Hungary · Romania · Slovakia
"From the grand synagogues of Budapest to the Hasidic heartlands of Tokaj and across the border into Slovakia — three countries, eleven days, one continuous thread of memory."
This tour traces the arc of Jewish life from Budapest's historic Jewish Quarter through the Great Plain and the Banat, into Romania's Transylvania, and onward into the Tokaj wine region and eastern Slovakia. Every stop has been chosen for what it reveals about the texture of Jewish life in Central Europe — from the grand Dohány Street Synagogue to intimate prayer houses in wine-country towns, from restored community buildings to cemeteries that remain hidden in the hills.
Tour Highlights
Day by Day
Day 1 — Monday, 7. June 2027
We land in Budapest and, once everyone has arrived, take our included transfer from the airport straight to the hotel — no need to worry about taxis or logistics on our first day.
In the late afternoon we gather together for the first time: introductions all around, and an overview from your tour leader of the days ahead, from the Great Plain and the Banat to the Tokaj hills and across the border into Slovakia.
We close the evening with a welcome dinner, our first chance to relax together over good Hungarian food and wine before the journey properly begins.
Day 2 — Tuesday, 8. June 2027
We spend the day in Budapest's historic Jewish Quarter, starting at the extraordinary Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe, its Moorish towers and vast sanctuary a symbol of nineteenth-century Jewish confidence in the city. We walk through the adjoining Jewish Museum and the memorial garden, with its weeping-willow monument to the victims of the Holocaust, before continuing on foot past the more intimate Rumbach Street and Kazinczy Street synagogues — Art Nouveau and Orthodox respectively — and the remnants of the wartime ghetto wall.
In the afternoon we take a panoramic tour of the city, taking in the grand sweep of the Danube, the Castle District and Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side, and the Parliament building and Andrássy Avenue on the Pest side.
Budapest was, and remains, home to the largest Jewish community in Central Europe — at its peak, around a quarter of the city's population was Jewish, and today an estimated 100,000 Jews still live here, making it the largest Ashkenazi community on the continent. The community split in 1869 into three factions — Neolog (progressive), Orthodox, and the middle-ground Status Quo Ante — each of which built its own grand synagogue, giving Budapest's Jewish Quarter its famous "synagogue triangle." During the German occupation of 1944, tens of thousands of Budapest's Jews were confined to a ghetto in this same neighborhood; remarkably, because of the timing of the war's end, the majority of the ghetto's population survived — one of the few sizeable Jewish communities in Nazi-occupied Europe to do so largely intact.
Day 3 — Wednesday, 9. June 2027
We leave Budapest and drive south to Szeged, where we take a walking tour of the city's elegant turn-of-the-century streets — rebuilt in grand style after a catastrophic 1879 flood — and step inside the magnificent New Synagogue, one of the true masterpieces of European synagogue architecture, along with the older synagogue nearby that first served the community.
In the afternoon we cross into Romania and continue to Timișoara, our base for the next three nights.
Jewish settlement in Szeged dates only from the late eighteenth century, but the community grew into one of Hungary's most distinguished, led for generations by the celebrated Löw family of rabbis and scholars. Its crowning achievement is the New Synagogue, completed in 1903 to a design by the great synagogue architect Lipót Baumhorn — the second-largest synagogue in Hungary and, by some counts, the fourth-largest in the world, its interior a unique fusion of Art Nouveau botanical motifs with historicist form. The synagogue's archive survived the war largely intact, one of the few in the region to do so, and today the building doubles as a place of worship and as Szeged's principal memorial to the local victims of the Holocaust.
Day 4 — Thursday, 10. June 2027
We spend the morning on a walking tour of Timișoara, taking in the grand squares and Habsburg-era architecture of a city now celebrated as a European Capital of Culture, before visiting the Cetate Synagogue, restored and once again serving as both a house of worship and a concert venue in the heart of the old town.
The afternoon is at leisure — time to browse Timișoara's cafés and riverside parks, or simply rest, before we continue our journey the following day.
Timișoara's Jewish community, one of the oldest and most cosmopolitan in the Banat region, grew from a small Sephardic and Ashkenazi presence in the early eighteenth century to nearly 13,000 people by the interwar years, spread across three distinct neighborhoods — Cetate, Iosefin and Fabric — each of which built its own grand synagogue. The Cetate Synagogue (1865), modeled on the great synagogues of Budapest and Berlin, welcomed Emperor Franz Joseph himself at its consecration; the Fabric Synagogue (1899), a Lipót Baumhorn masterpiece, is among the most architecturally significant, if fragile, Jewish buildings in Romania; and the Iosefin Synagogue remains the only one of the three still in regular religious use. Around 700 Jews live in Timișoara today.
Day 5 — Friday, 11. June 2027
We drive north from Timișoara to Oradea, arriving in the afternoon for a walk through the city's beautifully restored old town, its skyline still shaped by the towering Zion Neolog Synagogue and the Great Orthodox Synagogue along the river.
We gather in the evening for a Shabbat dinner together.
