Tihany moods from ferry to ferry

Itinerary

• The route starts from the bus stop (the ferry) along the S sign.
• At a junction we turn right onto the ZT sign.
• We make a detour to the Pass Cone via the Z⩍ sign, and rejoin on its other branch.
• We turn right onto the ZT sign, then continue straight a few meters ahead on the S+ sign to the Hármashegyi Cone (the last couple of meters are unmarked!).
• We turn back on the S+ sign, from which we turn right onto the connecting ZT sign.
• After the Inner Lake we turn left on the Z▲ sign.
• We turn right onto the S▲ signs, on which we climb to the Watchtower Lookout.
• We descend back on the S▲ sign to the junction at the bottom of the staircase.
• On the meadow we turn left onto the S sign, which we follow all the way to the endpoint, the Tihany meadow.

About the route in detail

The ferry

For millennia, the crossing place on Lake Balaton has been the strait between the Tihany Peninsula and the triangular sediment built up by Szántód on the opposite shore. Evidence suggests that even the Romans used this shortcut, and the founding charter of Tihany Abbey also mentions the ferry. The ferry rights brought substantial financial opportunities to its owner. For a long time, Benedictine monks operated the ferry, which was then rowed manually by abbey servants. In the early 19th century, the Szántód ferry inn was built, which played an important role: allegedly, the innkeeper signaled to the ferryman on the opposite shore, and the number of straw torches showed the size of the load, whether a person or a vehicle. By then, wind also helped, with sailing ships cutting through the waves. In good weather, it took 20 minutes to cover the distance, and up to 45 minutes in difficult conditions. The service of motorized ferries started in the late 1920s, and their modern representatives, after several renovations, have been traveling between the two shores since the 1960s.

Heralds of a landscape born in fire

Starting on the S sign, we leave the main road and wind through the camping cabins for minutes. Just before leaving the hotel parking lot, we step right into an acacia forest via a crafted staircase, and before us appears the 12th-century origin ruins of the Újlak church on the ridge. Even then, the ferry defined life on the peninsula's tip: serfs assigned to protect the crossing lived in the small fishing village.

The path initially rises gently and later becomes steep, but we soon reach the ridge top where the terrain calms, and the forest becomes less interesting. (Outside the leafy season, there is continuous view of Lake Balaton through the branches.) After turning right at a junction onto the ZT sign, shortly after we reach a textured white rock outcrop. In the southern tip of the peninsula, plenty of similar formations line up: the geyserite cones are heralds of the Tihany landscape born of fire. At the end or after the quieting of volcanism, marshy, swampy terrain existed where today's Lake Balaton is, and waters percolating through the cracks in the rocks came to the surface as hot water solutions due to glowing rocks below. This geological environment fed more than a hundred thermal springs (not geysers), whose high silica content cemented other rocks, while the geyserite sediment and large amounts of lime precipitated from suddenly cooled waters. The geyserite cones dot the southern part of the Tihany area; approaching closer, some show traces of former vents, air channels leading outside. Their internal structure was often revealed by mining, as before protected status large chunks were mined out.

The Lóczy Lajos nature trail we walk on was Hungary's first demonstration tourist route. It winds long between fractured geyserite rocks, which silently preserve the memory of this dynamic geological period. The forest offers few embellishments; a mixed maple association characterizes the dry woodland in a near-natural state. We avoid a tiny lavender field which just enough reveals the panorama of the peninsula's interior. Not far away, the Watchtower Lookout on Apáti Hill gleams, and the road there remains long and rewarding.

The plant taken to the stock exchange

On the ground, long orderly rows of lavender bushes enjoy the sunlight. Their cultivation has a long history and benefits from the fortunate coincidence of climatic conditions. In the 1920s, Bittera Gyula, a well-regarded herbal expert, brought propagation material from France to establish the first Hungarian lavender fields on the Tihany Peninsula. The Bakony Mountains provide protection against cool northern winds and capture much precipitation, creating dry conditions. Lake Balaton offers humid air, and the number of sunny hours is outstanding by national standards—ideal for lavender in the sub-Mediterranean climate characteristic of Tihany, which also has partly loess, sandy, fundamentally volcanic soils. (Initially, harsh snowless winters were the plant's only challenge, but breeding provided protection.) The conditions turned out so ideal that the essential oil quality of harvested lavender surpassed even the best in southern France. Later, due to its success, Tihany lavender was even taken to the stock exchange, expanding the fields' size; harvesting ceased due to World War II and socialism. Today, increasingly large areas bloom in June: richly purple, fragrant lavender decorates various points on the peninsula, giving a distinctly unique charm to the hikes.

