3 Best Sights in Keszthely and Hévíz, Hungary

Keszthely’s magnificent Festetics Palace is one of the finest baroque complexes in Hungary. Begun around 1745, it was the seat of the enlightened and philanthropic Festetics dynasty, which had acquired Keszthely six years earlier. Surrounded by manicured gardens with fine sculptures and a nature reserve park filled with rare plants, the palace's distinctive churchlike tower and more than 100 rooms were added between 1883 and 1887. A tour of the interior starts with an interactive Festetics family tree, followed by a series of remarkable rooms including the historic Helikon Library, home to 52,000 volumes and family history records, and the atmospheric chapel with its gorgeous stained glass windows and coin-covered floor. As you walk around, keep an eye out for some items that were forced into exile during communism but have recently found their way home, including a beautiful black-and-gold desk made by Louis XIV’s carpenter, and a Hungarian ceremonial outfit on display in front of a portrait of a family member wearing it. A standard ticket (3,200 HUF) includes the palace plus one exhibition—choose from the Palm House, the Coach Collection, the Hunting Exhibition, and the Model Railway—while a deluxe ticket (4,900 HUF) gets you in everywhere.

When it comes to public bathing facilities, few can match the beauty and novelty of this thermal lake in the heart of Hévíz. Covering nearly 60,000 square yards, the water reaches up to 38°C (100°F) in summer and never drops below 22°C (72°F) in winter, allowing for year-round bathing. It's also richly laced with sulfur, alkali, calcium salts, and other curative components, making a dip highly recommended for those with spinal, rheumatic, gynecological, and articular disorders (the water can also be drunk to help digestive problems and receding gums). Squeamish bathers should be forewarned that along with its photogenic lily pads, the lake naturally contains assorted sludgy mud and plant material. It’s all supposed to be good for you, though—even the mud, which is full of iodine and is claimed to stimulate estrogen production in the body. Nonswimmers can also enjoy the lake, as there's special hydrotherapy equipment available. You can buy a three-hour ticket for 4,500 HUF, or a 10-hour lake pass if you're staying for several days (13,000 HUF).

Bathing for more than three hours per day is not recommended.

Supposedly the largest of its kind in Central Europe, Keszthely’s Doll Museum exhibits some 450 porcelain figurines dressed in 240 types of colorful folk dress. The building has a pastoral look, created not only by the figurines—which convey the multifarious beauty of village garb—but also by the ceiling’s huge, handcrafted wooden beams. On the two upper floors are wooden models of typical homes, churches, and ornate wooden gates representative of all regions in and near present-day Hungary that Magyars have inhabited since conquering the Carpathian basin in 896. The museum’s pièce de résistance is the life work of an elderly peasant woman from northern Hungary: a nine-yard-long model of Budapest’s Parliament building, patched together over 14 years from almost four million snail shells.