Home > Trips > Southern Hungary for Red Wine and Paprika Lover’s – Villány, Szekszárd, Pécs, Hajós-Baja, and Szeged

Southern Hungary for Red Wine and Paprika Lover’s – Villány, Szekszárd, Pécs, Hajós-Baja, and Szeged

June 5 – June 13, 2027

This will be a very special trip combining a deep immersion in Villány—Hungary’s iconic red wine region—with visits to three more off-the-beaten-path regions like Hajós-Baja, Pécs, and Szekszárd (which also focus on red wines). Our main home base for this trip will be Villány, the center of Southern Hungary’s Cabernet Franc paradise, and from here we’ll make day trips to visit the greater region. Many regions in the world grow this grape, but only a few of them take it as seriously as Hungarians. It’s the most important grape in these southern Hungarian wine regions, especially in Villány, where winemakers chose it to be their flagship grape variety and even created special quality categories for premium Cab Franc.

We love Hungarian Cab Franc, and we can’t wait to introduce it to you in its many forms. We believe that in Hungary it shows its perfect form, and it makes a great wine without being overwhelmingly heavy (like it is in some regions) or being too vegetal. Hungarian Cab Franc shows the grape at its best—full-bodied, ripe, fruity, spicy, with a finish of chocolate covered cherries and a touch of oak. Whether or not you are already a fan of Cab Franc, after visiting the family producers in these regions and tasting their top-level Cab Francs, you’ll come away with a new appreciation for this grape.

We’ll also spend time exploring the southern university towns of Szeged and Pécs, which are treasures in themselves. We’ll spend one night in Szeged—known for its beautiful Art Nouveau architecture—so we have enough time to visit the Art Nouveau synagogue (Hungary’s second largest) and the wonderful food market. Szeged is also one of the strongholds of paprika production in Hungary, and we’ll spend the morning with a paprika grower/producer who is the fifth generation in her family to work in the business. We’ll visit her fields and production area to learn how this spice, which is so important in today’s Hungarian cuisine, is produced. Then we’ll sit down for lunch with the family, and enjoy a feast that they’ve prepared using their own paprika. You’ll never look at paprika the same way again after today! We’ll spend a day in Pécs, which is full of wonderful art museums, varied styles of architecture, and even remnants from the period when Hungary was under Ottoman occupation.

In these southern regions the heritage of the Swabians (the German speaking settlers) is tangible in the architecture, the local dishes, and even in the grape varieties grown. In addition to tasting plenty of delicious wine with the winemakers, we’ll spend time wandering in gorgeous vineyards and along charming rows lined with traditional whitewashed cellars. We’ll also eat fantastically on this trip, feasting on homemade meals of traditional Hungarian food, as well as more modern interpretations of Hungarian cuisine. Our welcome and farewell feasts will be in Budapest (as well as a private cruise on the Danube). We hope you find this trip as well balanced and complex as many of the wines we will be tasting!

June 5 – 13, 2027 (8 nights)
5,600 USD/person (599 USD single supplement)
Trip starts and ends in Budapest
Maximum group size: 12 travelers

Trip Highlights

Exploring four Hungarian wine regions, including Hungary’s top regions for reds. Tasting with the family or winemaker at each place.
Visit a family-owned paprika farm and manufacturer to learn and see how paprika is made, followed by a lunch starring their own paprika.
A full day in Pécs to immerse yourself in the culture and architecture of this “town of museums.”
Overnight stay and tour of Szeged, Hungary’s Art Nouveau jewel of a town.
Private Danube cruise in Budapest.
Optional: visit to a countryside natural thermal spa
Epic traditional Hungarian meals every day, which we will temper with walks in charming villages, and light hikes in vineyards.

What’s included?

At least 8 winery visits (where we will meet the winemaker/owner at each location)
Private transportation by minibus, with professional driver.
Entrance to all mentioned activities.
Breakfast daily; 6 lunches; 8 dinners
We will be your guides at all times.
8 nights accommodation. Four-star hotel with prime location in Budapest. Comfortable, boutique inns in the countryside.

What’s not included?

Activities, tours, and entry fees not included in the itinerary
Additional accommodation before and after the tour
Airport transfers
Travel insurance
Airfare
Additional meals, snacks, and beverages

Why Travel with Us?

Since 2008, when we founded Taste Hungary, we’ve been immersed in Hungary’s food and wines, falling ever hopelessly in love with the delicious and varied wines, old kitchen traditions, and more modern culinary innovations. Through our immersive trips, we bring small groups of curious travelers along with us on deep and personal explorations of our favorite and most meaningful places. These trips are the result of everything we’ve learned and experienced over the past few decades of our life in Hungary, and we are proud to share them with our guests. These are trips for food and wine-loving travelers who would like to travel more slowly, quietly, and with deeper intention. We’ll take you behind the scenes to meet the food producers, farmers, and winemakers who we have gotten to know over the past few decades. Our favorite part? The time we spend sitting around a table, eating well, sharing delicious wines, and making lasting memories. We do all of the planning and organizing, all you need to do is shop up with curiosity (and an appetite). We hope you’ll join us for an adventure!