Few Transylvanian cities carry as strong a Jewish architectural imprint as Oradea. The community, founded in the eighteenth century, grew into one of the largest in the region, and its wealth is written across the city center — grand Art Nouveau palaces built by Jewish patrons alongside two soaring synagogues. The Neolog "Zion" Temple, built in 1878 and modeled on the great synagogue of Nuremberg, and the Great Orthodox Synagogue, built in 1890, still dominate the skyline along the Crișul Repede river. Some 30,000 Jews lived in Oradea before the Holocaust; almost all were deported in 1944, and only a small community remains today.
Day 6 — Saturday, 12. June 2027
In the morning we step inside the Zion Neolog Synagogue, today beautifully restored as a museum of the community's history, and the Great Orthodox Synagogue nearby, still the living heart of Jewish life in the city, along with a closer look at the Art Nouveau palaces financed by Oradea's prewar Jewish merchant families.
The afternoon is at leisure — time to wander the riverside promenade, sit down in one of Oradea's grand cafés, or simply rest before we continue on tomorrow.
Day 7 — Sunday, 13. June 2027
We cross back into Hungary and spend the late morning in Debrecen on a walking tour of the city, visiting the Orthodox Synagogue on Pásti Street, today a cultural and heritage center, and the memorial wall commemorating the more than 6,000 local Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
In the afternoon we continue into the hills of the Tokaj wine region, our base for the next three nights.
Jews settled in Debrecen only from the late eighteenth century, but the community grew quickly after legal restrictions eased in 1840, reaching over 10,000 people by 1920 — the second-largest Jewish community in interwar Hungary outside Budapest. Debrecen's Jews split, as elsewhere in Hungary, into Status Quo Ante and Orthodox congregations, each building its own synagogue; more than 6,000 members of the community were murdered in the Holocaust. Today, with around 1,500 members, Debrecen is home to the second-largest Jewish community in Hungary.
Day 8 — Monday, 14. June 2027
We spend the day exploring the Jewish heritage of the Tokaj wine region. We visit Tokaj itself, where the town's former prayer house survives as the region's only active synagogue, alongside the historic Wine Museum. We continue to Tarcal, whose restored synagogue now serves as a gallery, and Mád, once home to the region's leading yeshiva.
In the later afternoon, the day is ours to enjoy: we can relax at the hotel's spa, rent a bike to explore the vineyards, or simply unwind before dinner.
Long before Tokaj wine became famous across the courts of Europe, it was largely Jewish merchants who built its trade — settling as tenant farmers and traders from the eighteenth century, taking over the wine business from Greek merchants, and pioneering many of the techniques still used to produce Tokaji Aszú today. The villages of the Hegyalja foothills, from Tokaj and Tarcal to Mád and Bodrogkeresztúr, once supported a dense network of Hasidic communities and synagogues; today the region is retraced by the "Rebbes' Route," a pilgrimage circuit linking the graves and former courts of its wonder-working rabbis.
Day 9 — Tuesday, 15. June 2027
We cross the border for a full day trip into Slovakia. In Košice, we take a walking tour of the historic center and visit the Orthodox synagogue compound on Zvonárska Street, a rare surviving ensemble of synagogue, mikveh and communal buildings.
We continue to Prešov, where we walk through the old Jewish quarter and visit the 1898 Orthodox synagogue, home since 1928 to Slovakia's first Jewish museum and its remarkable Judaica collection.
In the evening we drive back across the border to our hotel in the Tokaj region.
Before the Holocaust, eastern Slovakia's two largest cities were home to major Jewish communities: over 11,500 Jews in Košice and around 4,000 in Prešov, together representing a rich mix of Orthodox, Neolog and Hasidic life. Both communities were almost entirely destroyed in the deportations of May and June 1944. Košice's Orthodox compound on Zvonárska Street, anchored by an 1899 synagogue, and its 1927 Puškinova Street synagogue, still stand as reminders of a thriving prewar community now numbering only a few hundred. Prešov's 1898 Orthodox synagogue houses Slovakia's first Jewish museum, founded in 1928 — its Judaica collection, seized during the war, was only returned after 1993. Prešov's last prewar rabbi, Moshe Chaim Lau, perished in Auschwitz; his son, Yisrael Meir Lau, went on to become Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Day 10 — Wednesday, 16. June 2027
We leave the vineyards behind and drive back to Budapest, with time along the way to reflect on everything we've seen — from the synagogues of the Great Plain and the Banat to the Hasidic pilgrimage trail of Tokaj and the Jewish heritage of eastern Slovakia.
We close the journey together with a farewell dinner in Budapest, a last chance to share stories and impressions before we say our goodbyes.
Day 11 — Thursday, 17. June 2027
Transfers to the airport according to individual flight schedules, bringing the tour to a close.
What's Included
Led throughout by Alex, with local expert guides, historians, and community representatives at key sites.
A detailed briefing pack and reading list sent ahead of departure to prepare you for the journey.
Carefully chosen hotels that reflect the character and history of each city.
Comfortable private vehicle throughout, including all cross-border transfers.
Every synagogue, museum, memorial, and cemetery admission included.
Breakfast each morning, selected dinners and lunches.
2027 Departures
This tour runs once a year, in early summer, when the light and the weather across Central Europe are at their most favorable. Group size is strictly limited to sixteen participants.
Enquire About This TourUS $500 deposit — fully refundable until 120 days before departure (less $50 fee). See Booking & Cancellation Terms.