about Eger (except just finished "The Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" which is about the famous defense of the castle 1553 against the Turks) nor about Pecs except what I hear. We loved Budapest itself. Good luck.

ozarks bill

lincasanova

we took the train to szentendre.
we were in budapest for four nights and had a full very filled itinerary.

i have a post here under my name about our trip and activities.
will try to copy it for you. it was quite awhile ago.

i don't know if szentendre is necessary if you are going to so many other small towns and getting the small town feel.( it was the only place we went outside the city)
perhaps more time in the big city would be more logical.

there are such a large number of good restaurants, wine tasting, opera/ballet, the baths.. so much to do.
we can't wait to go back.

Nuut

Thank you so much for all your advice. I was thinking of eliminating either Eger or Pecs to be able to fit in what we wanted to do in Budapest. I just could not decide which one I wanted to eliminate, both sounded great. Maybe a better idea would be to shorten Eger so that we arrive early in Budapest from Eger as opposed to after 17:00 (the current plan) and eliminate Holloko. This would give us 3.5 days in Budapest, one used for a daytrip to Szentendre.

How does this sound?
Anneke

tomboy

We arrived Eger about 3:00, enjoyed our night at the Hotel Romantik, toured the town the next day, and about 2:00 next day drove north to Slovakia. It's more than a 1 hour stop, but 1/2 day would give you a taste of it. I'd go back. We missed taking in their "valley of the caves with moss covered wine bottles" tasting rooms. Sounded interesting, but my wife's allergic to mold.....

joegri

Nuut: One full day is not enough for Budapest. It really takes three days to do it justice. To suggest that Eger is comparable to a section of Budapest is a stretch. My family is from Eger and I love the town. But, it does not compare to Castle Hill in Budapest.
The problem is that you are trying to include areas that run in opposite directions from Budapest; only doable if you have the time.
However, if you have eight nights and you do two in Pecs, four at Budapest with a day trip to Szentendre and Visegrad included, and then two at Eger with a stop at Holloko going or coming, you will have a fast-paced, but doable itinerary (eight days as I count it).
Holloko is interesting enough, but it is not a destination location IMHO. Only worth it if you are "passing by" which you would be coming from Budapest. The castle ruins are worth a hike up the hill where the views are great. The artifacts which are being carved, sewn, painted everywhere are very interesting. The architecture and costumes add to the experience.
You are going to a great area. Enjoy!

Clifton

Joegri, you're right of course, that Eger and Castle Hill in Budapest are all that comparable. What I was getting at is that you might be able to see the main sites at the center of Eger in roughly the amount of time you might spend up on Castle Hill. Of course, if museums are included in that time, all bets are off!

Clifton

sorry - <i>aren't</i> all that comparable.

I did enjoy Eger very much though. Nice town your family has there.

julies

Holloko is quite a detour and not worth the time. We walked through in about half an hour and thought to ourselves, what is all the hype about this place? When we were there we saw maybe one person in native dress. The place was dead and other than that all there were were a few souvenir shops. Do not spend your limited time trying to fit this in. Eger is quite interesting but does not take tons of time. We really ike wine villages and vineyards but were rather underwhelmed by the wine caves. Save all your extra time for Budapest.