Hungary Day Trip from Budapest- Eger or Danube Bend Towns
 

I plan on visiting Hungary for a few days this summer and want to take 1 day trip from Budapest. I can either go to the Danube Bend and visit 2 of the 3 small towns (Esztergom, Visegrad, Szentendre) OR I could take a trip to the town of Eger. I will probably drive to either destination but haven't ruled out the possibility of taking a train.

First of All which side trip do you prefer and why. If you chose the Danube Bend towns which two towns would you recommend. If you have not been to BOTH the Danube Bend towns AND Eger you can't answer the question, however if you tell me where you have been, what you liked about the town and what activities you did that would be of great help and I could decide which would be best for me.

Thank You and Happy Travels

We've been to Estergom which we really liked and Eger which in our opinion wasn't as interesting. I'd opt for the Danube Bend. We drove both places (2 different trips) and found them to be easy drives. We did not do either of these as day trips but on the way to other places.

On one trip we did a day trip and took the bus with the locals to Visegrad, visited the castle and then took the local boat back down the river. It made for a much more interesting trip than just signing on for a tourist oriented trip up the river with the bus load of tourists.

We visited Szentendre and enjoyed our time there. We started from the metro stop nearest our hotel on the Buda side, then took a taxi into town. We took a catamaran back to Budapest. It's a very pretty, charming little town.

We visited the Roman ruins at Aquincum on the way, walked among the ruins, toured the small museum and then boarded a train to Szentendre (the last stop on the line). We had lunch, visited a very old Serbian Church, walked the cobblestone streets, shopped, had some ice cream and then walked to the pier (quite a distance away) to catch the catamaran back to Budapest. It was a very pleasant day.

I visited Szentendre (boat one way and train the other) and though that while some of the buildings were cute it was hopelessly touristy - loads of shops and tour groups. That stretch of the Danube isn't very interesting either - much better to take the evening cruise in town.

I stayed a couple of nights in Eger (might be a bit far for a day rip?) and quite liked it. Also rather full of tourists but bigger, with baroque buildings. I spent some time visiting the forested National Park at Silvasvarad, riding up a hill in an open cattle car pulled by a steam engine and then walking down.

When I went back to Budapest I visited Godollo by train - not a full day trip, but a nice excursion from town.

I took a day trip via train to Szentendre, wished I had gone to Eger instead.

I'm pondering the same situation - but I probably have time to visit both areas.

One question about Szentendre:
Could we avoid the "hopelessy touristy" stuff if we visited this town early in the day - getting there around 9am or so? That's what we do for Mt St Michel & Rocamadour in France. Or is it pretty "hopeless" all the time. We've spent well over 2 1/2 years (total) visiting places in Europe (but never Hungary) so "cute little villages" have to be pretty interesting & touristy/tacky free for us to really enjoy.

If we visit Esztergom & Visegrad by car on our way to Budapest, and then Szentendre by public transportation sometime later (we'll be in Budapest 5 nights) would it "add" much to our enjoyment of the Danube if we also take a day or night trip by boat up & back?? And "where" up to?? And is night better than day???

Hate to hijack a thread - but I think I'm asking the same question as the OP - but perhaps phrased differently.

Stu Dudley

We took the train R/T to Szentendre last year and were disappointed. We went early, so it wasn't that it was loaded with tourists, but the tiny town consists mainly of tacky souvenir shops. But one thing that we did enjoy: from Szentendre we took the bus to Skanzen to see the open-air folk museum. We saw examples of Hungarian architecture form all over the country. They weren't replicas. Each building had been carefully taken apart and moved from its original location. We even saw some Serbian pigs that had red curly hair and curly ears. If you are interested in open-air museums, I think you would like this one. There was plenty of time of see Szentendre in the morning (since it is tiny), have lunch there, and then see the Open-air museum in the afternoon.

jrjcollins
In towns loaded with tacky souveinr shops, we often keep our eyes off the ground level storefronts, and look up at the architecture above the shops IF the architecture is interesting. So - is the architecture interesting and unique in Szentendre (above the ground floor shops)?

The first time we visited Cochem on the Mosel River in Germany, we thought it was fantastic - but that was our first trip to Europe. About 20 years later (and 20 years worth of 3-5 week trips to Europe each year) we thought Cochem was really "bad/tacky".

The open-air museum seems like more our type of thing.

Stu Dudley

Went to Eger - but we stayed overnight from Budapest. Think it may be too long a train ride for just one day. Two hours each way? Really don't exactly remember. We liked it a lot. Has an old, and I mean, old stone fort, and lovely buildings. Also found a building with a camera obscura at the top and we were given a lecture and multiple demonstrations of it. Don't remember the name. Sorry. You'd have to research that. It was quite a bit of fun.

