Roll, walk, glide! – Active adventures in Debrecen

If you arrive in the “cívis” town on four wheels, it is worth parking your car for the weekend and choosing local transport. Debrecen has an excellent public transport culture, so you can travel not only cheaper, but also more environmentally friendly! If you take the tram, you can transform into a real urban explorer, as tram line 1 touches many iconic stops and also passes through the town’s cosy pedestrian zone.

If the weather is fine, we warmly recommend cycling. Debrecen is a particularly bike-friendly town, and almost all green areas are easily accessible from the centre of the town or the hotel. There are cool resting spots in the Great Forest, but it is also an excellent terrain for a leisurely ride. If the little ones are with us, it is worth touching Lake Békás and rolling to the playground by the lake or to the Sziget-kék Theme Park, where the fabulous world of Magda Szabó comes to life. Slides, swings, a go-kart track, climbing frames, lookouts and a mini-town await children in these magical places. If you have not had enough adrenaline, you can climb the lookout tower of the Great Forest Water Tower or conquer the climbing wall in the middle of the tower, or even run around the neighbouring Great Forest Stadium, where some sections run at the level of the canopy of the trees.

There are also countless opportunities if you want to explore Debrecen and its surroundings on foot! Several marked tourist trails start from the Water Tower of the Great Forest in the Great Forest area, but you can also set off on a journey towards the fabulous landscapes of the Erdőspuszták, which surround the town from the north-east, on forest paths, accompanied by bird song. Lake Vekeri and the Hármashegyi Recreation Center, which are also popular among locals, are excellent hiking destinations, in fact, they are a perfect choice for those with children! Here you can learn about the world of trees, mushrooms and birds in a playful way, while the fresh air fills you with energy.

Returning to the Great Forest, you should definitely not miss the Debrecen Zoo, which opened its doors in 1958 as the first zoo and botanical garden in our country with an amusement park. In addition to the animal programmes, such as the zoo camp, tropical house or petting zoo, you can also ride the light railway or the safari train, and you can even feed ring-tailed lemurs or walk with penguins. And if you are looking for a little adrenaline rush, do not miss the bungee trampoline, the modern and classic games in the amusement park, including the ever-favourite spinning barrel, the baroque carousel and dodgem!

And if you are looking for watery experiences, you can “get lost” for long hours in the Aquaticum, which is open all year round. The indoor adventure bath with a Mediterranean atmosphere offers 15 different pools, slides, children's paddling pools, whirlpools and real tropical flora, while adults can relax in the wellness and sauna world or in the pools of the thermal bath with different temperatures of medicinal water. It is a real challenge to list how many attractions there are in the bath, from the Jungle Bunker of Bubu to the adventure boat to the dragon slide! In summer, the outdoor beach is also a real paradise for experiences, with shady resting places, a huge green area, sun loungers and a separate children's world. It is not for nothing that it is called the most modern beach in the country. In addition, the bath complex and the four-star hotel in the middle of it offer great family-friendly services, such as animation programmes and child-friendly dining options, thanks to which a weekend visit can be truly relaxing!

In Debrecen, it would be a sin not to immerse yourself in the hustle and bustle of the centre of the town: the wonderful squares, colourful fountains and excellent gastronomic stops lend a fantastic atmosphere to the centre of the cívis town, which invites you to stroll around with spacious, pedestrian-only squares and spectacular square installations. Admire the town’s blazon made of 180,000 Venetian glass mosaic pieces on the main square, the Millennium Fountain and the glass pyramid next to the Great Church, the colourful merchant houses and story-telling murals on the main street, the water play of the Mediterranean-style Hal köz, and the sunken park of the Déri Square, which invites you to relax! Even the little ones can enjoy running around one of the oldest streets in Debrecen: in the pedestrian zone of the Csapó Street, you can see the colourful flower market, but here you can also find the beautiful building of Zenede, as well as numerous cosy terraces and restaurants. It is worth resting in the square and watching the water play of the special fountain!