Plan ahead and find good people - Hungary Travel Story
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Title: Plan ahead and find good people
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My wife and I visited Hungary for the first time. Her family came from there (grandparents) and she's grown up hearing stories about the customs, the food, the people and Budapest.
We had two weeks to spend which we felt was enough to see the city and maybe even a trip or two to the countryside. The web was very helpful, we looked around for places to stay, car rental, restaurants and visited many of the travel forums to be up on the things to do and places to see.
We came across an expat service provider who then helped us with all of the things we needed. BudapestResources has apartments in the downtown area that can be rented out for pretty much the same price or less than hotel rooms. They were very helpful and prompt in getting back to us with answers to our questions. We wanted to have a car pick us up and initially take a tour in the evening - and it was another expat service provider who came to pick us up and suggested that we take a massage to refresh us and not go to bed until evening.
We got to our apartment - it was a tall ceilinged, shiny parquet floored apartment - spacious and equipped with everything we should need. There was even a small neighborhood grocery store a few doors down - so we didn't have to walk far to get a few staples.
We took the advice about not going to sleep and getting a massage and it proved to be a good one - the masseuse was also arranged for us through BudapestResources, he was a physical therapist at a hospital and moonlighting, he sure knew his business. He came to the apartment with a portable massage table and charged us 40 Euros each for 1-1 hour massage. Felt like we were reborn. In the evening we had a light dinner just down the street from us and went for an evening ride through the main sites with our cheaffaur.
The following week we had some planned activities, visited the opera and rented the same car and driver again to take us to the Lake Balaton. It is only a little longer than an hour's drive from Budapest and feels like a mediterranean port. First we drove through the north shore and visited several of the wine cellars, had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant on the shore in Balatonfured, visited a magnificent castle, looked at (unfortunately did not go for a swim) in what is a hot water mineral LAKE!! near Balaton called Heviz. It was a magnificent and full day. Before going back to Budapest we asked our driver if he could suggest someplace where we could have dinner before going back to the city. He took us to a small roadside local restaurant where we invited him to have dinner with us and we had a chance to hear about his years in the US and his impressions about being back in Hungary.
Dinner was simple food but lots of meat - pork for the most part, but there were other meats and fish on the menu. My wife was very happy with the turkey breast and I had duck while our driver Otto chose the fish. There is a zero tolerance policy in Hungary we found out when we offered wine to the driver - so my wife and I finished the pitcher of wine and happily returned to the car and snored all the way back to Budapest. We had a wonderful experience, people were friendly, ate lots of fabulous tasting and looking pastry, drank mucho vino, and treated ourselves to concert and an opera performance that was truly a pleasure. We probably would not have had much trouble anyway, but it felt almost like coming home after all the previous personal attention we received from Budapest Resources by e-mail before our arrival. We would love to come back and visit again and highly recommend the city to couples, families with children or bikers/hikers/golfers/horse lovers. We found there is something for everyone.
Website:
My wife and I visited Hungary for the first time. Her family came from there (grandparents) and she's grown up hearing stories about the customs, the food, the people and Budapest.
We had two weeks to spend which we felt was enough to see the city and maybe even a trip or two to the countryside. The web was very helpful, we looked around for places to stay, car rental, restaurants and visited many of the travel forums to be up on the things to do and places to see.
We came across an expat service provider who then helped us with all of the things we needed. BudapestResources has apartments in the downtown area that can be rented out for pretty much the same price or less than hotel rooms. They were very helpful and prompt in getting back to us with answers to our questions. We wanted to have a car pick us up and initially take a tour in the evening - and it was another expat service provider who came to pick us up and suggested that we take a massage to refresh us and not go to bed until evening.
We got to our apartment - it was a tall ceilinged, shiny parquet floored apartment - spacious and equipped with everything we should need. There was even a small neighborhood grocery store a few doors down - so we didn't have to walk far to get a few staples.
We took the advice about not going to sleep and getting a massage and it proved to be a good one - the masseuse was also arranged for us through BudapestResources, he was a physical therapist at a hospital and moonlighting, he sure knew his business. He came to the apartment with a portable massage table and charged us 40 Euros each for 1-1 hour massage. Felt like we were reborn. In the evening we had a light dinner just down the street from us and went for an evening ride through the main sites with our cheaffaur.
The following week we had some planned activities, visited the opera and rented the same car and driver again to take us to the Lake Balaton. It is only a little longer than an hour's drive from Budapest and feels like a mediterranean port. First we drove through the north shore and visited several of the wine cellars, had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant on the shore in Balatonfured, visited a magnificent castle, looked at (unfortunately did not go for a swim) in what is a hot water mineral LAKE!! near Balaton called Heviz. It was a magnificent and full day. Before going back to Budapest we asked our driver if he could suggest someplace where we could have dinner before going back to the city. He took us to a small roadside local restaurant where we invited him to have dinner with us and we had a chance to hear about his years in the US and his impressions about being back in Hungary.
Dinner was simple food but lots of meat - pork for the most part, but there were other meats and fish on the menu. My wife was very happy with the turkey breast and I had duck while our driver Otto chose the fish. There is a zero tolerance policy in Hungary we found out when we offered wine to the driver - so my wife and I finished the pitcher of wine and happily returned to the car and snored all the way back to Budapest. We had a wonderful experience, people were friendly, ate lots of fabulous tasting and looking pastry, drank mucho vino, and treated ourselves to concert and an opera performance that was truly a pleasure. We probably would not have had much trouble anyway, but it felt almost like coming home after all the previous personal attention we received from Budapest Resources by e-mail before our arrival. We would love to come back and visit again and highly recommend the city to couples, families with children or bikers/hikers/golfers/horse lovers. We found there is something for everyone.
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