Keszthely

The largest and oldest settlement on the lake was an important hub of commerce in Roman times. The remains of the castrum in the 2nd-4th-century town of Valcum can be seen in Fenékpuszta.

The Festetics Mansion is the third largest chateau in the country with 101 rooms, an ornate wrought iron gate, the surviving chapel and the Helikon Library with 86,000 volumes including many rarities. In the museum inside the chateau, ornate firearms and the trophy collection of the Duke of Windischgrätz are displayed. Weekly concerts are organised in the music hall of mirrors and the English park of the chateau is a natural protection area. It was the former owner of the chateau, György Festetics, who founded Europe's first farming school, the Georgikon, providing university level education, in 1797.

The history of the school, 19th-century viticulture and grain-farming in the Balaton region can be traced at the Georgikon Manor Museum. All you may wish to know about Lake Balaton, including its formation, flora and fauna, the history of bathing culture and waterborne traffic and archaeological and ethnographic memorabilia of 7,000 years, can be seen at the Balaton Museum. The marzipan model of the Festetics Mansion is among the exhibits at the Marzipan Confectionery Museum. The Puppet Museum offers a rich array of cute puppets and dolls and a miniature replica, made from snail shells, of the Parliament in Budapest. The museum also houses a waxworks displaying notable personalities of Hungarian history. The island baths, built in 1892, with a timber structure protruding deep into the lake, is an interesting sight.

How come camels, buffaloes and zebras roam along Lake Balaton? Hardly indigenous to the region, they are resident of the Safari Park and Africa Museum established by the renowned Hungarian hunter in Africa, Endre von Nagy at Balatonederics. A rich collection of artefacts including trophies and African ethnographic objects is on display at the museum.

Siófok is the largest town on the southern side of the lake, stretching along the its shore for a length of 17 km. Its port serves every boat route on the lake. Cruise boats also start from here.

Siófok, a place of pilgrimage for young people, known as the "capital of the Hungarian summer”, there are bars, places of amusement and discos where you can lose yourself in the ever-enewing world of summer, happy meetings and amusements.

The composer of the internationally renowned operettas, including Csárdáskirálynő, Imre Kálmán (1882-1953), is a famous son of the city, every summer a two-month festival of operetta is organised in his honour. His piano and personal belongings are on display in the museum dedicated to his name. A huge collection of 3,000 different types of minerals from all over the Carpathian Basin is exhibited in the Museum of Minerals. A true curiosity at Siófok is the country's first Museum of Egg Decoration.