I first visited Hungary way back in 1995. I was there for several weeks, based in Budapest for work, but exploring the wider surrounding countryside in my free time in the early mornings, evenings, and at weekends.
Needless to say, the Hungary of the mid-1990s was a very different place to the Hungary of today! The last Soviet troops had only left the country four years before I got there, the culmination of a process that began in 1989 with the fall of the former communist administration that had dominated the country’s politics for decades. As the Iron Curtain lifted across central and Eastern Europe, change was in the air. It was an exciting time to be a young man working in Budapest, representing a British company there. There was a sense of newfound freedom, and opportunity.
That coincided with a similar feeling within me – I was spreading my wings further afield than hitherto, starting to explore Europe's wildlife beyond the tame boundaries of the UK. I was spending time in France, Spain, the Netherlands... but this was my first taste of Eastern Europe. And I loved what I found there.
The welcome from the Hungarian people was warm and unaffected, and what wildlife I had a chance to encounter in my free time was altogether new and spectacular. Eastern Imperial Eagle rather knocked Common Buzzard into a cocked hat! I couldn’t wait to return with wildlife my primary focus.
Some 15 years later, I did just that, spending days working alongside János Oláh and the Saker Tours team, seeing amazing birdlife on the plains and wetlands of the mighty Hortobágy national park, and in the heavily wooded Zemplén Hills. These were wonderful times, watching breeding Red-footed Falcon and Whiskered Tern, shy Hawfinch and White-backed Woodpecker, and staring deep into the watchful eyes of Ural Owls. I made firm friends with János and his guides, friendships that would last for years. I went on to help edit a book about the ecology of the salt pans of the area, and it was a natural progression that, when Mariposa Nature Tours took to the wing in 2023, we would work closely with János from day one.
Between us, we’ve started to develop a series of butterfly tours based in Eastern Europe – in Serbia, Romania, and Hungary – and have more plans in the pipeline for 2027 and beyond. But in the year just gone, 2025, I had the opportunity to return to Hungary on the 30th anniversary of my first visit there, on this occasion to look for Pallas’s Fritillary, and other late summer butterflies of Hungary. I leapt at the chance.
I’m so pleased to report that nothing’s changed – the welcome is as warm as ever, the same kind folk are running the guesthouses in which we stayed, although all of us are a little older and greyer than once we were! And the wildlife is still abundant and as vibrant and exciting as ever. Our encounters with Pallas’s Fritillary were, as we hoped, close and immensely satisfying, but thanks to the site knowledge and network of contacts of János, we saw so much more than this king of fritillaries – no fewer than four species of Phengaris large blue (Large Blue, Scarce Large Blue, Dusky Large Blue, and Alcon Blue), Lesser Clouded Yellow, Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow, Mountain Small White, and a supporting cast of the likes of Large Chequered Skipper, Dryad, Meleager’s Blue, False Grayling, Assman's Fritillary… the list went on, and on, and the photographic opportunities for our guests were truly spectacular.
Throw in lovely food and a memorable wine-tasting and dinner one evening at a beautiful Tokaj vineyard, and this really was a recipe for a fabulous butterfly holiday, and a triumphant return for me to one of my favourite European holiday destinations. You'll find a full trip report for the 2025 edition of Pallas's Fritillary & Late Summer Butterflies of Hungary on the tour's dedicated page here on our website, and I’m delighted that we’ll be running this tour again next year, on 16 – 23 July 2026. It’s already a guaranteed departure, and with it that means it generates a guaranteed donation to support the invaluable work of our friends at Butterfly Conservation Europe. Everyone’s a winner with a Mariposa Nature Tours butterfly tour. No wonder we’re the first choice for European butterfly-watching holidays.
