“The Tisza – the wonderful waterworld!”
7 good reasons for visiting Lake Tisza!
1... Because 1 boating trip on Lake Tisza is worth 4 excursions around the Great Plain!
Lake Tisza is special in that it brings together Europe’s largest nymphia peltata fields and, mottled like an island, the flood-time backwaters, the wetlands, the large open waters and the river embraced by flood plain woodlands of the country’s second largest lake! Lake Tisza belongs to the World Heritage as part of the Hortobágy National Park, and it’s an adventure story waterworld! It can be compared with no other lake, its uniqueness lying in its varied water surfaces. Although it began its life more than thirty years ago as the Kisköre Reservoir, no trace of human hand can be found upon it. The Lake Tisza Bird Reserve attracts international interest. As Lake Tisza and the Hortobágy are Europe’s most important stopover for migratory birds, we can observe in every season rarely seen species of birds or large flocks of species feeding and nesting. It is an ornithologist’s paradise. Nearly 200 separate species have been listed here.
Our recommendations:
2-3 hour boating tours depart from the Lake’s 15 jetties. From the Poroszló Bay, petrol- and electric-powered boats holding 5-6 persons depart with a professional guide. Don’t forget your camera! Even for amateurs, the bird- and plant-life guarantee a wonderful spectacle and photographic topics. At dawn and dusk the play of colours and contours provides an even richer experience for trippers. You just can’t get bored with these excursions, for every month of the year nature provides us with some new beauty.
The Lake Tisza Water Walk and Trail can be approached from the Poroszló jetty in small craft with a capacity of 20, according to timetable. In the course of a one-and-a-half-hour walk a 1,500m beaten, raised dry trail leads you through three connected islands to bird hides and observation towers. Guaranteed guides and thematic boards assist in orientation and acquaintance with the Lake Tisza waterworld. A perfect venue for school trips.
2... Because here, whatever the month of the year, you can dangle your rod in the country’s largest interconnected fishing waters!
Anglers were Lake Tisza’s first tourists. The varied biotops, the cold and fast-flowing river, the fast-warming shallow bays and the backwaters provide fishermen with a great variety of challenges. It is precisely this complex natural picture that guarantees a bite. With the exception of the breeding season in March, you can fish every month of the year, for different types and using different methods: from April, sweeper fishing in the reservoir area; spring catfish angling on the Tisza; from May, angling for predacious fish on the bleaks; summer reedside tench fishing, luring catfish with a special device and night-time spinning for catfish on the Tisza until September, bream-fishing until the autumn, evening pike-perch fishing on the reservoir, reed carp fishing in early autumn, October pike fishing in the region’s backwaters and winter ice hole fishing.
Our recommendations:
The organisation of angling tours has a great tradition at the Lake. At the jetties, qualified guides and fishing craft await all those with a passion for fishing. There are a host of fishing shops and plenty of friendly accommodation in the vicinity of the lakeside. Jetties provide up-to-the-hour information about the weather, currents and lock-gate timetables. As an innovation around Tiszafüred and Tiszaörvény, we must mention the slipway, which in the event of the flushing channel structure being closed guarantees access to the Lake for those arriving from the left-hand shore.
3... Because Lake Tisza gives you the only opportunity in the whole of Europe to pursue motor watersports!
In one of Lake Tisza’s bays 14 km2 of open water provides yachting opportunities. Besides this, three jet-ski courses and numerous water sports hire facilities and adventurous events await those with a desire for active relaxation and challenges. Everything can be found that can move on water, from water bananas to jet-skis, motorboats, water-skis and paragliders.
It’s worth making a thorough inspection of the Lake Tisza map in order to understand how it is possible for Lake Tisza to have so many faces. The Lake’s north-eastern (upper) bays are shallower, typically between 40-100 cm deep; this strictly protected area is part of the Hortobágy National Park and is closed off to tourists with the exception of a single tourist trail. As we progress in a south-eastern direction following the current of the Tisza, the Lake becomes progressively deeper. The central part of the Lake, a varied surface dotted with islands, provides a home for ecotourism and fishing tourism, a peaceful world with space for people to paddle their canoes and kayaks away from the shore. Nearly 40 km to south-east we find the Abádszalók Bay, which reaches a depth of two metres, an open surface free of root timber, the scene of busy water life closest to Kisköre, the motor of the Lake, the barrage. It is here that the water level of the Lake is regulated, for Lake Tisza is also special in that it has a summer and a winter water level. As water does not flow backwards…We live in perfect harmony on these 127 square kilometres!
4... For here you can live like a king, just for a day: at sunrise the water of the Tisza pampers you, at sunset the curative waters stroke you.
We can also safely recommend the beaches of the gently deepening, quickly warming shallow waters for families with small children. The thermal and medicinal baths circling the lake make your relaxation at Lake Tisza complete in a pleasant, friendly environment.
Our recommendations:
Six free beaches can be found around Lake Tisza: at Abádszalók, a busy waterfront full of cultural and music events, at Tiszafüred, Poroszló, Sarud and Kisköre the quieter stretches are filled with families, while the Tiszanána Dream Waterfront (Álompart) is perhaps one of the best-ordered stretches of shore over the Hungarian territory of the Tisza. The authorities measure the quality of the water every two weeks, and this year the quality of the water again cannot be found fault with. The reason for this is that the Tisza continually pours fresh, clean water into the bays, while at times of flood the locks enclose this good quality for long periods, while at the same time the Lake water never stagnates.