In the thermal spring area

We again enter the dense greenery, the path network weaving at the heart of the geyser field as the ZT sign takes a sharp left. Dust rises under our steps on an increasingly narrow trail when a junction offers a detour: turn right following the Z⩍ signs! We fight through bushes when another thermal spring rock splits the foliage screen: on the porous surface of the Borsókő Cone, forms dissolved by carbonic acid water, reddish stains from iron solutions, and the namesake borsókő lime precipitations can be seen. A dense steaming spring field might have disturbed the young landscape; a few meters ahead our path borders the Kalapos Cone. Although mostly dismantled by mining, an interesting geomorphological phenomenon can be studied like in a textbook: the upper layer was hardened and cemented by hot water solutions, while the underlying breccia, inherently fractured rock, was further broken down by water and steam. Thus, the latter wears away faster, while the upper, calcareous rock resists better. The thinning stem and the broad cap form a grotesque mushroom, whose balance will eventually be upset by (selective) erosion. Our geological walk in the peninsula's active history is far from over, in fact, the densest part is just ahead.

Where the sign turns back, a large rock block heaps up the terrain, with a small niche at its base. Descending, we find beautiful erosion forms and, at the end, an open tunnel. The Pass Cone was also born of the thermal spring field like its close neighbors, but it is more complex in development and structure: its colors are various layers, chronologically presenting its formation history. The defining element of the rock body is geyserite with high lime content massively dissolved from the thermal water, laminated and dark iron-stained bands formed by the rhythmic operation of the springs. The cave was shaped by carbonic waters near the process end, finally formed and finished by siliceous solutions surfacing—the vertical imprint of this vent (to the left of the cavity) immediately catches the eye.

The best of the Tihany landscape

At this point, the Z⩍ sign turns back on another branch and joins the ZT sign, where we must keep right. In meters, we face the famous Aranyház geyserite cone, named after the yellow lichen covering its surface. From the previously gentle landscape rises a striking rock castle towards the sky, a jagged formation breaking into many small crags, to which a pleasant path leads up (last few meters unmarked). From its top view emerge the Inner Lake and the sight of Tihany, and the peninsula's entire inner terrain unfolds. Behind the vineyards follows the reed-covered basin of the Outer Lake, to its left the Watchtower Lookout stands over the landscape, the background provided by the forested hills of Balaton Uplands (the peak of Kab Hill is recognizable). Return to the path and continue along the S+ sign for a few minutes until a sign announces the stair-accessible Hármashegyi Cone. This spot offers the most beautiful panorama: the blue mirror of the Inner Lake and the turquoise surface of Balaton form a sharp contrast, between them the neat village picture of Tihany and the monastery’s elegant towers enliven the view.

We retrace our steps to the base of Aranyház and turn right onto the ZT sign, leading out of the forest and following a country road. To the right the Inner Lake gleams, along its shore the grey cattle herd’s pasture turns green. The tourist route avoids fruit trees, zigzags, and approaches the narrow strip of reeds before circumventing a forest patch. A junction comes, from which we turn towards the western shore direction of the peninsula: on the Z▲ sign we keep left. We leave another lavender field behind; vineyards line the right side along the bowl-shaped depression, whose name, Farkasverem, captures this position. We meander through shrubby terrain and vineyards, with dense reeds hiding the Outer Lake opposite. After a few bends, we change signs (right) and continue following the S▲ pictograms. The forest sometimes turns into a grove; we cross a wooded pasture. On our left lies the cradle of Tihany lavender cultivation, a reverted wild lavender hideout, and soon the Watchtower Lookout appears high above. The tiring climb disappears for a while, finally we reach the tower via staircase, raised in 2017 at one of the peninsula's highest points, the top of Apáti Hill. (The name may come from unknown ruins found on the nearby Csúcs Hill, believed by some to be remnants of an old watchtower.)

