Swimming in the Balaton: the northern lakeshore offers many small and large beaches which are accessible to everybody. From Csikós Lovasudvar, they can be reached within 10-15 minutes. Lake Balaton is the largest lake of West and Middle Europe. Its surface is about 600 squarekm and is therefor larger than Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Lake Constance in Germany or lake Garda in Italy. The average depth of the lake is around 2 meters only near Tihany it is up to 14 meters.
The low depth is also the reason will turn very warm in the summer time. The temperature is usually 26 to 28 degrees Celsius

32 creeks and rivers like the Zala and rainfall supply water for the lake. The total amount of water is around1800 million cubic meter. If the lake would dry out it would take around 4 years till it would be filled up again by the rivers and the rainfall.
The length of the lake is around 77 kilometer and stretches from the northeast to the southwest through the middle of Transdanubia and therefor separates Hungarian the South and on the right side of the Danube almost into 2 areas that are of the same size. Because of the narrowness of the lake at Tihany the distance between both shorelines is around 1.5 km. The eastern part is smaller and wider (around 23 km wide) and the western part is larger but narrower.

Visiting the peninsula of Tihany and the village of the same name. The numerous cafes and shops in Tihany invite you to stroll around. However, you shouldn't forget to visit the old abbey of Tihany, too!
There are 3 museums on the peninsula. They are the monastery museum, an open-air museum and the doll museum.
The open-air museum shows how people lived long ago in natural surroundings in Tihany. With a lot of work they rebuilded these houses with every detail. There You can see an old farmers house, the guild house of the fishermen and an old potter house.
The doll museum is a must for every fan of dolls. Everyone of the 250 dolls wears a costume or an original dress. All the well known porcelain manufacturers of the German speaking countries between 1850 and 1920 are represented here.
The whole area of the peninsula is around 12 square kilometres and is under environmental protection. About 1700 people live in Tihany. Their farms are made of grey basalt of the area and the roofs are covered with reed. They
are also under historical preservation. Distance from our ranch: round about 10 minutes by car.

Keszthely:

This town with its 23 thousand inhabitants is situated at the West end of the Balaton, about 190 km from Budapest. One special sight there is the castle of Festetics. The building was constructed in a semi-circle and has more than 100 rooms. The interior is a masterpiece of craftsmanship.Distance from our ranch: round about 1 hour by car.

Héviz:

This small town lies at about 6 km from Keszthely. It is famous for the largest warm water lake of Europe (50 thousand suqare metres). The temperature of the lake is about 35 degrees in summer and won't go under 26 degrees in winter. Red lotus are in flower on the lake the whole year round. Distance from our ranch: round about 1 hour by car.

Veszprém:

The town with its 65 thousand inhabitants was built up on 5 hills and was one of the diocesan towns founded by king Stephan. Especially the castle is worth a visit: it is like a town inside the town which you enter through the heroes' gate. Distance from our ranch: round about 25 minutes by car.