Day by Day Itinerary

Day One: Budapest – Arrival, Danube Cruise & Welcome Dinner

JUNE 5

After settling into your hotel—located in the heart of town, on one of Budapest’s most stunning avenues—we’ll gather in the afternoon for a welcome drink at a nearby rooftop bar. After introductions and discussing the plan for the coming week, we’ll stroll over to the Danube where we will meet our captain for a private river cruise (accompanied by some fine local sparkling wine) to get a feel for the city.

From there, we’ll head to the Palace District for a private welcome dinner at the Tasting Table, our own wine cellar. Over the course of dinner we’ll open a bunch of wines from regions that we will not be visiting on the tour, so you can begin your crash course in the wines of Hungary. The menu will be centered around the lovely and tasty Mangalica, Hungary’s very special indigenous pig.

Overnight in Budapest.

Day Two: Szeged – Paprika Production, Paprika Tasting, and Art Nouveau Architecture

JUNE 6

Today we’ll visit Szeged, one of the strongholds of paprika production in southern Hungary. You really cannot understate the importance of paprika in Hungarian cooking. The spice symbolizes Hungarian cuisine and is an essential component of some of the best-known Hungarian dishes (such as csirke paprikás, gulyás, pörkölt, and halászlé). Paprika adds heat, aroma, the distinctive peppery flavor, depth, and the brilliant orange color so characteristic of Hungarian cuisine. We’ll visit a family-run paprika company, which is now in its fifth generation. The company is one of the few which undertakes the entire paprika production process with their own hands: they grow and harvest the peppers, dry and grind them into paprika powder, and then package, market, and sell it. We’ll visit both their paprika fields and their workshop, where we’ll see some paprika production in action. Afterwards, we’ll enjoy a homemade paprika-forward lunch, eaten just steps from where the paprika was produced.

Next, we’ll check into our hotel in central Szeged, freshen up, and then head out for a walking tour of this jewel-box of a town. Szeged is a university town, characterized by its spectacular Art Nouveau architecture. We’ll visit some of these ornate buildings, and learn about this colorful period in Hungary’s architectural history. Dinner will be at a restaurant on the bank of the Tisza River, which is a local institution, and a destination in its own right. For dinner we’ll taste what the place is famous for, its paprika fish dishes.

Overnight in Szeged.

“One never knows what one is getting into when planning a trip, and when I made the reservations for the four tours and events that we did with Taste Hungary, I wondered if I had done the right thing. Well, I had absolutely done the right thing. We had a fantastic time at each event. We enjoyed every minute. All in all, we got to drink and eat so much that we feel we have become experts on Hungarian wine and food. And we will certainly impress, at least to our circle of friends, with our new knowledge. Each and every one of our guides was exceptional. We enjoyed their company, and we were impressed by their devotion and kindness. They know their stuff, and were able to communicate their knowledge in a friendly easy-going manner. What a privilege for us to meet them. We will cherish our happy memories for years to come.”
DONALD (USA)

Day Three: An Art Nouveau Synagogue, a Bountiful Food Market, and the Cellar Rows of Hajós-Baja

JUNE 7

After breakfast we’ll continue our exploration of Szeged. We’ll start with a visit to Szeged’s Synagogue, which is Hungary’s second largest (it seats 1,300 people). Built in 1902, this building is an Art Nouveau masterpiece, combining Arabic, Moorish, and Mediterranean elements. Next, we’ll check out the town’s sprawling and lively food market, which fills daily with local farmers and producers selling flowers, meat, dairy, colorful produce, mushrooms from nearby forests, and all manner of homemade jams and preserves. We’ll pick up some snacks for later, and we can taste some market goodies, such as freshly fried lángos and pogácsa. Szeged is known for its historic coffeehouses, and we’ll visit one to enjoy coffee and cake, as the locals do.

Next, we’ll head to a small, but lovely, wine region called Hajós-Baja, located in the southern part of the Danube-Tisza River basin. This region is known for its many picturesque Swabian-style cellar rows, full of small press-houses which have been carved into the loess soil. We’ll visit a family winery here, which focuses on making high-level natural wines from the region’s local grapes (such as Cserszegi fűszeres, Irsai Olivér, Olaszrizling, Zweigelt, Kékfrankos, and Kadarka). We’ll enjoy a homemade lunch in the garden outside the cellar, complete with a tasting of the range their wines. After lunch we can walk around the cellar rows before we head to Villány, where we’ll be based for the next few days at a winery-owned hotel. Dinner this evening will be in the hotel’s restaurant, where we’ll have our first taste of Villány wines.

