Budapest and Lake Balaton Road Trip: The Danube Bend, Tihany and Hévíz in 3 Days

This loop starts and ends at Budapest Airport, where rental companies such as Sixt and Hertz have desks in Terminal 2. On the first day it follows the Danube north through the Danube Bend to Szentendre, Visegrád and Esztergom. On the second it crosses to Lake Balaton and drives the north shore past Balatonfüred, the Tihany peninsula, the wine hill of Badacsony and Szigliget castle to Keszthely. On the third you bathe in the thermal lake at Hévíz, climb to Sümeg castle and drive back on the motorway. About 582 km in all.

The loop uses the M0 ring road, a short stretch of the M1 and the M7, all covered by the Hungarian e-vignette; a 10-day one for a car costs HUF 6,900 in 2026. The route skips central Budapest.

Day 1 — Budapest Airport, Szentendre and Visegrád to Esztergom (105 km)

Pick up the car at Budapest Airport and take the M0 ring road round the north of the city to Szentendre. During the wars against the Ottomans, Serbs settled here in large numbers in 1690, and their churches still shape the small old town. An artists’ colony was founded here in 1929. Park at the edge and walk in.

Drive north along the river to Visegrád, where the Danube swings round in its great bend. King Béla IV built the Visegrád Citadel on the hilltop after the Mongol invasion of 1241–42, and from the 14th century until 1526 it guarded the royal insignia of Hungary. A road climbs to a paid car park by the walls; check winter opening hours before you go.

Continue to Esztergom. The Esztergom Basilica is the largest church in Hungary, about 100 m high. It was consecrated in 1856 with a Mass that Franz Liszt wrote for the day and conducted himself, and was finished in 1869. The church is free; the crypt, treasury and dome are paid. Until December 2026 the church is open 8:00–17:00 and the dome until 16:30; last winter the crypt, treasury and dome closed from mid-January to the end of February. Sleep in Esztergom.

Day 2 — Balatonfüred, Tihany, Badacsony and Szigliget to Keszthely (242 km)

This is the long driving day. Take the M1 and the M7 south-west to the north shore at Balatonfüred, declared a spa in 1772. Its heart hospital is Hungary’s largest cardiac rehabilitation centre, and the Tagore Promenade beside it is named after the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was treated there.

Drive onto the Tihany peninsula. King Andrew I founded the Tihany Abbey in 1055. Its founding charter holds the oldest written words of the Hungarian language, and the king’s tomb in the crypt is the only grave of a medieval Hungarian king that survives. The church you see now was dedicated in 1763. From November to March the abbey is open 10:00–16:00 (Sundays from 11:15). Below the village lies the Inner Lake (Belső-tó), a protected lake of volcanic origin; in recent dry years it has shrunk to small pools. The national park’s Lavender House on its shore, about the peninsula’s volcanoes and lavender, is closed from 2 November; last winter it reopened in mid-March.

This loop does not need it, but the car ferry from the peninsula to Szántód on the south shore (8 minutes) runs all year, except when the lake freezes, as it did from 19 to 30 January 2026.

Follow the shore road west to Badacsony, an old volcano with vineyards on its slopes. Its basalt cliffs stand in columns called organ pipes, and the cellars on its slopes sell the local white wine. A steep path leads from Kisfaludy House up to the Kisfaludy Lookout Tower, 18 m high, built in 2011 at 437 m. A few kilometres on, Szigliget castle stands on a hilltop above the village. It dates from the 13th century and is open every day of the year, from 10:00 to 16:00 between November and February.

End the day in Keszthely at the west end of the lake. Its Festetics Palace was begun in 1745 and given its present form in 1883–1887; inside you see the state rooms and the Helikon library. From September to May it is closed on Mondays, and also on 1 November and from 23 to 25 December. Sleep in Keszthely.

Day 3 — Hévíz and Sümeg to Budapest Airport (235 km)

Drive 7 km to Hévíz, whose thermal lake of about 4.4 ha you can swim in all year. The water authority measures it at about 21–35 °C depending on season and weather; in mid-October 2026 the spa showed 28 °C. From 25 October 2026 to mid-February the lake is open 9:00–16:30, with bathing until 16:00, and a 3-hour ticket costs HUF 4,500. The central bath building is closed for now; you bathe outdoors.

Then drive north to Sümeg, where a castle stands on a hill above the town. It is open every day of the year, 9:00–16:00 from November to March, but it closes in snow and ice.

From Sümeg drive east via Veszprém and Székesfehérvár, join the M7, and take the M0 back round to Budapest Airport.

Costs

Use the cost calculator to price fuel and nights for your dates. The M0, M1 and M7 on this loop are toll roads covered by the Hungarian e-vignette (e-matrica), linked to your number plate; buy it before you join the motorway at the official shop nemzetiutdij.hu. For a car, a 10-day vignette costs HUF 6,900 and a 1-day one HUF 5,550 in 2026; a single county vignette (HUF 7,190) would not cover this route, so the 10-day one is the cheapest choice. The M4 between the airport and Vecsés is free.

Budget for accommodation, fuel for about 582 km, car rental, parking at the Visegrád Citadel, and tickets for the dome and crypt in Esztergom, Tihany Abbey, Szigliget and Sümeg castles, the Festetics Palace and Hévíz. If you add a night in Budapest, street parking is charged by zone: since 1 July 2026 it costs HUF 800 an hour in zone A (weekdays 8:00–22:00), 600 in B, 400 in C and 300 in D, paid only by phone app or SMS, as the meters are gone.

Hungary has no general winter-tyre law. In wintry weather, signs can make winter tyres or snow chains compulsory at short notice, and foreign drivers without chains can be turned back at the border; with chains the limit is 50 km/h, and studded tyres are banned.

This trip is also in the free Roadcut trip planner: change the number of days and where you sleep each night, pick your vehicle to see the fuel cost, check the weather on the road, and open each day in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.