Nature has bestowed beauty in plenty on Lake Balaton. Much of the outstanding landscape belongs to the protected area of the National Park of the Upper Balaton. Those interested can ask for an expert to guide them, and see the region’s botanical and geological specialities on study trails and in displays. The most varied landscape rolls out from the Szépkilátó (“Fine Viewing Point”) close to Balatongyörök (C 4) – poets have sung its praises. The wonderful variety of the landscape of the volcanic northern shore is at its most beautiful seen from the Várhegy (“Castle Hill”) in Fonyód (D 4) or Balatonboglár (E 4) In a semi-circle of dormant volcanoes lies the Káli Basin (DE 3). Although by car it is only a quarter of an hour’s journey from the bustling life of the shore, it is as if we had descended into another world. Above the reeds of the salt ponds water-fowl call, cowbells ring in the pastures, and there is an Arcadian calm in the small, inviting villages.

It is no accident that many film directors, artists and writers have struck camp in one of the numerous peasant houses. Around the edge of the basin, stone idols guard the peace of the land. These geological formations, formed by hot volcanic torrents of lava and by the wind, are a local curiosity, and are popularly known as the stone sea. The most beautiful is the one in Szentbékkálla (D 3). In this bouquet of rocks, reminiscent of abstract sculptures, we feel as if we are in the garden of a stone-age wizard.

The old town of Tapolca (D 3), nestling behind Szent György Hill, holds another delight for those who love the wonders of nature: the lake cave. This too was formed by volcanic activity: hot water gouged out a labyrinth of winding corridors and halls in the limestone, which were then flooded by crystal clear karst water. The visitor could be in Charon’s ferry in a mythological underworld, while rowing around the mysteriously lit, twisting waterway, except that this is an underworld from which there is a way back. The caves under the town are, incidentally, not only a tourist sight: their climate is ideal for the treatment of serious respiratory diseases. Recently a well-equipped therapeutic hotel was completed, which now offers facilities to patients taking the cave cure which are worthy of the surroundings.

The vast marshes of the Kis-Balaton (AB 5) at the western end of the lake were for twenty thousand years the natural filter of the River Zala, which feeds Lake Balaton. Three generations ago the Zala was diverted to feed directly into Lake Balaton, whose healthy, clear water was consequently polluted and made muddy by the river for half a century. The problem was solved by a method adopted nowhere else in the
world: by restoring conditions similar to the original marsh. The 20-square-kilometre reservoir, completed fifteen years ago, is now a nature conservation
reserve, where once more birds flock in large numbers, just as they used to. One particularly charming part, the Kányavári Island, is open to the general public, for the
pleasure of anglers and nature photographers.

Travelling around the area of the Kis-Balaton the ecotourist comes across another site: the Kápolnapuszta Buffalo Reserve. Formerly these animals of fearsome strength were used for the heaviest work, but gradually more docile and versatile cattle took their place in agriculture. In Europe these grimlooking animals, descended from bison, can only be found in Kápolnapuszta (B 6) and Transylvania.