Overnight in Villány.

Day Four: Introducing the Villány Wine Region

JUNE 8

The Villány wine region is Hungary’s southernmost region, and is known for its big, bold red wines. This region developed the most rapidly in the early 1990s, after communism ended and families returned to their heritage of viticulture and viniculture. Winemakers in Villány began focusing on the Bordeaux varieties of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, making both single varietal wines and blends, and their wines quickly became good enough to compete with reds from around Europe. In 2000 an article by wine writer Michael Broadbent was so influential that it defined the future direction for the entire wine region. “Cabernet Franc has found its natural home in Villány,” he wrote. After this revelation, Hungarian winemakers began believing in the potential of this grape to produce premium wines. But those in Villány—who believe that the region is the best-suited region for Cabernet Franc—took it even further, and created their own category for premium 100 percent Cabernet Franc wines, called Villányi Franc. We’ll taste plenty of examples of Villányi Franc (there are two quality levels), which is the pride and joy of the region, in the coming days.

We’ll start with a tour and tasting at one of the region’s larger family-owned wineries, a pioneer in bringing this region (back) to life in the early 1990s. Here we’ll here the story of how this region was re-born firsthand from one of its most important players, as we taste through their wine portfolio. Next, we’ll head to a nearby village to visit a family of truffle hunters. We’ll head out with them (and their dogs), to try our hands at finding these tasty treasures in the forest. Afterwards, we’ll enjoy a homemade lunch and truffle tasting in their home, along with some wines from the region. Later we will visit some of the region’s most prized (and beautiful) vineyards) for a relaxed hike. We’ll also check out the pretty whitewashed Swabian cellar rows in Villánykövesd. For dinner, we’ll visit another family winery to taste from their cellar, sample their portfolio, and enjoy a homemade dinner with local specialties.

Overnight in Villány.

Day Five: Pécs – City of Museums and Gate to the Balkans

JUNE 9

The city of Pécs is a designated wine region, but that’s not the only reason we’ll be spending the day here! It’s also one of Hungary’s most lively university towns—full of museums (some of which hold collections devoted to Hungarian artists that rival Budapest’s museums), varied architecture, and historical monuments from many different eras in Hungary’s history. Pécs was a European Capital of Culture in 2010, and the lovely city center has been thoroughly renovated (and much of it pedestrianized). We’ll explore the ‘Zsolnay Negyed,’ the cultural quarter—including a cluster of museums, cafés, local craft shops, and the art university campus—located in the industrial buildings that were formerly the site of the Zsolnay porcelain factory. Ceramic tiles made here adorn Hungary’s finest Art Nouveau buildings.

During the 150 year Ottoman occupation there were 11 mosques in Pécs. Two of them still stand (one even still has its minaret), and we can visit one that has been (re)converted into a Catholic church. We’ll also check out the city’s massive and ornate cathedral. Lunch will be Balkan-style (we are very close to the border with Serbia and Croatia) at a local restaurant. Dinner will be a private experience at a Michelin-recommended restaurant in a nearby village, with the meal prepared especially for us! We’ll taste some more wines from the region along with dinner.

Overnight in Villány.

Day Six: The Vineyard Valleys and Elegant Reds of Szekszárd

JUNE 10

This morning you’ll have some free time to either explore the village on your own, or (optionally) join an excursion to a nearby open-air thermal bathhouse. Don’t expect a fancy place, instead you will experience the age-old Hungarian tradition of taking to the natural thermal waters, which are full of such beneficial minerals that you’ll feel relaxed for the rest of the day.

Next, we’ll head to Szekszárd, another of Hungary’s top red wine regions, to spend the rest of the day. Szekszárd is home to some of Hungary’s most elegant and spicy red wines (which also have plenty of lively acidity). It is also one of the strongholds of the Kékfrankos and Kadarka grapes, and the region has its own Bikavér (Bull’s Blood) full-bodied red blend.

At the first winery, we’ll enjoy a homemade lunch along with our first tasting and introduction to the characteristic wines of this region. Szekszárd is known for its beautiful valleys full of vineyards, and after lunch, we’ll visit some of them. We’ll take a stroll around the vineyards of the Fuchs Valley to see firsthand where some of the grapes are grown. We can then explore the small center of Szekszárd for a coffee break before paying a visit to another family winery for a tasting and cellar tour. Dinner will be at one of the region’s pioneering wineries, where we will, of course, also enjoy a range of wines and a cellar visit.

Overnight in Villány.

