Thermal lakes and swimmming pools for health and enjoying, castels, underground caves - Discover the western part of Hungary (PHOTO)

(Balaton) The first association of traveling to Hungary for our tourists isBudapest. However, our north neighbor has a lot of interesting things to offerin the western part. Namely, Balaton lake, known as the “Hungarian sea” is thelocation where numerous European tourists find a place for vacation for naturalbeauties, sights, pleasant climate and cultural and entertaining programs aswell as numerous healing thermal sources.

A few kilometers from Balaton, there is the Heviz lake which has been thecenter of spa tourism for decades. During the summer, temperature reaches 34°C,and is never below 22°C during the yearso that tourists visit it even when it is snowing. At the center of the lake,there is a bathing complex built in XVIII century which kept its lookcompletely in its exterior and one swims out directly to the lake during thewinter time. At the surface of the lake,there is a sign of the lake – Indian lotus brought here in late XIX century.

As Mark Kincses from Tourist organization of Hungary told us, water in lakeused to change every day. However, since many hotels near the lake use thisthermal water, it is changed in some sources at the lake every three days andit runs through the river into Balaton. Visitors from Europe are mainlyattracted with healing water and mud from the lake bottom.

Heviz (Photo: Suzana Obradović)

- People visit Heviz for regeneration after sports injuries or recoveryafter operations. The water can decrease pressure so it is recommended that thestay is half an hour long maximum – Kincses says.

One of the hotels near the lake is "Helios" within known Hungarian"Hunguest Hotels" chain. The hotel has two facilities and it provideswellness facilities for guests. It also has its own source with thermal waterso there is a rehabilitation center mostly for those who have problems withskin diseases, spine diseases and similar.

- Guests come here for prevention, to live longer. Due to its healing features of water which is active in ten days, it is ideal to stay 2-3 weeks - the rehabilitation staff outlines.

A few months ago, within "Helios" so called "Russianspa" was completed and the entire material for construction of thefacility came from Russia.

Festetic Castle (Photo: Suzana Obradović)

Activities

For those who would just like to bath, there is a trip by bikes to Balaton.One of the three biggest baroque palaces in Hungary, Festetic castle, can bethus visited. Not far away from the palace, there is a museum of horse chariots,some of which belonged to Hungarian royal family.

Unique Tapolca cave

At the north coast of Balaton, surrounded with vineyards, there is Talocatown. There is a unique cave in Europe here where clean air is almost 100%.People come from all parts of the world since it is famous for healing breathingorgans treatment, allergy, asthma, etc. The cave is at 15 m of depth, on 1.500 m2, comprised of a few rooms and thetemperature ranges 12-16 C. There arelying chairs in the cave so we found a number of visitors who were there with ablanket and a lamp reading a book.

(Photo: Suzana Obradović)

(Pelion hotel) The cave is enteredfrom the "Pelion"hotel with 4 luxurious suites, 8 standards suites and 216 double rooms. Hotel has a wellness centerwith indoor and outdoor swimming pools and there are tennis, volleyball,mini-golf courts within the complex. The hotel is favorable for a family sinceit has a special park for kids.

There is another cave here nearby, more for adventurers. A river flowsthough the cave halls which tourist passes in boats. In fact, the cave is spaciousenough so that one boat can pass and the visitors row on their own.

More water facilities

Not far from Balaton, 20 km from the lake, there is a healing and entertainment bathing complex, Granit. "Freya"hotel at the center of Zalakaros is connectedthrough halls with the Granit complex. Guests can use swimming pools withhealing water, a thermal swimming pool with waves, roller coaster with sixlanes and water attractions for the youngest ones. Spa guests can use variousmedical treatments and they can treat diseases of locomotion system, gynecologyand skin diseases.

S.O.