Two kid-friendly tours designed by nature for the little ones

The bike path between Tatabánya and Tata that leads through the Által Brook Valley is a paradise for kids, and at the end of the road you can complete your ride with a tour around the lake. Right at the beginning of your cycling tour, visit the Mining and Industrial Open-air Ethnographic Museum in Tatabánya, where you will also be able to see the original frame of the Turul sculpture that now stands on the crag. Inside the museum, you will find a complete mining plant complex from times gone by, including office and temporary furniture, plus the mine lift located in the former shaft building. Children should be made aware of how the world’s economy relied on coal for 200 years before today’s green and mainly oil-based era. When you are done with your visit to the museum, hop on your bikes and off you go.

You need to ride 5 kilometres, mostly on protected cycle lanes within the town, before you reach the waterside cycle path. The separate bike path, leading to Tata along Által Brook, starts from the large roundabout. The 7-kilometre road between Tatabánya and Tata is also an educational trail with six stops. Whenever you stop at a rest area, you can read about the ecological importance of the water course, which could even be called a smaller river. On your way to Tata, you will encounter many aquatic birds. The warm water is an ideal wintering place for wild geese: on the one hand, because the water does not easily freeze over, and on the other, because it is particularly rich in fish. On one side of the path, the horsts of Gerencse tower over the road, and on the other side, the Little Hungarian Plain stretches into the distance. The highlight of the cycle path is the exhibition area of the Hungarian National Museum in Vértesszőlős, where you can see the remains (i.e. the occipital bone) of the prehistoric man who once lived in the area. The exhibition also includes some parts of a settlement, fireplaces and pieces of jewellery dug up from the time before the Neanderthals. That said, the part of the exhibition that children will probably find the most exciting is the one where you can see the conserved footprints of prehistoric animals that came to drink from the prehistoric springs.

As you arrive in Tata, you can add an extra round to your tour by riding around the lake. The footpath around Öreg Lake is also a perfect cycling path. When you get to Építők Parkja, get off your bike and stop for a ‘lángos’ (fried dough). Just a few hundred metres from here you will find the Ecotourism Centre, which serves as an excellent start and end point for your tour around the lake. You can even rent some water-vehicles. But if you decide to stay on your bike, just ride over to the English garden by the nearby Cseke Lake. The garden was built at the end of the 18th century on the karst springs that break through the surface here. If you have time, you should also visit Tata’s third lake. Here by the beach, you will see the Hungarian Gyilkos Lake. The Fényes educational trail is interesting for children because the boardwalk runs above a magical forest that has sunk into the water. As you walk along the path, you can see how rich the aquatic wildlife is here, with its intriguing overgrown tree trunks, snails, fish, aquatic birds and sunbathing tortoises.

Csesznek is a village that lies about 35 kilometres from Veszprém. Just outside the village, you will find the only via ferrata in Hungary that is recommended for young children (provided they are at least 7-8 years old). Although the 100-metre road at an elevation of 45 metres is perfectly safe, you will still need a safety harness and a helmet in addition to the pre-installed security wire ropes, especially if you want to get the children to like climbing and not scare them off. If you are a more experienced climber, you can volunteer as a supervisor of your team; otherwise you should only try the tour with a guide. You can also hike up to Csesznek, and in this case you should start your tour in Gézaháza and walk through picturesque Kő Ditch. You can get changed at the foot of Kőmosó Ravine, and then start your test of courage under the supervision of an adult.

Be prepared! Often this is the place where people realise that they are afraid of heights. The first section is the hardest because when you are little, it is not easy to pay attention to so many things at the same time. It is also very easy to forget how and when you have to use the snaphooks when you are a novice, while the surge of adrenaline does not help either. If you do not feel like doing this difficult first section, you can just skip it, because there is a steep trail that you can do on foot and takes you to the first stop. So there’s no need to despair if any of the children change their mind about climbing. The second part of the climb includes a built-in rope bridge. All you have to do, basically, is just walk over it. The last two sections require additional climbs, but these are not as difficult as the first one. As you reach the top, you will have a fantastic view of the castle standing tall on the rock opposite. After you get back from climbing, go and visit the castle ruins. It is only a few minutes’ walk from the nearby car park, and the panorama as you stand on the ancient wall is fantastic, allowing you to see the extensive forests of the Bakony Hills.