Badacsony Hill

Badacsony is one of the buttes left when erosion stripped the softer rock from around a basalt plug. The result is a hill with a flat top, steep sides and a broken collar of hexagonal basalt columns that stand out of the beech scrub like organ pipes. The lower slopes are terraced vineyards on volcanic soil, one of the oldest wine districts on the lake: Olaszrizling is the workhorse, Szurkebarat is planted widely, and Keknyelu is the local curiosity, a grape that cannot pollinate itself and needs another variety planted beside it, grown almost nowhere else in the world. A stone lookout tower on the southern rim gives the view most people climb for: the whole western basin of Balaton, the ferry lines, and the neighbouring buttes of Szigliget, Csobanc and Szent Gyorgy Hill rising out of the Tapolca basin.

What you actually see

• The Kisfaludy lookout - the stone tower on the rim with the open view over the lake.
• The basalt columns - vertical rock walls and the Stone Gate on the upper slopes.
• The Rose Stone - a flat block at a viewpoint, tied to a local courtship legend.
• The vineyard terraces and press houses - stone-walled rows and old cellars on the volcanic lower slopes, some open for tasting.

When to go

May and June are green and comfortable for the climb. September and early October bring harvest work in the terraces and the clearest air of the year. Start early in July and August: the south-facing path is fully exposed and the lake haze thickens by midday. Sunset from the tower is good, but plan the descent while there is still light.

Honest expectations

The climb is steep, on loose volcanic gravel that rolls underfoot, and it is hot from late morning on. Jeep shuttles cut the effort but cost money and stop short of the top. Summer weekends bring queues at the tower stairs. Lake haze often flattens the view. The lower slopes are lined with tasting rooms, which turns some visits into a drinking outing rather than a walk - and tasting and driving do not mix, parking on the vineyard lanes is scarce, and public transport between the villages is thin.

Nearby

Szigliget and Szent Gyorgy Hill stand nearby in the same volcanic group, with Tapolca a short drive inland and the Tihany peninsula and the thermal lake at Heviz along the shore.