Behind volcanoes

The panoramic view from above is dazzling: Lake Balaton nearly surrounds the Tihany Peninsula, whose western end fades into mist. In the distance appear the Bakony Mountains, the highlands of Somogy on the southern shore, the Körös Hill valley bridge, and closer the hills of Füred appear blue. The internal structure of Tihany unfolds like a terrain model, and several episodes of the terrain formation can be read from the surface shapes. About 7 million years ago, basalt magma broke through the thinning crust of the Carpathian Basin, beginning the volcanism of Balaton Uplands here on the peninsula: the molten rock did not reach the swampy surface but boiled the sediment’s water content to steam, erupting with huge explosions. The debris formed rings around eruption centers, three of which researchers identified: one each in the Outer and Inner Lake areas, and a third south of Csúcs Hill. (Later slag scatter characterized the process.) Shallow small craters filled with lakes at volcanism’s end; thus the operational type name "maar," meaning crater lake in German. After 4 million years of activity, the Tihany land finally quieted, its rejuvenated rock started to erode, and former crater rings were eaten away by erosion. The transformation was accompanied by intense thermal spring activity; Balaton as a lake had no trace then. About 17–15 thousand years ago the three lake basins formed, merging due to subsidence about 5 thousand years ago. Water level changed with climatic conditions; at times, the Tihany peninsula became an island, its flat base engulfed by the lake. Human impact greatly transformed the landscape almost beyond recognition: in the early 19th century canals were dug, and Outer Lake water drained to use as meadows. Forests retreated to the peninsula’s edges and highest peaks; with tourism’s appearance and Balaton’s increased attraction, nature protection became necessary: Hungary’s first landscape protection area was designated here in 1952, even with its own guard. Today, a national park preserves the values, and the peninsula received the European Diploma, placing it among Europe’s highly protected natural heritage.

Waves above the water mass

Looking around, it’s certainly not easy to say goodbye to the view, yet we must, as the main and most beautiful section of our journey still awaits. After descending the staircase, the hiking trails split across the meadow: from here we continue left on the S sign. We climb upward, a rocky terrain mixed with pine forest atmosphere, and when the Balaton view emerges, the effect is so striking and the space so vast that it is completely unexpected in this gentle landscape endowed with low formations. The shore suddenly falls steeply towards the lake mirror, and although the narrow Sajkodi beach is right below us, forest and slope hide it from view. We can measure the Sajkodi Bay, one of Balaton’s last natural condition shore sections, and if we follow the mountain ridge far, the flat top of Badacsony and the pointier landmark hills emerge from the mist.

On the route’s right branch, we can descend a little where a cliff reveals the peninsula’s structure: dark layers of basalt tufa streak the slope below, and above towers resistant geyserite building the highest peaks of the western shore arc. Thus it preserved the former surface height relatively faithfully (like a landmark hill), also giving us the Csúcs Hill ahead, the dominant point of the terrain. The path winds narrowly amid trees; we often see Lake Balaton, so we can enjoy the height and spatial experience almost without interruption. Before the peak, the path splits again. On the ascending branch, we reach Csúcs Hill; on the descending branch, we can visit Sobri Jóska cave (the hideout linked only by folklore to the outlaw often mentioned in the Bakony region).

The peak’s wild panorama distinguishes it from others (and its unclear-origin ruins). After leaving it behind, the unforgettable beautiful path continues high above the lake, enriched by the rustling of waves fading in the reeds. Again and again we can look out to Balaton, below forest meets water; sometimes we walk on exposed ledges. On a section, the view opens southwards: the reed strip leads our gaze to the opposite shore, the monstrous Körös Hill viaduct outlines. We descend gently; the price of comfort is the next climb: crossing a narrow concrete road, from where we ascend to Gurbicsa Peak. In quite dense forest, a makeshift staircase leads down (we bypass a covered resting place), after which we can enjoy the lake view from several points again. The terrain does not rest: we lose elevation and emerge onto a paved road, turning left; behind the trees, a timbered building of the forest school (also lodging) whitens. The S sign, however, directs right in the opposite direction. The terrain is low, the sometimes steep hill is still tiring. The newer panoramas are already farewell locations: soon encroaching bushes cover the Balaton landscape (from one point, we still glimpse the southern shore, which we have visibly approached since the Watchtower Lookout). With one last effort, we climb the sweaty ascent to the top of Hálóeresztő. A little earlier, the scent of pine fills the crumbling resting place, from which our path sharply turns left; minutes later at Félbevágott Cone, we find a familiar junction. Turning right, the sign leads back on the route taken at the start to the ferry.