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It was a great trip. The food was wonderful, and it truly was all the wine we could drink! What raised this trip from a very good one to an excellent trip was our guide Gabor. His knowledge of Hungary's history, food and wine was outstanding. I would recommend this particular trip to anyone who enjoys combining biking with some culture and scenic cycling.

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Weather - Perfect. A tiny bit of rain the first three mornings. Afternoons were warm but not too warm.

Equipment - A little squeaky but it worked fine. All the gears and brakes worked but certain gears gave me derailleur rubbing sounds.

Hotels - Four of the hotels were excellent with WIFI that worked except in two HTTPS situations.

The Route - Easy riding, little traffic and usually good road surfaces. I did a lot of riding on dedicated bike trails or public roads with little or no traffic. Most days were 25-30 miles but I was getting to the hotel too early in the day and getting bored. On the last day, I went off the planned route, took the ferry to the other side of the lake and rode 80K (49 miles) with my great Balaton map and made it to my last hotel by 4:15.

Signage - Hungarian streets and roads are marked better than any other place I have ever traveled, including home. The Balaton Circuit was marked with yellow on greens signs. They could have used a few more but it would be very difficult to get lost as you go around Lake Balaton. You just stay between the Lake and the railroad tracks.

People - Hungarian are great, polite and friendly. Older Hungarians second language is German but, of course, the younger ones use English as their second language. Thank you = Curse'enem. I don't know how to spell it but they know what I am talking about.

Food - Too much and too good. This can be said for the wine also. The trip was setup so you had fixed meals at each hotel. I would have liked to order my own meal but the fixed meal was a close second place. I did get a huge pizza one noon at the ferry dock. Every restaurant had a big vegetarian menu section but I can't vouch for the degree of vegetarian as it looked like they cheat a lot in this area.

Roads - The Hungarian Highway Department could use some good sub-surface experts. The secondary roads have huge holes which result from a poorly prepared sub-surface. They just keep pouring asphalt into the hole and it sinks. I think many of their minor road engineers were trained by the City of Grand Rapids street department. The Hungarian motorways (expressways) are excellent and they do some things with LED displays that could be put to good use in the US. All of the roads were as wide as we have at home.

Ferry - There are ferries across Lake Balaton, especially from the Tihany Peninsula to the opposite shore. I rode it three times.

Scenery - Beautiful place with some great views. Like all great views, you had to do some climbing to enjoy them.
It was well worth the effort.

Drivers - Very friendly and give bikers a adequate clearance. It's not like South Shore drive where the pickups try to hit you sometimes.

Wine - Balaton is a huge wine region with excellent wines.

In Summary - This area of Hungary is one of the best places for biking, especially for a fat old man who doesn't go very fast or far. You need to recommend this to your best customers, especially the old old fat ones.

Please excuse the misspellings. I don't have spell checker here.

Northern Italy next. October.

Geo B

Posted by BikeToursDirect on behalf of client

[admin]

Thanks for your message. The Hungary Wine and Bike tour was absolutely wonderful. Kudos to Gabor who runs a first class company with tours. I would do this tour again in a minute and have been telling anyone who will listen about the glories of Hungary. I can't say enough good things about the service, waitstaff, food, wineries, hotels, etc.

Best,
Judy P

Posted by BikeToursDirect on behalf of client