Szentendre

Szentendre is a riverside artists' town on the Danube Bend, less than an hour north of Budapest and one of the easiest, most rewarding half-day or overnight escapes in Hungary. Its knot of cobbled lanes climbs from the water past ochre and pastel houses, Serbian Orthodox churches with their onion domes and a marzipan museum, all wrapped in a Mediterranean warmth left by the Serbian and Greek merchants who settled here centuries ago. The trick is timing: day-trippers pour in by midday, so arrive on an early HEV suburban train, wander the empty morning streets and the riverfront, then duck into galleries and cellars as the crowds thicken. Fo ter, the main square, is the postcard heart, but the pleasure is in the side alleys, the steep steps up to the Templom-domb church terrace and the excellent open-air Skanzen village museum on the edge of town. Eat langos by the river, drink a local wine, and if you can, stay past sunset when the crowds thin and the town becomes quietly magical again.