New article in the Telegraph

New article in the Telegraph in Uk about bathing in Budapest
read more

SZIGET 2009

The world economy crisis will drive SZIGET festival into some new areas in 2009.

The organizing team is counting on more foreign travellers to spend their euros in Budapest, so beside the airport link, they will send out ‘party-trains’ to Netherlands, Germany and France. SZIGET visitors can board on the trains and get the party feeling on their way to Hungary on train.

The Hungaricum Village is also gonna be a new attractions, it is a small skanzen like hungarian village on a 1 acre area with hungarian culinary, wines, handcraft arts and artists.

SZIGET 2009 will offer more VIP campsite than in 2008.

For foreign visitors SZIGET is going to offer more foreign concerts and bands , like Die Toten Hosen, Fatboy Slim, Armin van Buuren, The Offsprings, Placebo, Ska-P and many more

Balaton airport reopens

Balaton Airport in Sarmellek reopened on 4th of Apr as the Lufthansa charter arrived with 32 guests onboard.
Jonathan Moore, the managing director of the airport said they're planning more visitor this year than the 110.000 last year, although right now only the Lufthansa will fly to Sarmellek from Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Frankfurt 3times a week.
Beside the regular traffic, there are several charter flights only.
The Ryanair deal, which drove the majority of the traffic in the past, is still under talks.

Easter Festival in Matyoland

Thinking about going somewhere for this easter?
Check out our latest offer , 4days/3nights in capital of 'matyoland' Mezokovesd only for 133euro with breakfast, accommodation, tour guide, airport pickup and free entry to the thermal bath.

Mezokovesd is a nice town only about 150kms from Budapest, has highway and train connection to the capital city.
Mezokovesd mainly known for its folk art, called 'matyo', so the people livin' here are matyos.
The matyo folk style is very rich in colors, but can seen only in museum or holidays like easter in real life.
The old part of Mezokovesd , the 'Hadas', with small peasant houses from the 18-19th centuries, is the major place of the easter events, like the traidional folk dance show and all the houses will open to see how its owner (usually a handcraft artist) do his/her job. You can see or try if you wanna.

Once you are tired of the folk stuff, jump into the relaxing hot thermal water at the local Zsory thermal bath and pool, or book one of our optional tour to nearby Eger, to see the fortress and the wineries, or Miskolc to visit the unique cave thermal bath and for a relaxing walk in the forest of Bukk in Lillafured.

See the complete tour or book it
More question? contact us

Hegyalja music festival tokaj

It is gonna be the 10th anniversary of the Hegyalja music festival
15-19th July 2009.

This is kinda like a 'small' SZIGET, held in the traditional wine region Tokaj in a summer camp on the shore of the river Tisza.
The directors made up a quite interesting list of concerts and bands like :
- Faithless, Machine Head, Basement Jaxx,Transglobal Undergound,Roni Size,N.O.H.A.
but there will be more rock concerts, trash metal bands, hungarians as well.
And many more not only music concerts...

You can put up your tent or looking for a nice hotel/pansion/guesthouse in the area.

How to get there? From Budapest by Intercity train to Debrecen (via Miskolc) or normal train to Miskolc with exchange to Nyiregyhaza. (cost around 3230-4800HUF depends on train).
Check timetable

Tickets : 4day pass - 17900 HUF (if you order now only 12500)
daily ticket - 6900 HUF
tent ticket is included in the weekly pass, other 900HUF (the number of tents are limited!)
children under 14 can enter FREE with adult supervision.

New attraction in Budapest

Hopefully from this summer, you can decide to do the sightseeing tour a bit different than before in Budapest, Hungary.

A hungarian company called RiverRide, purchased its first amphibious coach, so the first part of the tour is the same old routine, but than the bus simply splash into the Danube and works as a boat. After the watery expedition, the bus is going to climb up the rivershore and stuck in the traffic jam

The coach is a luxury tourist bus, normally run with gasoline, but has an additional engine, kinda like a speedboat, and the waterjet engine makes the bus as fast as a normal boat in the water.

You can save some money with the prices as well, since you have to buy only 1ticket, adults 7000HUF, children 5000HUF (HUF means hungarian forint).

Check out route

Check out our budapest hotels

Article about Tokaj wines at the Times

I found an article about one of the wine makers in Tokaj.
Check it out

How to get to Tokaj?

Michelin ratings vs. hurka & kolbasz

No good news, or at least nothing new.
None of the hotels, restaurants in Budapest gained a single Michelin star...but Nancsi Neni's Restaurant was in its good shape, as it has a recommendation (the only one in Budapest).

