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HEVIZ , 8km northeast of Keszthely, boasts the second-largest thermal lake ( Gyogy-to ) in the world after Lake Tarawera in New Zealand. The temperature rarely drops below 30°C even during winter, when steam billows from the lake and its thermal stream, and Indian waterlilies flourish on its surface. The lake is replenished by up to eighty million litres of warm water a day gushing up from springs 1km underground, and is completely flushed out every couple of days. Exploited since medieval times for curative purposes as well as for tanning leather, the lake was salubriously channelled into a bathhouse by Count Gyorgy Festetics in 1795. By the end of the nineteenth century, Heviz had become a grand resort , briefly favoured by crown princes and magnates like those other great spas of the Habsburg empire, Karlsbad and the Baths of Hercules. They'd be hard-pressed to recognize it today, with high-rise hotels and tacky bars setting the tone. Although the wooden terraces and catwalks surrounding the baths ( Tofurdo ; daily: summer 8.30am-5.30pm; winter 9am-4.30pm; 550Ft) have a vaguely fin-de-siecle appearance, the general ambience is modern, with people sipping beer or reading newspapers while bobbing on the lake in rented inner tubes. Prolonged immersion isn't recommended on account of the slightly radioactive water, though mud from the lake is used to treat locomotive disorders. The busiest months are May and September, when the water is at its optimum temperature for bathing.
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