Day Seven: Diving Deeper into Villány

JUNE 11

This morning we’ll explore the charming cellars lining Villány’s main street. We’ll walk through the village center to our first tasting of the day, at one of the region’s most prominent wineries. We’ll meet the winemaker, who will help us understand the various terroirs and vineyard locations of the region, as we taste through his wines. Next, we’ll head into one of the cozy cellars on the main street for a home-cooked lunch, prepared in the traditional wood-fired brick oven inside the cellar. We’ll enjoy some of the proprietor’s own wines along with lunch.

After lunch we’ll have a bit of downtime, and then we’ll meet again for an excursion to another part of the wine region, Siklós. Historically Siklós was the part of the region which produced white wines, but these days it makes both. We’ll visit a winemaking couple who we’ve been working with for many years, and who make one of our favorite Cab Francs. After tasting through their cellar, we’ll make a stop to visit the pretty Máriagyüd Church, which attracts large numbers of pilgrims on Catholic holidays throughout the year. Our last meal in Villány will be a very special private dinner at the home of a family who are also cheesemakers. Naturally, we’ll start with a tasting of their own cheses, and we’ll continue to taste wines from the region over the course of the meal!

Overnight in Villány.

Day Eight: Back to Budapest – Farewell Dinner

JUNE 12

Today we’ll head back to Budapest after breakfast. You’ll have the rest of the day to re-charge and explore Budapest on your own until dinner. We’ll meet for a farewell dinner at a Michelin-recommended bistro, where the menu is modern Hungarian takes inspired by some of the classics. If you’re up for a final evening stroll through Budapest, we can walk home through the City Park and down Andrássy Avenue, past the Opera House and the elegant 19th century villas until we arrive back at the hotel.

Overnight in Budapest.

Day Nine: Departure

JUNE 13

Today we say goodbye! Check out after breakfast. If you want to stay and explore Budapest, we can help with travel arrangements and additional hotel nights.

We will do our best to keep to this itinerary, but it is subject to change based on weather conditions, availability, or unforeseen circumstances. If any activities must be changed, we will do our best to substitute them with a similar one.

Know before you go …

The central theme of all of our tours is the food and wine culture of Hungary. So if you are not interested in either, then this probably isn’t the right tour for you! We will eat and drink well during the tour, and we will also build in some time to move around (like walks and relaxed hikes). However, we also consider culture, history, architecture, and the natural environment essential, and we try to incorporate these themes as much as possible in order to create a balances experience.

While this is not a strenuous tour, there is a moderate level of activity. To fully enjoy the tour you should be able to keep up with the group without assistance. Some days we will go for city walks, and other times there will be vineyard hikes (so the terrain could be hilly and uneven). There will also be situations when we will go up and down staircases without the option of elevators and escalators. Please let us know about any mobility concerns before signing up.

Bring an open mind for adventure and new experiences! Hungary has a long and complicated history, and a rich musical, literary, and cultural history. If you’d like to prepare for the journey by doing some background reading, we would be thrilled! Upon booking your place, we will send all participants our curated list of books, music, etc. to get you in the mood and mindset for the trip.

We are happy to accommodate most dietary needs whenever it is possible, so if you have any, please let us know before booking so we can make sure it will be be fine! We try to be as flexible as possible, but our tours are based around traditional Hungarian cooking, so special dietary needs and restrictions will require advance planning and preparations on our part. Meals can easily accommodate plenty of vegetarian options. If you have other food allergies or intolerances, please discuss it with us to find out if this trip can be the right fit for you.

The tour starts and ends in Budapest, so we recommend flying into Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD). Suggested arrival is in the morning or early afternoon of May 30th. Departure can be anytime on June 7th.

Budapest is a big city with lots to see and do, and if you’d like to add some extra days for solo explorations, just let us know and we can help with the hotel reservations. We are also more than happy to help with tips and ideas for things to do on your own, and we’d be happy to have you join any of our walking tours in Budapest.

Tours require a $500 non-refundable deposit to secure your spot. The remaining balance is due 90 days before the start of the tour. If we do not receive your final payment by that time, we cannot guarantee your space on the tour.

Tours require a minimum of 6 participants to run. If we do not reach that number by 90 days before the start date of the tour, we will cancel the tour and issue you a refund for all payments made. If we need to cancel the tour for any reason, all payments will be fully refunded.

Cancellations up to 90 days in advance of the tour will receive full refunds (minus the non-refundable deposit). If you cancel up to 60 days before the start of the tour there is a 50 percent cancellation fee. Cancellations closer than that cannot be refunded.

All tour changes must be made in writing to hello@tastehungary.com.

We strongly recommend that you purchase trip insurance, as we cannot make exceptions due to medical reasons, family emergencies, or flight issues,