Lake Balaton & Cruise

This trip was amazing. Who would of thought that this beautiful lake existed. Vera was a great guide and very knowledgeable.

It is definitely worth a visit if staying in Budapest.

Lovely day on the lake Balaton. We were a small group of four with a guide. Had a wonderful day visiting the Herend porcelain factory and the lake. Had a wonderful lunch and actually had a swim in the lake

The guide Gguri was an excellent guide and adjusted to our needs and the situation of the trip. He went out of his way to make us feel at home and enjoy the visit.

The porcelain workshop at Hereld was nice to see and its guide explained the process of making the pieces very clearly.

It took us two hours to get to Lake Balaton and Tihany.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a good day for a swim and we could only see the amazing lake.

All in all, a short but wonderful experience.

It was great trip. We liked the porcelain making demonstration in Herend and the views of lake Balaton and also the village which we stopped by to have lunch.

Our day started by getting picked up from the hotel by taxi which took us to the meeting point. Our guide was very informative and made a good job by switching from French to English languages. Lake Balaton is indeed HUGE, Hungarians consider this to be their seaside. The view from the Tihany Abbey makes you appreciate the lake even more so. The tour round Herend Porcelain Manufactory is recommended if nothing else but to respect and admire the skills of the craftspersons. We were very lucky with the weather on the day, the peace and tranquillity of the area were soaked in!

A great day trip! The perfect choice for my first day - I did not have to get up too early, and, the tour was a nice, easy pace all day. Ample time to explore on my own at the different stops. Great driver and tour guide. Very knowledgeable and professional. I plan to arrange another of your tours on my next visit!

This is a very worthwhile day trip from Budapest. Lake Balaton and its surrounds are really beautiful and I could imagine staying there for a vacation. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the Cityrama guide kept moving on without checking that the slower walkers were keeping up. She often started explaining things, including pickup times and locations, before everyone was together.

Over all this was a great itinerary and well executed for the most part. I was picked up at my hotel by a taxi which I did not expect and was taken about a 1/4 of a mile down the road to the meeting point. Had I known it would have been just as easy for me to walk to the meeting point rather than waste a cab ride. Once at the meeting point we stood waiting for our van for 45 minutes which was unfortunate. The van which carried about 13 of us was very comfortable, air conditioned and very clean. Our driver to the Herend plant was longer than I expected. Once at Herend we spend some time having a lovely cup of coffee, touring the museum and shopping prior to the formal tour which included a wonderful movie and demonstrations of how the china is made. It was extremely well done, professional and to the point. After the Herend plant we drove another hour to Lake Balaton where there were two different stops along two different areas of the lake, both very different. My only complaint would be the actual tour guide who while fluent in several languages did not have a good ability to translate appropriately and on several occasions in an effort to explain something to us did not even make sense. She was difficult to follow and not organized. For example at our first stop at the lake she told us we had an hour an 15 minutes to eat and then we were to return to the van. When we assembled at the van after the lunch period she told us we had an additional 30 minutes to tour the city. Most of us had eaten and toured the little city and did not need more time and were confused as to why she had not just given us the entire time to begin with. Our second stop left us with an hour to roam a small area of the lake. It would have been really nice to make better us of the time an offer an opportunity for a swim in the lake. Outside of the small complaints the tour was lovely.

Lake Balaton and Herend Porcelain Manufactory are both worth visiting. The stops at the abbey and the surrounding tourist village, and the lunch break were time restricted. There is not enough time to visit the church and also have a good look around the nice shops and maybe stop for a refreshment. Also the 50 minute lunch break is too short to enjoy the good food served at the beach restaurants.The tour leader had to explain in both Spanish and English. Unfortunately, she went into more detail in the Spanish version than in English. But, all in all, it was a very nice experience and highly recommended.