Stu, yes, the architecture is interesting but I wouldn't call it unique. The little town square is quite nice. We went to the marzipan museum there as well as the Margaret Kovacs gallery....we weren't familar with her before we went. But, for us, the highlight was the open-air museum. The bus is easy to catch to go there. On the way back, we had to ask where to find the place to catch the bus and had to wait a while. It's definitely in the countryside. We had friends you went a year prior to Szentendre from Budapest by boat and they were not impressed with the scenery on the boat ride.

We (me, DH and 13yo son) visited all of those places 2 years ago, in late May. I would pick Eger over the Danube Bend towns.

As background, we drove to Eger from eastern Slovakia and spent two nights (one full day) there. We found it a cute, pleasant little town, and our hotel and its owner and staff were delightful. We visited all the piazzas, the fortress, which is a very important place in Hungarian history, some churches, the old library and the wine valley. The fortress was very interesting. The wine valley was ok.

From there, we drove west, past Budapest, and to the furthermost of the Danube Bend towns. From there, we drove back southeast, ending up in Szentendre for the night.

We did not find the area terribly scenic. The road does not run close enough to the Danube to have any views, and for whatever reason, I didn't find the Danube itself very scenic at these points, either, except for the actual bend.

Estergom was notable for its cathedral (built, as I recall, in the late 1800s), and its bishop, who stood up for the church in communist times.

Visegrad, there's no actual town, it's basically the castle, way above the river. Quite reconstructed, somewhat interesting. I found the Eger castle more compelling. I think this is where we had the best views of the Danube Bend.

Szentendre. I had envisioned it as being a gorgeous, touristy town that would, I hoped, be like our experiences in San Gimignano, Italy and Mont St. Michel, France in the evening after the tourists had left, as we ended our Danube Bend day with a night in Szentendre. It was NOT like those other experiences. It just seemed sad and tired. Part of that, I'm sure, was due to the fact that we were visiting in early June, mid-week, before the start (I assume) of the tourist season, and we were some of the only people out (it was a pleasant evening, so the weather had nothing to do with it). The main piazza was lined with the usual tourist cafes with outdoor seating. We were implored by their staff to eat or have a drink at their place, which was a bit annoting. The town had some interesting sights, but mostly the windy narrow streets provided the appeal. The Serbian church was interesting and beautiful. We had a very good dinner (NOT on the main piazza) at a restaurant there, but we were the only customers the entire time we were there. I can't tell you about shopping there, as that's not something that any of us are interested in.

In Szentendre, there was a street next to a side-canal of the Danube, but as there was an embankment there, you couldn't see much of the river from the street. Several restaurants were also located on that street, but I don't think they provided a view.

I'm trying be objective in my negative comments, in hopes it will provide you (and Stu) with some helpful information.

I'd like to echo the recommendation for Godollo, which can be reached by HEV (suburban train) from central Budapest.

The summer palace of the Emperor and Empress has been impressively restored. A good stop for history and architecture buffs -- a "house-museum" on a grand scale.

I visited Szentendre in off-season -- not crowded but actually pretty dull.

By mainline train from Deli station, I reached the castle/museum (really a villa) of Nagytetenyi, where the Museum of Applied Arts has a large part of its furniture collection.

I wonder if ANYONE else on Fodors has ever seen this place, whose guards are Soviet-era wardresses, speaking not a word of English (we communicated in French, I think):

http://www.nagytetenyi.hu/index_en.html

If anyone wants some pictures of the open-air museum and the town square of Szentendre (just one picture of the square), email me at [email protected]. Sorry, I don't know how to attach pictures to this post.

I can highly recommend these private tours - out of Budapest for those, who don't want to do it on their own:
http://budapesting.com/tours
We did both the Eger and the Balaton tour and both was a great experience and we got to places we never would of on our own.

Didn't go to Sz..etc
Really liked Eger, not at all touristy. Had a well maintained look to the whole town. Seemed like it'd be a nice place to live.
Godollo? Is that the "traditonal 18th century Hungarian village" about 90 miles east of Budapest, about 2/3 the way to Eger? If so, we were quite underwhelmed. Maybe it was just the drizzly day, putting a damper on our feelings, but there was no "there" there. I've vivid memories of the 4 women in native dress sitting under an open shelter, looking EXTREMELY bored, apparently waiting for a large enough bus group (one busload apparently not sufficient to cause them to rise) to begin a dance.

I did a day trip to Szendentre but it was a while ago and while there were souvenir shops they were not tacky. But things change.

Stu - here are some pre-digital photos of Szentendre so you can see the architecture and decide for yourself.

http://modigliani.shutterfly.com/bud...ennaprague1995

Loved your pictures adrienne. Brought back memories of our visit some years ago. Agree the stores were not tacky when we were there. I suppose we are either easier to please, or else we look beyond what others consider "touristy."

Has anyone done the bike trip from Vienna to Budapest? If so, would you recommend?