Check out Nancsi's Restaurant

That does not mean that chefs can't cook...try else than McDonalds
Want something authentical budapest style...eat at the butcher. Most of the butchers in Budapest offer hot sausages, hot paprika sidedish, slice of bread or hurka, grilled chicken.
Have a pair of Debreceni sausages with mustard and hot paprika or a pair of kolbasz (the hungarian style sausage) and hurka.

New routes for Malev

Malev, the Hungarian Airlines introduced its new summer timetable, including some new routes or more frequent flights.
New routes :
St. Peterburg Russia, 2 flight weekly,
Iasi Romania, 5 flight weekly till Jun, than 6, that's a new OneWorld destination as well
Amman, Jordan 2 flights weekly

More frequent :
Hamburg 2 times daily
Rome 2 times daily
Zagreb 20 times weekly
Thesaloniki and Tirana 13 times weekly
and more flights to Helsinki, Buchurest and Varna

Codeshare flight to Moscow with Aeroflot Seremetevo airport 2 times daily

And new summer destinations : Malaga (2times weekly) and Split (5times weekly)

MotoGP track won't open in 2009

Tamas Suchman said today that the MotoGP race in 2009 in Balatonring is not a possible option.
The project is 50/50% between the hungarian state and the spanish investor Sedesa.
But Sedesa, whom wanted to finance the racetrack from bank loan, did not ask for a bank loan by that time, so the hungarian state see the project will have a delay until next year.

The MotoGP track, so called Balatonring is going to be build near the lake balaton, heviz bath and flybalaton airport. Originally planned to be able to host MotoGP race in 2009.
The original plans should have to be revised anyway, since Flybalaton airport is closed due to weak traffic, as Ryanair cancelled balaton flights during winter, but it won't be working from spring as it seems. The company behind the airport has huge depts, and Ryanair is not sure to reopen the balaton route. The hungarian tourism organization also decided to support bus tours in 2009, rather than flying.

Train in the skanzen in szentendre

New attraction in skanzen , szentendre

New vehicle will help to discover the Open Air Museum, called Skanzen, in Szentendre, which's lying on 60acres from 8th April.
The old Ganz mototrain will go around on a 2kms long track , there are going to be 5 stops, the first stop is the main entrance of course.
The train will be authentic , as the mototrain from the 1920s, the conductors, tickets all will be the same as in the 1920s.

And a good news : the train is totally accessable by babystrollers, by wheelchair so you'd better go and check out the new attraction on the Easter Holiday, as there will be much more to see and do in the Skanzen.

more on Easter
more about the Skanzen

Airshow in Kecskemet cancelled in 2009

Due to money saving, the minister of the hungarian military force cancelled the annual Airshow.
The airshow was a very popular summer event in Kecskemet, where people could see fighting planes, helicopters, aircommandos in action, not only western european or US models but good old soviets MIGs and MILs as well.
www.repulonap.hu

Conductors arrested in Budapest

Four conductor in the Budapest metro has been arrested today.
Police looked for the conductors for days now to catch them in action.
They were asked foreign tourists to pay fines to them, without any receipt/invoice, or give sold them fake tickets for high prices.

Police caught the conductors as they fined two foreign tourist for 6000 forints and as the tourists did not have only 5000, they took the money.

It is an ongoing problem in Budapest that conductors on underground,tram,buses did not speak languages and sometime they ask fake fines tourists. And if someone do not want to pay they go rude.
The Budapest Transport Co is using CCTV cameras and security stuff to keep the transit system safe both for passengers and employees.
Visitors,travellers should have to report all problem to local police station or their country's embassy in Budapest.

Ophelie found dead

Budapest police announced that they found a dead body in the danube, near the island of Csepel and the dead female body is Ophelie, the missing french girl.



Ophélie Bretnacher went missing on 4th dec, 2008. The girl was partying with other fellow students in the dohany street, when last seen. Several CCD TV film showed the girl as she's leaving her bag on the entrance of the Chain Bridge, but noone can say that she actually went to the bridge.
The hungarian police was searching for eyewitnesses partnered with french police investigators, the fellow students made search on the internet without success.
There were many phone calls to the police, that they saw the girl in Romania, different places in Budapest...but no clues. Until now, although if the body is Ophelie's , the reason is still hidding.

Low on budget high on experience

How to spend a relaxing week in 2009 to save money and have family fun?

