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Tour Details

Dates:18th of Jul - 25th of Jul 2025
Availability:SOLD OUTGuaranteed departure
Group Size:Minimum 4, maximum 10 guests
Grading:Easy to moderate
PricesFull price: £1,475.00 / person Single room supplement: £175.00 / person Deposit: £150.00 / person
Price includes: Accommodation, all meals, ground transportation, services of your guides, and a holiday report.
Not included: International travel, drinks and other personal items, holiday insurance.

Tour Highlights

  • Pallas's Fritillary – one of the most beautiful fritillaries in Europe, and a very localised one at that
  • Potentially FOUR species of Phengaris large blue - Alcon Blue, Dusky Large Blue, Large Blue, and Scarce Large Blue
  • Other eastern European specialities may include Lesser Clouded Yellow, and Assman's Fritillary
  • Numerous other late summer butterflies may include Purple Emperor, Lesser Purple Emperor, Mountain Small White, Large Copper, Scarce Copper, Large Chequered Skipper, and Anomalous, Meleager’s, Osiris, Eastern Baton and Chequered Blues
  • A multi centre tour, to maximise our exposure to the habitats and wonderful butterflies of this diverse region
  • An unforgettable, celebratory wine-tasting dinner in a Tokaj wine cellar
  • Donations will be made to Butterfly Conservation Europe, and the European Butterflies Group, supporting proactive research and conservation

Tour Description

Late July is a fantastic time in Hungary to look for butterflies – and Hungary is fantastic location for a suite of highly desirable species.

Our late summer tour will take us to the hilly, northern part of the country, where we anticipate connecting with eastern European specialities including localised Pallas’s Fritillary, Lesser Clouded Yellow, and Assman’s Fritillary.

The Lycaenidae in the region are a particular treat, and we hope for no fewer than FOUR species of Phengaris ‘large blue’ – Alcon Blue, Dusky Large Blue, Large Blue, and Scarce Large Blue. Their supporting cast is simply superb too, including the likes of Anomalous, Meleager’s, Osiris, Eastern Baton and Chequered Blue. The coppers shouldn’t disappoint either, with Large, Scarce and Purple-edged all there for the finding.

The supporting cast is also enjoyable, and we have a good chance to find Mountain Small White, Purple and Lesser Purple Emperors, Large Chequered Skipper, and Hermit amongst other desirables.

Hungary is in the centre of the Carpathian Basin and holds most of the Hungarian Great Plain. However, for butterflies the foothills of the Carpathians are more productive, so for this focused tour we will explore the most north-easterly Zemplén Hills as well as the Mátra and Bükk Hills too. At the end of the tour, we will also spend a little time close to Central Europe’s largest freshwater body, Lake Balaton.

The country has a 1,000-year-old and amazingly varied history from the Ottoman ruling to the union with the Habsburgs. No doubt we will learn more about the Hungarians during this tour, a proudly horse-riding nation with the mighty Saker Falcon their national bird. Our tour leader, János Oláh, is a Hungarian naturalist and tour leader with decades of experience behind him, and a great story-teller. We will be in the very best of hands both for our butterfly-watching and immersion in the colourful heritage of this fascinating nation.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many butterfly collectors were visiting Hungary – it was, unfortunately, famous amongst collectors of the day as a rich hunting ground for a great many species, one of which was Esper’s Marbled White – a species that, tragically, was locally collected to the point of extirpation.

Happily these days a more responsible attitude prevails. With János coming from a family of eminent professional entomologists, we will be visiting the best sites to see the country’s butterfly riches and doing so, as we always do on all of our tours, in the most responsible manner, taking only photographs and happy memories as our trophies.

Also in common with all of our butterfly tours, this holiday will generate a donation to the European Butterflies Group branch of Butterfly Conservation, specifically focused upon supporting conservation research targeted upon helping Europe’s endangered and vulnerable butterfly species.

