Stunning architecture, vital folk art, thermal spas and Europe's most exciting capital after dark are Hungary's major drawing cards.

Although the country of Hungary is landlocked (you're unlikely to enjoy a beach holiday), swimsuits are still a necessity there. Hungary is home to some of Europe's best and most unique public baths and spas. Hungarians enjoy more than 1,000 natural springs in the country, with 118 in Budapest alone and the world's largest thermal lake at Hévíz (believed to have medicinal qualities that can cure rheumatic ailments, aches and pains).
Why not take the time to buy a new swimsuit for whenever you want to visit public bath houses near you? 

And they also have Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe at almost 600 square kilometers – so big, in fact, that it's often referred to as the Hungarian Sea, and sunseekers have flocked to its shores for decades.

Hungarians are mightily smart. Hungary has produced 13 Nobel laureates to date - more per capita than the likes of Finland, Spain, Canada and Australia - bagging every category except peace.Hungarians have also invented many things, from the biro ballpoint pen (named for inventor László Bíró) to computer science (János Neumann) to Rubik's cube.

Clinking beer glasses is frowned upon. When the Hungarians lost the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence, Austrians executed 13 of the most senior Hungarian generals, and supposedly celebrated by drinking beer and clinking their mugs. Hungarians vowed not to clink beer glasses for the next 150 years. Although that period ended in 1999, the "ban" is still widely observed, especially among more elderly people.

Hungarians love sports and are extremely proud of the fact that, per capita, the country has one of the highest tallies of Olympic medals (482 across both winter and summer games). They continue to do well at fencing, swimming, gymnastics and kayaking, but the men's water polo team is exceptional (it's their national sport) -- you'll find Hungarians gathered around TVs everywhere when the latter are playing.

Equestrian traditions are very much alive. The Hungarians rode into the Carpathian Basin -- the central European territory they conquered -- on horseback and have been in love with things equine ever since. Their famed light cavalry gave English the word Hussar (from the Hungarian "Huszár").