For those who want to be sure that their feet are on firm ground, there are thermal campsites and baths at Tiszafüred, Berekfürdő, Tiszaújváros, Tiszacsege, Polgár, Tiszaörs and Heves. Many hotels and pensions provide medicinal services.
5… Because here, in less than one weekend, you can collect the seals on the Great Taste Tour (Nagy Ízutazás) campaign!
There are many friendly, inviting restaurants and wayside inns around the lake. You can take part in the Great Taste Tour in 15 of our restaurants, the aim of which is to obtain seals in the course of the game in 6 restaurants around the country, and then send a picture postcard to the Hungarian Tourist Board (Magyar Turizmus Zrt.). Your guaranteed prize is a damask serviette set for two, as well as participating in the September 4 and January 5 raffles.
Our recommendations:
In the Year of Gastronomy we offer three events: the 2005 winning entry from the Tisza region for tourist events of the year, the Karcag Mutton-Cooking Contest, which for its second decade has been nurturing the traditions brought across to us by the Kuns hundreds of years ago from Kazakhstan. Only the Kuns know how to make a good mutton stew! The secret is to cut off and scorch the head and feet, after which they are cooked together with the offal, which produces a special and very fine flavour. The thought might make your stomach turn, but in fact is that in this way the stew is given a far pleasanter, more harmonious flavour. This June 24-25 more than 100 cauldrons will be cooking the stew, both for guests and the exceptionally knowledgeable panel of judges.
The most prestigious Great Taste Tour event in the Lake Tisza region is the Nagykörű Cherry Festival. The gigantic, crunchy-sweet Gemmersdorf cherry can be found growing in this Szolnok county village of a few hundred souls situated on the shore of the Tisza, and sold as a pricey delicacy in the market places in June. Whoever visits the village at this time will encounter people rushing around the buying areas in an atmosphere resembling the stock market and container lorries transporting the tasty fruit, but if we’re sharp we might get a sample at one of the houses!
The people of Köre celebrate the cherry harvest in July! This year July 22-23 are the dates for those with a yen to travel and who prefer to take their cherries in the form of pálinka, ice-cream, conserves or cakes. Organised activities include a cherry-eating contest, a ladder-climbing competition and pálinka-tasting. Our unique product is the Nagykörű 77 pálinka, made out of more than 77 of the species of cherry trees in the Nagykörű Collection!
The Szentistván Matyó Wedding Party, another regional prize-winner, is held on August 19 and is a special event. Szentistván is the most matyó of all matyó embroidery villages, they are the most decorative, the most colourful… and on this particular day they also show us how to squeeze a three-day wedding-party into one. The event, strictly played out according to a tradition-preserving script, allows for the participation of visitors at the wedding-party.
Gourmands with a penchant for delicacies should taste our fish soup and the lesser-known water-chestnut sauce!
6... Because at Lake Tisza you can say of yourself that you managed to cycle around Hungary’s second-largest lake in one day!
The nearly 70 kilometre-long dam surrounding Lake Tisza serves as a natural observation point and takes cyclists right around the lake, ensuring a fine view over several natural conservation areas rich in bird life, among them the Lake Tisza Bird Reserve. The EuroVelo 11 international cycle route guides tourers with signs from Tiszaújváros to Nagykörű.
Our recommendation: cycle hire at the tour centres, route suggestions, maps and guides
7… Because the Lake Tisza Festival is a good excuse to get away from things and discover the tiny treasures of the tranquil world of a village.
This is the 4th occasion that the Lake Tisza Family and Cultural Festival has been organised, spread over 9 Lake Tisza and River Tisza small settlements over a period of nine weeks. (Abádszalók: June 17-18, Tiszaroff: June 24-25, Tiszafüred: July 1-2, Kisköre: July 8-9, Tiszabábolna: July 15-16, Tiszacsege: July 22-23, Sarud: Aug 5-6, Tiszanána: Aug 12-13, Tiszaújváros: Aug 26-27)
Our recommendation:
Among all the events perhaps the most delightful, for after all the reason for the Lake Tisza Festival is to demonstrate why settlements have different identities, how colourful they are and how loveable these villages and towns along the Tisza and Lake Tisza. Water is the mutual element, and for this reason visitors will find many entertaining and spectacular events founded upon water. Yet this is also a perfect opportunity to peep in through a gateway in the course of a stroll through the village and catch a glimpse of the old crafts, or to steal a glance at some culinary trick or taste one of “granny’s delicacies”… if you’re looking for a special, cherished gift, then seek out the handicrafts workshop. Few people know that Tiszafüred houses the country’s only collection of Miska jugs. You can become the proud owner of beautiful, individually hand-made objects by visiting a potter or a leatherworker’s workshop or a basket market.
There is a wealth of activities for children and musical shows and concerts stretching late into the evening for young and old alike.
+ 1 recommendation: more than 70 outlets accept holiday vouchers at Lake Tisza!
There are no rows of hotels at Lake Tisza!… those seeking accommodation are more likely to find small boarding houses with a family atmosphere that blend in with the environment, small hotels, campsites and private accommodation. You wouldn’t believe how orderly the shoreline is, where a physical environment with picnic areas welcomes visitors to the region. And all this within an arm’s length of untouched nature.
+ 1 … should it rain after all
we have more than 60 suggestions for dull days… from the summer ice rink to the chess museum, from the Kisköre exhibition hall to the ship trip, from the pálinka distillery to shopping outings.
For tourist information look for the Tourinform offices!
We wish you pleasant holiday planning and relaxation at Lake Tisza.
The Lake Tisza Regional Tourist Project Office.