Try rural holidays in Hungary!
Hungary has many really pretty and cosy villages, near or far from big cities, like you can get a nice village house near lake balaton or budapest as well, as you can get it in the eastern part of the country.



if you'd like to have more people around you, try one near the lake balaton.
These houses are well equipped, with full kitchen, tv, bathroom so nothing that rural.
And much cheaper than a hotel. A complete house around 10000 HUF per day (suits for 4-5persons). That is only 2000-2500 HUF per day only, which is nearly 20euro in these days (1EUR=300HUF).

If you prefer less noise and tourits, try a real rural area.
The people are nice and friendly (although do not speak maybe other language only hungarian), the natural surroundings are original and rich in forests, rivers, creeks, birds.
You can sleep well and wake up for song of the birds, can take shorter-longer walks, fishing, biking (usually can rent bikes from the owner), horse riding or simply discover the village and nearby cities, sights.

If you are interested in a low budget high experience holiday...
contact us for prices and possibilities.

The Malev saga

Another day, another news about Malev, and the future of the national carrier

As we posted before, the russian 'investors' has been out of the board of directors, the russian bank (which is a creditor for the Abramovits broters, the original investor)took their stake in the airline, will sell it to Aeroflot, so Malev will be flying under Aeroflot wings.
The problem is that to keep the national carrier sign, the major stake must hold by hungarians (right now two individuals), so Aeroflot can take max. 49%.

Today another company asked for money from Malev, the security company claim for 200 million hungarian forint (0.8 million USD) unpaid bills.

Extremly Hungary

Extremely Hungary
is a yearlong festival showcasing contemporary Hungarian visual, performing, and literary arts in New York and Washington, D.C., throughout 2009. The festival reveals the roots of Hungary’s thriving contemporary culture and its impact on American society through a broad spectrum of events at leading cultural institutions in the two cities. Chairpersons are George Soros and Kati Marton.

From 24th January, you can follow or attend to interesting contemporary art exhibitions, performance art, see a collection (partial) of famous Zsolnay porcelains (the original and full is in Pecs), but there will be concerts like Roby Lakatos and Friends, Beata Palya (world music with folk and gypsy), but also you can watch movies about Hungary and made by hungarian directors.

Oh, dont forget to enter (if you are able) or simply join to see The MOST FABULOUS MUSTACHE CONTEST

See the event calendar in NYC, and Washington D.C as well,
and if you are still interested or more interested in Hungary and Central east europe..
contact us, and we give you a great deal of travel package.

stike on ferihegy airport, malev in trouble

The strike continous on Ferihegy airport in Budapest from today 4pm, as the speaker of the union told hungarian media.

They did not reach agreement with the Ferihegy airport managment company, so they will go on strike till a not known date.

It is not known how many percentage of the union workers will join the stike, so noone can tell which flights are going to delay or cancelled.

While Malev , the hungarian airline, is struggling to keep the ‘national carrier’ status, as the russian part of the managment handed their resignation over last week. Boris Ambramovits and his brother resigned from the managment as they can not keep their promises made during the privatisation.

OTP the largest bank in Hungary maybe the buyer of their stake, but minority stake will go to a russian bank (which gave credit to the russians). The russian part will go to Aeroflot later on, but still not clear who will pump the money into the airline, since it has huge debts at the ferihegy management company, and the leasing money for the planes (remember they ordered several new Bombardiers during autumn).

Budapest Bamako Rally

The 4th Budapest-Bamako Rally has started yesterday from Budapest to arrive to capital of Mali around 15days later.

The authentic rally is now in 4th year, started with a crazy idea to mix the charity work with a fun wacky race. Of course you can find big four wheel drives here as well as on other rallies, but several real strange vehicles are always in the crowd, like VW Buggy, Ikarus citybus or old Peugeot and russian Lada.
The drivers are also usually not pro drivers, but everyday family daddys...
The race is not a real race, there are a winner but everybody is a winner who can make the long way to Bamako through the sahara desert and maybe back. Since not everything is coming back. Many car bring aid and charity stuff to Mali, others want to sell or simply give away their car/bus as gift for locals and come back by plane.
Others try the way back as well with the old scrap car, sometimes takes a month the way back only.

So everyone can be part of the wacky desert race, why don't you? Join to Budapest Bamako Race in 2010...what you need only a registered car, a lot of time, and some money of course


Would you like to know more? Click here
Join the daily updates

High air pollution in Budapest

Due to high airpollution in Budapest visitors are asked not to be outside all day long.
Cars were abandonded partially, and travellers better use the mass transit system, which is running with extra cabs, buses, metros.

The high pollution is not mainly about the car traffic, but thanks to winter weather conditions, windless foggy weather.



