Hungary: The Bradt Travel Guide [Paperback]

Adrian Phillips (Author), Jo Scotchmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005 | Series: Bradt Travel Guide

Romantic Budapest floats with the cream of world capitals, and is an established 'must-see' for travellers in Europe. But Hungary has oodles more besides. Here you'll find forested mountains and rolling 'puszta' plains, peasant villages and pretty Baroque towns, whip-cracking cowboys and bathers dozing in thermal pools. Whatever your passion, this country's got it covered. "Hungary: The Bradt Travel Guide" provides all the practical and background information you'll need for a short stay or a longer tour. It contains information on: hiking in the Matra Hills, wine tasting in the Eger valley, horse-riding in the Great Plain, caving in Aggtelek, nosing in the museums of Pecs, splashing in central Europe's largest lake - or goulash slurping at a pavement cafe as the sun sets over Sopron.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Gives the inside track on everything from the best place to go for a thermal bath in Budapest to the star attractions on the shores of Lake Balaton." Independent on Sunday "The Bradt Guide to Hungary is simply a pleasure to read as there is something amusing on almost every page. It is crammed to bursting point with facts, figures, anecdotes and minutiae on Hungarian life. Even the most clued-up locals will find many things they didn't know within its pages. This is the first guide published outside Hungary that really depicts the country as the locals see it. "Budapest Times "Authors Phillips and Scotchmer have gathered an enormous amount of information about sights worth seeing in the country, and discovered hidden treasures that few people know, even among us Hungarians. They have an understanding of the Hungarian ways, psyche and attitude, which is probably why this guide is fun to read even for a Hungarian. All is written in a concise yet enjoyable style, without the proliferation of Hungarian spelling mistakes omnipresent in foreign-language publications." Budapest Sun "Typically impressive. The background and practical information is detailed and thorough. "Glasgow Herald "Comprehensive and offering something for every type of tourist. "Travel Bookseller "Splendid. Dip anywhere for another entertaining insight into Hungarian history and lifestyle. Here is quality writing not usually found in guidebooks. "www.emptynester-travel-breaks.co.uk"

From the Back Cover

Romantic Budapest floats with the cream of world capitals, an established tourist "must-see." But Hungary has oodles more besides. Here are forested mountains and rolling "puszta" plains, peasant villages and pretty Baroque towns, whip-cracking cowboys and bathers dozing in thermal pools.
Hungary: The Bradt Travel Guide provides all the information you'll need for a short stay or a longer tour. Go hiking in the Mátra Hills, wine tasting in the Eger valley, horse-riding in the Great Plain, nosing in the museums of Pécs, splashing in central Europe's largest lake - or goulash-slurping at a pavement cafe as the sun sets over Sopron. Whatever your passion, Hungary has it covered.

*Hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs
*All the wildlife highlights and national parks
*Hiking, horse-riding and cycling
*Thermal baths and bathing etiquette
*Wine tasting--and a tour of the Tokaj region
*History, politics and culture
*60 detailed maps

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides; 1st edition (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841620912
• ISBN-13: 978-1841620916
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,430,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Much the Best Guidebook to Hungary!, September 5, 2006

By 

Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hungary: The Bradt Travel Guide (Paperback)

Bradt has long been known for publishing detailed guides to obscure countries and regions few other publishers bother with - their guides to several countries in Africa or the Balkans are the only ones available.
Hungary is very different though: It is one of the most visited countries in Eastern Europe, already covered by all major guidebook publishers. So I was quite curious to see what Bradt could make of it - all the more so as it is my homeland, actually!

I first saw the book in a store in Singapore, and immediatey found it so good that I decided to order a copy once back home to be able to read it more thoroughly.
In the end, I have concluded that this is probably the best guide to Hungary ever published abroad! It is very comprehensive, covering more places than the competition (Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, etc.). It excels in covering less standard attractions such as ecotourism, birdwatching and nature reserves. It contains lots of useful and insightful background information, often in boxed texts scattered throughout the guide. All this comes with most of the practical info you could expect: details on places to stay from campsites to five-star hotels, recommended places to eat, details on getting to the places described by public transport, including its frequency.
And to top it all, the style is perhaps the most entertaining of all Bradt guides I have read: it is opinionated, amusing and conveys an obvious fondness of the country.

OK, now for the shortcomings - surely no book can be perfect, right?
1) Coverage of budget accomodation options is limited, for some places noting none, for others only one or two. This, and maybe the next thing I mention, makes Lonely Planet perhaps the better choice for budget travellers (only!).
2) For public transport, fares and length of journey are rarely given. Of course you can easily find these details out once in Hungary.
3) All that witty background info is not always correct! As examples, the authors try and exaggrate the "exoticness" of Hungarians by claiming their language is unrelated to others in Europe (dismissing the well-proven, long-known fact that it belongs to the Finno-Ugric group like Finnish and Estonian) and by claiming that the Hungarians' ancestral homeland lies in "Central Asia" between the Volga River and the Urals - anyone with at least elementary knowledge of geography or a map on hand will see that the area mentioned is in European Russia, not in Central Asia! ;-)

But the positives well and truly outweigh these shortcomings (which will hopefully be corrected in the next edition), and for most people planning to visit Hungary I can only recommend this book most highly!

The only guidebook I found even more comprehensive is the locally published, encyclopedic Out and About in Hungary which covers even more places with great photos, but has none of the practical info. That book is widely available in good bookstores in Hungary, but not on Amazon.

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart companion, May 8, 2011

By 

Lev Borshchevskiy (WEST HEMPSTEAD, NY, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hungary, 2nd (Bradt Travel Guide Hungary) (Paperback)

Recently we, my wife and myself, made a trip to Hungary. We stayed for four days in Budapest and spent a week at the Balaton Lake. The book we purshased on the Amazon turned out to be priceless, as we traveled on our own. It provided a lot of helpful information that made our yourney more succesful and enjoyable

5.0 out of 5 stars An ideal guide, June 14, 2010

By 

Mrs. J. R. Wilde (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hungary, 2nd (Bradt Travel Guide Hungary) (Paperback)

This book is everything a guide book should be - informative, inspiring, educational & as a bonus - amusing. It is not just a picture book like some guides - the writing style is really interesting which makes you want to read further & discover more. We found it extremely useful & would recommend it.