Bognár Gokart Park

In Nyársapát, on the Great Plain south-east of Budapest, Bognár Gokart Park lays out eight hundred and twenty metres of open-air track, billed as the longest purpose-built karting track in Hungary. Such a length changes everything: where most tracks run short, here you get a real layout, with long straights and sequences of bends to hunt for the right line. You drive petrol karts here, and children are welcome.

Karting stays open to all, with no licence or experience: a briefing, a helmet, and you head off to find your best lap. The length of the track leaves real chances to overtake and to build up speed, enough to appeal to families and confident drivers alike. People come for the rarity of a layout of this size, and happily return to shave seconds off over the sessions. As the activity takes place outdoors, it is best to check opening times by season.

Nyársapát is a quiet village on the Great Plain, not far from Cegléd, in a region of wide horizons and farmland. The Hungarian Great Plain, the Alföld, rolls out its typical puszta landscapes, its lonely farms and its equestrian traditions, best discovered in the Hortobágy national park further east, UNESCO-listed. Budapest, with its Parliament, Buda Castle and thermal baths, is a little over an hour away by road, which puts Bognár within reach of an outing from the capital.