Butterfly diversity in Hungary remains amazing and, if the season is favourable, we could see around 80 species of butterflies on this tour. As usual there will be other interesting nature that we will encounter, with some striking wildflowers in bloom and, especially, some great birds to see like Eastern Imperial and Short-toed Eagles, Red-footed and Saker Falcons, Syrian and Black Woodpeckers, and lots of lovely Lesser Grey and Red-backed Shrikes.

Spending several days near the Tokaj World Heritage area provides us with a chance to sample another aspect of local culture, and it would be a shame not to do so. King Louis XIV described the local Tokaji Aszú wine as “the king of wines, and the wine of kings”. On our final evening in the Zemplén Hills we will enjoy a wine-tasting dinner at a wine cellar in the Tokaj area.

We may not be kings, but by then we should be celebrating having seen some European butterfly royalty!

Tour Leaders

Jon is a natural history writer, photographer and experienced wildlife tour leader based in the Shetland Isles, but with strong links in Europe and the Americas that see him travelling widely in search of memorable wildlife encounters.

ButterflyFind Out More

An experienced tour leader, János is an ecology graduate from the University of Debrecen. A lifelong birder, he maintains a keen interest in other varied aspects of the natural world, including butterflies.

ButterflyFind Out More

Tour Location

Map

Tour Itinerary

  • DAY 1

    After arrival at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport*, we will visit some nearby butterfly habitat to stretch our legs before we head to the Mátra Hills, where we will spend our first night

  • DAY 2

    Day 2. The Mátra Hills boast the highest peaks in Hungary at just over 1,000 metres above sea level, and are part of the Carpathian foothill chain in the northern part of Hungary. We will explore some fine butterfly habitat, and look for a number of localised Hungarian species such as Anomalous, Meleager’s and Osiris Blue in particular. Later in the afternoon we will drive to the fabulous Zemplén Hills, our base for the coming three days.

  • DAYS 3-5

    The Zemplén Hills are the most north-easterly of the Carpathian foothills in Hungary. The rolling hills are studded with fantastic castle ruins dating back to the 15th century, and we will surely see some of these ruins at close quarters as their surroundings can be great for certain butterflies!

    Our prime target in this remote corner of Hungary will be the somewhat localised and extremely attractive Pallas’s Fritillary, but we will also look for Alcon, Large and Scarce Large Blues. This lovely area holds a lot of butterflies if conditions are good! On our last evening, we will have a wine tasting dinner in the Tokaj area where the famous aszú dessert wine is produced. A great adventure and experience in its own right!

  • DAY 6

    After breakfast we leave for the Bükk Hills and our base for the remaining two nights near Várpalota. The first part of today will be spent looking for any butterflies we are still missing; later in the afternoon we will head towards Transdanubia for butterflies like Mountain Small White, Lesser Clouded Yellow and, if we are lucky, Hermit. Two nights near Várpalota.

  • DAY 7

    On our last full day, we will devote our time to search for our fourth species of Phengaris, the Dusky Large Blue. We may need to drive a little further on this day, depending on up-to-date information from our network of local entomologists, but we will be committed to track one down if they are on the wing!

  • DAY 8

    Transfer to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, and tour concludes. If flight times allow, we will make a stop en route for some last butterflying.


  • As with all of our tours, we want our guests to enjoy the very best views of the very best wildlife and, as such, we think it’s important to retain a little flexibility in the holiday itinerary. This means that we may choose to swap days around to take into account local weather conditions, or the timing of the flight or flowering season we find upon arrival at our holiday destination. Rest assured, we will ensure you visit all the best sites, and we have your best interests and comfort at heart!

    *We’ll meet at the airport as this is a convenient travel hub for many. However, we appreciate that some guests may have chosen to come overland via rail to Budapest. The main railway station in town is Budapest Keleti, and there are frequent bus services linking the city centre with the airport.

    https://budapestinternationalairport.com/budapest-airport-transfers/bus/#/search
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