Since last weekend, most outdoor swimming venues in and outside Budapest, including the beaches of Lake Balaton, opened with safety precautions in place. Along with the beach openings, the annual round map of the prices of tickets has been completed: with a few exceptions, the prices of adult and children’s entry tickets are being raised almost everywhere around Lake Balaton.
As of May 29th, although a bit later than usual, beaches opened at Lake Balaton and now everyone can enjoy the Hungarian sea again – of course with precautions in force due to the coronavirus epidemic. However, it is worth checking how much the entry tickets cost at one’s favorite beach resorts, as most places around Lake Balaton have increased its prices. Prices have increased the most on the beach in Csopak, where visitors have to pay 600 HUF more than last year.
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The Balatontipp.hu regional website collected the prices of tickets for the most popular beaches; most of them are increasing their prices, but several beaches which were free before also introduced entry tickets. According to the portal, when setting the prices, the municipalities or municipal companies operating the beaches started from the fact that the restrictions caused by the epidemic reduced the expected traffic, while the additional tasks significantly increase the workload and related costs. Because of this, in some cases not only is no profit expected, but profitable operation is also doubtful.
There are still a couple of free beaches around the Balaton, mainly on the South side, which can be found here. However, most places raised or kept their previous prices. The most expensive beach this season will be the Esterházy in Balatonfüred, where visitors have to pay HUF 1,700 (EUR 5) for a ticket during peak hours and weekends.
The beach in Csopak is in second place with an entrance fee of HUF 1,600 (EUR 4,5), which is a 60% increase compared to last year. The Nagystrand in Siófok also raised prices- this summer they will ask for HUF 1,500 (EUR 4,35) during the main season on weekends. At the vast majority of the examined beaches, visitors have to pay an entry fee of around 1000 forints, while there are 5 places for a relatively cheap, 500 forints, price.
featured photo: Zoltán Balogh/MTI