Update on ticket prices in Budapest :
1 way ticket : 290HUF
10s ticket : 2600HUF
1 day ticket : 1500HUF
Tourist ticket : 3700HUF
Weekly : 3700HUF

Short way to the metro (only 3stops) : 240 HUF
Changing ticket for the metro (you can use it on two underground, like if you change line) : 450HUF

Winter on the Lake Balaton

Although you can not ski in Hungary (only a little bit), the country still has its own winter attraction.

Balaton mostly known as a summer destination, as the largest lake in europe.
But winter cold does not mean that there are no things to do around...
As the lake freeze, and the ice on the top is rising, the local councils are going to select the ice-skating courses on the ice of the lake.

In Keszthely, there are an ice-skating course near the port, which is open from 12-8pm on weekdays, and from 9am till 9pm on weekends. The attraction is FREE of charge.

In Balatonfured, the local eszerhazy beach hosts the skating course, which open for public from 2pm-6pm on weekdays and 9am-7pm on weekends.
There will be several more about the lake as the ice grows

You also can hockey on the ice,or simply just walk around, or play the old hungarian 'wooden dog', which is a chair with two long wood on its bottom to ski on the ice, you can push yourself like when you are skiing...
or ice sailing...which is a sail boat with skiing legs (like a catamaran), and if the wind blows well enough, you can sail around the lake.

Not only Lake Balaton offers such winter fun, but Lake Velence as well (which is only 25-30kms from Budapest).

New years, new tours

In 2009, we are going to introduce a lot new features, new tours and services through our online website and offline agent network as well.

Our newest tour is for bands, amateur or pro, chours or punkrock bands.

Record your single, CD, or make your music video!

We are here to help, with organizing the complete tour…

We have the recording studio ready for you, we have the designers waiting for your master CD to make the best covers, we have the guys ready to make millions of copies of your CD/DVD. And we have the concerts and the fans ready…

We organize everything, no matter if you make concert in local club or church…

We give you not only your CD/DVD recording opportunity, but a true experience of Hungary,Slovakia and of course the main thing…SAVE YOU MONEY…A LOT OF MONEY…

Contact us for details

Out of Budapest, part2

Happy New Year for everyone!

Now we are going further into Northern Hungary, for a daytip out of Budapest.
We finished last time in Mezokovesd, so if we go further to Miskolc, which is the third largest city in Hungary.
Miskolc offers several good things to do around, like the famous thermal cave bath in Miskolctapolca, which is an unique attractions. It is an in and outdoor thermal spa. The indoor is inside a cave, fully renewed, with underwater lights, waterfalls, great family fun.
The downtown of Miskolc also worth a walk, through the new Szinvaterasz and the old Theatre. If you catch a tram, you can go through the city to the Castle of Diosgyor. The castle was built in the 14th century, and served as a hunting castle for the queen. There are many medieval events, knight training during summertime.
Only a couple of kms and we are in the Bukk hills, which surrounds the city of Miskolc. The karst mountains offers many caves, some of it easy to climb and reach, like the Szeleta cave, which is only around 1hour walk from Miskolc. Prehistoric cavemen lived there for over 10000 years from the end of the iceage. From the Szeleta caves, you can reach Lillafured, to see the lake of Hamor and the waterfall of the Szinva creek (which is flowing through miskolc than), theere you can also see the famous Palota hotel which looks like a castle , but was built as a hotel in the 19th century. You also can take guided tours to the two open caves there, the St. Stevens and the Anna caves. And you can take the narrow gauge train back to Miskolc , which takes around 40mins through the hills and forest of the Bukk, or go to see Omassa, which is around 12kms away, where you can see the first steel mill in hungary, and the famous trout farm, where you can buy fresh, grilled fish.
From Miskolc, we go to see the wonderful fortress of Boldogkovaralja. which is partly rebuilt, other in ruins. The view is magnificent from the fortress and the medieval restaurant is also worth a try in the cellar.
From Boldogkovarlja we can go two ways,
the one is to north to see the
Aggtelek caves.

There are actually several caves, all is a World heritage site. But if you are there choose a normal 1hour guided tour to see the magnificent underworld. The caves are beautiful, cold and amazing to see the many different stone and karst creature. There are a long way which ends in Slovakia as well.
from Aggtelek is good to take the road through the Zemplen mountains, which is a young volcanic mountain, offers many wonderful fortress ruins, like Fuzer, and a nice porcelain manufacture in Hollohaza.
You can end up in Sarospatak, which is part of the Tokaj wine region, and where from we will continue our trip next time...