Landlocked Hungary stretches from the Austrian frontier, across the rolling hills of Transdanubia, to the endless horizons of the Great Plain. In the north, the River Danube and a chain of forested uplands form the boundary with Slovakia. To the south, the land lies open to the plains of Croatia and Serbia. The metropolitan delights of Budapest and the shores of Lake Balaton, the “Hungarian Ocean”, are well known, but Hungary has much more to offer than its capital city and its great lake. Pastoral traditions are still in evidence in the Great Plain, where steppe-like landscapes are preserved in the world-famous Hortobágy National Park. The uplands are a wonderful recreational asset for city-dwellers, especially the Danube Bend region. Provincial towns in Hungary have a strong individual identity, from industrial Miskolc to 2,000-year-old Pécs.

At the end of the 9th century AD, Hungarian tribes crossed the Carpathian Mountains and took possession of the Danube basin. Successive invasions, by Mongols in the 13th century, then later by Turkish forces, Habsburg king-emperors, and Soviet tanks, have moulded Hungarian history, bringing devastation or unwanted occupation to the land and its people. Before World War I, Hungary was three times the size it is today, and consequently many Hungarians live outside the country's present borders. In 1989, Hungary precipitated the collapse of Communism by dismantling border barriers and allowing East Germans to flood into the west. The country was an early post-Cold War candidate for membership of the European Union and became a member of NATO in March 1999.

Hungarian cultural life blossomed in the 19th and early 20th century, with international figures emerging in music, art, and architecture. Franz Liszt was one of the finest romantic composers of the 19th century, while Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók were noted for their 20th-century interpretation of Hungarian folk music. In the late 19th century, Mihály Munkácsy was famed for his large-scale realistic paintings, and Victor Vasarely was a major exponent of Op Art in the 1960s. Two of architect Frigyes Schulek's mock-medieval designs, the Fishermen's Bastion and Matthias Church, are among Budapest's most famous monuments. Despite the fine poetry of János Arany and Sándor PetÞfi, and the novels of Mór Jókai, Hungarian literature is less known outside the borders.

Ancient Buda on a hill to the west and modern Pest to the east, spanning the mighty Danube, form one of the great metropolitan cities of Central Europe. Buda's Castle Hill is the usual starting point for exploring this vibrant city. The buildings, destroyed in World War II have been painstakingly restored. The great Gothic Matthias Church, and the Fishermen's Bastion, offer wonderful views over the Danube. Beyond the huge Royal Palace with its museums and galleries are the dramatic cliffs of Gellért Hill, topped by the giant Freedom Monument in commemoration of soldiers who died fighting the Nazis. The broad boulevards of Pest are lined with imposing edifices like the National Museum and the extraordinary Museum of Applied Arts, one of the city's many fine art nouveau buildings. Pedestrians throng the fashionable shopping street of Váci utca or stroll along the Danube Embankment, where the neo-Gothic parliament building has pride of place.