Hungary Travel Guide

Hungary (Magyarország) is a country in Central Europe that offers many diverse destinations: relatively low mountains in the north-west, the Great Plain in the east, lakes and rivers of all sorts including Balaton - the largest lake in Central Europe. This country offers many beautiful small villages and hidden gems of cities. Combined with a vivid culture and get a destination not to miss if you're in the region.

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Following a Celtic (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (9 BC - c. 4th century) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late Ninth Century by the Magyar chieftain Árpád, whose great grandson István ascended to the throne with a crown sent from Rome in 1000. The Kingdom of Hungary existed with minor interruptions for more than 900 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of Europe. It was succeeded by a Communist era (1945-1989) during which Hungary gained widespread international attention regarding the Revolution of 1956 and the seminal move of opening its border with Austria in 1989, thus accelerating the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The present form of government is Parliamentary Republic (1989-). Hungary's current goal is to become a developed country by IMFstandards, having become already developed by most traditional measures, including GDP and Human Development Index (world ranking 36th and rising). Hungary is nowadays one of the 15 most popular tourist destinations in the world.

Despite its relatively small size, the country is home to numerous World Heritage Sites, UNESCO Biosphere reserves, the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grassland in Europe (Hortobágy). In terms of buildings, Hungary is home to the largest synagogue in Europe (Great Synagogue), the largest medicinal bath in Europe (Széchenyi Medicinal Bath), the third largest church in Europe (Esztergom Basilica), the second largest territorial abbey in the world (Pannonhalma Archabbey), the second largest Baroque castle in the world (Gödöllő), and the largest Early Christian Necropolis outside Italy (Pécs). You can expect to find safe food and water, good safety and generally political stability. Hungary has been ethnically diverse since its inception, and while over 90% of the population are ethnically Hungarian, pockets of ethnic and cultural Slovaks, Romanians, Germans and others dot the country. Due to the frequent border shifts in Eastern European history, over 2 million ethnic and cultural Hungarians live in bordering countries, as well.

Hungarians speak Hungarian (Magyar), a language remotely related to Finnish and Estonian languages from the North and the East and not at all related to any of its neighbours, much less English. It may sound somewhat similar to and borrows heavily from German (the ö and the ü, for example), Russian and the Slavic languages (the "y" is a soft sign in Hungarian), there's NO relation with them at all. Pointing out the seeming similarity may upset or even anger locals, even though Hungarian does have a rather large German and Slavic vocabulary.

Many foreigners think that the Hungarian language is close to the German - in fact it's not, so if someone doesn't speak German, there's no use to try to speak loudly/clearly/slowly, they won't get what you say. English-speakers tend to find most everything about the written language tough going, including a number of unusual sounds like gy (often pronounced like the d in "during") and ű, as well as agglutinative grammar that leads to fearsome-looking words like hozzáadottérték-adó (value-added tax) and viszontlátásra (goodbye). On the upside, it's written with the familiar Roman alphabet (if adorned with lots of accents), and - unlike English - it has a phonemic orthography. This means that if you learn how to pronounce the 30 letters of the alphabet, you'll be able to pronounce almost every Hungarian word with near perfection. Remember, one difference in pronunciation or even vowel length can lead to misinterpretation. Attempting anything beyond the very basics will gain you a great deal of respect. Diphthongs are almost-nonexistent in Hungarian (except foreign words, which it has many).

Since English is now obligatory in schools, if you address someone in their twenties, possibly carrying a schoolbag, you stand a good chance that he or she will speak English well enough to help you out. However, due to Hungary's history, the older generation had less access to foreign language tuition, so your chances are less good. One exception is Russian, which was obligatory in the communist era (although a number of Hungarians are quite happy to forget it). The other is German, which is understood in areas frequented by German tourists (mostly near lake Balaton and the west, around Sopron), and partly because of Hungary's historical ties to Austria.

Basically, in Hungary, you'll have much more chance finding someone speaking a foreign language in larger cities, especially in those with universities such as Budapest, Szeged, Pécs and Debrecen. In rural areas chances are rather low. Note: Lonely Planet's Hungarian phrasebook is not very useful (emergencies excepted). Experience shows that no Hungarian will ever understand you trying to speak the language based on their English phonetic script. Better try your luck with young people. And don't get offended of someone reacts to your "Do you speak English?" question by stepping or looking away - either he is ashamed of his lack of language competence, or you're the first person in his life to ask that. Just try with someone else.

Hungary guide