Central Europe · Europe

Hungary

Discover Hungary - a Central European nation of thermal springs, paprika-spiced cuisine, ruin bars, and Budapest's stunning Danube riverscape.

Where Is Hungary?

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Its capital is Budapest.

Where Hungary isCentral Europe · Capital Budapest

Plan a trip · 4 guides Compare Hungary

Capital Budapest
Population 9.51M
Area 93,028 km²

Hungary is the odd one out in Central Europe. While its neighbors speak Slavic or Germanic languages, Hungarian (Magyar) is a Finno-Ugric language with almost no useful similarities to anything nearby - it's closer to Finnish and Estonian, though even those connections are pretty distant. The Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century from the Ural region and have been stubbornly doing things their own way ever since.

Budapest is the showpiece - a city that's actually two cities (Buda and Pest) split by the Danube and connected by spectacular bridges. The Parliament building looks like it was designed to make every other parliament feel inadequate. There are more thermal baths here than in any other capital city in the world, and the ruin bar scene in the old Jewish Quarter turned abandoned buildings into some of Europe's coolest nightlife spots. Outside Budapest, the Great Hungarian Plain stretches out flat and endless, Lake Balaton is Central Europe's largest lake, and the cuisine is built on paprika, sour cream, and pork in quantities that would terrify a cardiologist.

At a glance

Language

Hungarian

Currency

Hungarian Forint (HUF)

Calling Code

+36

Drives On

Right

Internet

.hu

Timezone

CET (UTC+1)

Script

Latin

Government

Parliamentary Republic

Independence

1000

Travel guides

Plan a trip to Hungary

All 4 Hungary guides All 1 comparisons

Looking up at the two brick bell towers of Szeged's Votive Church and the rose window between them, against a deep blue sky

Hungary · 5 days

5 Days in Szeged

A city the Tisza wiped out in one night in 1879, rebuilt in Art Nouveau and paprika red.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

Red-tiled rooftops of Eger under a deep blue sky, with the twin baroque towers of the Minorite Church on the left and the Lyceum and Basilica on the horizon

Hungary · 5 days

5 Days in Eger

A baroque town that held off an Ottoman army, then spent the next centuries digging wine cellars into its hills.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

The Hungarian Parliament lit up gold at night, its reflection shimmering in the Danube

Hungary · 5 days

5 Days in Budapest

Two cities on one river, thermal water under both, and a hundred years of history you can still see on the walls.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

By population

Largest cities in Hungary

Budapest

The Pearl of the Danube - a capital split across both banks with thermal baths, ruin bars, and jaw-dropping architecture

1,752,000

Debrecen

Hungary's second city on the Great Plain, a university town that was twice the country's capital

203,000

Szeged

City of Sunshine on the Tisza River, famous for paprika, the salami factory, and an open-air theater festival

161,000

Pecs

UNESCO-worthy Mediterranean-feeling city near the Croatian border with early Christian tombs and Ottoman mosques

145,000

Eger

Baroque town famous for the Castle of Eger, the Valley of the Beautiful Women wine cellars, and thermal baths

53,000

People

Famous people from Hungary

Franz Liszt
Music
Virtuoso pianist and composer born in Raiding, revolutionized piano technique and created the symphonic poem
Bela Bartok
Music
One of the most important composers of the 20th century, pioneered ethnomusicology by collecting folk songs
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Science
Won the Nobel Prize for discovering Vitamin C using Hungarian paprika as his primary source
Erno Rubik
Science
Invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974, the best-selling puzzle toy in history with over 450 million sold
Ferenc Puskas
Sport
One of the greatest footballers ever, led the Mighty Magyars and later starred for Real Madrid
Imre Kertesz
Literature
Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002 for Fatelessness, his novel about the Holocaust

Food

Traditional cuisine of Hungary

Goulash (Gulyas): Not a stew but a soup - beef, vegetables, and paprika cooked into a rich, warming broth, the national dish
Chicken Paprikash: Chicken braised in a sauce of paprika, sour cream, and onions, served with nokedli (egg dumplings)
Langos: Deep-fried flatbread topped with sour cream and grated cheese, Hungary's ultimate street food
Dobos Torta: Layered sponge cake with chocolate buttercream and a caramel top, invented in 1884
Kurtoskalacs: Chimney cake - spiral dough baked on a cylinder and coated in sugar, cinnamon, or walnut
Lecso: Hungarian ratatouille of tomatoes, peppers, and onions cooked slowly with paprika, often with sausage or egg
Tokaji Aszu: The King of Wines - legendary sweet wine from the Tokaj region, called 'wine of kings' by Louis XIV

Nature

Nature and landmarks in Hungary

Lake BalatonLake: Central Europe's largest lake, nicknamed the Hungarian Sea, a summer holiday destination with warm, shallow waters
Hortobagy National ParkNational Park: UNESCO-listed vast grassland on the Great Plain, the largest natural steppe in Europe with traditional csikos horsemen
Danube BendRiver: Dramatic curve of the Danube north of Budapest with castles, Visegrad fortress, and the artist town of Szentendre
Aggtelek CavesLandmark: UNESCO-listed cave system with the Baradla Cave, featuring spectacular stalactites and underground lakes
Bukk MountainsMountain: Forested mountain range in northern Hungary with caves, thermal springs, and hiking trails
Tisza RiverRiver: Hungary's second river, famous for the annual Tisza Blooming when millions of mayflies swarm in June

Sport

Sports in Hungary

Football: The Mighty Magyars of the 1950s are considered one of the greatest teams ever, led by Puskas and unbeaten for 31 games
Water Polo: The most successful water polo nation in Olympic history with 9 gold medals
Fencing: One of the world's top fencing nations with 37 Olympic gold medals across all three weapons
Kayak/Canoe: Historically dominant in Olympic flatwater events with over 80 medals
Swimming: Katinka Hosszu won three Olympic gold medals in Rio 2016, the Iron Lady of Hungarian swimming

Facts

Did you know?

Erno Rubik invented the Rubik's Cube in Budapest in 1974 - over 450 million have been sold worldwide
Budapest has more thermal springs than any other capital city in the world - over 120 hot springs
Hungary's parliament building is the third-largest in the world, with 691 rooms and 40 kg of gold used in decorations
The word 'coach' comes from the Hungarian town of Kocs, where horse-drawn passenger carriages were first used
Hungarian is one of the hardest European languages to learn, with 18 grammatical cases and no gendered pronouns
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi discovered Vitamin C using Hungarian paprika peppers as his source material
Hungary has won more than 180 Olympic gold medals despite having a population of less than 10 million