Things to do
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Inner Lake
A volcanic crater below the village holds the Belső-tó, an almost circular lake sitting some 25 metres above Balaton with no outflow of its own. Anglers work the reedy margins for carp and zander, and a flat path circles the water in about half an hour. Lavender fields and grey cattle occupy the slopes above it.
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Lake
Lake Balaton
Central Europe's largest lake stretches 77 km along a shallow trough and averages around three metres deep, which is why it warms early in the season. Volcanic hills and vineyards define the north shore; the south is flat, sandy and shelves gently. Storms build quickly here, and a flashing yellow signal from the shore towers calls swimmers out of the water.
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Tagore Promenade
Rabindranath Tagore planted a lime tree on this Balatonfüred waterfront in 1926 after treatment at the heart hospital, and visiting writers and statesmen have been planting memorial trees along it ever since. The paved walk runs beside the water under plane trees, with a bust of the poet near the start. Mornings are quiet, and the promenade fills from late afternoon onward.
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Tihany Abbey
Benedictine monks have held this ridge since 1055, when Andrew the First founded the abbey and issued a charter that preserves the oldest written Hungarian words. His tomb lies in the Romanesque crypt below the later baroque church, whose gilded woodwork took a lay brother decades to carve. Allow an hour, and expect queues at midday in summer.
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Tihany Lavender House
Set at the edge of the old lavender fields, the visitor centre of the Balaton Uplands National Park explains how the peninsula's volcanoes, geyser cones and springs made the ground the crop grows in. Films, an outdoor garden and soap making workshops fill an hour, and guided walks leave from here for a geyser cone above the Inner Lake.