Northern Hungary

Everyone loves Eger, and it's immediately apparent why. Filled with beautifully preserved baroque buildings, Eger (pronounced 'egg-air') is a jewellery box of a town with loads to see and do. Explore the bloody history of Turkish occupation and defeat at the hilltop castle; climb an original Ottoman minaret; listen to an organ performance at the colossal basilica; or relax in a renovated Turkish bath. Then spend time traipsing from cellar to cellar in the Valley of Beautiful Women, tasting the celebrated Eger Bull's Blood (Egri Bikavér) and other local wines from the cask. Flanked by northern Hungary's most inviting range of hills, the Bükk, Eger also provides nearby opportunities for hiking and other outdoor excursions.

The Cserhát Hills may not be graced with soaring peaks (none of them is higher than 650m), but they are cloaked in a rich folk-culture tapestry belonging to the Palóc people. Hollókő (Raven Rock), a two-street village nestled in a tranquil valley, is the epicentre. What sets Hollókő apart is its restored 13th-century castle and the architecture of the so-called Old Village (Ófalu), where some 67 houses and outbuildings have been on Unesco’s World Heritage list of cultural sites since 1987. The village has burned to the ground many times since the 13th century (most recently in 1909), but the residents have always rebuilt their houses exactly to plan in traditional wattle and daub.

The world-renowned sweet wines of Tokaj (toke-eye) have been produced here since the 15th century. Today Tokaj is a picturesque little town of old buildings, nesting storks and wine cellars, where there are plenty of opportunities to sample its famous tipple. Its position lying at the confluence of the Bodrog and Tisza Rivers also provides ample options for recreation. Tokaj is just one of 28 towns and villages of what is called Tokaj-Hegyalja, a 70-sq-km vine-growing region that produces wine along the southern and eastern edges of the Zemplén Hills.

This village is the site of a famous cemetery with intriguing prow-shaped grave markers. To get here from Tarpa, cross at the Tivadar, turn east and carry on another 7km northeast.

The 1200 carved wooden markers that resemble up-ended prows are unique in Hungary; the notches and grooves represent a complicated language detailing marital status, social position and so on. No one knows how the tradition (which is still carried on today) started, but scholars generally agree it’s not Finno-Ugric (ancestral Hungarian). One of the stone markers in the cemetery is that of native son Ferenc Kölcsey (1790–1838), who wrote the lyrics to Himnusz, the Hungarian national anthem.

The Szatmár Fogadó on the main road at the turning to the cemetery has six rooms, and hearty meals from 2500Ft.

A village must for anyone interested in folk art, Tákos is 10km northeast of Vásárosnamény on Rte 41.

The 18th-century wattle-and-daub Calvinist church has a spectacularly painted coffered ceiling of blue and red flowers, a partly beaten-earth floor and an ornately carved 'folk baroque' pulpit sitting on a large millstone. Outside the church, which villagers call the 'Barefoot Notre Dame of Hungary', stands a perfectly preserved bell tower (1767). The keeper of the keys to this 'peasants' cathedral' lives at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 20.

The Provincial House, opposite the church, sells works by local craftspeople and local plum jam.

Down the road from the Calvinist church is the delightful guesthouse Baráth Vendégház.