• Visit Budapest (website: www.budapestinfo.hu). Explore Buda's elevated cobbled streets and soak up spectacular views from the Fisherman's Bastion. In Pest admire the Hungarian Parliament, Vajdahunyad Castle and Museum of Applied Arts, or unearth the treasures at the Hungarian National Museum. Take a trip out of town to the socialist statue graveyard, Statue Park.

• Follow the Danube Bend to the historic towns of Szentendre (website: www.szentendre.hu), Visegrád and Esztergom (website: www.esztergom.hu). Szentendre boasts a large artist's colony and a plethora of church spires, the ruins of a 15th-century palace and castle reside at Visegrád, and Esztergom is home to Hungary's largest basilica.

• Visit the delightful medieval hearts of Sopron (website: www.sopron.hu) and Kőszeg in the west of the country. Sopron boasts 240 listed buildings, including the Firewatch Tower, Storno House and the Gothic Goat Church, while Kőszeg's Jurisics tér contains a treasure-trove of baroque, renaissance and gothic architecture.

• Travel back in time at Hollókő, a World Heritage-listed site with around 60 wattle and daub houses and the substantial remnants of a 13th-century castle.

• Discover the country's remote northeast, home to tiny medieval churches and one of the country's most beautiful cathedrals, the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Máriapócs, where the iconic Black Madonna resides.

• Explore the northern shores of Lake Balaton (website: www.balaton-tourism.hu). Discover Tihany's Benedictine Abbey, Veszprém's celebrated Castle Hill and cobbled streets, 10km (6 miles) north of the lake, and Sümeg's imposing hilltop castle and frescoed Church of Ascension.

• Visit the vibrant university town of Szeged, an economic and cultural hub that is also home to Hungary's finest Greek Orthodox church (website: www.szegedportal.hu). Take a side trip to Kecskemét (website: www.kecskemet.hu), a centre for Hungarian art nouveau architecture.

• See the fifth-oldest university in Europe (1367) and the finest Hungarian examples of Ottoman architecture from Turkish occupancy (1543-1686) in Pécs (website: www.pecs.hu). Visit the Cathedral, the Mosque of Gazi Kasim Pasha and the Archaeological Museum. 

• Head to Eger (website: www.eger.hu), one of the country's oldest and most colourful cities, which boasts around 200 historical monuments, including its 14-sided Minaret.

• Take in the spectacular ‘five-in-hand' horseshow at the Kiskunság National Park, where riders perform incredible feats on horseback.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.