Tour Horizont regions: Gerecse

The seventh region covered by the 2026 Tour Horizont. This is the 18th and 17th sections of the Horizont bicycle tour route.
🚴 Distance: 100,3 km I 🚵 Elevation gain: 1432 m I 💪 Difficulty: 7/10

The Gerecse Mountains have grown in such a cunning way that on the Horizont route you have to climb it at least twice — though really, several times. As a warm-up, you first tackle its little sibling, Somlyó, immediately proving that around here, the happier rider is usually the one with more suspension on the bike.

Nomen est omen: on the way to Vértesszőlős, the route passes peaks named Hársas (“Linden Hill”), Baglyas (“Owl Hill”), Hallgató (“Silent One”), Őzfej (“Roe Deer Head”), Rongyos (“Ragged”), and finally Kappan (“Capon”) . This section is rough and slow-going.

Starting from the Koldusszállás hunting lodge, you have to overcome around 300 meters of elevation over 7 kilometers, and not a single meter of it could honestly be called “gucci.” But afterwards comes an even longer descent toward Samu — or rather, the place at the archeological site where the back of his skull was discovered.

Near the Vértesszőlős train station, the small grocery store at the traffic-light intersection is open every day from early morning until afternoon or evening. Polite service, decent selection, a few chairs outside — nothing fancy, yet under certain circumstances these count as luxury amenities. From here to Tata, and even all the way to the Által-ér bridge, you can recover from the exertions/adventures of the Southern Gerecse — unless there’s a north wind. Time flies on the bike path, while spider-like rowers glide across the mirror surface of the Old Lake. Big town, hot meals, bustle, wandering tourists.

Anyone willing to go slightly “off the map” (about 250 meters) should know that the charm of the Tata Fényes Bath and Campsite is hard to match. Stepping in here feels simultaneously like arriving in a healing spa town from a nineteenth-century realist novel, inside a romantic Gyula Kabos movie, and into an Üvegtigris scene with a beer in hand.

After this, even those who never cared to know will find out that Kőpite is actually delicious. In the western ridges of the Gerecse, along an ancient Roman stone-hauling road and past old quarries, Kőpite Hill awaits riders with breathtaking panoramic rings of stone. The hill got its name from its distinctive flat, pie-like shape. Millions of years ago, karst springs emerged here and southern mammoths came to drink from them; today it is a stamping checkpoint — and a first-class one at that, complete with a covered shelter alongside the superb panorama.

Continuing toward Dunaszentmiklós, the vineyards become more numerous and more beautiful. Among the small wine regions of North Pannonia, the Neszmély wine region has perhaps undergone the most joyful transformation over the past decade. Horizont riders, however, have to cross the wine region — without water! Between Tata and Péliföldszentkereszt / Mogyorósbánya, it is therefore important to stay sharp: there is water in the cemetery opposite the Dunaszentmiklós lookout tower, almost for sure. 

As for places to eat and drink along the route, the former Zöld Akác Restaurant has temporarily closed, while the Ströcker Inn, ever since removing its sign from the wall, is approached from the courtyard only by those arriving with above-average confidence and thirst. With a small detour from the route, the well-regarded Bor-Só grocery store recently opened on Petőfi Sándor Street — for many, this may become a true refuge.

After the cedar-filled and magnificent Neszmély Arboretum, in the valley of the Bikol Creek, near the downy oak, there is a canopy walkway where they did not cut down the trees. It is a shady, cool place, much like the hidden rest and bivouac spot beside Pap-rét Lake. From here, a climb swallowing another 200 meters of elevation quickly brings you to Pusztamarót. It is a strange settlement, because technically it no longer exists: it became completely depopulated in the 1970s.

What remains is a memorial resembling a ruined church, though it has nothing to do with any church at all — it commemorates the devastating Ottoman reprisals following the Battle of Mohács. Opposite it stands a rest area, and a bit farther away n youth camp, with all the advantages and disadvantages that implies.

After Dunaszentmiklós, the route offers fewer technical challenges than the tricky terrain on the other side of the mountains, though it is by no means boring or flat. A notable stop is the Salesian Monastery at Péliföldszentkereszt, cleverly hiding a small snack bar under its wing called Mama Calestina.

The Gerecse Nature Park is harder to miss, as is the climb leading toward Mogyorósbánya. What comes after Tokod cannot exactly be called the jewel of the section — you simply have to get through it. The Palatinus Lake at Dorog, however, is one of the clearest lakes in Hungary, and those who know it are aware that on its northeastern shore, unpopular among anglers though it may be, you can swim there for free.