Your full-day journey begins with pickup at your accommodations in Budapest or Vienna. Group size is limited to six to ensure an intimate experience.
Head through the scenic countryside of the Austro-Hungarian border, into the charming Hungarian town of Sopron and Austria’s Burgenland wine regions. In Sopron, stop at a winery to sample five to eight varietals of regional wine. You’ll have some time to admire the medieval, Baroque and Renaissance architecture of the town, and visit the nearby Pan-European Picnic Park. Your guide will share how a peaceful 1989 demonstration here helped drive the fall of the Berlin Wall.
A stop in a Burgenland winery will then treat your palette to a handful of reds and whites, including a local sweet wine made from mold-affected grapes. You’ll explore Eisenstadt, the former home of Hungary’s Esterházy family, where you can wander around the grounds of the grand Esterházy Palace (Schloss Esterházy).
Then it’s on to Lake Neusiedl (Lake Ferto), a UNESCO-listed landscape as well as Europe’s second largest steppe lake. The area attracts large numbers of storks in the spring and summer and you’ll have a perfect opportunity for photos.
You’ll also stop in Rust, a lakefront town in Austria. Here you’ll be offered some free time to walk and admire the brightly-hued houses and wineries. If you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the blackboards that record the numbers of visiting storks in the summer.
There will also be a break for lunch (at own expense) at a winery or Austrian buschenschank or heuriger, where you can typically choose from dishes such as local cheese, wiener schnitzel (breaded veal) and fried chicken.
Your tour ends with drop-off at your accommodations in either Vienna or Budapest.
