Hungary gets third Michelin star restaurant

Borkonya, which means Winekitchen in Hungarian, became Hungary's third Michelin star restaurant last month, after Costes and Onyx. Located in Budapest, Winekitchen is a blend of French-style bistro with a contemporary family restaurant, offering the best of Hungarian cuisine. The concept is based on the wide and diverse wine list, delicious food and a personal and relaxed service.

Their wine assortment includes 200 different, mostly Hungarian wines that represent not only the well-known wineries, but also small and yet-to-be-discovered cellars. They offer 48 wines by the glass and have a temperature-controlled wine shelf with a 1200-bottle-capacity, so people can buy wine by the bottle at a reasonable price to take-away or drink on the spot.

Chef Ákos Sárközi trained in Restaurant Alabárdos in Budapest and the Portuguese two-Michelin-star Restaurant Villa Joya, and takes his inspiration from Transylvanian cuisine, combined with Spanish, French and Italian ingredients. His aim is to show the many facets of traditional Hungarian cuisine using a contemporary approach and state-of-the-art kitchen technology. For more information visit: www.borkonyha.hu

Sparty's Summer Season starts 19th April at the Széchenyi Baths

Budapest's popular party nights or 'sparty's as they are known, have been taking place in the city's historical thermal baths for 16 years. This year they are launching their summer series of sparty's early, on 19th April in the spacious Széchenyi Baths in the City Park. The weekly sparty kicks off at 10.30pm and includes special DJ-sets, mind-blowing laser and smoke-formations, bars full of liquid and edible delicacies, and an international crowd of sparty-goers.

The dress code is swim-suit and flip-flops and tickets can be booked in advance, online (www.spartybooking.com) or personally (in Café Hütte or cash desks of Széchenyi Baths), or on the door.  Single ticket price is €25.

Budapest Pálinka Festival 16-19 May 2014

The Budapest Pálinka Festival is a unique gastronomic event where visitors can taste over 300 different types of pálinka, a special Hungarian type of brandy. All major producers come along with some smaller, family-run distilleries will showcase their finest spirits at the festival.

The Pálinka Festival is billed as a trend-setting event as it showcases locally grown fruit and, as well as the chance to taste this unique spirit, visitors can enjoy Hungarian delicacies including sausages, cheese and chocolate and listen to live music.

The event starts in the afternoon and on Thurs/Sun finishes at midnight and on Fri/sat finishes at 2am. A day pass costs: HUF 2,000 (£6.00) and includes tasting glass. For more details visit www.palinkaeskolbasz.hu

The BUBI - Bicycle Scheme for Budapest

The public bike-sharing scheme, the Bubi isan acronym for Budapest Bicycle. It is due to be launched at the end of April and will be accessible via a specialised smart-card, Bubi pass or with a daily ticket. The bicycles can be used free of charge for half an hour, the next 60 minutes will cost the price of a single transport ticket (less than £1). Budapest wants to become a safer and bike-friendly capital and many improvements are taking place around the city to facilitate this.

For the launch there will be around 1,000 bikes available, 74 docking stations where bikes can be picked up and returned - 57 stations on the Pest side, 16 in Buda, and one on Margitsziget (Margaret Island). In Pest, the area covered by bubi will extend to the Városliget (City Park) and the Nagykörút (Grand Boulevard), in Buda to the Víziváros and the university campus in South Buda. For more information visit http://www.bkk.hu/en

Refurbishment of the Aquaticum Thermal Spa in Debrecen is complete

The Aquaticum thermal spa complex, located in Debrecen and part of the four star Aquaticum Debrecen Thermal and Wellness Hotel, has just undergone a refurbishment programme to its indoor thermal spa facilities. There are three medicinal water pools of different temperatures, a swimming pool, a contrast bath and steam chambers in the domed pool hall. There is also an open-air pool with medicinal waters that operates year-round. The indoor and outdoor pools are equipped with water massages and mushroom showers can be used to complement the medical treatments with medicinal water massage.

There is direct access from the thermal baths to the Mediterranean Pleasure Baths via a glass-walled corridor. This area, complete with tropical plants, is great for families and includes a wave pool, children and baby pool, 12 slides, a climbing wall, slow-river corridors, water massage jets, mushroom and neck showers, cave pools, pleasure paths and water choppers. At the complex there is also a Mediterranean Restaurant, Thai Massage Centre, as well as a Sauna Centre equipped with a Finnish sauna and steam chambers. For more information visit www.aquaticum.hu

Debrecen, in the east of Hungary is easily accessible by WizzAir flights from Luton Airport, 7 times a week. For more information visit www.wizzair.com

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For further information please contact:

Karin Jones

Tel: 07908 488 492

Email: karin@ipr-online.co.uk